To Poll Somebody - The Robin Gibb Memorial BEE GEES TRACKS POLL (voting thread) - FINAL DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, JUNE 15, NO FOOLIN'

Lol

Re. Life in a Tin Can, "My Life Has Been a Song" is really good -- awesome refrain from Barry. One thing I like about this era is the preponderance of sludgy, mid-tempo ballads that feature little more than Maurice's piano. It kind of affirms for me how much these guys got by purely on melody and emotion -- something I think they returned to in the later stages of their career, as they began writing for other folks.

It's weird to me that this was their lowest point commercially. None of the material is particularly out of step with the times - lush, mellow "easily listening" ballads were huge, and they obviously had their ear to the ground re: R&B and funk stuff too - and it's not like their melodic or compositional gifts lagged at all. I suppose the breaking up/not breaking up shenanigans didn't help matters... Even so, for some reason 2 Years On and LiaTC were the two from that period that I didn't unreservedly love at first blush. I wonder if anyone will be voting for anything off "A Kick In the Head is Worth Eight in the Pants" lol

I love how Robin basically sounds like a Moog synth on the bridge around 1:50) on this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bcd-zmB4vk

such a great song - smooth and mellow at the outset, weirdo ethereal bridge in the middle, then shifts into gospel funk overdrive at the end

Yeah that whole album is great

Yeah, I love how "Throw a Penny" blows right into "Down the Road."

feel like some of their best moments are their most morbid and self-pitying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh1NNAsuF4M

very Spector-esque

2 ballots are so lonely

voted!

2 less lonely ballots in the world etc

Honestly, my ballot has been changing on a daily basis. I keep discovering new songs that are bumping the more obvious ones.

I'll be out of town this weekend, but I'll assemble and cast my ballot early next week!

4 ballots

And so the rush begins...

gonna rep for some deep-60s cuts here

one of their most blatantly Macca/Ray Davies cuts but christ what a melody, just irresistable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sudd9Sv2Bgg

the song that sold my wife on the bros:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFnvk8x0-f8

The first of may came up on my iPod this morning, so gorgeous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4gU-I3w2Uo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29mGd-0-lfE

I continue to be utterly stunned at how deep their catalog is. Does anyone else even come close?

George Clinton

or the Beach Boys maybe...? I dunno.

yeah there aren't any real analogues with comparable multi-decade strings of hits

great opening post

You People Haven't Lived Until You've Blasted The Bee Gees' "Nights On Broadway"

I must have listened to Nights On Broadway 10 times the day Robin died. Such a killer song. One of my alltime top 5 ever.

(added bonus that it was SNL Barry Gibb Talk Show theme)

how many ballots? double digits or bust

we're at a whopping 6 ballots, including my own

:(

Mine is still forthcoming.

I've just submitted an undersized ballot - I figure anything is better than nothing given the poor response so far

4 days to go, get them ballots in

Poor Shakey Mo is going to get an avalanche of 50 ballots on Friday.

Bee Gee Polling Disaster 2012

Don't make poor Robin (in heaven) cry ILX!

apropos of nothing ... 2 Years On is better than I remember it, but it does seem to lack any real standout tracks

Well, other than "Lonely Days" (which, fwiw, won't make my ballot).

I like the title track -- particularly the "Only you/Can see me" part.
I also came to "The 1st Mistake I Made" via a cover version by Phil Seymour of The Dwight Twilley Band for some tribute. For the longest time I couldn't figure out what album it was from because Seymour's version was called "The First Mistake I Ever Made." But I think that's one of Barry's better country ballads.

Weekend listening to the 60s stuff made me fall for this great little pop song of Robin's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfDBdn9Frgc

yeah the harmonies on Indian Gin are great

I'm trying to cram as much listening in before I submit my ballot. Was hoping to unearth some great obscurities but don't have time to check out 1000 songs now so will stick mostly to their own releases and a few well-known songs performed by others (didn't realize there were so many).

This will probably be my #20, because I have a soft spot for wildly misleading first singles that don't even hint at the musical direction the band later takes. This doesn't sound even remotely like the late-60s balladeers that first became popular (at least outside of Australia), much less the '70s disco superstars they would later become...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TdqIyRd51k

was that their very first single? Their early Aussie stuff is like some weird mirror image of the American 60s folk scene

According to wiki, yes. Cracked the top 100 in their homeland.

can we talk for a second about what a funny/bizarre/compelling oddity Maurice's "Lay it on me" from 2 Years On is, especially in light of his age/alcoholism at the time...

Don't you drink with me 'cos you know that I'm a loser
And I'm proud of that fact as you can plainly see
Never did what people said, I should've
I'm just a low down critter who never did any good
I'm just a low down critter who never did any good

I spend my life working up a sweat to be a bad boy
Getting girls into trouble every day
Going from town to town, now I tell you I've been around
I'm just a low down critter who never did any good
[ From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/b/bee-gees-lyrics/lay-it-on-me-lyrics.html]
I'm just a low down critter who never did any good

Lay it on me
Yeah

Don't you drink with me 'cos I tell you that I'm a loser
And I'm proud of that fact as you can plainly see
Going from town to town, now I tell you I've been around
I'm just a low down critter who never did any good
I'm just a low down critter who never did any good

votey vote vote vote

this is depressing

Don't panic. I said I'd vote 'n I will. I finally located my copy of To Whom It may Concern this morning.

I'm still not in yet either. I've narrowed it to 34 songs!

8 ballots in

*crickets*

Will vote a bit later today. My ballot will just list song titles though, since it seems daft to try and distinguish between different artist versions in most cases. Hope that's acceptable, Shakey.

In the meantime, I just stumbled across this exhaustive commentary on all things Gibb:
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/version2.html

Narrative starts here and then you can click through year by year:
http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/62.html

The web 1.0 was such a wonderful place.

Sorry I can't vote in these ballots unless I really immerse myself in the artists, and I've just done the ABBA immersion thing and am still coming up for air. Need to be spaced out more for me to contribute.

Then get spaced out, man

Best bit of advice I've had this year.

Finally sitting down and working on this. Hard to go deep when there are so many hits, but hard to concentrate on hits when the catalogue is so fucking deep!

Really feeling "Nobody's Someone" the last couple days. It was a leftover from Odessa (a leftover!). All class, this song.