Wanna Holler?

Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) by Marvin Gaye

Welcome to new subscribers and regular readers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” by Marvin Gaye (1971). If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.

Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics which are written in italics. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.

Buzz Aldrin and the U.S. Flag on the Moon (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

(418 words)
Make Me Wanna Holler is from 1971. A lot had happened in the 1960s, and this song talks about some of the problems that remained well into the 70s and even today. Some of those problems were unique to people living in inner cities, for example, high rates of poverty, crime, and neglect in urban areas.

In 1969, the U.S. successfully landed a man on the moon. There were many people in the country who thought that instead of spending so much on exploring space, the money spent could have been used to help people in struggling communities who needed help, in other words, the have-nots.
Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have-nots

The money for space exploration comes from people’s taxes. Most of the time, people have no choice about how their taxes are spent.
Money, we make it
Before we see it, you take it

Oh, make me wanna holler means the person who is singing wants to scream because they are frustrated at the way the system makes decisions The way they do my life. The singer wants things to be different but can’t see any way to change them.
This ain't living, this ain't living
No, no, baby, this ain't living

The prices of things you need to live go up. That makes it very difficult to save money for things like a house or your education.
Inflation, no chance
To increase finance

It’s hard enough just to pay the bills Bills pile up sky high
The war in Vietnam was still going on. Here, Send that boy off to die refers to the fact that Black Americans were being drafted to fight in the war. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to the Vietnam War as a white man’s war, a black man’s fight. (1) Overall, blacks suffered 12.5% of the deaths in Vietnam at a time when the percentage of blacks of military age was 13.5% of the total population. (2)

Woman throwing up her hands in frustration (Image: Canva)

The gesture of “throwing up your hands” is something you do when you are very frustrated.
Oh, make me wanna holler / And throw up both my hands

Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing
To be “trigger happy” means to be quick to shoot at someone whether or not they are committing a crime.
Panic is spreading
God knows where we're heading

This song was a reflection of many social problems that were happening in cities across the U.S in the early 1970s. Many of those problems have not yet been solved.

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Question

What are some things that make YOU want to holler?

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Vocabulary

neglect 等閑
urban areas 都市部
struggle 困難な状況
holler 叫ぶ
frustrated イライラ
committing a crime 犯罪を犯す
spread 拡散

Sources

(1) Research guides: Racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the Vietnam War: A resource guide: Introduction. Introduction - Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Minorities in the Vietnam War: A Resource Guide - Research Guides at Library of Congress. https://guides.loc.gov/racial-ethnic-and-religious-minorities-in-the-vietnam-war . Accessed 11 April 2024.
(2) Statistics. Vietnam Veteran Project. (2017, December 19). https://vietnamveteranproject.org/statistics-2/ . Accessed 1 Mar 2025.

For more information on another Marvin Gaye song, “What’s Goin’ On”, see: https://louisehaynes.substack.com/p/whats-goin-on

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I believe that education should be free.

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All of the articles about the songs will remain free for students to use. (We are all students, are we not?) However, if you find these articles useful and are in a position to make a small (or large) donation, I would be deeply grateful.

buymeacoffee.com/socialissuesinsong

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