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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSs3R07d4Zo

sorry, not sure what happened there

Track No. 29: Horizontal ("Horizontal", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjwPJ1x9LIA

The mellotron, harmonies and dreamy childlike nonsense return on the title track, ending the album on a hypnotic, droning note. With no crap drums or inept guitar fiddling to muddle things up, the bros are left alone play to their strengths.

I have been lying under a pillow of dreams
And feeling moments of swimming in cream
This is the start of the end, Goodbye
Hours of facing my life, have damned

You are a good friend
Friendly as goood friends can be
Your father wants you to live on his knee
This is the start of the end, climb by me
Red sides and blue sides within, remind me

I have been lying under a pillow of dreams
And feeling moments of swimming in cream
This is the start of the end, Goodbye
Hours of facing my life, have damned.

Total gibberish, the song is very nice though.

Track No. 30: Words (non-album single, 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr-WW5abcwQ

Why this was left off the album is absolutely baffling. A beauty of a Barry-led ballad, it quickly became a solo-turn staple of their live sets, and was subsequently covered by all kinds of people (perhaps most memorably in Elvis' "That's the Way it Is"). The super-compressed piano sound on the track would become a regular feature of their sound for years to come. Robin, oddly, is not on the track at all.

this feels like their second entry into canonical "standards", it's been covered so often by so many - and only two years into their career!

anyway, onto the B-side, which also should've replaced one of the weaker tracks on the LP imo

Track No. 31: Sinking Ships ("Words" B-side, 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjyaS6n-HQ

Absolutely love this track, and an unusual song for them in that all three brothers take turns on the lead, see if you can pick out which one is Maurice. Structure is simple but the melody is great and the lyrics are goofily apocalyptic.

Sinking ships,
watching them sail and the sun as sinks in the sea.
Crashing planes,
only the eyes of the doomed with a smile on their face.

So I say to myself Is it real?
So I look inside myself.
Can I feel?

Coloured cups,
windows that slide up and down with a squeak in the side.
Funny day,
banging the door to a close as it's hurting my knee

just a loenly guy listening to the Bee Gees
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse3.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.cqAxocDyWmfwf_7k5gr9BQAAAA%26pid%3D15.1&f=1

Maurice sounds like Barry, but a bit less forceful and confident? Never heard this song before!

you don't have the massive reissues of these albums?! so many great non-album tracks, esp for this one. There's a couple more coming up that were released as a single.

Track No. 32: Jumbo (Non-album single, 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvGQkxLEKL8

The single that broke their original string of transatlantic hits, which is kind of understandable since it doesn't really have a hook, just a long meandering melody broken by a half-time turnaround. The song doesn't feature Robin at all and is clearly a Barry-led effort, although unsurprisingly it's Maurice that seems to have made the most noteworthy musical contributions with the mellotron and the bassline. Melouney and Petersen both characteristically fumble about. All that being said I do like the tune overall - Barry's voice carries it along, and the string of lyrical nonsense at the end is charmingly goofy. Again this is another non-album track that I think is generally superior to some of the weaker tracks on "Horizontal", and that goes double for it's B-side (which Stigwood, correctly imo, wanted as the A-side), which we will get to tomorrow.

Listen you can chew it if it's loud enough you hear it 'cos it's narrow as a sparrow and it shoots a bow and arrow through a target made of powder with a gun it's even louder and it's shattering to hear you mustn't listen with your ear but it gets to you

well everybody got tired of this faster than I would have hoped :(

Some of us are still quietly listening along. And absorbing mostly unfamiliar tracks, in my case. "Sinking Ships" is pretty great.

After three listens I'm really not grasping how "Jumbo" became a single. Not that it's unpleasant.

I don't know "Jumbo", but it's not very good, it's a terrible choice for a single. The bit at the end is a bit "I Am the Walrus" - yes, once again, I am claiming Barry Gibb was channelling John Lennon.

I look forward to your dissertation on how Jive Talkin' is a rip of Whatever Gets You Through the Night

Still on the catchup!

LEMONS NEVER FORGET - Okay, this album's finding its footing for me. Opening seconds remind me a bit of "Dear Boy" but the vocal is closer to Lennon. The efforts to work up some tension and heat are mixed - the action under/after "an apple is a fool but lemons never do forget" is cool, but elsewhere the instrumental weaknesses of the band are apparent as this never quite gets as dense and mean as it seems to want to. All the "you've got to.." s make me think of "Season of the Witch."

REALLY AND SINCERELY: Pretty and aimless. Nice lead vocal, some nice stuff in the mix (acoustic strumming plus whatever the drone is - accordion?), strings are excessive, composition is unremarkable. I feel like a lot of these are ending with unresolved fadeouts.

