Bee Gees: Classic or Dud

However, their 70's output is pretty awesome, especially the Saturday Night Fever album.

They should have retired or disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle afterwards.

I do hope that The Solinger takes the fourth bee gee title seriously and starts going to tanning booths and getting a beard. Maybe then he'd be cool. Somehow I doubt it though.

But come to think of it, the Bee Gees looked cool. Bonny Prince Billy looks better furry. So why not? My hostility towards them is fading.

actually, there were four bee gees at one point, one glance at their first best of cover will tell you that much. who he was is a question that remains unanswered for me. the brothers gibb are hanging out and then there's this other guy, like father gibb paid him to be in the band so the guys would have friends who weren't family members.

as for blue-eyed soul, yeah, hall & oates, bowie (on young americans and elsewhere), the righteous brothers, the rascals, rundgren, DUSTY!, van the man (on moondance, at least), the box tops, mitch ryder, the soul survivors, the average white band, etc.

Did you really think I was going to say anything else?

*gags uncermoneously*

*leaves room to put on GOOD music, not this Bee Gees rubbish*

Sums it up nicely.

and i froze, i really had no answer for him. that is until now! mark, you singlehandedly redeem all of pitchfork. surely, the bee gees aren't greater than abba -- hardly a crime! -- even though they have more great songs. abba's best songs are better than the bee gee's best, that's all. however, if you take "world" off of the first best- of and replace it with "melody fair," you've got an album that'll give gold a run for its money.

what's funny is how it all used to be, "many are quick to judge the bee gees based on their disco work, but few are aware of the classic pop they churned out in the 60s." but now it's "that 60s stuff really isn't my thing, but the saturday night fever soundtrack is great!"

And, alas, you and Mark are both wrong in my eyes, because you are making the wrong claims. You don't want the songs, you want the image, the beards, tans and gold medallions, as Nicole indicated. Admit you are both Lotharios.

If I could rescue that song from the disco hell that is the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, I'd be very, very, very, very happy. Two, twice, two times.

So, Fred, you're saying that someone with interest in the Gibb's frilly baroque pop period should start with Odessa?

Classic Bee Gees singles: "Jive Talkin'", "You Should Be Dancing", "Stayin' Alive", "Tragedy". "Night Fever" just isn't strong enough, "Spirits (Having Flown)" is just too twee, all the singles from 1987 onwards are execrable AOR.

robin, i have to admit that i'm a sucker for "first of may," especially in the context of odessa where it's theme of young love lost forever is amplified to the nth degree. and "night fever" is FABULOUS, the string arranging is brilliant and it's so well composed (with three distinct parts).

"First of May" is such a sad whinge for Innocence Lost, though ...

(Geoff, you're not actually hinting you're a Bee Gee by Blood, are you?)

Wait, I had a question... *rummages around in bag* Should I buy albums or just stick with singles comps?

My pals and I made the trek to Memphis to interview Alex Chilton once, back before he was really famous, and he was living with his mom down there and had no money. We're sitting in this biker bar and he goes off about Gibb's "Robin's Reign," very amusing:

"I mean, I like everything, you know, but then again what I would do would be something different. But Robin Gibb’s solo album, this is before the Bee Gees went disco, he had quit the group, he though he was too great to be in it. I didn’t find it until 1977. I was in New York. I was going through this record store and I always kind of liked Robin Gibb the way he’d stand there like Bette Davis (puts finger in cheek). You know, I thought his songs were the best songs they had done and I saw this album and had to buy it and took it home and it was really great."

Interesting about Chilton — Robin's stuff is fantastic. Say what you will, but nobody sounds like him, and Sing Slowly Sisters is really quite a remarkable example of 60's orchestral pop at its most expansive.

As for their disco-era stuff, specially their "Saturday Night Fever" contributions: Classic. But I'm reminded of an accurate comment Matty made recently on the "Supertramp's Breakfast In America: C or D? thread. An unflattering comparison was made between both groups and their over-reliance on "mewling" falsetto lead vocals. A complaint I can totally relate to, despite my giving both groups "classic" status.

this box set is amazing

Which -- Tales?

