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

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!!

Track No. 7: Craise Finton Kirk ("Bee Gees 1st", 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sudd9Sv2Bgg

The bros take a detour from Beatleburg into Kinkdom territory, and get a little lost. Melodically it's as strong as anything else they were coming up with at the time, and the minimal arrangement of just piano + vocals do give it the feel of a quaint tea-time parlor performance. But as a character sketch it's pretty flat and semi-incoherent. Robin and Barry *could* tell a story and etch in memorable details, but this song doesn't really do it. I have no idea what the listener is supposed to glean about this character - he's an impenetrable square? He goes to work, but then nobody knows where he is? How does that work? Is Craise even an actual first name that, like, real people had? It's like they thought up a funny name about a guy on the street and then just strung some random sentences together. I still find it charming in its goofiness, but "Mr. Pleasant" or "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" or "Well Respected Man" it is not.

He smiled and rubbed the stubble on his chin
He sure shall find the weariness and dreariness of life that's growing thin
Yet he didn't have so very far to go
With a pencil in his hand he will travel on as planned
With a mere step in the mountain to a light

Craise Finton Kirk, see him go, on his way
Oh they don't know where he is
Very very nice, very very nice

Even in the morning when he slept
Something odd is missing
There's nothing very much to talk about
And nothing very much to see

Craise Finton Kirk, see him go, on his way
oh they don't know where he is
Very very nice, very very nice

Talks about the place he'd like to go
And you never see the worrying and hurrying and that makes a person slow
Yet you wouldn't think he'd be so hard to find
Yet he looks so very busy but there's nothing on his mind
And his wavy hair continues not to grow

Craise Finton Kirk, see him go, on his way
oh they don't know where he is
Very very nice, very very nice

Craise Finton Kirk, see him go, on his way
Oh they don't know where he is
Very very nice, very very nice

A neural network trained on Ray Davies

lol

why doesn't his hair grow? is he dead?

Track No. 8: New York Mining Disaster 1941 ("Bee Gees 1st", 1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S43YhQ_eGTw

the first of many indisputably classic hit singles, which is kinda odd when you consider what a bizarre song this is with it's stop-start performances, choppy backing arrangement with various orchestral elements dipping in and out with countermelodies, and it's oblique and kinda dark story-in-song lyrics. None of those are knocks against it, obviously, just that it's not an obvious hit by any means. But it *does* have that unique mix in place, even at this early stage, of the bros biggest selling points - the mixture of melancholy and longing, strong melodies shifting from minor to major and bolstered by perfect harmonies, and a keen air for how to get the most out of the studio. Alternate versions (like the one with the boys singing all the orchestral backing parts) are also p great.

At least the song title screams out "hit single" tho.

so does Maurice's jacket in the video

Barry and Robin Gibb wrote the song when they were sitting on a darkened staircase at Polydor Records following a power cut. The echo of the passing lift inspired them to imagine that they were trapped in a mine. According to the liner notes for their box-set Tales from the Brothers Gibb (1990), this song was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster in Wales.

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