BIRDIE TOLD ME: This is kinda cool! Again the strings seem a little overmuch for a campfire jam but it's some kind of a sound I guess. Again feels a bit like the lighter stuff on Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. But with more Lennon to the vocals and intermittently someone racing into the studio, rearranging the notes to Harrison's "In My Life" riff on lead guitar, and then politely exiting, like Michael McDonald in the SCTV sketch. The song is the most song-like of the album so far, though some of the transitions still sound a little like someone making it up as they go. The "hopeless to say" refrain is good and catchy (god, that drummer just bonking away underneath).

WITH THE SUN IN MY EYES: More soundtrack for soft-focus lovers wandering through tall grass and wearing the "hippie-inspired" collection from Sears. There's some Donovan here again, but more the Byron-esque nature poet stuff.

I dunno, I still feel like this is a band in search of an identity, or just not yet fully embracing their strengths which are in the airy harmonies and the songcraft (when they apply themselves for the singles). When they're just trying to have a robust setlist covering the contemporary bases, they end up with derivative period pieces. Which isn't that out of the ordinary for a random 60s band, and also why there's an interest in deep-diving on non-canonical albums from the "singles plus filler" era of pop-rock.

ha, I fear i'm succumbing to trainspotting influences more than anyone. not a super useful form of criticism I admit. it's just like, when the next track hits and it's something really fully-formed like "massachusetts" then whatever the influences are, it feels more like an original and robust synthesis and it doesn't matter as much. a lot of the other stuff is underwritten filler (to my tin ears) and I have less to say. overall so far I think this album is more filler-y and less interesting than the last one, but maybe it again picks up in the second half....

"Jumbo!" - now we're talking. The light out of the darkness shines in the distance and that light is....ODESSA

Track No. 33: The Singer Sang His Song ("Jumbo" b-side, 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMqSlHc2-xQ

Stigwood was right that this should have been the A-side. When it comes to sweeping orchestral balladry, Robin consistently delivers the aural equivalent of being swathed in luxuriant layers of crushed velvet, and this tune is no exception. While this chunk of their catalog is often compared to contemporaries like the Moody Blues, to my ears the combo of super-compressed piano, rich bass tones, and shimmering acoustic guitar overlaid with rich symphonic orchestration is where they begin to really occupy some unique musical territory. And each piece of the arrangement slots together perfectly - Robin's quavering sad-sack narrative, the piping flutes echoing the lyric, the despondent descending melody of the refrain, the chiming electric guitar chords (for once Melouney doesn't embarrass himself). The promo movie in the linked clip is also notable for its interracial couple angle - American television wouldn't get its first onscreen interracial kiss for another 8 months. Despite the video, it sounds to me like all the vocals on the track are Robin.

next up will be their third LP "Idea", for which this awesome TV special was shot:
https://youtu.be/62Vx6JOifyU

featuring some of the most somnolently hypnotic hand gestures ever

HARRY BRAFF: Very fun opening! I like them when there's something a little dissonant or annoying in the sound, even when it might be there just for the sake of that effect. Finally something a little more rockin', some close listening to Revolver and maybe Who/Kinks paying off in this more mod take on psychedelia (but there will be horns!!!). Below the surface the arrangement's a little muddy though - the trying-harder drummer and the enthusiastic strummer just don't feel locked into each other. I like the rhythmic surprise on the repeated "goodbye, Harry Braff" part. This might be my favorite new-to-me song that's come up so far... once again, the influences are all right there to be heard.

DAY TIME GIRL: Are they just consistently alternating rockers with odes? A bit wearying. Feels like Robin (that's Robin, right?) trying to do "She's Leaving Home" which I'm okay with in principle but certainly a risky move. The melody and the story are both a bit too indistinct for me. Could be a grower I imagine.

THE EARNEST OF BEING GEORGE: Okay now this is a nice rough garage groove. Oh ffs it's just John Lennon's 1964 delivery married to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with "Lucy" for the B section isn't it? I swear I don't mean for this to just be the Beatle influence checklist but WHO in 1967 would have heard this track and not immediately thought of those things? It's a cool sound and I'm down with there being more songs having it, but again it feels like a band not yet realizing what they, uniquely, bring to the table. Also good lord at that title.

THE CHANGE IS MADE: Dreary Eric Burdon soul with strings. Guitarist wants to show off his bluesy chops which at least gives this its own flavor. In another timeline he became Dave Gilmour.