The Studio Albums: 1967-1968
6 CDs, the first three full lengths (First, Horizontal, and Idea) + loads of extras, b-sides, ad jingles, alternate versions. Could do without the mono mixes (who gives a shit) but the rest is great.

what a strange band.

I am a bird; watch me go drifting by.
With my feathers of power I laugh as the hours go slowly by.
That could mean ev'rything.
I am a street watching the people walk.
As I listen their conversations glisten as they start to talk.
Then I hear ev'rything.

Little white jug, me and Kilburn Towers,
as we sit on the hill and we drink and we swill
till the early hours,
Then I am ev'rything.
Little white jug and me and Kilburn Towers

anybody else diggin' the Barry Gibb 80's demos currently found on iTunes?

Odessa was one of these instances of just attaining this tremendous pinnacle. It's almost ridiculous to see how far they came down with Cucumber Castle and Robin's Reign.

Robin's vocal on "Black Diamond" is so virtuosic. When he shifts into his throat and then does that fake soul impression on the repetition of the "He wa' leavin' in the morning" line - that's really something else.

And then the chorus is...country? But maybe like the Band were country - it sounds ancient.

Some kind of archetype you can't quite put your finger on but which seems to hit the nail squarely on the head.

man I cannot stop listening to this stuff - Trafalgar is such a beautiful album, way underrated.

me like the unreleased "A Kick in the Head..."

They should have retired or disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle afterwards (after the SNF Soundtrack).

No. Spirits Having Flown had some good songs on it.

On a whim, I just bought the Greatest Hits, then immediately regretted it, then decided some of the songs are really stellar, then decided I couldn't listen to them without the baggage, then . . . Ahh, Schizoid I am.

What "baggage"?

All the ridicule I remember them taking when I was growing up.

The new "remixes" on the Greatest Hits really breathe new life into a few of their songs, e.g., the Supreme Beings of Leisure's remix of How Deep Is Your Love, The Teddybears' remix of Stayin' Alive.

I wish they had more of these remixes on The Greatest Hits.

I do have to say that "Tragedy" is way overrated, though, the sound of someone burning out on a sound, and badly.

Sort of true for the whole Spirits Having Flown, but that's part of what makes those songs so compelling.

"ESP" has "You Win Again" on it at least (I'm pretty sure), that song's up there w/anything they did

cosign

yeah, it is the best bee gees song, hands down

i also thing tragedy is pretty great

I've been listening to Spirits Having Flown this afternoon (the single), and it's pretty great.

it is a surprisingly sweet song, with unexpected folksiness that i think is lacking from the rest of the album ... a stripped-back cover could be a great single

Agreed, I think the title track is my favorite song from that album. Yeah, Tragedy sounds kinda...overcooked? Too Much Heaven's great, though.

"Tragedy" is a good tune with a sub-Moroder production. Because it's a good tune, some believe it's classic.

Anyway, that "beating" they took was, like, 20 years ago in the decade following disco's demise. Since that time they've been pretty well re-established as pop royalty.

I don't doubt that for a while it was weird to say you liked the Bee Gees or anything. It's just weird for someone to talk about feeling guilty for liking them today, as if it were still 1989 or something.

Well, I'm old. And I'm over it. These songs are great.

Yeah, Tragedy sounds kinda...overcooked?

Yeah, desperate somehow. Like what Ned said above: It's the sound of a band trying too hard to squeeze one more song from a genre that they knew had overstayed its welcome (commercially, at that time). But like I said, I think that's precisely what makes the song compelling.

That's a nice theory ("burning out on a sound") but it seems to miss the fact that they actually hadn't tried that sound before. As I said above, the only thing they're trying too hard at on "Tragedy" is to mimic Giorgio Moroder's computer disco style, which was never their thing before or after "Tragedy." I think reading this "Their moment had passed" thing into it is a little melodramatic. Granted it's the Bee Gees, but still.

