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.
― Godless Tiny Tim (Tom D.), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 14:27 (three years ago) link
Might have been nice to stick that in the doc. That also seems like an ... extreme overreaction!
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 15 December 2020 14:29 (three years ago) link
Well, it's a good story.
― Godless Tiny Tim (Tom D.), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 14:31 (three years ago) link
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
― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, 15 December 2020 14:43 (three years ago) link
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.
― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 17 December 2020 05:17 (three years ago) link
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?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:46 (three years ago) link
per wikipedia it was about a year (mid-1969 to mid-1970)
― na (NA), Thursday, 17 December 2020 14:02 (three years ago) link
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.
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 17 December 2020 15:22 (three years ago) link
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.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 17 December 2020 15:27 (three years ago) link
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.
― na (NA), Thursday, 17 December 2020 15:33 (three years ago) link
Oh wow, I did not know that either
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 17 December 2020 15:36 (three years ago) link
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.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 17 December 2020 15:42 (three years ago) link
Good points all.
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 16:07 (three years ago) link
Like, even this Barbara Streisand song is pretty tighthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVyeNZCENZA
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 17 December 2020 16:11 (three years ago) link
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!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 17 December 2020 16:25 (three years ago) link
Woman in Love could almost fit on the moody AOR thread.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 December 2020 16:31 (three years ago) link
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)
― 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.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 17 December 2020 16:55 (three years ago) link
Sure, but you're gonna have a Stigwood-produced, Travolta-starring film in 1978 without a disco song?
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 17 December 2020 17:02 (three years ago) link
There was already a similar time warp thing with "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)"
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 17:04 (three years ago) link
It's kind of a disco song too, isn't it
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 December 2020 18:27 (three years ago) link
Okay, the fact that it wasn't sung falsetto really is kind of bizarre. It's barely even sung, some Rex Harrison stuff.
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 18:29 (three years ago) link
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?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 17 December 2020 18:36 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbeNpqE0Ys4
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 December 2020 19:01 (three years ago) link
https://ew.com/movies/2018/04/20/barry-gibb-grease-demo-40th-anniversary-blu-ray/
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 December 2020 19:02 (three years ago) link
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.”
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 19:14 (three years ago) link
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..."
― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 17 December 2020 19:18 (three years ago) link
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 17 December 2020 19:38 (three years ago) link
Some of that stuff (xpost) is covered in the interview I linked to.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 17 December 2020 19:42 (three years ago) link
Are you excited to have people hear this demo?
No, not particularly.
lmao
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Thursday, 17 December 2020 20:18 (three years ago) link
I guess it's similar in approach to a George Clinton song about The Funk.
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 20:42 (three years ago) link
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.”
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 20:48 (three years ago) link
Valli was going all in on disco at that point, he also recorded the first version of "Native New Yorker" at about that time
― Josefa, Thursday, 17 December 2020 20:58 (three years ago) link
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.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 December 2020 21:05 (three years ago) link
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.
― Eggbreak Hotel (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 December 2020 21:07 (three years ago) link
“Falsetto is a great tool to have, if it’s not overdone.”_
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 17 December 2020 21:13 (three years ago) link
Is that a quote from The Sopranos?
― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 December 2020 21:19 (three years ago) link
Goodfellas:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPYDZsXBvw
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 17 December 2020 21:31 (three years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, 18 December 2020 05:08 (three years ago) link
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...
― Doctor Casino, Friday, 18 December 2020 13:10 (three years ago) link
My favorite Gibb brothers tune written for another artist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBfkDaOxEk
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 18 December 2020 13:12 (three years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 18 December 2020 14:08 (three years ago) link
Another great Barry demo of that one, tho I think I still prefer the final version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnbs3YHkXgThis 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
― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 19 December 2020 15:54 (three years ago) link
saw two Bee Gees threads bumped back to back and was afraid Barry died. phew.
― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Saturday, 19 December 2020 15:57 (three years ago) link
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?
― Change Display Name: (stevie), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 07:28 (three years ago) link
Maybe they were just changing the pitch to make it sound more like they were speaking in falsetto.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 23 December 2020 13:29 (three years ago) link
so the Barry Gibb talkshow was real?
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 23 December 2020 13:46 (three years ago) link
Barry’s new country duets album Greenfields is great, have been listening to it a lot
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 10 January 2021 00:14 (three years ago) link
Barry sounds great and Little Big Town guesting for "How Deep Is Your Love" is every bit as smooth as one would hope.
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Sunday, 10 January 2021 00:22 (three years ago) link