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."
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 25 April 2005 16:07 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 25 April 2005 17:40 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 25 April 2005 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Leon Future Coffee (Ex Leon), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 10:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:42 (nineteen years ago) link
this box set is amazing
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 5 July 2007 16:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Which -- Tales?
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:33 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link
anybody else diggin' the Barry Gibb 80's demos currently found on iTunes?
― henry s, Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:08 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 20 July 2007 02:12 (sixteen years ago) link
And then the chorus is...country? But maybe like the Band were country - it sounds ancient.
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 20 July 2007 02:16 (sixteen years ago) link
Some kind of archetype you can't quite put your finger on but which seems to hit the nail squarely on the head.
― Tim Ellison, Friday, 20 July 2007 02:18 (sixteen years ago) link
man I cannot stop listening to this stuff - Trafalgar is such a beautiful album, way underrated.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 20 September 2007 21:35 (sixteen years ago) link
me like the unreleased "A Kick in the Head..."
― dell, Thursday, 20 September 2007 22:57 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 16:24 (sixteen years ago) link
What "baggage"?
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 9 March 2008 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link
All the ridicule I remember them taking when I was growing up.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 16:41 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 16:43 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 17:25 (sixteen years ago) link
"ESP" has "You Win Again" on it at least (I'm pretty sure), that song's up there w/anything they did
cosign
― tremendoid, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:16 (sixteen years ago) link
yeah, it is the best bee gees song, hands down
― remy bean, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link
i also thing tragedy is pretty great
― remy bean, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:20 (sixteen years ago) link
I've been listening to Spirits Having Flown this afternoon (the single), and it's pretty great.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:24 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― remy bean, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:29 (sixteen years ago) link
Agreed, I think the title track is my favorite song from that album. Yeah, Tragedy sounds kinda...overcooked? Too Much Heaven's great, though.
― dell, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:39 (sixteen years ago) link
"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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 9 March 2008 21:05 (sixteen years ago) link
Well, I'm old. And I'm over it. These songs are great.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 21:07 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 21:32 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 10 March 2008 08:13 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Euler, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 20:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Apparently released here tomorrow. I will pick it up. Only know the album, but will not own an original version until I have this.
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 14 January 2009 00:38 (fifteen years ago) link
honestly, who gives a shit about mono mixes? never understood why those are "bonus tracks"... curious to hear the other stuff though
― There was even a brief period when I preferred Sally Forth. (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 14 January 2009 00:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah it looks like there's more than mono mixes thankfully.
― Euler, Wednesday, 14 January 2009 01:50 (fifteen years ago) link
When they embraced disco they embraced their inanity more, emblematic of the nineteen seventies as a decade.
― Dan Landings, Wednesday, 14 January 2009 02:15 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Charlie Howard, Wednesday, 14 January 2009 08:58 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^so wrong
― There was even a brief period when I preferred Sally Forth. (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 14 January 2009 16:52 (fifteen years ago) link
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 (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 14 January 2009 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link
HELPING CHILDREN THROUGH RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Hahaha. "Hi everyone, let's pitch in 'n get cracking..."
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 14 January 2009 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link