So I see that a 3-cd box set rerelease of Odessa was released today. Any thoughts on this from people who've heard it? Is it worth seeking out? I love the album despite its lyrical inanity; the vocals are so gorgeous, esp. "Melody Fair". And "Seven Seas Symphony" is stupendous, the kind of tender symphonic pop of which I wish I knew more good examples.

Apparently released here tomorrow. I will pick it up. Only know the album, but will not own an original version until I have this.

honestly, who gives a shit about mono mixes? never understood why those are "bonus tracks"... curious to hear the other stuff though

Yeah it looks like there's more than mono mixes thankfully.

When they embraced disco they embraced their inanity more, emblematic of the nineteen seventies as a decade.

uh for me, they have a select few excellent singles. plowing through a mountain load of their material in search of goodness, as i was recently, proves a cumbersome task, however.

^^^so wrong

honestly, who gives a shit about mono mixes?

some guys. i like them when it's one of those "band were involved with the mono mix, label just paid some dude to do the stereo mix" situations. also bee gees' 1st sound better blasting in mono for some reason.

HELPING CHILDREN THROUGH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Hahaha. "Hi everyone, let's pitch in 'n get cracking..."

Yeah, sometimes the mono mix is the better sounding. I think that's the only reason. I certainly prefer the mono of SF Sorrow. I don't think I need a 3cd version of Odessa. I bet the public library will get a copy of it eventually.

yeah, I'm hoping to hear more about what this beast offers, before buying or rejecting it. The packaging sounds great: a red velvet box (get your mind out of the gutter) like the original vinyl release. But are the demos etc gorgeous? And how's the remastered sound?

anyone know where i can get the original bee gees recording of "emotion?" (not the samantha sang version). downloaded "their greatest hits: the record" which has an AWFUL remix/rerecording of the song.

The song "ESP" is great! I've been listening through the Tales box this morning, and it's a pretty strange listen: from the string-laden Beatlesque pop of the late 60s, to the country rock of the early 70s, to the r&b and disco of the mid 70s, to the gloss of the 80s. It all works, somehow; these were guys with great voices and even better connections, and between those they tapped into various zeitgeists that allowed them to make timely pop records in several different eras without sounding silly like, I dunno, the Monkees in 1987.

"Nights On Broadway" remains the best thing they ever did (to my ears).

"Lonely Days" has always been my go to Bee Gees tune. Rhyming nonchalant with restaurant gets me every time.

That's an outstanding one, yes.

I wrote an passionate piece about the `Gees on this blog not too long back.

an passionate!

The Samantha Sang album is all kinds of awesome

BBC doc available until Sunday and bloody brilliant:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b010tbk5/Bee_Gees_In_Our_Own_Time/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2129558/Robin-Gibb-news-Bee-Gees-star-coma-doctors-fear-days-live.html

Unlycky bastards. The Kennedy family of pop? :(

afaik, none of the Bee Gees were assassinated. So, no.

Robin out of his coma now, apparently...?

I had a dream of a place far away.
I followed a river where the dead man would play.
And I'm leaving in the morning.
And I'm leaving in the morning.
And I won't die, so don't cry. I'll be home.

I am going to pretend that all the devotional Bee Gees listening I've done in the past week have had a hand in this

what he said. robin still has rough road ahead of him, but still. love these guys so fucking much.

Another one bites the dust ...

man...

Wow. Just re-discovering their music...of course I knew he was sick, but this might affect my enjoyment. Bee Gees music is eternal and not something one associates with cancer.

I remember struggling with brother Andy's death as a child. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpEkugItKQI

rip robin my favourite bee gee

i know he was really ill but this one hurts

a sad week for disco (and other genres)

jesus, fuck this. g'night, Robin

Awesome live vocal of a very underrated song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wufvuw9WQ0

I love bustin' out classic Bee Gees for those (most?) that only know their disco stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PLeNdfkoBI

Mr. Natural is all time

RIP Robin

If we had someone who was willing to run the poll, I'd say we should bump this one up a la Beasties...

