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

In the vein of Pink Floyd's "Corporal Clegg" or the Kinks' "Tin Soldier Man"...

... Bowie, "The Little Bombardier"... Idle Race, "(Don't Put Your Boys In The Army) Mrs. Ward"...

glad this thread is back, i've missed it

Track No. 43: I Started a Joke ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyS34v09zso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vo5M-CdNd8

What to say about this song? Ostensibly Robin's first real masterpiece, it's so good I had to post two videos, one from the Idea TV special and another live rendition from the same year. It's concise construction is a marvel, from the opening descending bass run and Melouney's delicate filigrees over one of the most common chord progressions in Western music through to Robin's quavering melody and the gradual introduction of orchestral elements in the bridge, which is where the song really takes off and becomes something unique. For all their Beatle-isms (and you can definitely hear echoes of McCartney in Maurice's bass part), here the band is doing something the Beatles never really bothered with: the pop song as operatic tragedy. The chamber pop trappings and Robin's vibrato are key to putting over the self-pity at the song's core, where one's personal failings and disasters are blown up into world-shattering proportions. I like to think of it as being sung from the point of view of Adolf Hitler.

I love it. Robin sings as if he construed the title as "I Am the Joke."

I passively absorbed this song during childhood (this was apparently their first number #1 single in Aus) but it took Low's cover, maybe twenty years ago, for me to reinvestigate the original and the Bee Gees generally. I barely remember that cover now but I was suddenly all "OMG, what's going on in those lyrics!?"

I still like the idea that this song is sung from Lucifer's perspective.

or yeah, Hitler works too. but the Devil is less icky

Track No. 44: Kilburn Towers ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8n8S4HsArI

A lovely little deep cut, and a primarily Barry-led effort that dips into a kind of breathy bossa nova territory that is maybe best described as "dreamy". The combination of Maurice's mellotron flute, Barry's multi-layered 12-string guitars, and some tasteful accompaniment from Melouney and Petersen (contributing some clean guitar lines and bongos, respectively) make this something of an outlier in their catalog to-date. Lyrically it sounds like Barry was getting drunk in his penthouse apartment and wistfully wondering what it would be like to be a pigeon or a sidewalk. In an odd way, I feel like this melody and its breathy delivery are very much of a piece with their mid-70s output - with a slightly different instrumental arrangement I can imagine it sitting nicely next to the other songs on Mr. Natural or Trafalgar.

Love "Kilburn Towers". 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?

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

Song rules. I love that stretch where the lead guitar and the strings are playing the melody together.

kilburn towers is one of the few i knew before this thread started, probably tipped to it on ilx, fucking amazing song

Track No. 45: Swan Song ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1NrPRui87A

Actually the last song recorded for "Horizontal" and in the running for a single release but ultimately passed over in favor of "Words", which - to be honest - this bears more than a passing resemblance to. The overall structures and arrangement are similar, Barry latching onto a winding melody which then just repeats throughout with embellishments and variations from the orchestra. One of several songs with a theme of escape/things ending, possibly presaging further internal tensions with "Odessa" and the subsequent breakup. Overall I find this song just okay - the melody is serviceable - but nothing special, a bit formulaic at this point.

and that's it for "Idea"! We'll cover one more classic non-album single tomorrow before moving on to "Odessa"

Definitely see the resemblance to 'Words' now that you mention it.

I'm pretty impressed by Idea. Might be their most satifying collection of pop songs to this point, which is not really the impression I was left with when I skimmed through early deep cuts in the distant past. Hurray for deeper listening!

From here on it's almost completely alien territory for me...

Track No. 46: I've Gotta Get a Message to You (, 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j17DUw20law

While there were morbid undertones aplenty in British psychedelia, I don't think anyone ventured so consistently for inspiration into the graveyard of gothic melodrama as Robin Gibb. Here a man on death row (possibly for the murder of a rival for his love's affection?) contemplates his last wishes, full of regret and longing while staring into the abyss of his welcoming grave. Barry and Robin trade off on the lead, underpinned by some Gregorian chant-like harmonies on the refrain, and the arrangement makes great use of (again) Maurice's mellotron and the super-compressed piano sound they were so enamored of. Orchestral flourishes and a key change towards the end nicely echo the narrator's growing desperation. This was their first US Top 10 hit(!) and their second UK #1, and taken together with "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and "I Started a Joke" it's clear they were carving out a bit of an ouevre in the doom pop department.

didn't realize above was a fully live version (sounds like Maurice is covering some of the orchestral bits on organ?!)
here's the studio version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKzF6TgiIKU

Track No. 47: Odessa ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zPjBiN1GJ0

And at last we come to both the apex and terminus of the band's flowery psych period. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the album was considered both a commercial and critical failure at the time, a judgment which has of course been largely reversed in posterity. This titular opening track continues Robin's trajectory as the writer with the most consistent, fully-formed aesthetic - an aesthetic that both gets them farther away from the Beatle-isms and pushes them into relatively unique and uncharted territory. Here we get the Bee Gees version of a "pocket symphony", complete with a noisy intro, an overture, two verses interspersed with choruses that slow down the tempo, and a coda, all wrapped around a 19th century romantic tragedy maritime narrative. Lyrically the overall picture is a bit unclear but it is filled with compelling imagery - the shipwreck, the lonely surviving sailor carving an iceberg, the abandoned (and perhaps unfaithful?) wife. Geographically it's a mess and it is not at all clear what exactly connects Finland, Odessa and England in the story, but whatever. The arrangement is thick and lush, anchored by an acoustic guitar that provides the overall song structure, with Robin's voice swimming through what I can only assume is the deepest echo chamber in the UK at the time. A beautifully weird song.

