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

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.

Love this song.

Track No. 52: Melody Fair ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34wjlmNNuMQ

Not released as a single for some inexplicable reason, this baroque pop gem was (according to Barry) intended to be in the style of "Eleanor Rigby". But where McCartney was disarmingly somber, the Gibbs come across as more wistful and dreamy. Overall the track reminds me a lot of "Massachusetts" just in sound and technique. The orchestration is perfect right from the start, with the intro's interwoven melodies gradually ascending in octaves, concluding with the trumpet line that is later echoed on the turnaround after each chorus. The melodic leap in the chorus is also impressive, with Barry (possibly for the first time?) deploying the falsetto that would serve them so well commercially nearly a decade later. Robin is apparently not on this track at all, but Barry and Maurice demonstrate they are still capable of delivering their trademark harmonies. The patronizingly sexist lyric is a bit much, although not especially egregious for its era.

Catching up:

"Marley Purt Drive" - There has to be some country tradition of songs at this tempo, no? It certainly seems to be hitting at some archetype. The nonsense words work for me more than some of the abstractions on previous albums...Basically love this song!

"Edison" - Agree, brilliant arrangement, great contrast between their two main lead singers' voices. Serious craft, love this one.

"Melody Fair" - Agree that it starts out beautifully and certainly has beautiful moments, but I think the chorus is a little static. My least favorite of the songs so far.

I love Melody Fair; it turns up as the title track of a surprisingly good Lulu LP, keeping it in the family. (She had signed to Atlantic and was doing a kind of Dusty In Memphis thing, Swamp Dogg covers and suchlike; the following LP, "New Routes" was of a piece and had two Bee Gees covers, Marley Purt Drive and In The Morning".)

There has to be some country tradition of songs at this tempo, no?

Bill Keith certainly didn't play anything like that with Bill Monroe - slower bluegrass songs tend to be either in waltz time or blues shuffles, def not the straight 4/4 they employ on "Marley Purt Drive". That kind of rhythm is def a rock thing.

I can think of plenty of slow country songs but they don't use *that* rhythm

Yeah, listening to "The Weight" right now and thinking...maybe that beat just comes from R&B.

yeah I was trying to think of late 60s R&B that uses that rhythm, it's kind of a slow proto-funk thing. was obviously all over the place by the early 70s.

"Melody Fair" is kinda gorgeous.

dunno how I never noticed "Marley Purt Drive's" resemblance to "The Weight" before, but now that it's been noted I can't unhear it. Pedersen was no Levon Helm, that's for fucking sure.

"Melody Fair" is luvly if I don't dwell too long on the chorus. Which I, unfortunately, keep doing. She's 'only' a girl/woman, rather than...what?

a well coiffed and hairy chested manly man, presumably

I mean in the first verses you could forgive the narrator for talking down to a child but then he throws down with "woman" so

I think Melody Fair is my favorite Odessa track so far, even though it loses some steam when it gets to the chorus (only to pep back up with each subsequent verse)

I think the chorus is great but I guess I’m in the minority.

ok, edison... i'm gonna go out and say it, the bee gees had some fucking weird songs

neither "melody fair" nor "marley purt drive" grabbed me the same way, it's that casual misogyny that doesn't come close to robin channeling his inner they might be giants (?!?) for a baroque pop song

jesus christ, "HUMPY BONG"? after leaving the bee gees colin petersen was in a band called humpy fucking bong? i think we have a new contender for worst band name ever

their single a-side is fucking awful too

I like that "MF" chorus from a musical point of view. It's one of the prettiest previously-unknown-to-me-before-this-exercise tracks. I'm going to try to convince myself he means something like "you're only human [in this case a female human]" :)

Track No. 53: Suddenly ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAb6-WqmVXI

Maurice takes his first turn at lead vocalist. He sounds a lot like Barry, but with a slightly more resonant, deeper range, and he's also prone to goofy asides ("aw yeah!" + assorted chuckles), a propensity which also crops up in other songs he sings lead on later. While this track is not especially remarkable or mind-blowing I do find it charming for all sorts of reasons - the random oboe, the most PKD Bee Gees lyric ever ("How can you tell humans are real?", ref'd upthread a ways), the rolling bassline, the wordless three-part harmony chorus. Pedersen's drumming is characteristically regrettable but everything else really works. Maurice played such a pivotal if unobtrusive role in the band, I kind of think of him as the equivalent of John Paul Jones in Zeppelin - the multi-instrumentalist "secret weapon" that really glued so much of the material together.

