🎙️ARTIST: Marvin Gaye
📣TITLE: Inner City Blues
💿ALBUM: What’s Goin’ On
📆RELEASED: (1971)
Firebarzzz Quotes
“Inner City Blues” depicts the ghettos of inner-city America as it discusses the bleak economic situation set against the backdrop of the space race, the Vietnam War and the subsequent protests it caused as well as police brutality. It peaked at #9 in the US in late 1971.
“Inner City Blues” stands in stark contrast to What’s Going On’s mostly uplifting tone as it uses darker, mellow funk sounds to capture the suffering spirit of urban America. (Genius)
– In 1998, co-writer James Nyx Jr. Recalled:
Marvin had a good tune, sort of blues-like, but didn’t have any words for it. We started putting some stuff in there about how rough things were around town. We laughed about putting lyrics in about high taxes, ‘cause both of us owed a lot. And we talked about how the government would send guys to the moon, but not help folks in the ghetto. But we still didn’t have a name, or really a good idea of the song. Then, I was home reading the paper one morning, and saw a headline that said something about the ‘inner city’ of Detroit. And I said, ‘Damn, that’s it. Inner City Blues.’
Lyrics
Dah, dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah-dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah-dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it
Fore we see it you take it
Oh, make me want to holler
The way they do my life (yeah)
Make me want to holler
The way they do my life
This ain’t livin’, this ain’t livin’
No, no baby, this ain’t livin’
No, no, no, no
Inflation no chance
To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to die
Oh, make me want to holler
The way they do my life (duh, duh, duh)
Yeah, make me want to holler
The way they do my life
Oh, baby
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Hang-ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs
Natural fact is
Oh honey that I can’t pay my taxes
Oh, make me want to holler
And throw up both my hands
Yea, it make me want to holler
And throw up both my hands
Oh (ow) crime is (woo) increasing
Trigger happy policing
Panic is spreading
God knows where we’re heading
Oh, make me want to holler
They don’t understand
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Mother, mother
Everybody thinks we’re wrong
Who are they to judge us
Simply cause we wear our hair long
July 17, 1980, Montreux, Switzerland
Marvin Gaye Jr. – Vocals, Electric Piano
Reginald Mullen – Trumpet
Rick Gardner – Trumpet
Kush Griffitt – Trumpet, Horn Arrangement
David Majai Li – Saxophone
Gordon Banks – Lead Guitar
Howard Westbrook – Rhythm Guitar
Frank Blair – Bass Guitar
William « Snoopy » Bryant II – Piano
Lonnie Smith – Keyboards
Sandra Akaka – Congas
Joseph Mayo – Congas
Checo Tohomaso – Percussion
Preston McRae Wilcox – Drums
Lecester Kentel – Vocals
Frankie Bates – Vocals
Robert Stevenson – Vocals
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