DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER: The Official ILM Track-By-Track BEE GEES 1968-1981 Listening Thread

For anyone else whose curiosity was piqued by that reference to the Hee Bee Gees Bees:
https://youtu.be/zlWqNl4Yips

(xp) That song's quite nice? Pleasant while it's playing but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to listen to it again. Nice vocals but the freeze-dried LA session blandness is a bit much. I don't know much about 1981, in terms of what records by mainstream artists sounded like, but that track sounds like neither one thing or the other, not really 70s and not very 80s either.

Track No. 173: Don't Fall in Love With Me ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrd83fLfk0

The bombastic intro feels unnecessary. I don't think the 80s drum sound or synths do this song any favors either, but when all three brothers come in for the harmonies it creates a wash that works. Robin's balladeering skills do not appear to have atrophied in the interim, he delivers a solid lead vocal. Lyric is a little uncharacteristic for him, instead of being the sad-sack that's lost in love, he's more of a lothario with a a word of caution. Not bad, a passable deep cut that shows them returning to some techniques that worked well for them pre-disco.

Track No. 174: Soldiers ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahgcHxFpS3g

This is an awful lot of bad ideas for one song. Barry trots out the falsetto for a set of lyrics that are practically stream-of-consciousness, practically a Burroughsian cut-up of cliches and mismatched images. I have no idea what soldiers are being sung about tbh. And the constant dropped beats and rhythmic shifts feel thrown in to compensate for the lack of a solid melody. Sonically it's not so bad - I suppose they could be commended for departing from their recent standard sound, relying instead on the acoustic strumminess and orchestration of years past. But the arrangement is empty, and the song feels underwritten.

Track No. 175: I Still Love You ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdgCuuTLCC4

A fairly unremarkable soft rock song, until we get to the chorus with the harmonies and the sitar, an incongruous touch reminiscent of an earlier wave of R&B balladry (Gamble & Huff, Norman Whitfield, etc.) After so much of Barry's falsetto, Robin getting back to what Robin does best is something of a welcome change. He doesn't dip into histrionics but nor does he get a great melody to work with - this song is pretty much all atmosphere and a barely-there hook for the chorus. It's like the best they could muster for this album was "that'll do".

One thing I love about this thread is clicking on the YouTube links in YouTube and reading the comments section, all of these random people from obscure corners of Europe, who haven't bought an album since 1985, proclaiming "the greatest song of my life, there will never be music with such talent again, they will always be the greatest" on some tossed-off piece of filler dreck.

or this remarkable sequence

Richard Gottheil 4 years ago
from Richard gottheil I still love you

Richard Gottheil 3 years ago
from Richard gottheil I still love you

Richard Gottheil 4 years ago
from Richard gottheil i still love you

Richard Gottheil 4 years ago
Richard gottheil still love you

their European appeal is definitely... something

Track No. 176: Wildflower ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxVxDWZAYmY

Is it possible that Maurice delivers the best track on this album? Maybe! Lyrically it has a few less clunkers than the other tracks, and the relatively uncluttered arrangement is refreshing, the various elements are all given space to dip in and out. Anchored by the layered 12-string acoustic guitars and a restrained rhythm section, the overall effect isn't too far from other country-pop of the era, just with maybe a few more Beatle-isms inevitably thrown in (primarily thinking of that chiming lead electric guitar sound). Vocally the boys are in fine form, and the coda in particular with the overlapping melody lines is pretty sweet. Still, it feels a little sleight - the hook is not particularly memorable and it feels like the band was throwing more Maurice a bone, but at least his craftsmanship still shines through.

Yes, this album is not exactly great - so far anyway, though I'm not holding my breath in anticipation of any massive improvement in quality in the tracks still to come. In a way it's a bit like some of the lost 70s years album in that it seems entirely rudderless. It's slightly weird hearing Robin lead vocals after all this time, I think his 80s solo albums, which are really Robin + Maurice albums, are better than this though - certainly the first one is. Is the Maurice track the first time the Bee Gees have ever shown any Beach Boys influences?

funny you should mention the Beach Boys, it hadn't occurred to me but the aimless, vaseline-on-the-lens, proto-yacht vibe they seem inclined to is def reminiscent of the late 70s BB albums in various ways.

But I think you have to go all the way back to the 60s stuff ("Please Read Me" in particular) for other signs of detectable BBs influence.

shit, just realized we skipped the "Too Much Heaven" b-side (the country ballad "Rest Your Love on Me") many posts back. oh well. It's good.

Or Track No. 164-B, as it’s known for administrative purposes :-)

Yeah the vocal melody at 2:58 in Wildflower has pretty strong Brian Wilson vibes.

Track No. 177: Nothing Could Be Good ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAQf0qEzSms

The grammatical error in the title really bothers me (it should be "nothing could be AS good"), but that's a minor quibble compared to the song's overall garden variety easy listening schmaltz. It's very much in step with the times - there was a *lot* of this kind of shit on the radio in the late 70s/early 80s as boomers retreated into middle aged suburban stupor - it's just disappointing in its utter anonymity and formlessness. Nothing unusual or interesting happens, nothing unique to the Gibb brothers is on display, it's just this fluffy, bland, airbrushed "elevator music". You can't hum the melody, you can't recall the words, you can't dance to it, your eyes just glaze over.

