Bee Gees: Classic or Dud

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the song, that is, not the LP (which I haven't heard in full)

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 15 November 2003 03:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a song being "twee". "Twee" is a sign of quality.

― Geirvald Hongfjeld jr., Saturday, 15 November 2003 03:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

Classic from 1967 until roughly 1970. Dud in the early 70s. Classic around "Main Course". Dud around "Saturday Night Fever". Neither after that.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 15 November 2003 03:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

And, no, I doubt Sigvald Grøsfjeld would have said that. He probably hasn't even heard the term..

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 15 November 2003 03:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

A student has just thoughtfully burned me disc 2 of Their Greatest Hits - The Record. Surely I cannot be convinced that "More Than A Woman" is not the best song ever written (or at least under that title. Sorry A, we'll always have "Can I Come Over") (actually I REALLY blame this on Neil and Rachel's Comic Relief dance). My parents had the SNF sndtrk and Abba Greatest Hits Vol. 2 on vinyl, but sadly Pearl Jam never covered either and they grew dust.

Wait, I had a question... *rummages around in bag* Should I buy albums or just stick with singles comps?

― Dave M. (rotten03), Monday, 26 April 2004 05:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

My first reaction on seeing this thread was GOD NO! But I had the misfortune to be a teenager when they were at their height and they stood for everything I hated about the 70s. I suppose they are serviceable pop. but I just can't shake them out if their cultural context as hedonistic coke-disco-culture icons.

― Orbit (Orbit), Monday, 26 April 2004 05:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

I thought so as well, but I was totally and ecstatically wrong. The route through is as follows: Luomo => Frankie Knuckles mix sets off deephousepage => Donna Summer: On The Radio => Bee Gees => open collared shirts / hedonistic coke disco EXCELSIOR

― Dave M. (rotten03), Monday, 26 April 2004 05:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

11 months pass...

Bad style, sure, but so, so classic. Serious props to "(Our Love) Don't Give It All Away" — just a gorgeous chorus. Among the better known songs, "Too Much Heaven" was a #1, I believe, but what a remarkable homage to The Delfonics it is...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Monday, 25 April 2005 13:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

I heard "One" the other day at Wal-Mart. I'd forgotten what a good song it is – and what great production.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 25 April 2005 15:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

I came across this last week and thought it was pretty interesting.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 25 April 2005 15:36 (8 years ago) Permalink

I admire them. "Mr. Natural" is a great album, their first with Arif Mardin. Their later "disco" stuff is better than their late-'60s music, they adapted. I mean you can't say that about the Easybeats, who were probably better in the '60s. I don't think "Odessa" or "Two Years On" are really great records, but they're real interesting. Robin Gibb's "Robin's Reign" is one of the better oddities of 1970, and I've been listening to the unreleased album he did after that one, "Sing Slowly Sisters," which is truly fucking weird. I like the way the Bee Gees were out in the ether, it sort of doesn't relate to anything and that's always a goal worth striving for.

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

Funny, I always hated "One".

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

Regarding their pre-Arif Mardin stuff, I haven't really heard near enough to comment. Either it doesn't get very much airplay at all, or I just coincidentally manage to switch to oldies stations immediately after they've just been played.

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

"Massachusetts" and "Lonely Days" were hits from that era. Even I, a fan of all things baroque-pop and so forth, find "Odessa" and "Trafalgar" and "Two Years On" tough going, like I can't really sit thru the whole album, altho individual songs are wrong/interesting/about something completely bizarre/stupid enough/enough strange mediated pop tricks in them, etc., to make me listen.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:19 (8 years ago) Permalink

There's not really a weak track on Odessa, is there?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:23 (8 years ago) Permalink

Oh, I don't know, like I say, I have a high tolerance for this kind of thing, but I find the title track of "Odessa" pretty much unlistenable. Big inspiration on the Decemberists, I'd say. It just sounds wrong to me, even I as admire the skill involved, I just don't see the point. I like "Suddenly" a lot. I much prefer the "Horizontal" album.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:29 (8 years ago) Permalink

Whatever happened to the fourth bee gee, I wonder?