HORIZONTAL: Hmmmm, I still think "World" would be a better album-closer but I can see what they were thinking with this one. I wish it went more places - right as it's wrapping up you feel like some big psychedelic train is about to come crashing in with crazy drums and backwards guitars and piles of vocals but instead it just trails off. As performance it's fine enough.

Yeah overall, apart from a few much more focused high points, this feels like a classic rushed album - band too busy and overbooked to really let the songs percolate. It's not a total void of ideas, the singing is still good and maybe improving, and "Massachusetts" is a killer, but the derivative performances and arrangements start to pile up. In a way it's just proving the old rock historiographical cliches - a whole host of not-yet-fully-formed bands really WERE floored by "Pepper" and spent some time flailing around or playing catchup.

as I said upthread what's really baffling to me is the quality material they left off the album - it's not like they were actually hurting for material
to wit (and I know I said I wasn't going to do this but these songs are *too* good imo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgLrZbGICS8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGAKDsnSe5Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LNmurdJsLI

and these are complete, fully formed productions! There is apparently even more that has yet to see the light of day

Are we doing Robin’s Reign, by the way? I remember liking it more than Cucumber Castle.

I was erring on the side of skipping it - not because it's not any good but because it's not released under the Bee Gees moniker

that album is nuts

is it? I mean, yeah it's p weird because Robin is p weird but it's about what you would expect a solo album from him to sound like at that time. I think both Robin's Reign and Cucumber Castle are generally lacking - they were better together.

but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves

I'm not familiar with a lot of these b-sides tbh, so "The Singer Sang His Song" is just a classic Robin track, melodically and arrangement-wise, it could almost have come from "Robin's Reign".

There is apparently even more that has yet to see the light of day

They were also churning out songs for other artists.

Gee, that Idea-era TV special is incredible. For the sets and endless zoom-outs alone.

Track No. 34: Let There Be Love ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Te0-gAYEyY

Opening their third international LP with neither a single nor the title track, the boys instead deliver this slice of pop decadence with all of their particular talents well in evidence. There are lots of great details in this track, from the background vocal warbling beneath the intro and outro to the the minor lift when the harmonies come in on "I am a man" and the way the song builds up to the lead vocal trade-off from Barry to Robin. The arrangement again relies on a particular sound they had become enamored of that I mentioned previously - the super-compressed piano/acoustic guitar/thumping bass overlaid with the full range of skillfully deployed orchestral accompaniment.

I guess they couldn't afford a copy editor for their Dutch singles releases

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/Let_There_Be_Love_%28Bee_Gees_song%29.jpg/220px-Let_There_Be_Love_%28Bee_Gees_song%29.jpg

lol

Track No. 35: Kitty Can ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q56X9fkkoyg

A bit of a throwback to their childhood folk-rock roots, a super-simple song structure with a great melody, harmonies and stripped down accompaniment. Oddly there is also a much more heavily orchestrated version with horns and strings and bells but I think they made the right choice in going for the simpler version. Lyrically we get a "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" variant that's pretty conventional but serviceable. Really this is about the boys' vocal and melodic prowess, which shines through.

apparently their first song done on 8-track!

Feel like we’re moving away from the really egregious lyrics like “And now I’ve found that the world is round.” And that the music is getting better.

don't worry there are plenty of egregious lyrics to come, I don't think they ever entirely escape it

Maybe not as bad as that one, though, or “lemons never forget.”

I wouldn't be sure about that, they were still writing the occasional howler well into the 70s.

yeah I can think of literally dozens of examples

someone crown the clown with the red balloon

love is thicker than water

how can you tell humans are real?

I think the musical context is significant here, though. Was trying to get at it with an earlier post here about Horizontal. There’s a reason why “Saved by the bell on your own carousel” works better for me. It’s that The Bee Gees developed a kind of musical surrealism that is post-psychedelic. It’s not there yet on Horizontal. When their music gets better, that’s when I think it starts to click. We’ll hear it here for sure with “Kilburn Towet,”

tower

Track No. 36: In the Summer of His Years ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XD465oP-ms

Robin takes his first turn at the spotlight, leaning on their aforementioned symphonic formula to deliver a mournful paean to lost youth. The arrangement does all the heavy lifting here, supporting a fairly simple song structure that just follows the lone vocal melody line. It doesn't really go anywhere or have a hook per se but at least it doesn't over-stay it's welcome, and the production is suitably luscious, swirling harps and trilling flutes and all.

this is probably the weakest of the ballads on the album tbh, the others are all top tier

Again this is very much in Robin's signature late 60s style, very like his solo material. It's nice.

Believe this song is about Brian Epstein.

Hmm timeline would kinda check out, this was recorded around the time he died