Bee Gees: Classic or Dud

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.