Marvin got it so right
[Today I am straying beyond the safe and narrow path of my rugby union remit of the Rust and into unchartered and perhaps random and unconnected waters – and so I begin by begging my readers to bear with me on the journey.]
Marvin Gaye, shot dead by his own father on 1st April 1984, the day before what would have been his 45th birthday (one of the cruellest-ever April Fool’s Day jokes, as most of his fans including me initially regarded the news when we first heard it) – was indisputably one of the greatest soul singers, musicians and composers who ever lived.
In 2012 his eleventh solo album What’s Going On, released in May 1971, was voted 6th in the poll of 500 Greatest Ever Albums by Rolling Stone magazine and his controversial at the time thirteenth Let’s Get It On, released in August 1973 – memorably described by one reviewer as being Gaye’s take on ‘life, sex and death, only he left out the life and death’ – was definitely one of the most sensuous.
I once went to a wonderfully memorable Gaye concert in London in the late 1970s with two married ladies, then work colleagues about a decade older than myself, but both also Marvin Gaye fans.
To my dying day I shall never forget the moment when, with the band beginning the intro to the title song Let’s Get It On behind him, he sinuously removed his jacket from his shoulders, thereby prompting a roar of collective female lust that would have outdone Wembley Stadium as the final whistle went on the day that England won the 1966 football World Cup.
What’s Going On. The song – the lyrics, the sentiments and Gaye’s incomparable performance – metaphorically nagged in the background yesterday as I tuned to Sky News on the television from time to time and then glanced at the newspaper websites overnight.
The current political turmoil; the rise of Momentum within the Labour Party; everything US President Trump does; Russian president Putin proudly claiming that his latest intercontinental ballistic missiles are unstoppable; the ongoing situation in Syria; the #metoo and time’s up campaigns; and, of course, the vexed issue of Brexit.
What’s going on, indeed.
Right now, in a political sense, it seems we are all struggling to come to terms with the arrival of a new breed of tribalism around the world.
Take just the fact that American voted Trump into office and the rise of the Jeremy Corbyn phenomenon, plus the polarised state of British public opinion since the EU Referendum and the 2016 General Election as they have continued to affect the Brexit negotiations and a lot more besides.
In my view social media has a lot to answer for. Gone are the old days of traditional UK political parties putting their arguments, winning or losing elections and accepting the outcomes.
‘Fleet Street’ has its own problems, of course: the pretence that any of it was impartially setting the news before the public has now disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Instead these days we just read the newspapers that best reflect our own prejudiced views of the world.
These days unregulated social media – complete with its fake news, ‘trending’ and ‘going viral’ – moves debates on more swiftly and influentially than ever traditional media did in its heyday.
Hence we circle our wagons around like-minded people who reinforce our strident views and decry anyone who holds opinions other than our own. We’re no longer interested in debate, discussion and finding common ground. It’s now a case, more starkly than ever before, of ‘them’ versus ‘us’ and never the twain shall meet.
Here’s a link to an article by actress/comedienne Jenny Eclair touching upon this theme, as appears today upon the website of – THE INDEPENDENT
Here I must apologise for returning to last weekend’s unsavoury incident in which England rugby head coach Eddie Jones was accosted and abused by a bunch of leering Scottish supporters whilst travelling to a Manchester United game at Old Trafford.
Sport used generally to be regarded as outside the tainted and irredeemable swamp of politics. Some might argue that football’s tribalism – with its capacity for violence and hatred – has never known any bounds.
Historical anecdotal tales of people being careful about how they travel to games, what ‘colours’ they wear on public transport, which end and exactly where they sit to watch the games are legion.
Never mind public order laws, right and wrong, civil liberties and the rest of what might be described as civilised behaviour – if you’re a Spur supporter who just wants to attend an away derby game against West Ham [I’m using a hypothetical example here, or maybe not] you’ve always been pretty wary about maintaining your safety – whether or not the police and stewarding presence on the day in question is adequate and working satisfactorily. It’s just common sense.
Some feminists assert the right of women to wear whatever clothes they like when setting off on a night out in Britain’s cities, howling down anyone who should ever suggest that they should take ‘responsible’ safety measures to avoid inviting unwanted or even abusive attention from men.
Try telling any football fan that, male or female, and they’d laugh in your face.
For the past 80 years and more – in the context of rival football supporters tribes mixing together, whether in confined or unconfined spaces – they’ve been taking such measures as a matter of course, simply as a common sense means of completing the day unharmed and unstressed.
It has occurred to me in the last four or five days that the Eddie Jones incident referred to above could be another sign of the way things are going – not just in rugby union, but in life generally.
Polarisation and tribalisation of supporters. The traditional practice of players and managers trying to play ‘mind games’ with the opposing squad in the run-up to a big game (‘banter’ as many supporters might have called it until recently) – and let’s be honest, both Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland (Wales head coach) have been past masters at it – has now seemingly acquired a harder and unappealing edge, apparently through no fault of anybody.
Maybe head coaches will have to be more careful what they say – and how they say it – in future.
It’s a sad fact of life that tolerance and indeed the sentiment of the old chestnut often mis-attributed to Voltaire (“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”) – actually a phrase penned by English writer Eveleyn Beatrice Hall (1868-1956) in describing his philosophy in her 1906 book The Friends of Voltaire – are becoming discredited and out of favour these days.
For reasons obscure but at the time of writing which seem entirely fitting, today I shall finish by providing a link to – yes, you’ve guessed it – a live version of the incomparable Marvin Gaye trilling What’s Going On that I discovered on YouTube. As you’ll see he could play piano a bit too, but if you want to go straight to the song, skip forward to 2 minutes 53 second … on – YOUTUBE
