Best Bee Gees album 1974-1979

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
Main Course 9
Spirits Having Flown 4
Mr. Natural 2
Children of the World 2


more Allegro-like (Turrican), Saturday, 16 September 2017 12:18 (six years ago) link

I like "Mr Natural" but not sure it belongs here. Voted "Main Course".

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 12:33 (six years ago) link

do disco-era bee gees have deep cuts worth listening to? i've never been inspired to listen to anything beyond the hits.

bob lefse (rushomancy), Saturday, 16 September 2017 14:21 (six years ago) link

Def Mr. Natural altho Nights on Broadway alone is almost enough yo justify a Main Course vote

Οὖτις, Saturday, 16 September 2017 14:33 (six years ago) link

do disco-era bee gees have deep cuts worth listening to?

hell yes

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link

do disco-era bee gees have deep cuts worth listening to?

hell yes

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.)

ok maybe i should've phrased that better, that wasn't a yes or no question, hit me up!

bob lefse (rushomancy), Saturday, 16 September 2017 18:28 (six years ago) link

Spirits Having Flown itself is a deep cut worth hearing

albvivertine, Saturday, 16 September 2017 18:32 (six years ago) link

I'd add "Stop (Think Again)" and, tbh, most of Main Course

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 18:34 (six years ago) link

love all of these, but voting Spirits Having Flown. Also seconding "Stop (Think Again)" as a total jam.

methanietanner, Saturday, 16 September 2017 19:10 (six years ago) link

I was in two minds about including Mr. Natural, but ended up doing so because even though they hadn't quite arrived at the disco sound that resuscitated their careers, I think the album still shows a shift towards that direction and was a very important album for them - not to mention it was the first one that Arif Mardin worked on.

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Saturday, 16 September 2017 20:58 (six years ago) link

the title track is not only my favorite bee gees song but easily one of my favorite songs of all time

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Saturday, 16 September 2017 21:39 (six years ago) link

Children of the World, although the secondary singles from Main Course are superior, namely "Nights on Broadway" and "Fanny."

Never heard Mr. Natural, tbh.

Josefa, Sunday, 17 September 2017 01:57 (six years ago) link

I thought Spirits Having Flown was their "New Jersey" long before I heard that term

Josefa, Sunday, 17 September 2017 02:12 (six years ago) link

Mr. Natural is great, but at the moment I'm torn between Main Course and, strangely, Spirits Having Flown...

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 16:11 (six years ago) link

Love all of these but have to go with Mr. Natural, which is probably my favorite Bee Gees album, period.

cwkiii, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 20:15 (six years ago) link

the title track is not only my favorite bee gees song but easily one of my favorite songs of all time

^^^seconded

cwkiii, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 20:15 (six years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Friday, 22 September 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link

Are the Bee Gees in general just massively unpopular these days? Seems strange that people are willing to admit their love for ABBA's work, but the Bee Gees...

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 22 September 2017 05:56 (six years ago) link

Bee Gees rehab started long before ABBA's, so people not as visibly vocal about it.

Merry-Go-Sorry Somehow (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 22 September 2017 10:36 (six years ago) link

I am not sure when the rehab started - certainly there was lots of appreciation of SNF-era in the 90s ("ironic" or not), but I personally didn't get my head turned around on them until the big 60s box set came out, and then I was all in.

Οὖτις, Friday, 22 September 2017 15:50 (six years ago) link

I remember there being a lot of press about 'em circa Still Waters and 'Alone', and of course they performed at the Brits and the now legendary Clive Anderson walk-off happened around then, but...

...since then pretty much what sticks in my mind is cheesy boy band/girl band versions of their tracks: 'More than a Woman', 'Tragedy' and 'Words' being three I particularly remember. The disco era was their most popular era, so of course that gets a lot of attention, and their '60s stuff very much has a cult following even though Odessa made it into that 1001 Albums book...

...but where fans of, say, The Visitors don't hesitate to say how much they adore that record, you don't really hear anyone praise any Bee Gees record to the same level, not even Odessa or Main Course and definitely not even in the '90s...

