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

that one's pretty good! lol @ those slide guitar zips in the chorus. dope drum break too.

just listened to the Burritos one, that's p good too, although my favorite thing about it (not surprisingly) is the pedal steel (Sneaky Pete Kleinow?)

Track No. 13: Please Read Me ("Bee Gees 1st", 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYAKcOfg9tU

This is like the vocal showcase tune of the album, indulging in some "Nowhere Man"-style multi-tracked harmonies with a bit of the Beach Boys thrown in on the wordless verse, to my ears.

the harmonies are gorgeous. i usually love '60 tambourines that are mixed a little too loud but this one annoys me for some reason. is he talking to his shrink?

Ha, thats an interesting take

This one hadn't made an impression on me before, but yes, some really nice vocal parts.

The little slide guitar interjections are great too. This might be even my favourite of the deeper cuts.

Ha yeah i was gonna mention those guitar bits. Melouney is generally kind of embarrassing and at best adequate on these tracks, but ocassionally he adds a nice touch as he does here.

Track No. 14: Close Another Door ("Bee Gees 1st", 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDJLlhEvUDE

Finishing up the album on a characteristically odd note with a tune that features three time changes, dropped beats, and lyrics that make no sense from one phrase to the next ("listen to my eyes"? who exactly is "too old to work" in this song?), but nonetheless delivers an evocative arrangement and their trademark harmonic and melodic strengths. Feel like the marching cadence and overwrought Robin vocal parts put this firmly in the toytown psych camp previously referenced.

Just catching up with this now, and it's been a great read so far. The debut is easily my second favourite '60s album of theirs after Odessa. I like Horizontal and Idea, but find 'em a little less consistent. Also, why not include E.S.P. as part of this thing? It was their last big success, with 'You Win Again' etc.

I saw a video of 'em being interviewed circa '87 where Barry looked fucked off as some radio stations were still refusing to play 'em in the US because of their strong association with disco.

yeah I know it was big but the 6-year gap (the longest in their recording history up to that point) made it "Living Eyes" seem more like a natural cutoff point, as the "end of an era". (I know there's also the "Staying Alive" sdtk but eh)

I agree that Horizontal and Idea are less consistent than 1st, we'll see if others concur shortly, I suppose

Track No. 15: Massachusetts(released as a single in 1967 prior to appearing on the "Horizontal" LP in 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3fCScu-yPQ

The group's first of five No. 1 hits in the UK, issued as a single in the winter of 1967 ahead of the release of "Horizontal" in the following February. A beautiful orchestral arrangement backing a classic Robin lead with thick and gooey harmonies on the refrain, the song is a homesick ode for an American city the band had never been to but liked the name of. Written as a response track to the many songs then in vogue about going to San Francisco, the boys wonder gee what if you got to San Francisco and really just wished you were back home in Massachusetts?

Incidentally, the day it went to number one, Robin survived the Hither Green Rail Crash.

There's very little I could say about 'Massachusetts' what hasn't already been said - it's an absolute classic. There's a performance they did of this on Parkinson in the '80s, just them singing and Barry and Maurice playing acoustic and they could just pull off those gorgeous harmonies so effortlessly.

I do like that they never shied away from doing their 60s material live, they knew those songs were hits for a reason, and even in the disco era would still pull them out

I agree, I think that was a good attitude for them to have. You don't always find that with artists that have had different "phases" of their career.

Also gave Robin the chance to do some lead vocals.

ode for an American city
City?

Yeah, one could be forgiven for thinking that Barry was the one calling all the shots - especially in the disco era - but christ was there some serious creative/personal tension between Barry and Robin for a long time. I remember being quite tickled when I found out that the geekiest looking member of the Bee Gees - the one who sang all those ballads with that unique, trembling voice - was actually one difficult, firey little bastard.

Sorry, state! Duh

Xp

A sorry state indeed.

christ was there some serious creative/personal tension between Barry and Robin for a long time.

It's been several years since I watched the In Our Own Time documentary but I have been continually haunted by one particular exchange, where Robin is trying to explain the ethos of the group in the early days, and ends with:

Robin: A good time to us was actually being in the studio.
Barry (swooping in and setting the record straight): A good time to us was a good woman.

So happy some weirdo recorded it off his TV with his phone because the delivery (and the weird muttered exchange between the two of them a few seconds later) is crucial:
https://youtu.be/gIsXKiMG1zU?t=367

"The idea of women crept into our lives. Up to that point, women had not." <----now THIS I can believe

Track No. 16: Barker of the UFO (UK b-side to "Massachusetts" single, 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIiAcEj6hA

A bit of fluffy tinker-toy psych with strings and xylophone (?), puts me in mind of similar LP cuts from the Hollies. No idea what this is about, the lyrics are particularly inscrutably child-like, not sure if they're singing about some guy who stands outside the Club UFO corralling patrons or someone who barks at unidentified flying objects or what. As usual, some nice harmonies.

I'm endeavoring to go chronologically here through official releases, so I'm including non-album singles (and any non-album B-sides as well. No reissue/outtakes though). Oddly, in this particular period (post-1st) I think their non-album tracks were often better than what eventually made it onto "Horizontal".