I'd be happy to do it but I kinda doubt we'd get many votes...

yeah nobody has heard those early-mid 70s records. well not nobody but... can't imagine we'd get too many folks repping for deep cuts from 'life in a tin can'

I've got all kinds of love for Trafalgar, Mr. Natural, and To Whom it May Concern myself, but yeah these are not popular opinions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc2hq3vbO7w

big o has this pretty good unreleased solo album from 1970. http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1101
RIP. unmistakeable style and voice.

tyler, watch that video above. beautiful footage. beautiful song.

yeah that is wonderful

I've got all kinds of love for Trafalgar, Mr. Natural, and To Whom it May Concern myself, but yeah these are not popular opinions

IF ONLY THERE WERE A WAY TO FIND OUT.

Seriously, Shakey, why don't we suggest this in the poll thread! If there's any time we could maximize votes, it would be now.

Oddly, the only three Bee Gees albums I've ever owned were To Whom, Tin Can and Mr. Natural; radio promos I brought home. Sold 'em, and honestly can't remember much of any of them, but that clip of Mr. Natural brought the memory of that one back big time.

Tin Can is pretty crap

I was just spinning some Bee Gees and 'Nights on Broadway' came up, which I love...and I remembered Fallon & Timberlake used it as the SNL Barry Gibb Talk Show theme song and I got SO teary and then I had to laugh at myself and ugh I'm just so bummed

I know Robin was sick but still, I really hate not having him anymore. I loved them for so long.

every time I watch a live clip I still get blown away by how there's barely any drop-off between them in the studio and them on stage...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDiwHYDm7VA

that's what happens when you've been performing since you were like 6 years old. they were pros.

barry sometimes seems to be fake-playing guitar in live gigs.

robin looks almost normal there.

yeah I've noticed the fake-playing too

Had no idea the Bee Gees completely missed the UK album charts from late 1970-76. Main Course was huge in the US.

Conversely, they were all but banned from US radio in the early to mid 80s, the Bee Gees having been the biggest target of the disco backlash. I doubt many Americans have heard "You Win Again".

I really like Mr. Natural, a transitional album that catches them just as they were starting to search for a new sound.

My pals and I made the trek to Memphis to interview Alex Chilton once, back before he was really famous, and he was living with his mom down there and had no money. We're sitting in this biker bar and he goes off about Gibb's "Robin's Reign," very amusing:

"I mean, I like everything, you know, but then again what I would do would be something different. But Robin Gibb’s solo album, this is before the Bee Gees went disco, he had quit the group, he though he was too great to be in it. I didn’t find it until 1977. I was in New York. I was going through this record store and I always kind of liked Robin Gibb the way he’d stand there like Bette Davis (puts finger in cheek). You know, I thought his songs were the best songs they had done and I saw this album and had to buy it and took it home and it was really great."

<3 alex chilton

2001 ilx vmic

attention ye robin gibb mourners -- bee gees polling in effect, 10 ballots received and we would love more contributions :D

To Poll Somebody - The Robin Gibb Memorial BEE GEES TRACKS POLL (voting thread)

Do your civic duty people.

Robin's vocal on "Black Diamond" is so virtuosic. When he shifts into his throat and then does that fake soul impression on the repetition of the "He wa' leavin' in the morning" line - that's really something else.

― Tim Ellison

so otm

Not enough love here for the 60s stuff, which is my favourite Bee Gees. It wasn't all twee; some of it kinda rocked (the Earnest of Being George, In My Own Time, Idea). There's some great McCartney-inspired bass playing on some of that stuff, clearly Maurice really dug Revolver. Robin was one helluva vocalist - actually, singer. We can call him a singer. Listen to "Really and Sincerely", wow. Even his emoting in "I Started A Joke" can move you if you let it.

Plus, they were funny. Stuff like "I've Decided To Join The Airforce" and "Craise Finton Kirk" are wonderfully sardonic in a somewhat cheerier-than-Ray-Davies mold.