This song is completely insane.

I came here just to say that.

I have to say the first time I heard this album, and this song in particular, I just did not get it. Mostly because I was expecting something else more in line with other British psych opuses of the time that tended to be more electric guitar and r&b derived. But this was just too weird and mannered and wimpy.

I came around, to say the least.

It's a weird wonder, and listening to it for the first time inspired Gibb list last year.

To its credit, it still sounds mannered and wimpy.

finally a record I actually own! will give side 1 a spin this evening

I might skip the instrumentals on this tbh. They always seem like the equivalent of side 2 of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack to me.

and I don't think any of them feature a Bee Gee except for Maurice's piano on one of them

yeah, i'd say go ahead and skip whatever you feel would be best to skip. there's always time to come back around to the missed stuff later!

the first bee gees song i got into was "every christian lion-hearted man will show you". the second was "odessa". mostly i think it's that i sort of have a thing for the mellotron...

robin's greatest, i think

The instrumentals are crucial to the album imo

since I assume we're not going to talk about it itt, just wanted to mention that something from Robin's Reign should really be used in a horror soundtrack at some point. maybe that new Ari Aster joint could make it happen.

Odessa - album that deserves a 33 1/3 book?

The picture in the gatefold...

robin's greatest, i think

"Black Diamond" coming up, though.

"Lamplight" kills, too

weird and mannered and wimpy

Ladies and gentlemen, Robin Gibb *applause*

Robin was tough, you gotta be to sing "Black Diamond" the way he does.

Track No. 48: You'll Never See My Face Again ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFQ5yndB8WY

Barry delivers an uncharacteristically bitter broadside. The incongruity of the instrumentation and vocal delivery to the lyrical sentiment tends to make certain lines leap out ("it makes me laugh/you've got no friends", for example). I don't think any of the Bee Gees were particularly suited to conveying anger via song. That being said, there's lots of nice countermelodies in the orchestration, and for such a rich production the arrangement doesn't feel fussy or cluttered - just Barry, some multi-tracked 12-strings, and the orchestra, Melouney and Pedersen thankfully absent. The opening of this song always makes me mix it up with "Sinking Ships" from Horizontal.

just Barry, some multi-tracked 12-strings, and the orchestra

I like that for this era of the Bee Gees, this actually counts as "stripped down"

haha yeah

for half a second I considered making an argument that this album isn't so much their "Sgt Pepper" (as is sometimes claimed) as much as it is their White Album

double album, band is starting to seriously fray, a bunch of weird genre exercises

member quits halfway through, goofy country song, iconic sleeve design

no massive avant-garde noize jam tho

member quits halfway through

I wish this literally happened with band splits, like one member just drops out of the mix at a certain point on the album

Notorious Gibb Brothers

Straight up beautiful song.

This may be the instant at which they unknowingly invented The Clientele.

Track No. 49: Black Diamond ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHgAHcD_r9w

The gradual build in the arrangement is beautifully done here, from Robin's fully committed vibrato to the backing harmonies-as-orchestra on the verses to where the strings come in for the choruses. Very much of a piece with the title track, albeit here the similar tragic-lost-love narrative is much more compact and pop-oriented, with a great vocal hook. I have no idea what black diamonds are, or which white mountains are being referred to, and the vibrato is a bit over the top in my opinion, but otherwise this is Robin at the top of his game during this period.

Track No. 50: Marley Purt Drive ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwHz79Aoik

Their first of several forays into the sounds of American country, complete with American session musicians including Bill Keith of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. Which is a little odd, since the song isn't structured or performed like a country song at all - its leaden tempo and lack of swing make it a far cry from its ostensible source material. Nonetheless, the track *sounds* great, a number of cool sonic touches like Melouney's chiming guitar part and the swaying string section. The lyric doesn't make a whole lot of sense (no idea where all those extra children come from in the last verse), and I don't think there were any orphanages in LA by the 60s, and there's definitely no road named Marley Purt Drive. Not a bad track, but not a great one either, and I feel like it could've been shortened by a verse or two.

I don't know why they didn't just call it "The Weight" and be done with it. The lyric is nonsense, even by Bee Gees standards.

I got some serious "Stone Me" vibes from this one, also like a weird refracted take on CCR/Band style rural rock

This seems like a step down from the first three tracks. (Which after a few listens each had me thinking "Jesus, I think I understand Odessa's cult following")

Can't get past that leaden tempo, I'm afraid. Resume the orchestral florishes and vibrato overdose whenever you're ready chaps.

Track No. 51: Edison ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExHvAH3PiLo

One key figure in this period we haven't talked about much (at all?) so far in this thread is the Bee Gees' orchestra arranger/conductor, Bill Shepherd. "Edison" is a prime example of what he brought to the table, cloaking fairly simple material with creative arrangements and countermelodies, and blending the boys' backing harmonies as if they are a part of the string section. The melody and song structure here are nursery-rhyme level basic, but the way the different elements are woven in and out of the mix - the farfisa piping in here, the backing vocals underpinned by the seesawing cello there, the pounding compressed piano on the bridges - keep the song moving and engaging. Apparently this song originally had different lyrics and was called "Barbara", the switching of subject matter to the world's most famous inventor seems like a total Robin move that adds to the song's overall baroque charm.