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 22 September 2017 16:10 (six years ago) link

idk I personally have but I have met some p big Bee Gees fanatics - it's true in the press and larger music world they don't get the respect they should imo

Οὖτις, Friday, 22 September 2017 16:24 (six years ago) link

tbf I'm a pretty huge fan but I don't think any of their albums are front-to-back killer

a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 22 September 2017 17:03 (six years ago) link

The Beegees have a song called "Fanny"?You couldn't play that in Glasgow without much sniggering ensuing.

the article don, Friday, 22 September 2017 17:23 (six years ago) link

It's a pleading request for fanny to be tender with barry's love

Οὖτις, Friday, 22 September 2017 17:31 (six years ago) link

...since then pretty much what sticks in my mind is cheesy boy band/girl band versions of their tracks: 'More than a Woman', 'Tragedy' and 'Words' being three I particularly remember. The disco era was their most popular era, so of course that gets a lot of attention, and their '60s stuff very much has a cult following even though Odessa made it into that 1001 Albums book...

...but where fans of, say, The Visitors don't hesitate to say how much they adore that record, you don't really hear anyone praise any Bee Gees record to the same level, not even Odessa or Main Course and definitely not even in the '90s...

I bet you there have been far more cheesy boy band/girl band versions of ABBA tracks than Bee Gees tracks. And I won't even bother mentioning Mamma Mia, the stage show, the movie. And I've heard Odessa, and Trafalgar and other albums absolutely praised to the skies too, while we're at it.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Friday, 22 September 2017 17:50 (six years ago) link

I'm not convinced the Bee Gees were ever that beyond the pale tbh. Pretty sure their talent, as songwriters at least, was always accepted, even among people who didn't like their disco period.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Friday, 22 September 2017 17:54 (six years ago) link

Europe never turned its back on em afaict

Οὖτις, Friday, 22 September 2017 17:57 (six years ago) link

The Beegees have a song called "Fanny"?You couldn't play that in Glasgow without much sniggering ensuing.

― the article don, Friday, September 22, 2017 5:23 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Or anywhere else in the UK, for that matter!

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 22 September 2017 18:02 (six years ago) link

I bet you there have been far more cheesy boy band/girl band versions of ABBA tracks than Bee Gees tracks. And I won't even bother mentioning Mamma Mia, the stage show, the movie.

I reckon there have been too, but even with this - and that Mamma Mia thing - in mind, ABBA have still managed to be taken seriously for their best work in a way that I've never seen the Bee Gees being taken seriously for theirs, and this is in spite of ABBA's discography occasionally having a whiff of Simon Cowell cheese about it. There was a whole thread on here devoted to analysing 'The Day Before You Came'!

And I've heard Odessa, and Trafalgar and other albums absolutely praised to the skies too, while we're at it.

As have I. By about 4 people.

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 22 September 2017 18:10 (six years ago) link

Like, these guys were immensely popular over a long period. First, the '60s hits, then the '70s disco stuff, then the ESP album and 'You Win Again' and writing 'Chain Reaction' for Diana Ross in the '80s, and then into the '90s with Still Waters, which may not be one of their better albums but was still a visible period for them...

...yet even with all of this success, even with all those classic songs, they feel very underrated in 2017. Not just their '60s stuff, but their whole career.

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Friday, 22 September 2017 18:15 (six years ago) link

Well, it depends which country you're in. In the US, they were immensely popular in the '60s and especially the mid to late '70s, but circa 1980 there was suddenly a massive backlash against disco in general and the Bee Gees in particular, who seemed oversaturated on radio at the time. From that point on, the Bee Gees were all but banished from US radio, old songs or new. ESP and "You Win Again" weren't hits here. "One" got some airplay a few years later but that's the only post-1980 Bee Gees i recall hearing on the air.

Mr. Natural is to the Bee Gees what Bare Trees is to Fleetwood Mac - a "transitional" album that catches them about halfway between their old and new sounds, and it's interesting for that reason.

Lee626, Friday, 22 September 2017 23:15 (six years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Saturday, 23 September 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link

Christ, Disco Sucks was such a rockist, racist, homophobic piece of shit movement.

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Saturday, 23 September 2017 07:37 (six years ago) link

I think I remember hearing Barry Gibb say that they never really thought they were making disco, anyway... as far as they were concerned they were just playing R&B.

more Allegro-like (Turrican), Saturday, 23 September 2017 08:29 (six years ago) link


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