Bee Gees: Classic or Dud

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

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/nov/19/two-bee-gees-drummers-die-colin-petersen-dennis-bryon

Two Bee Gees drummers die within days of one another

The band’s original drummer, Colin Petersen, died four days before Dennis Bryon, who played throughout their imperial Saturday Night Fever phase

Tim Jonze

Tue 19 Nov 2024 10.58 EST

Colin Petersen, the original drummer for Bee Gees, has died aged 78.

Petersen joined the band in 1966 alongside brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. He performed on their second studio album Spicks and Specks, released that same year, and played on early hits such as To Love Somebody, I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You and I Started a Joke.

Born in Kingaroy, Queensland in 1946, Petersen found early fame as a child actor starring in the title role of the 1956 Australian film Smiley. He drummed with Bee Gees until 1969, when disagreements with the band’s manager Robert Stigwood led him to leave and form the short-lived band Humpy Bong with singer-songwriter Jonathan Kelly and Tim Staffell.

Petersen was later replaced by Geoff Bridgford, although the band soon decided to employ touring drummers instead of full-time members, settling on Dennis Bryon, who would drum during the band’s imperial phase from 1973 until 1980.

In a strange twist of fate, Bryon is also reported to have died within four days of Petersen. Despite not being listed as an official member of the band, he contributed percussion to their recordings including the smash hit Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and hits such as How Deep Is Your Love and More Than a Woman.

Born in Cardiff, Wales, Bryon began playing drums at the age of 14. In 2015 he published the memoir You Should Be Dancing: My Life With the Bee Gees which captured the band’s ubiquity during their peak – one time, while flipping through radio stations during a drive to his Miami home, Bryon claims to have landed on five that were playing songs from Saturday Night Fever album.

Both Bryon and Petersen would play with Bee Gees tribute bands in later life. The former with the Italian Bee Gees, formed by three Italian brothers, and the latter with the Best of the Bee Gees tribute show. Petersen was reportedly playing live as recently as last week.

Barry Gibb is the last surviving Gibb brother. Maurice died in 2003, and Robin died in 2012.

Humpy Bong is quite the band name