Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

As with Curtis Mayfield around the time of Superfly, this song and album is a deep and unending ache for what's happening on the street corner. Gaye, however, not only looks at the drugs and gangs and violence, but also looks up and around to see the bigger issues of the environment and the economy and how they, too, are destroying life in the city.

Interesting, too, how the background strings add sweetness while the lyrics and rhythm section keep punching forward. By comparison, here's Freddy's Dead without strings.