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

looks like the single tanked in the US and UK but did fairly well on the continent

Track No. 65: Then You Left Me (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6ZaEgrnkQ

Barry's lament for a departed Robin? My suspicion is that this is one of the earlier tracks recorded, it feels like a leftover from some previous album session and features Petersen behind the kit. The descending vocal melody in the verse over the by-now familiar lush bed of strings, piano and acoustic 12-string strikes me as a bit catchier and stronger than the choruses. Some nice details in the orchestration - church bells, mandolin, and I think a vibraphone? Barry's spoken bit on the first chorus is a tad over the top.

Without Robin around Barry appears to have fallen back on maudlin schmaltz.

it was a default mode for him generally, the sillier stuff on the album (more tomorrow!) seems to come more from Maurice

Perhaps not quite as good as the opener but still well-crafted maudlin schmaltz. Saving up the full-bodied chorus until the end mostly works, I think. Thumbs-up! A spot of pre-listening suggests that I'm going to continue to dig quite a few of the less goofy tracks on this record.

Track No. 66: The Lord (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CynqbEwYF_0

Even when they are being inexplicably bad (and this song is comically bad) you kind of have to give them credit for so thoroughly committing, with good humor, to their bad ideas. The song is repetitive, rudimentary, and performed badly. A flubbed vocal line is left in (Barry clearly sings "the lord says the stole sticks around"), Petersen's drumming is as stiff and awkward as ever, the harmonies are sloppy and they throw in a rote key change in lieu of anything else interesting to do with the song, which otherwise just cycles through it's half-assed verse + chorus structure. Maurice's bass playing is at least decent, and as a goofy throwaway it's incongruity makes it funny maybe once or twice. I assume the lyrics are "in character", given that religion never seemed to otherwise be a lyrical preoccupation for any of the Gibbs. For some reason this was selected as the b-side to "Don't Forget to Remember".

a lot of pointing in that video. my wife has noted that she likes this song.

They seem to be adopting some approximation of an American accent (or 'country singer voice'?) too, further reinforcing the 'in character' vibe.

I'm finding it to be a devastatingly infectious earworm. Which is some sort of achievement, I guess.

on a bit of a weird one the past few weeks. my ex-gf (first love, relative of frank zappa, 5000 miles away in wisconsin) played me 'gotta get a message and 'i started a joke' and though i admired it at the time, its taken ten years for me to kinda come round and realize just what she was feeling at the time. a decade feels like a moment. i'm always late for the train. "it's only morning and you're still to live your day"

I know it is Barry but it doesn't sound like him. Seems to want to be a Dylan/Band parody at first but rapidly turns into a joke number. If they hadn't written some (apparently) sincere attempts at country on this album I would say it was some sort of sniggering pastiche along the lines of the Arthur Lee/Love song "Abalony".

Track No. 66: I Was the Child (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75Fwq9LxyzY

Another track of soft-focus schmaltz from Barry, you can practically hear the breeze whistling through his exposed chest hair as he staggers about in a lovelorn haze. The verses plaintive, minimal minor-key arrangement segues into major-key choruses accompanied by some simple but effective strings. Nothing too notable or unusual about this one, they had hit on a formula by this point and drew on it frequently. As usual it sounds like Maurice is really holding the arrangement together with his bass and piano playing.

I know it is Barry but it doesn't sound like him

yeah I would have guessed it was Maurice singing lead on "The Lord" as well but apparently not. It def feels kind of joke-y.

Well, Barry is looking exceptionally handsome in the video but that's about all I have to say about that last track.

yeah it isn't terrible but I can't work up much enthusiasm for it either

Track No. 67: I Lay Down and Die (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WDuOBRibdk

I wouldn't be surprised if, excited about having a drummer that can think in terms of actual, musical drum parts, they built this entire track around Cox's opening tattoo on the toms. After that, things get downright Spector-ian - Barry's vocal bears more than a passing resemblance to Ronnie Spector's whoa-whoah-oh's, as does the pounding quarter note piano part, the simple, repeated three chord motif, and the keening strings that come in the second time around. Wallowing once more in a morbidly self-pitying lyric worthy of Robin, at least this time they've found some slightly different clothes to dress it up in. Only knock against it is that the song itself seems a little bit half-formed and sloppy; the three chord structure doesn't vary much, and Maurice actually appears to hit a couple wrong notes towards the end on the transition to the coda (or, at least, he misses a cue).

