Favourite mix of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?

Literally everything is mixed differently.

 

So the Detroit mix is the rough version and the L.A. mix is the final version?

 

I wouldn't really regard it as a rough version. It's just the original.

 

The later LA mix is the original one, since it was the album mix. The Detroit mix was made earlier but ended up unreleased at the time. Both are fantastic mixes and IMO they are enjoyable for different reasons.

 

Just tried playing and singing the title song for the first time this evening and set in motions plans to perform it with a 6 piece band at a benefit concert the first week of November, when I feel it will be an especially appropriate message for the crazy times we are in.

A bit OT but less so for this thread than for any other I found

 

Both the LA mix and the Detroit mix are coming out again on Friday, 25th, in a four album vinyl release which also has the Kennedy Centre live mix and various singles cuts. Seem to be different views on whether it is a half speed remastered version or not.

 

No. The Detroit mix was intended to be the released version, but Marvin Gaye pulled it at the last minute after Motown balked at it, and reworked it.

 

He made the right decision.

 

No. The L.A. mix is not the original. The Detroit mix is. You are correct that it just wasn't released.

 

We'll never know the answer to that. I like the Detroit mix.

 

I prefer the L.A. mix, but the Detroit mix is a decent alternative.

 

I think the Quad mix has the best elements of both. But, I still prefer Detroit.

 

So if I aim to grab a version of this on vinyl, what is the best sounding pressing? Is the new abbey road half-speed the one? the MFSL is out of my price range at the moment. Or do I go after one if the 80's pressings or an original?

 

The MFSL pressing is too expensive for me, too. However, I do have the 4LP Abbey Road ½ Speed Mastered pressing and it sounds absolutely superb.

Get it while you can.

 

So this has the Detroit Mix and the "other" original?

 

Is the Quad mix available today officially anywhere?

 

To me, the experience of listening to vintage music, is like traveling through time. It doesn't matter to me which mix is better, the previously unreleased original or a remix, I'll always gravitate towards the mix, the general public heard when a record was first released.......for authenticity sake.

 

I despise the public, so I usually go with what my ears like.

 

The Detroit mix sounds a little more "Motown"-ish to me, bass-heavy and very much like what you'd hear in a record mixed at any of the Detroit studios at the time. I've even heard they used echo chambers under the sidewalk next to the Donovan Building (the Motown headquarters from IIRC 68-73) to get that really boomy sound. From that perspective, I really prefer the Detroit mix to the LA mix. That being said, the LA mix is sequenced into a smoother, better album, particularly on side one. Consider the transition between God Is Love and Mercy Mercy Me--the Detroit version is like a train car jerking into a new speed, whereas LA is a nice, clean segue. Marvin's uncertainties about the Detroit mix were correct.