MARVIN GAYE’S…….1971 album ‘What’s Going On’ is now considered one of the greatest musical recordings of all time, but it came perilously close to never seeing the light of day…..put it out or “I’ll never record for you again” was Marvin Gaye’s stark warning to Berry Gordy…..after the founder of Motown Records refused to release the single “What’s Going On” in the summer of 1970…..Berry – who was Gaye’s brother-in-law at the time – told almost anyone who would listen that he detested Gaye’s protest song…..which he thought was too long, too formless and not commercial enough to be played on radio, a prerequisite for the scores of No 1 songs he’d crafted at his Detroit studio known as Hitsville USA……Gordy was even quoted as describing “What’s Going On” as “the worst record I ever heard in my life”……Gaye held firm during a seven-month power struggle that eventually concluded with the hit single becoming the centerpiece of the ground-breaking album What’s Going On…..which explored the issues of poverty, racial discrimination, environmental destruction, urban decay, police brutality, drug abuse, political corruption and the devastating effects of the Vietnam War…..David Van DePitte, the album’s arranger, later revealed that Gordy thought Gaye “was absolutely insane” to want to feature social commentary on a record “that was going to be the biggest fiasco that ever was”……
“What’s Going On” was released as a single peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top spot-on U.S. Billboard R&B/Soul Singles…..it is now widely recognized as one of the most important musical works of the 20th century, a song cycle that gave Black artists a license to push the musical and political boundaries of their art.
THE POTATO CHIP…..was invented in 1853 by George Crum. Crum was a black American chef at the Moon Lake Lodge resort in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA…..french fries were popular at the restaurant, and one day a diner complained that the fries were too thick…..although Crum made a thinner batch, the customer was still unsatisfied. Crum finally made fries that were too thin to eat with a fork, hoping to annoy the extremely fussy customer…..the customer, surprisingly enough, was happy – and potato chips were invented…..Crum’s chips were originally called Saratoga Chips and potato crunches…..they were soon packaged and sold in New England – Crum later opened his own restaurant……William Tappendon manufactured and marketed the chips in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1895…..in the 1920s, a salesman named Herman Lay sold potato chips to the southern USA (selling the chips from the trunk of his car)…..in 1926, Laura Scudder (who owned a potato chip factory in Monterey Park, California) invented a wax paper potato chip bag to keep the chips fresh and crunchy……with further technology, innovation, and a countless number of variations and flavors, potato chips have only grown in popularity over the years.
IT DOESN’T MATTER WHERE YOU GET MARRIED……Cleveland couple Kenneth & Sheila Gibson had their wedding on July 23rd 1977, at the McDonald’s Kenneth managed on Lee Road……Kenneth was 20, and Sheila was 18, and they had recently celebrated the birth of their first child…..in the late 70s, McDonald’s weren’t on every street corner the way they are today – at the time, there were less than 5,000 worldwide…..Kenneth asked if he could hold their marriage ceremony at the fast-food stop, and they agreed..…as long as they wouldn’t have to close during the wedding…..that’s how it came to be that amid customers ordering Big Macs and fry baskets being dropped inside…..the Gibsons exchanged vows in an outdoor ceremony…..and took some of the best wedding photos…..white and powder-blue suits, afros and a burgundy Cadillac let you know exactly what year you’re in…..and yes, Kenneth and Sheila are still married for over 45 years…..they have been blessed with 4 children and several grandkids.
THE DESERT OF GHOST SHIPS…….Only 30 years ago, this was home to our planet’s 4th largest inland water mass……an ancient sea so vast, even Alexander the Great wrote of his struggles to cross it…..where fishing commerce boomed and holidaymakers once flocked to its seaside spa town…..now, for the first time in 600 years……the Aral Sea is (almost) bone dry, and the fleet of giant, rusted ships left in its wake have become some of the only proof of the past…the Aral Sea is (or was) so large, it spreads over two Eurasian countries that now straddle its dusty remains: Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
HANS NILSON LANGSETH…..the man with the longest beard in the world….died by stepping on his beard…..and breaking his neck.
WENTWORTH CHESWELL (1746-1817)……rode alongside Paul Revere to alert everyone that the British were coming….the two men eventually split up….Cheswell rode north and Revere rode west….in addition to being a patriot…..he was a respected schoolteacher…..church leader and a historian…..he also became America’s first Black judge….in 1768…..that was seven years before America won its independence.