I don't think I have a problem with Robin's voice, but I am enjoying this extended stretch of Barryness quite a bit.

they're both fine on their own but honestly it isn't hard to envision the extra something Robin could have brought to some of these songs

Easily the best song on the album so far. As you say, very Phil Spector! And Maurice does miss his cue at the end there.

it's so weird that that flub got left in. I would think it wouldn't be that hard to just punch in the right note. maybe they were just in a hurry.

cuz they were definitely able to isolate instruments/using 8-track recording (if not 16-track) by this point

Track No. 68: Sweetheart (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRo3-Sly0Xk

No idea why they thought "I.O.I.O." was a better A-side than this charmingly succinct slice of lite country-pop, which was relegated to the B-side. While not particularly remarkable or unusual, this is just a sturdily constructed and competently produced tune with a beginning, middle and end, a decent hook in the chorus, a gentle country swing rhythm courtesy of Tony Cox, and syrupy two-part harmonies from Barry and Maurice. Apparently both Dean Martin AND Englebert Humperdinck recorded covers lol.

Pretty sure I first heard this perhaps two weeks ago but it feels like an obvious 1970 hit and minor easy listening radio fixture through to the present day. In reality, it was b-side a couple times, seemingly. Oh well.

Engelbert's arrangement is not attractive, it turns out. Someone should sample the first few bars. LOL.

Not UNattractive, rather.

haha I can hear that!

I think they should have left this one for Engelbert.

Track No. 69: Bury Me Down By the River (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQTniNIWHNE

A proto-Bohemian Rhapsody narrative wrapped up in a gospel package. That's frequent Bee Gees collaborator P.P. Arnold singing with Barry; certainly the first (not sure if it's the only?) instance of a non-Bee Gee singing on a Bee Gees record. Features some of Barry's most furious emoting to-date, even if he doesn't quite reach the frenzied heights of subsequent records (thinking of "Trafalgar", but we'll get to that soon enough). The song itself is fine, nothing particularly special in the arrangement although there are some nice horn flourishes and other details worked in,and certainly by this point this kind of woe-is-me-on-the-gallows lyrical posturing was well-worn territory for them. As far as the genre-dabbling that characterizes this record goes, this dalliance with churchified dramatics works better than some others.

forgot to note that Petersen's drumming is once again like a lead weight dragging the song down

Track No. 70: My Thing (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlU9faiIAC8

Maurice's discovery of major 7th chords apparently inspires him to write and perform an entire song, by himself, about his dog. And honestly aside from the muffed piano chord at the beginning, it's pretty great! The structure is fairly basic - a repeated two chord pattern that drops the major 7th when it gets to the refrain and then shifts towards the end to a major key I-IV-V pattern, and the wistful melody and drifting mellotron are coupled with an endearingly dopey lyric that eventually devolves into wordless harmonies. For something that was obviously conceived as something of a jokey bit of fun it's actually quite pretty. A welcome bit of silliness amidst all the other maudlin weepiness on this record.

(er that first sentence was supposed to be a separate post in ref to previous song)

This stunned me a little in the film, which is where I started with the album. The best of the goofier tracks, I'd say. The faintly 'tense' tonal relationship of some of the piano plonks and mellotron (seemingly largely absent from the mix in that film segment?) to everything else feels surprisingly menacing for a song about dogs!

weird yeah that film mix is a bit different (I think it's even slowed down/pitched differently?) Here's the album mix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RenmZOxUm-k

Track No. 71: The Chance of Love (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJpLBIGTCo

What, yet another plaintive piano + acoustic + orchestra ballad? Barry's beginning to approach Mike Love levels of commitment to not fucking with the formula. This song is not bad, the melody and lyrics and arrangement are all fine, it's just getting a bit repetitive at this point. It's evident he could churn this kind of thing out in his sleep, but nothing particularly remarkable or unusual happens in the song. It's tracks like this where you can start to feel the lack of Robin's presence. I suppose more input from Maurice might have been welcome as well.

This last song is irritatingly anonymous and unmemorable without being actively bad - also seems to be missing another chorus. "Bury Me Down By the River" however is good, I much prefer Barry doing gospel/soul than country. The Maurice song is a Maurice song.

Track No. 72: Turning Tide (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycmxKwrK08A

In some places this feels like a lazy re-write of the previous track, somehow becoming even more irritatingly anonymous and unmemorable in the process. Here we get 6/8 verses interspersed with choruses in 4/4, a switch that's barely noticeable thanks to Terry Cox's restrained drumming, but there's nary a memorable melody or hook in sight, and there are places where it seems like Barry's not even sure which note to sing. The track is not actively bad but it feels pretty shapeless and lazy. What's baffling is that they were hardly hurting for material - they could've swapped in "Give a Hand, Take a Hand" (which Barry had passed on to P.P. Arnold), or dug up some other castoff like "Chocolate Symphony" from previous albums, but instead they threw in this piece of filler.

