The Motown masterpiece Anthony Bourdain called “one of the greatest of all time”
Growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey as his parents tried to cling to the nice neighbourhood they could no longer afford, Anthony Bourdain felt he was sheltered from the cutting edge of culture and caught up in domestic trivialities.
He longed to be amongst the bustle of humanity in a heaving city, and as he entered the sweaty hive of working kitchens, he found out that the best way to grasp the world’s heart was through its stomach. Soul food in all of its guises, from tacos to the heartiest nourishment a turntable can offer, became his trading currency.
In true counterculture fashion, Bourdain shunned elitism and sampled what really made the world tick, even stating the following about death row meals: ”When we ask ourselves and each other the question, what – if strapped to a chair, facing a fatal surge of electricity – would we want as that last taste of life, we seem to crave reminders of simpler, harder times. A crust of bread and butter . . . Poor-people food.”
In essence, he knew that when we’re down and out, it is simple soul that offers the most comfort. His thoughts on music were much the same. Among his favourite artists of all time were Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, and Etta James. These soul icons offered up sweet beauty, relaxation and clarity for Bourdain away from the mania of a kitchen in full swinging service.
However, his favourite soul sensation of them all was Marvin Gaye. When citing his favourite songs of all time, the travelling chef lauded ‘What’s Going On’ as “a great song from one of the greatest albums of all time and the soundtrack to a summer on Cape Cod, the only good time in an otherwise mostly embarrassing decade,” he told Rolling Stone.
Cape Cod was where it all began for Bourdain as he entered the restaurant trade as a reluctant dishwasher with dreams of occupying loftier stations. Sadly, the serene seaside town was presently beleaguered by an opioid that now affects much of America, and Bourdain spent a long period at the peak of Boston’s tip battling addiction. The sweet and soothing sound of Gaye’s music cut through all of that and offered solace and reconciliation.
It was the mid-1970s, but Gaye’s sweet 1971 release What’s Going On – a statement, not a question – still rings true. For Bourdain, it not only made sense of hardship like never before, but it also heralded change. It was a record that proved bliss didn’t have to be ignorant. In many ways, this was the wayward youngster steadily trying to transition from the pot wash to the plate, wanting to achieve with his food.
“Food had power. It could inspire, astonish, shock, excite, delight and impress,” he wrote in Kitchen Confidential, but at no point did he suggest that it needed anything other than soul to achieve that.
What’s Going On is the sort of nourishment he had in mind when he wrote, “Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.” It’s a record that knows its own heart and wraps its arms around the world.
Beloved not just by Bourdain but also by everyone from Stevie Wonder to Bono, John Legend, and a few million others, once again, Bourdain proved that he knew the ways of the world, and ‘What’s Going On’ is as universally pleasing as a cheese toastie and tomato soup at the dawn of winter.
