The Soul Train – Mercy Mercy Me

When we think of artists and especially talented people, they’re not just pretty good, but prolific and prodigious. We can see – after their moments of prodigiousness – they are also ahead of their time. This is one such “ahead of…” moment in music.

Marvin Pentz Gay Junior (he added the “e” to his name later as Sam Cooke did) was born in Washington DC in 1939 and came through the doo-wop scene and made his way to the Motown stable in Detroit in 1961. Initially, a drummer, backing singer and sometimes writer, label owner Berry Gordy Jnr saw the unbridled talent in this stylish and charming man to become a label superstar.

The story goes that Gaye loved the crooning style of the Sammy Davis Jnr type supper-club swing and wanted to be “The Black Frank Sinatra”. Gordy and his team of amazing songwriters had other ideas.

They scored all his songs one octave higher than his 5-octave vocal range was expecting and what we got was the gospel-infused pop wonders like “Can I Get A Witness” and “Stubborn Kind Of Fellow” which became hit records and Gaye headlined the Motortown Revue tours and had hit after hit.

His partnerships with Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell and later Diana Ross put Marvin as the romantic, suave and energetic singing partner.

But 3 things happened in the world that put Gaye onto another path – socio-conscious writing and performing.

Firstly, and tragically, Tammi Terrell collapsed on stage in Marvin’s arms and never recovered from a brain tumour and died three years later. Next, the equality movement and racial tension that resulted in police brutality during the riots of the mid-60s caused Gaye to become politically motivated. And also, the “Summer of Love” happened in 1967 and ushered in the hippy era and talk of peace, love and unity.

Marvin withdrew somewhat from performing and reemerged, bearded and with some of those hippy tendencies with a fierce declaration to the world.

The “What’s Going On” album

Now, this is one of Rolling Stone Magazines’ most important albums ever but nearly didn’t happen. Gaye’s label owner Gordy – despite putting Dr Martin Luther King Jnr’s speeches to albums – wanted no part in a politically motivated album so Gaye went on strike and eventually won the right to record and release this landmark album.

Whilst the title track is one of music’s most incredible moments, there is also a much-heralded track that probably is Gaye’s most prodigious and “ahead of time” moments.

Mercy Mercy Me was subtitled (The Ecology) and apparently the label owner Gordy was unfamiliar with this term.

The song contains lyrics such as:

• Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas. Fish full of mercury.
• Radiation under ground and in the sky, Animals and birds who live nearby are dying.
• What about this overcrowded land. How much more abuse from man can she stand?

Including “oohs, and aahs” this song has 129 words. Sparse, few. But in 1971 there was no “Inconvenient Truth”, Al Gore, Leo Di Caprio or Greta Thunberg. Climate change was simply NOT a thing.

Yet, Gaye, troubled by pollution, population explosion and the threat of a nuclear meltdown felt compelled to create a piece of poetry to an elegant piano and guitar-led track, with haunting backing vocals, sharp percussion and soaring saxophone.

It remains to this day one of the most revered tracks of Gaye’s entire career.

And anthemic it certainly is. And whilst only 3 minutes and 13 seconds long, a total manifestation of Gaye’s deserved accolade of the Prince of Soul and the exemplification of my opening statement of his prodigious nature. Visionary, iconic, an epoch moment in music.

Woah, ah mercy mercy me
Ah things ain’t what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east

Thank you Marvin for awakening our consciousness to the planetary emergency we know now, sits so delicately poised and in danger of its own collapse.

As one YouTube comment puts it so eloquently:
Marvin Gaye tapped into universal truth with the recordings he put out at this time. His mastery of composition and harmonics achieved something truly timeless.

Perry Timms
9 March 2022.

Perry is the Founder and Chief Energy Officer of People and Transformational HR Ltd (PTHR) and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, a fellow of the RSA and Visiting Professor at 4x Business Schools in the UK. Perry is a 3x published author; a 2x TEDx Speaker and 3x Member of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers List. Perry’s musical heritage is in music of black origin and particularly 1960s American R&B and British Soul & Funk from the 1980s-date.