Classic, no question. Even before they became Kings of Disco. Even if they never did that thing.

all their mid-'60s to early '70s albums bursting with great deep cuts, and sometimes outtakes.

am thinking of picking up the Mythology box set

any naysayers out there?

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/07/14/islands-in-the-stream/

^ by bob stanley

nice, thank you.

Yes, very nice, thks. Guess I should go ahead and get the book.

Box set of the 74 to 79 years due on Rhino end of March

http://www.amazon.com/1974-1979-Bee-Gees/dp/B00SKFJMCY/ref=dp_return_2?ie=UTF8&n=5174&s=music

hmm no real bonus tracks :(

rip robert stigwood

Outlived 3 Gibb Bros.

Assuming he was 112.

Happy 70th Barry!
http://dlisted.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/hbbarrygibb2016.1-500x691.jpg

classic mooseknuckle

Speaking of which!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzwlig6qU-o

would you believe me if I told you that some of this album has a Blue Nile vibe

umm i love "In The Now"

totally nomming + voting for it in the EOY poll

I hate to admit hearing the dentures in his delivery is a bit distracting

Those are ROYAL dentures, sir:

Arise, Sir Barry Gibb!

The @BeeGees legend has received a knighthood for his services to music and charity. pic.twitter.com/V1abWHH1mG

— 5News (@5_News) June 26, 2018

would prefer the royal family all died in a fire but...

good for Barry, deserves all the respect

co-sign x2, fucking legend

"Arise, Sir Barry Gibb!" rather than "KNIGHT FEVER". Journalism is dead. https://t.co/DvpkAQK2T4

— Matthew Horton (@matthewjh) June 26, 2018

Hail Sir Baz, awesome

No jokes about him getting it for Staying Alive please.

really thought yerman from cheers deserved it ahead of him tbh

so excited for Barry Gibb, who used to hang out (and maybe still does) at the Miami Beach bookstore I used to work at in the early nineties; you'd see his head poking through the clouds in the history section.

lol that's awesome. p sure he still lives down there.

lol woops -- I meant early '00s. I'm not that old.

yeah I heard an interview from a couple years back & he was still there iirc

I rank their American and British top tens.

You Win Again is fantastic, you heartless fiend!

^^^ agree

thirded

(and so is “Love You Inside Out” btw - I see it’s already moved up from Worst Song Ever to Meh status, so there’s hope yet)

Fourthed.

Although, what's 'Massachusetts' doing down there!?

New HBO doc is compelling although quite a bit of it is sourced from a lot of archival footage real heads have probably digested in some form.

as someone with cursory knowledge, I absolutely loved it. one of the better music docs I've seen in a long time.

that shit where they were doing the manual tape loop with the drums to Stayin' Alive is so sick. I remember the Beastie Boys talking about doing the exact same thing (using mic stands to run the tape all over the room) with "Paul Revere" in their apartment

yes I was thinking of the Beastie Boys too! so great

They left out the best part of that story!

As a joke, the group listed the drummer as "Bernard Lupe" (a takeoff on session drummer Bernard Purdie). Mr. Lupe became a highly sought-after drummer—until it was discovered that he did not exist.[5]

LMAO

lol
what a lupe fiasco

plz leave

jk

:)

wonder if this version of "Love You Inside Out" is in the archives anywhere, in any case it's a better lyric than the original

During recording, the Bee Gees played a prank on their manager Robert Stigwood, sending him a version with the line "backwards and forwards with my cock hanging out" to see if he was paying attention to their work.[2] For the released version, the line is "backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out".

I had no idea they were Manxmen by birth. Nor did I ever know Barry's wife was so stunning.

I loved the thread of how falsetto played into the reinvention of the band. In my mind I drew parallels to the sport of baseball, a hard-throwing pitcher will over time lose velocity and need to reinvent themselves in order to stay in the game: a curveball, location, a knuckleball, a falsetto...

