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

My bad - i have no idea how these listening threads work... someone mentioned "One Minute Woman" already, but there was no mention of "Holiday".

They're not exactly short of Beatleseque tracks.

"Holiday" was posted on Saturday
xp

Missed it too, great song, great non-ovine vocal from Robin too.

Ah, so it's a track a day. Got it.
(i'll save my Taxman/Doctor Robert comparisons for tomorrow)

I can skip tracks on weekends, if ppl aren't around as much

I almost missed this! Yay! Bookmarking so I can join in. Thanks for starting this up Shakey... we are in for QUITE a journey I think! :D

I missed the start of this as well. Cool idea – tho maybe we should name the song explicitly? Esp. since the song titles don’t show up if using the app and they’re embedded in videos.

Anyway...

Turn of the Century – not much I have to add to Οὖτις’s take on this.

Holiday –

Who knows what this song is about, really. Beautifully eerie.

Great thread. I don't expect to add much but will listen with pleasure.

yeah sorry, I will add the songtitles in posts from now on!

so.

much.

harischord

harpsichord, even

I dunno what it is about 60s psych, did every studio in the world just have one just sitting around from classical sessions from 20 years ago?

maybe because studio system esp in the UK was still v stodgy & classical music obsessed?

like “we dont have any “guitars” but have a fool around with these french horns, they’re loads of fun”

either that or Nicky Hopkins just carted one around everywhere with him

lol

these early tracks def have the psych sound & fine musically but god they reallt are hilariously devoid of any irreverence or fun or lyrical, well, anything.

Like I can’t really imagine anyone listening to these songs for enjoyment, except like weird wealthy aristocrats who were legit longing for hoop skirts & harpsichords & felt this all spoke to them on a deep level idk.

oh I think a bit of fun/comedy will start poking through in a few songs. They are a very odd band though, in terms of the attitudes they convey - like, they want to go for the three-hanky weepiness (esp Robin) ref'd upthread, just get really maudlin and melodramatic, but then they are just as apt to go in for clownishly clumsy goofs on the next track. I'm not sure if they were just really comfortable with being ridiculous and/or totally oblivious to how ridiculous they could be. Either way, what they do works.

But, I mean, look at that inner sleeve for Cucumber Castle, they were clearly goofing around with that, while at the same time, the album includes some of the most earnestly emotive self-pity Barry would ever deliver ("Bury me, down by the river"... or I suppose "Barry, me, down by the river" lol).

and then sometimes in their psych period the sad stuff gets pushed to the absolute limit, the tragedy assumes comic proportions on more than one occasion, so it can be both genuinely moving AND hilarious depending on how you approach it, I suppose.

Yeah definitely. I think a lot of it prob comes down to just youth & self-consciousness & learning their creative/musical personality through the early studio process

yeah. they're also learning a lesson which would stand them in good stead for decades, which is adapt to whatever the musical climate of the moment is. they were v v skilled at quickly grasping what other musicians were doing and adapting it to their own purposes.

I really like the song Cucumber Castle

popping in to say that when i was a teen, there was a local group who covered "holiday" and (obviously as a teen in the early 90s) had no idea it was a cover
i have searched for evidence of this and found nothing but it was a synthy upbeat version.

that sounds like a terrible idea lol

I really liked the Nappy Roots song that sampled Holiday.

i have been texting with friends about it -- i know it existed -- but no record of it that i can find. the group was called Piper Blue !?

i know i have it on a mix i taped off the radio but no idea which one

I don't know, a synthy PSB style version of "Holiday" could definitely work. It's worth reminding ourselves just how young they all were at this stage, Barry was 20 when he recorded this album, Robin and Maurice were 17. Seventeen.

the people who recorded this cover were about the same age -- definitely teens
i am on the trail...

thread title surprisingly otm!!

i would love to hear it if you find it!

My introduction to non-Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees was actually through a local musician's cover of "Holiday".

Also I'm very happy this thread is happening even though I will have nothing of substance to contribute and will be totally unable to keep up with it cool thanks

Astrud Gilberto did a cover of Holiday on her album September 17, 1969 (but honestly, it wasn't one of her finer moments -- she did this fast/slow/fast/slow arrangement of it which doesn't work that well)

In My Own Time – the previously-noted “Doctor Robert” groove and Harrysong lead vocal on this may be the most shameless thing they ever did (and that’s saying something). It’s pretty great tho and better than I remember. And holy shit, are these songs short.