― Leon Future Coffee (Ex Leon), Monday, 25 April 2005 18:31 (8 years ago) Permalink

The Bee Gees never ever surpassed their 1967 debut. Remains the best thing they ever did.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 10:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

their '70s, disco music is better than "Bee Gees' 1st."

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:16 (8 years ago) Permalink

Debatable when the record in question contains "Holiday"...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:54 (8 years ago) Permalink

Also "Odessa" has "Lamplight" and "Edison" and "First of May" on it, it should be noted. "Odessa" is not their first album.

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 14:56 (8 years ago) Permalink

How's thehir '80s output – "E.S.P." and all that stuff? Those records were big in Europe, whatever that means.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:10 (8 years ago) Permalink

Well put — and I have no idea.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:15 (8 years ago) Permalink

I like the early hits a lot but there is something a little thin and samey sounding about the production and arrangements so I can't bear to listen to them all in a row. We should really start a Bee Gees POX and put money where mouth is. I'd do it but I don't have my ten picked out yet.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:25 (8 years ago) Permalink

"ESP" has "You Win Again" on it at least (I'm pretty sure), that song's up there w/anything they did

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:32 (8 years ago) Permalink

I'm making a bestof Bee Gees (and Robin Gibb, too) CD for my girlfriend--the early stuff. "Mr. Natural," the more I listen, is really incredible, maybe their best single album-as-album...

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 15:42 (8 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

this box set is amazing

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 5 July 2007 16:07 (5 years ago) Permalink

Which -- Tales?

― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:30 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

anybody else diggin' the Barry Gibb 80's demos currently found on iTunes?

― henry s, Thursday, 5 July 2007 19:08 (5 years ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

And then the chorus is...country? But maybe like the Band were country - it sounds ancient.

― Tim Ellison, Friday, 20 July 2007 02:16 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

me like the unreleased "A Kick in the Head..."

― dell, Thursday, 20 September 2007 22:57 (5 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

What "baggage"?

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 9 March 2008 16:39 (5 years ago) Permalink

All the ridicule I remember them taking when I was growing up.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 16:41 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

"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 (5 years ago) Permalink

yeah, it is the best bee gees song, hands down

― remy bean, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:19 (5 years ago) Permalink

i also thing tragedy is pretty great

― remy bean, Sunday, 9 March 2008 20:20 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

"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 (5 years ago) Permalink

Well, I'm old. And I'm over it. These songs are great.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 9 March 2008 21:07 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

Skipping 53 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

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.

― Lee971 (Lee626), Monday, 21 May 2012 21:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

<3 alex chilton

― buzza, Monday, 4 June 2012 06:55 (11 months ago) Permalink

2001 ilx vmic

― buzza, Monday, 4 June 2012 06:56 (11 months ago) Permalink

attention ye robin gibb mourners -- bee gees polling in effect, 10 ballots received and we would love more contributions :D

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 9 June 2012 04:35 (11 months ago) Permalink

To Poll Somebody - The Robin Gibb Memorial BEE GEES TRACKS POLL (voting thread)

― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 9 June 2012 04:36 (11 months ago) Permalink

Do your civic duty people.

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 9 June 2012 12:06 (11 months ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

― Tim Ellison

so otm

― buzza, Saturday, 15 December 2012 11:08 (5 months ago) Permalink

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.

― Doctor Flange, Sunday, 16 December 2012 23:55 (5 months ago) Permalink

all their mid-'60s to early '70s albums bursting with great deep cuts, and sometimes outtakes.

― Lee626, Monday, 17 December 2012 23:04 (5 months ago) Permalink

am thinking of picking up the Mythology box set

any naysayers out there?

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 16:34 (4 months ago) Permalink

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