The title makes me think it's some sort of play on Barker of the FO (i.e. the Foreign Office) and the UFO Club, the words are gobbledygook though. I do like this song, and this kind of nonsense psychedelia in general.

is Barker of the Foreign Office some kind of offical position?

No, it sounds like a character in a Boulting Brothers movie.

If only I could join all the dots in my head I'd be clever...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton-Browne_of_the_F.O.

Part of the appeal of the first album for me is that it's the Bee Gees as a band plus maybe some overdubs. On records from the period where the band is replaced by an outside arrangement, I'm not always convinced about the music's basis in the modernity and experimentalism of the time. With, say, "Eleanor Rigby" or "Within You Without You," I'm convinced. Likewise am convinced by the orchestral stuff on Odessa.

i could hear the who doing this. and not just because of the tuba.

Track No. 17: Sir Geoffrey Saved the World (US b-side to "Massachusetts" single, 1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyxmrRhwqI

A descending sing-song melody wrapped around a bunch of frilly-cuffed psych nonsense, with a few tasteful bells and whistles in the arrangement thrown in. Like a dreamier "Penny Lane" or Ray Davies throwaway, evocative of a very specific kind of British nostalgia.

Pretty vocal by Robin on this one!

lol the psych blog Marmalade Skies ranked this the #2 greatest toytown psych song ever

It is good. Melody's somehow familiar.

Maybe the glitch in the video just tricks your brain into a feeling of deja vu?
I agree though. The first time I heard it, it already sounded familiar... maybe the aforementioned "Penny Lane" similarities.

Track No. 19: World (Released as a single in December 1967, prior to inclusion on "Horizontal", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaDmKAJHAss

The second single released ahead of the album. A good melody and arrangement, but the repetition of the refrain gets tiresome. In addition, this is the first of many tracks on the LP where you can detect a division of duties between the two ostensible lead vocalists in the band - subsequent tracks will often feature only solo vocals by Barry or Robin, with no deployment of the band's undeniably greatest strengths, their harmonies. Here they do a kind of Righteous Brothers-split on the lead, with Barry singing the first two-thirds and Robin the latter third but honestly I dunno that that really brings anything to the song. Melouney (for once) gets off some passable licks in the background, before reverting to just playing the melody behind the vocal. Not among their best efforts imo.

A good melody and arrangement, but the repetition of the refrain gets tiresome.

OTM.

no idea what compelled them to issue this as a single and place it as the lead-off song on the album

Not to derail this thread, and I've been debating whether to share them, but I've been doing vocoder versions of one song from each album we go over (as part of my "Sad Robot Covers") -- and yeah, that was the challenge I had with this one: the refrain is kind of monotonous. That said, I really like the B-section of this -- there's a really longing quality that makes the song work for me.

There's very little I could say about 'Massachusetts' what hasn't already been said - it's an absolute classic. There's a performance they did of this on Parkinson in the '80s, just them singing and Barry and Maurice playing acoustic and they could just pull off those gorgeous harmonies so effortlessly.

Catching up a bit ... agreed, this is a great performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlkchsloKZA

I dunno, there's something about "World" that, for me, makes it the perfect lead-off song on the album. Just the weird structure of it, it feels like a statement of purpose to place it as the first song on the second album, like just letting you know that this band's sound is going to keep moving and changing. The opening line is like, our first album was a success and we've been out in the world and now we're back to share the great wisdom that we've acquired, but they're these weird fucking alien people so you get this sub-stoner nonsense...and then they immediately launch into the second section of the song, letting that line hang there in such a way that you know they meant it to be profound.

This band is so dumb and I love them so much.

Melody's somehow familiar.

... the melody of "Sir Geoffrey Saved the World", that is. I don't think this is why but nonetheless...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWQMMPFtoG4

Track No. 20: And the Sun Will Shine ("Horizontal", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9eX5Odeog

Robin delivers a beautiful solo vocal, reportedly done in one take with some of the words improvised on the spot (which, tbh and in the context of their other material at the time, is not particularly apparent. these lyrics are pretty good actually!)

Classic Robin, the oldest and gloomiest 18 year old in Swinging Sixties London.

haha yes

it's interesting to me how this song is *all* melody. Everything in the arrangement, the fluctuations in tempo and time signature, the little call-and-response countermelodies, are built around this one solo lead vocal.

classic staging on this TV performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7xi7kl4RVY

^^ Smothers Brothers, apparently

Track No. 21: Lemons Never Forget ("Horizontal", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piB7d85G4CY

This one feels like rather unique territory. Or, put another way, I can't quite make out who they were trying to sound like here - it's a little Lennon-esque (psych fruit song!), but not overly so. The numerous rhythmic shifts are built around the pounding piano, with the drums never playing a straight beat for more than a few bars at a time, and the fuzz guitar hiccupping along in the background. The lyric is again impenetrable nonsense, hung around some kind of fruit metaphor and apparently meant as some kind of warning or admonishment...? Who knows! Held together by a solid melody, but again lacking their distinctive harmonies (although I think I detect Robin singing a low harmony on the bridges, buried in the mix). A solid, perplexing little bauble of a song imo.

I really like this one. It may be nonsense, but opening the verses with "incidentally...", as though we're resuming a conversation, is immensely pleasing somehow. Horizontal is quite good so far!