The ending with Barry just by himself and his late-life confession/revelation was really touching. They were such a unique band with extraordinary ability to surf the currents of pop/soul music.

This seemed a v rote, by-the-numbers music doc to me... It also seemed they really blitzed through the early years in order to leverage the whole “disco sucks” thing (none of which—the Comiskey Park thing, Disco Duck, etc.—was v revelatory) for all they could.

Was looking forward to it and kind of underwhelmed.

I think I've seen two (old) Bee Gees documentaries in the last week, is there some kind of anniversary coming up?

lol I immediately thought of the Beastie Boys story as well! But I also thought this was by-the-numbers, maybe even a hair more so than usual. Good choices of Talking Heads, though, imo.

I was also disappointed they rushed through the pre-disco years, a huge & interesting part of their career, was looking forward to getting a little more time to hear about that stuff, maybe a bit less Justin Timberlake saying "their voices were cool" or w/e, but oh well. Pretty boilerplate but still a fun watch. They were such a weird, interesting band. Always amazed to hear about how little effort they put into lyrics, writing them pretty much on the spot in the studio. So many of the lyrics on those pre-disco albums are just so incredibly odd.

Also I had no idea Maurice and Lulu were married at one point!

i was also surprised by how fast it moves through their early career. literally five minutes in and they're already a singing group on TV. i don't need a ton of background but i wouldn't have minded a little more detail on them being actual kids in a successful band.

Haven't seen this one but, having seen other Bee Gees documentaries, I'm surprised that the fact that their father was a musician and bandleader is rarely mentioned, if at all.

Is it as good as this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIVUl8-wvwQ

Lol Timberlake wouldn't let go of that "their voices are trumpets" things

seems like it's a case of the less you know about them the better it is, they were always a blind spot for me, notwithstanding the inescapable disco hits

I thought Andy got squeezed into the movie as a compulsory afterthought, and they definitely skipped super fast through the early stuff. In fact when they were playing bits of (the gorgeous and haunting) "Holiday" over the death montage end cards I wondered how many people might not realize that was them, too, since it doesn't show up elsewhere.

Maybe there's a darker side to it that got ignored, but I was shocked at how their lives diverged from the Beach Boys/Jackson Five family model, in that mom and dad seemed super cool and supportive. Though we barely get to know them, either. I might have missed why they even ended up in Australia.

The (well rehearsed) story of them moving to Australia is that Barry was getting in trouble with the law and on the verge of becoming a juvenile delinquent.

Might have been nice to stick that in the doc. That also seems like an ... extreme overreaction!

Well, it's a good story.

Is it as good as this one?

having only just watched the first 15 mins of it^ the BBC doc moves just as fast but seems to have a narrative coherence the HBO one doesn't, at least gives a much clearer sense of their origins + more insightful talking-head clips

I didn’t realize this existed but one of the other documentaries did a nice job describing the drama of the band around 1969-70 when they broke up in the wake of Odessa. I believe Robin and Barry are interviewed together in that documentary but don’t really discuss it as I recall.

There are some stories that Robin got his nose bent out of shape when Barry’s First of May was chosen as the single instead of Robin’s Lamplight. But I’d have been fascinated to get the inside scoop on what really led to a group of brothers splintering.

The latest doc implied mostly the usual ego and jealousy stuff, but I think there's also something (addressed in the doc, too, iirc) to having spent practically every waking hour together for their whole lives and then finally having a measure of independence. Same thing took down the Beatles, the Band, probably plenty of acts that didn't start with B and weren't brothers. Anyway, how long did the Bee Gees stay broken up? A year? Less than a year?

per wikipedia it was about a year (mid-1969 to mid-1970)

According to David Meyer's biography, all of the above is true, plus Robin's amphetamine use contributing to both megalomania and a copious number of solo songs. If you listen to Robin's Reign and Cucumber Castle, you can see the different directions they were going.

I wouldn't actually recommend the Meyer book; I don't need to be told that Robin "looked like the world's biggest dork" on one of their TV appearances.

