What's Going On

What's Going On is an album by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, released on the Shout! Factory label on August 29, 2006. It is a track-by-track remake of the 1971 Marvin Gaye album of the same name. Background and recording Marvin Gaye originally conceived of his 1971 album What's Going On as a response to the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement. The idea of remaking What's Going On originated with Shawn Amos, who was then the vice president of artists & repertoire at Shout! Factory. Amos had previously heard many stories about how most of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band's members had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. While he was on a flight in October 2005, Amos listened to one of Gaye's songs. He subsequently sat down with the band and talked about what was happening in their lives. During this conversation, he mentioned the timelessness of Gaye's What's Going On album, and suggested that the band should cover it. The band's members decided that this would be a good idea, and initially sought to have Amos produce the album. Amos then called up his production partner, Anthony Marinelli, and the two of them went on to produce the album. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band's decision to remake Gaye's album was influenced by Hurricane Katrina, the government's response to the storm, and the ongoing Iraq War. The group's saxophonist, Roger Lewis, told NPR that he had been interested in covering Gaye's music for a while already, and that when Katrina hit, it seemed like the "...perfect time to do it". Lewis further explained, The members of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band were initially uncertain about whether they could successfully remake Gaye's highly regarded album. This was partly because they lacked a bass guitarist who could replicate James Jamerson's famous Motown-style electric bass playing on the original album. Instead, the band decided to develop their own style in which to play Gaye's songs. As Lewis explained to The Times-Picayune, "We don't play exactly like Marvin Gaye's arrangements. You're supposed to take the music to another level, and we came up with our own ideas about how to do it."