Sorry to jump the line but I had a moment. Also, Shakey, you are absolutely killing it on this thread.

I have that Astrud Gilberto version on 45. I was hoping it would be a special 45 mix that was all fast, but it's the same as the LP version

Track No. 5: In My Own Time ("Bee Gees 1st", 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLzfjPkNaM8

As mentioned, uncanny in its Rubber Soul/Revolver-era Beatley-ness, esp with the rhythm section and the harmonies, which bear a striking resemblance to the close three-part harmonies McCartney, Lennon and Harrison perfected. If there's any element of the song that doesn't quite live up to its obvious inspiration its the guitar solo, which is serviceable but not nearly on the level of Harrison's melodicism and phrasing. Lyrically pretty straightforward in sentiment, but even then I dunno what that line about hot cross buns is about - another instance of the boys littering their songs with left-field imagery of a distinctly English bent. There's a relatively shitty audio clip of them doing this song live for the BBC and Robin's non-stop ad-libs behind Barry's lead vocal are pretty funny.

Native Teen Idol, did you mean to write “Harrison” where it says “Harrysong” in your post? I couldn’t make sense of it before Shakey’s post and it got me very confused because the only Harrysong I know is a present-day Nigerian Afropop singer. Or perhaps your autocorrect is Nigerian-inclined?

(Sorry about this slight derail. I’m following this thread with interest, even if I don’t expect to add much of relevance to the conversation for now)

p sure it was just a pun on George Harrison (who was fond of that kind of thing)

Okay, didn’t know “George Harrysong” was a thing - please proceed...

Rutleseque.

It was an unintentionally bastardized play on the name of his publishing company.

Quite like this one as Beatles pastiches go. Very pleasant! But oof the guitar solo really drags you back to reality huh

Track No. 6: Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You ("Bee Gees 1st", 1967)

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

What can you say about this monolith marvelousness? Often associated with similar soft-psych choral efforts by the Moody Blues, Vanilla Fudge, etc. but honestly I find this song kind of next-level compared to those in the way it see-saws between the creepy medieval chanting and the triumphant harmonies in the chorus, all underpinned by some lovely mellotron work from Maurice. Lyrically it's another hodgepodge of random historical referents and child-like nostalgia, delivered in their uniquely melancholy way. The gregorian chant bits are apparently all Robin, overdubbed.

Crazy in a good way.

the top comment on that video, and its reply, sum things up pretty well

goddamn this track is my favorite so far. mellotrons never sounded so good. love the intermittent tambourine accents in the chorus, jumping out on my crappy computer speakers.

my favorite so far as well, but oddly I think this album is actually very heavily backloaded. From here to the end is a remarkably solid run

The gregorian chant bits are apparently all Robin, overdubbed.

yeah I think the previous tracks are all good and fine but this one does raise the bar a bit

Ok that was dope. LOVE!!

Re. their songs about getting laid too much, it’s interesting that Barry has been happily married to the same woman for, like, 50 years.

Good call on “Country Lanes” having an Eric Carmen vibe.

And yeah, I agree that Main Course feels a lot more similar to the previous records than it seemed – the second side in particular is really a throwback to the 70-74 grab bag era once they got their disco out of the way. As a result, the disco records feel like less of a slog – like what they really needed was some tempos variation!

On to Children of the World ...

That being said, even with Barry firmly in the lead, it's worth noting that song credits on their disco era albums are all almost uniformly split between the three brothers, possibly an act of solidarity on Barry's part that was both smart and generous.

In terms of songwriting credits, I remember reading that Robin in particular was good at coming up with memorable lyrics at the spur of the moment, even if a given song had its genesis with Barry.

I also remember Blue Weaver complaining that a song where he composed the chords that Barry sang a finished lyric over came out credited Gibb/Gibb/Gibb.

He doesn’t get a credit on “How Deep Is Your Love” notwithstanding the fact that he and Barry both remember writing the song the same way.