Listening to some Time Crisis podcasts where they would go through the top 5 for a random week in the '70s, it was crazy how often the top few songs would either be performed or written by a Gibbs. It really changed how I think about them, especially since in the '90s they were only referenced as a punch line.

and that continued on into the '80s. i had no idea that they wrote islands in the stream. which means two members of the fugees had solo tracks that interpolated songs written by the gibbs bros.

Oh wow, I did not know that either

I was thinking about "Grease" (not mentioned in the film) and how odd it is that a song written by a singer who recently discovered his falsetto voice, for a singer known for falsetto, contains no falsetto at all.

Also, no mention of the Sgt. Pepper film, but that's not particularly surprising.

Good points all.

Like, even this Barbara Streisand song is pretty tight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVyeNZCENZA

The Streisand/Gibb record got 5 stars ("indispensable") in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983) and I remember thinking, "...really?" But hearing "Guilty" and "Woman In Love" recently I thought, ok, maybe I should check out the rest of the album.

And "Bernard Lupe" is credited as the drummer on three of its songs!

Woman in Love could almost fit on the moody AOR thread.

I was thinking about "Grease" (not mentioned in the film) and how odd it is that a song written by a singer who recently discovered his falsetto voice, for a singer known for falsetto, contains no falsetto at all.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, December 17, 2020 7:42 AM (one hour ago)

Also the incongruity of a contemporary disco song in a retro film about the 50s.

Sure, but you're gonna have a Stigwood-produced, Travolta-starring film in 1978 without a disco song?

There was already a similar time warp thing with "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)"

It's kind of a disco song too, isn't it

Really good points about "Grease." Here you have a guy known for his falsetto ... singing *not* in falsetto, just after the Bee Gees made it fashionable (for white people), and for that matter singing an incongruous if denuded disco song on the soundtrack to a movie about the '50s ... right at peak disco, written by one of disco's prime engines. As Travolta would say, that's like, so weird.

Okay, the fact that it wasn't sung falsetto really is kind of bizarre. It's barely even sung, some Rex Harrison stuff.

I think the major issue with "Grease" (song) is that we live a life of illusion, wrapped up in trouble laced with confusion...

What are we doing here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbeNpqE0Ys4

https://ew.com/movies/2018/04/20/barry-gibb-grease-demo-40th-anniversary-blu-ray/

Okay, always thought it was weird that the title song of Grease was not a doo-wop song and seemed so fixated on the actual word “grease.”

There's a story somewhere of Robert Stigwood telling Barry Gibb he needed to write a new theme song for his upcoming film Grease.

"'Grease'? How the hell do I write a song called 'Grease'?"

"Oh Barry, you know... Grease di di di, Grease da da da..."

Okay, the fact that it wasn't sung falsetto really is kind of bizarre. It's barely even sung, some Rex Harrison stuff.

Some of that stuff (xpost) is covered in the interview I linked to.

Are you excited to have people hear this demo?

No, not particularly.

lmao

I guess it's similar in approach to a George Clinton song about The Funk.

Most of all we need The Grease.

https://theaudiophileman.com/true-falsetto-talking-frankie-valli/

Intriguingly, however, Valli generally only uses the falsetto when singing with the Four Seasons. For most of his solo hits, it’s nowhere to be found, “Falsetto is a great tool to have, if it’s not overdone.”

Valli was going all in on disco at that point, he also recorded the first version of "Native New Yorker" at about that time

He was also having some kind of hearing problems at the time, which is one of the reasons the drummer in the (new) Four Seasons was singing so many of the their material - including their singles.

Here we are:

Valli began suffering from otosclerosis in 1967, forcing him to "sing from memory" in the latter part of the 1970s. Surgery performed by Los Angeles ear specialist Victor Goodhill restored most of his hearing by 1980.

“Falsetto is a great tool to have, if it’s not overdone.”_

Is that a quote from The Sopranos?

