Bee Gees: Classic or Dud

(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

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