What's Going On

The last of the three, recorded in May 2020.

What’s Going On is the hardest of the set to do remotely, because more than almost any other soul record it depends on the sound of people in a room together. The original famously has overlapping conversation in it and a rhythm section playing loosely around the beat rather than on it. Recreating that when everyone is alone in a spare room is close to a contradiction.

We did not try to solve it. The arrangement is tighter and more upright than the record, because that is what the method produces, and the performance leans on the vocal parts to carry the warmth instead.

The choice of song was not subtle and it was not meant to be. It was a strange summer and it seemed the obvious thing to play.

The other two were Underdog and I Won’t Back Down, both recorded earlier the same spring.