Goodfellas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPYDZsXBvw

and that continued on into the '80s. i had no idea that they wrote islands in the stream. which means two members of the fugees had solo tracks that interpolated songs written by the gibbs bros.

wow, that's great, thanks. ethereal, yeah. would have slotted in beautifully next to late yacht stuff, and also "Cruisin'." hard for me to not hear it as a duet after all these years with Dolly and Kenny though!

i note a small instrumental lift from "S.O.S." (the "when you're gone" part) about 2/3 of the way through...

My favorite Gibb brothers tune written for another artist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBfkDaOxEk

Which I had forgotten about until the doc, and then the second I heard the second of it included in the movie I started humming along.

Another great Barry demo of that one, tho I think I still prefer the final version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnbs3YHkXg

This is another one he did for the Kenny Rogers album he wrote, I love the chorus on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiCnUqjAueY

saw two Bee Gees threads bumped back to back and was afraid Barry died. phew.

The doc should have been a series, like the Grateful Dead one on Amazon. Also, a lot of the vintage interview clips, etc, seemed to have been sped up, perhaps to fit enough material in the timeframe?

Maybe they were just changing the pitch to make it sound more like they were speaking in falsetto.

so the Barry Gibb talkshow was real?

Barry’s new country duets album Greenfields is great, have been listening to it a lot

Barry sounds great and Little Big Town guesting for "How Deep Is Your Love" is every bit as smooth as one would hope.

if they do more of these I would KILL for a countryfied "Mr. Natural"

yeah agree!

i could listen to Butterfly on repeat, it sounds so good, the way his voice blends w Gillian Welch is lovely

and the Keith Urban opener, Got To Get A Message To You really knocked my socks off

the one w/ miranda is great... sounded like something that could've been on one of her records

it took me a couple of listens to get into that one - it was weird hearing it slowed down like that, i wasnt sure if i liked it! but i agree now that they really nailed it

miranda manages the impossible, making "Jive Talkin" sound like it's about something

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHa6vYq6Nyk

Am I unwise
To open up your eyes

Indeed. Though that line about needing someone older has always irritated me somewhat.

I used to sing that song to my kid when she was tiny at bedtime, though I obviously changed that whole problematic chunk of lyric. Still one of my favourite Bee Gees jams though.

You need a boulder?

You look like a soldier?

You need someone’s folder?

What did you sing?

I'm trying to remember the fudge. I think I may have just repeated "you need someone's shoulder" or "someone to hold yer"... She was only 3 then and not so demanding an audience, I totally would not get away with it now.

Robin and Maurice's birthday yesterday.

Anyone picked up the Bob Stanley book?
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/02/how-the-bee-gees-ruled-late-70s-pop

Considered it.

Could only be better than The Bee Gees: The Biography by David Meyer which I mention above.

In 1978, they wrote Too Much Heaven, Tragedy and Shadow Dancin’ during a day off on the set of Sgt Pepper – probably an afternoon off, in fact, as all three songs, all future No 1s, were wrapped in about two hours.

...and "Lonely Days" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" in another (earlier) single-day session.

Very much want to read Bob's book, can't imagine it won't be brilliant

Have read it and can confirm it is brilliant.

Big profile of Barry here, gift link

https://wapo.st/3SWRaFm

The brothers’ initial success in the United Kingdom was stunning, defying probability and logic, worthy of a biopic. One is in the works with Graham King, who produced “Bohemian Rhapsody” about the band Queen. Gibb wrote a song for the movie, his first in years, while penning a memoir.

Who should play young Barry? Gibb said, “I don’t know but he better be pretty.”

barry otm lol

Very much enjoyed Bob Stanley's book from the summer, though it was light on original research.

will they ever release the maurice and barry post-breakup solo albums? cmon!

Never heard the Maurice one but I've heard most, if not all, of the Barry one and it's no lost classic.

yeah i'm not super aware of what constitutes a solo recording versus just a beegees joint where its just one brother running the whole thing

for barry i was thinking of stuff like this which seems very solo album-y but maybe not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHu-mHFD7Kw