I was gonna get to the Humpy Bong detail a little later but rusho beat me to it :)

Melouney joined Fanny Adams after ditching the Bee Gees, which is only slightly better

honestly, the 60s psych period stuff is great almost in spite of them. From here on out, the boys were able to hire a much higher caliber of sidemen.

i didn't know they lived in chorlton, manchester! - it's where i live. enjoying this thread.

Petersen and the Gibbs attended Humpybong State School in Queensland. ( https://humpybongss.eq.edu.au ) I guess it's possible that the word means something really, really cool in a local indigenous dialect. Or... not.

Aaaaah...

[Buildings from an earlier settlement] were left standing at Redcliffe and it is claimed that the local Aborigines, with a rather nice sense of irony, called the houses 'oompie bong' meaning 'dead house'. The name stuck and the Anglicised 'humpybong' was applied to the whole of the Redcliffe Peninsula.

Track No. 54: Whisper Whisper("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTOP5ugBiXY

Hard for me to work up much enthusiasm for this one, its apparent sole reason for existing possibly being Barry's interest in having a song that's divided between half-time and double-time sections. Unfortunately, he didn't bother to come up with any other interesting elements to make a decent song. There's no chorus, the verse is a simple melody over two chords interspersed with an instrumental middle 8, and the lyric is garden variety, sexist, "free love" drivel common to the era. The promise of the intro is presumably all Bill Shepherd's doing, creatively orchestrating what is essentially a single chord being strummed for 16 bars, but that peters out once the vocal comes in. The half-time section's drumming is terrible and vocal phrasing feels very forced, although you can hear Maurice trying to make something interesting happening with the two interlocking electric piano parts. When it ultimately shifts to double-time after a typically hamfisted drum fill the vocal melody snaps into focus, but it's still pretty boring, and when the horns come in it's like we're in bumper-music-cue-for-Laugh-In territory. Then we get one more falling-down-the-stairs drum break before the song mercifully cuts out.

that's the last track until next Wednesday fwiw

if i was their record company in 1969, that might have been their last track ever. god that's awful.

Stigwood had way worse shit than that on his label!

I'm finding this one hard to hate. There's enough going on in the arrangement to make this mildly satisfying ear candy despite ropey raw material. I should probably look into Bill Shepherd's broader career.

Wouldn't mind hearing this, tbh.

Don't the Gibb hardcore consider Odessa their best album? Or have i been misinformed?

idk about that. It’s probably their best album from their early period.

Maybe my expectations were set unreasonably low by that intro paragraph, but, lyrics aside, i found that song kinda delightful.
There a certain White Album rawness to Barry's vocal, and i could see this providing some nice variety in the context of a double album.

Track No. 55: Lamplight ("Odessa", 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7jO7wcHvHE

They only released one single from "Odessa" and much to Robin's dismay, this was not it, and the ensuing bad blood between the brothers led to the group's official (but ultimately temporary) break up. Frankly, I can't fault Robin for feeling slighted, as this tune is definitely a stunner. A few weeks ago I was listening to this in what is probably ideal circumstances, ie blasting on a huge sound system, and when the harmony vocals come in on the chorus it was just incredible, such a rich sound. Compositionally, Robin pulls out all the stop, opening with a regal fanfare and a bit of inexplicable french, then rolling into the pathos-laden verse, betrayed and lonesome once more ("Then I may end/She had things to buy/I close my eyes/Yet I don't know why/I gave her money/said she knew someone/and she said she won't be long"). The strings play counterpoint, the guitars pound underneath, and Robin's vibrato sails overhead, before dropping away for a second verse and building up to a wordless, choral third verse and the trumpets' closing triplets. The chorus, amazing as it is, only occurs twice, but always leave 'em wanting more, I suppose.

this is the best song on Odessa imho, love the almost hymnal opening vox

there is a terrible pun in my post extra points to anyone who spots it

It probably is better than "First of May". Something about the chorus and the overall grandeur brings Eurovision to mind. (Not a dis.)

Yes, there's definitely a very European feel about this song. This is really Robin at his best, a singular talent. I can see why it wasn't released as a single, but then "Eloise" by Barry Ryan reached No. 3 in the UK charts and this is a much more commercial song than that!

Lamplight has always sounded to me like the great lost Aphrodite's Child single. I can totally hear Demis Roussos singing it.

^ YES !!!!

glad we skipped the instrumentals in this, in retrospect

Really there’s just not much to say about them

Sure there is.