Track No. 178: ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S4_bJlamT0

Synth shuffle! We're definitely in 80s territory now, Robin transposing his standard approaches onto a different sonic template, which he would further explore on his solo albums with Maurice. The juxtaposition of Robin's theatrical vibrato against New Wave is.... interesting. Things are kinda working until Barry crashes into the song with his bridge melody and rhythmic switchups, and then it feels like the song is rolling downhill and off a cliff. It feels like the song gets crushed under the weight of too many awkward key changes. Some cool backing vocals buried in the mix under the arpeggiated synthesizers.

Yes, this album is a bit of dog.

lol I see I didn't even bother to include the title of the song in my last post

That was "Cryin' Every Day" at no. 178.

We're so close to the end. Tomorrow is the final track in our survey :(

I hope we've all learned some important lessons.

Eh? You've got six more albums to get through!

The Official ILM Track-By-Track BEE GEES 1968-1981 Listening Thread

there's a 6-year gap between Living Eyes and their next "reunion" record, it's a natural cut off point

LOL shows how much attention I've paid to the title of the thread.

I think this album has killed off my enthusiasm for any continuation of the project tbh.

I just felt like the gap was kind of difficult to ignore/navigate - go through all the solo albums/side projects/songs for others in the interim? There's interesting stuff in there but I dunno if would be worth it

You mean like Barry's collaboration with Sleazy of Throbbing Gristle/Coil fame, for instance?

of course not. I was referring to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8WSSG3UzwU

I have no idea why I haven't contributed enough, but I wanna shout out my love for Spirits Having Flown's title track. I love the keyboard hook.

I quite like the 80s Robin albums, I mean, diminishing returns by the final one, but they're still better than "Living Eyes".

They've worked with some unlikely people.

https://img.discogs.com/OtIeg3bpyEfRvkuS8bReNyul450=/fit-in/378x619/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3577627-1335979217.jpeg.jpg https://img.discogs.com/O9cbz0Okr03qG-ePnnYZ8b-Auo8=/fit-in/381x612/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3577627-1335979222.jpeg.jpg

"Boys Fall in Love" would've been touching in 1983 as a A Flock of Seagulls or Peter Schilling knockoff: a lonely planet boy riding to earth on synths.

Robin is the original lonely guy just thinking baout things.

oh shit

omfg are we really up to "spirits having flown"

i have so much catching up to do

That was a whole album ago

Track No. 179: Be Who You Are ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwyEE9ExD2o

In yet another stylistic left-turn, this song opens with an extended and sumptuous orchestral introduction (over 2 minutes long!) worthy of Robin's more grandiose moments. When Barry finally enters it's just his isolated vocal and a bit of electric guitar, with strings and piano gradually creeping back in and building up through the first verse. Barry's melody is kind of all over the place; he leaps from his lower register all the way into his falsetto more than once, and by the first chorus we are solidly in 80s power ballad territory complete with melodramatic power chords and plodding drums. Wordless harmonies come in, doubling by violins, towards the end of the second verse (or is it a chorus? the structure of this one kind of eludes me with its endless crescendos and diminuendos). The 80s gloss on this type of overblown balladry feels a little off to my ears, maybe this would've worked better with a more roughly hewn early 70s-type sound, there's at least half of a good hook somewhere in Barry's lead melody but it gets lost. An album closer that reaches for epic but doesn't quite get there.

This album is a bookend for the second phase of their career. I wish I could say we were ending this survey on a high note, but let's face it this album is pretty bad. They still had quality material in them - the 80s hits they penned for others are generally very high quality ("Islands in the Stream" obviously at the top of that heap), plus weird solo experiments and a certain white-jumpsuited duet smash hit, and they would regroup and return to the charts again towards the end of the decade. But by 1981 they were exhausted, adrift, and feeling like more of a running joke than one of the most successful bands ever. By this point, thankfully, I think some measure of critical rehabilitation has set in; they've always had a massive fanbase in Europe, and the hits from their peak eras are undeniable.

RIP Robin and Maurice.

*crickets*

― Οὖτις, Friday, December 14, 2018 11:08 AM (ten months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Don't really know what they're trying to do with that closing track but I suppose it's different. I hope people re-visit this thread, if only to listen to some Bee Gees (how) deep (are your) cuts!

This album feels like a compilation of random leftovers from other albums

That final song sounds like compilation of random leftovers from other albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5eLLmpulqI

what a strange trip it's been
Thanks for your tenacity, shakey, I have heard some pretty, pretty odd music via this thread, and I wouldn't have otherwise.

Yeah, this has been a super-fun thread. Thanks for doing it! Any other bands you'd want to do this for?

Me? lol no I’m takin a break

OK, having sorted through this thread here's my pick of Bee Gees' deep cuts. "Children of the World" I know was technically a hit but since I managed to go 43 years never having heard it before I'm going to classify it as a "deep cut".

How Deep Are Your Cuts? The Bee Gees 1967-1979

Record 1: The 1960s

Side 1:
Cucumber Castle
Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You
I Close My Eyes
Sinking Ships
Down To Earth
Out of Line

Side 2:
Kilburn Towers
Indian Gin and Whisky Dry
Swan Song
Edison
Odessa (City on the Black Sea)

Record 2: The 1970s

Side 3:
The Greatest Man in the World
It's Just the Way
Paper Mache, Cabbages & Kings
Please Don't Turn Out the Lights
Dogs

Side 4:
Charade
I Can't Let You Go
Lovers
Children of the World
Until

Note: I didn't listen to every single song posted to the thread...

Charade? For real?

I like clarinet solos.

If this collection was ever released that would make two albums I'd have to skip "Charade" on.

whatever, you probably don't like benny goodman either

it did occur to me reading this thread that the osmonds literally rock harder than the bee gees. that's pretty impressive.