By the time To Whom It May Concern reaches “Please Don’t Turn Out the Lights” and “Sea of Smiling Faces" I realize how much more I enjoy listening to this record than anything since Odessa (other than the Robin albums, each of which leaves 2 Years On and Trafalgar in the dust in terms of consistency). It’s clearly a (the?) highlight of their post-reunion/pre-disco records.

I get the feeling that "To Whom It May Concern" is sometimes considered the nadir of their 1970-74 period (by those lucky people who might not be aware "Life in a Tin Can" even exists), the title has such an air of desperation about it, but I agree it's actually pretty enjoyable. "Trafalgar" is something ridiculous like 48 minutes long and if you lopped off about 15 minutes it would be a really good album. "Mr. Natural" is clearly the best post-reunion/pre-disco album.

A few more thoughts re. the disco years ...

Blue Weaver is kind of the secret weapon of this era. He clearly was paying close attention to Stevie Wonder and Cecil/Margouleff programming on stuff like “Lovers” and “Children of the World” with all that floaty melodic polyphonic stuff. But he’s also clearly the engine behind a lot of these arrangements other than the horns. Great Rhodes and piano parts everywhere. Even as late as Spirits of the World, he’s adding synth riffs and textures.

“Boogie Child” really is a kick – it takes Bowie’s “Fame” riff and actually does something with it. All in all, I think Children of the World might be their best from this period.

Lastly, re. “Country Lanes,” I listened to that song about 7x in the car just now. There’s something incredibly moving about that chorus as it builds and builds, with Robin melodramatically proclaiming he’ll never “belong” to anyone again. Hits me right there as well, Tom (tho why is it “in” country lanes instead of “on”?). Makes me feel like writing some of those gloppy YouTube comments mentioned upthread.

Has no-one pointed that the narrator of "I Started a Joke", be it Adolf Hitler or whoever, actually dies in the course of the song?

― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.), Friday, 8 March 2019 16:39 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

wracking my brain for whether or not that's unique in their catalog - it might not be!

― Οὖτις, Friday, 8 March 2019 16:48 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

It isn't. Robin (who else?) also dies in his solo track, "One Million Years" - although the first line in the song is actually "I'm dead" he later tells us "I passed away". It's like Sam Beckett but managed by Robert Stigwood. He also claims he dies in "Saved By the Bell" but that's a bit more ambiguous.

"i started a joke", same energy same voice:

In the past, I have fallen for this trick over 100 times. I've suffered professionally and mentally as a result. Their tactics are ruthless.

— wint (@dril) December 6, 2021

Okay

i regret having fallen off of this thread early, after a binge-y catchup on the first two albums. but that experience absolutely stuck with me, 'cause i've recently ended up acquiring copies of both records! i've really been loving the time spent with Bee Gees' 1st this week. it's an odd duck in that it's definitely greater than the sum of its parts, but also really oddly sequenced... even several listens in, i keep expecting something to be a side-ender and then there's two more songs after it. why on earth is "Please Read Me" not the album closer?? that would be great.

but it's really enjoyable as this charming and sometimes brilliantly hooky exemplar of slightly trippy 1968 pop-rock, tremendously influenced by both Pet Sounds and the Beatles' last few releases, but without the rockin' instrumental deftness of George and Ringo, or the harmonies and more directly emotional/confessional lyrics of Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. the combination actually does work, mainly because of the really distinct and committed (if sometimes mildly affected) vocals. and the songs are more varied and interesting than pretty much any other up-and-coming bubblegum psych act i've heard. like, i have a longstanding fondness for the Lemon Pipers' Green Tambourine, and this is a way way better record than that. i would guess that the Brooklyn Bridge's debut album is probably in a similar vein but i remember trying it out once and it was just a dreary chore. etc.

most especially "to love somebody" has risen tremendously in my estimation over the past ~4 years, i now think of it as an obvious towering classic of the genre. you can easily imagine that chorus as a fondly-remembered garage-rock hit by an otherwise unknown band, but the strings and vocals are so unmistakably part of this unique Bee Gee fusion. it really packs a wallop!

"Birdie Told Me" has been stuck in my head for days, I'm slowly losing all grip on reality