Should maybe be noted that between the recording for this album being completed and its release, the band essentially broke up. Barry announced his departure in December 1969 and proceeded to work on his solo album "The Kid's No Good", while Maurice was also working on his own solo album "The Loner" (neither of which got released), and both were writing for and producing other artists (P.P. Arnold, Tin Tin, etc.) Robin had finished "Robin's Reign" a couple months earlier, but that wouldn't come out until February/March 1970. "Cucumber Castle" followed in April 1970. None of them really seemed to enjoy this state of affairs, and their competing singles both stalled out at no. 2. Within months, Robin and Maurice had reunited and recorded 14 songs, and by the time August 1970 rolled around Barry had a planned solo single pulled from release and returned to the fold as well.

Track No. 73: Don't Forget to Remember (Cucumber Castle, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCnthhfVuJI
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/65/Dont_Forget_To_Remember.jpg/220px-Dont_Forget_To_Remember.jpg

The last song on the record also happened to be the first single, going to number 2 in the UK. Reportedly an homage to Jim Reeves, it's another country ballad sung in a register that's a bit lower than normal for Barry, featuring the by now well-worn combo of Barry's 12-string, Maurice's piano, Petersen's fumbling drum fills, and loads of syrupy strings and bells. But at least they hit on a strong melody this time around, and overall it hits that sweet spot of yearning country-pop balladry that the boys were fixated on at this particular junction. For all their purported interest in country around this time, it's odd that they never really got in a good pedal steel player.

I can only surmise that the reason this song reached No. 2 in the UK charts was that the entire middle aged population of Scotland and Northern Ireland bought a copy - this being the constituency that has lapped up this kind of lachrymose faux-Countrypolitan schmaltz since Jim Reeves flew his plane nose-first into the cold cold ground somewhere outside Nashville.

... the Gibb family was originally from Paisley. That explains it.

never really listened to Reeves, that's a wing of country w limited appeal to me.

next up - the reunion album!

great song, was probably my gateway into the early stuff I think

It is quite good. I like the bulk of this LP a whole lot more than I was expecting to. And possibly more than I should!? Wouldn't hesitate to buy a used copy. (Though I get the impression the post-Odessa era is largely out of print anyway -- if "out of print" even means anything in 2019.)

I had the opposite reaction, this album seems a lot worse than I remembered.

if you think that one was bad...

Track No. 74: 2 Years On (2 Years On, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Rj7ojTesQ

Opening with a striking choral a capella bit directly referencing the split and reunion is a canny move, serving as an immediate reminder of what was missing in the intervening period as well as whetting the appetite for things to come. An abrupt jump-cut into the main body of the song opens the door on Maurice's rumbling bassline and a steady backbeat from
new drummer Geoff Bridgford (borrowed from the Maurice-produced Aussie band Tin Tin) and an uncommonly strident lyric and lead vocal from Robin. Barry apparently does not sing on this track, but I assume that's his guitar (I suppose it could also be Maurice). The chorus is great, everything a Bee Gees chorus should be. And although the transitions from the chorus back into the verses feel a bit forced, the tune is capped off by a brief ascending falsetto melody at the end. A solid albeit nakedly autobiographical opener. Unfortunately, things go downhill from here imho...

Yes, this song is not bad, a relief to hear something that sounds like the Bee Gees and not Englebert Humperdinck, even then Robin had much better songs lying about unreleased. Taking a minute and half to reach the chorus is pushing their luck though.

ha yeah I almost mentioned that the verses in this feel really long

Track No. 75: Portrait of Louise (2 Years On, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FCMzI_xSM

Actually, things don't go downhill quite yet, as evidenced by this compact little tune. While Robin is apparently absent from the track, the vocal harmonies still sparkle, particularly on the overlapping "you can shelter in my arms/and I won't ask you why" refrains after the key change at the end. The orchestration gets a little busy in places, can kind of tell Shepherd was trying to fill the bars of some fairly simple chord changes. Bridgford acquits himself nicely; after his deceptive opening kickdrum hits suggest a more uptempo song, he settles into a gentle groove with Maurice that rolls along with none of the stiffness that characterized Petersen's playing.

can hear some traces of Barry's disco-era falsetto peaking through as well

OK song, nothing special though.