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

Glutton for punishment eh

Track No. 87: Country Woman ("How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" single B-side, 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGEJJQictCQ

Released in May 1971 just a month after it was recorded and 4 months ahead of the album proper. Strictly a Maurice track, Robin and Barry don't bother to appear, although the rest of the band (Bridgford, new guitarist Alan Kendall, and arranger Bill Shepherd) all contributed. Maurice seems to have been the Bee Gee most interested in American country music, but his grasp of the mechanics of the genre seem a bit tenuous and perhaps rooted in second-hand sources such as the Band. Definitely feel like Bridgford's drum part here is going for Levon Helm's surefooted country funk, for example. Maurice's multi-instrumental facility and baseline level of competence keep this from being outright bad. Still, this is b-side material for sure, and not even close to the level of quality of the song that he *did* manage to get on the album.

Well, it's not great but it's not bad, Maurice confident enough to drop the jokiness he'd relied on in his previous solo outings at least.

Yeah, no goofy ad-libbed asides here.

His other songs on the record are p remarkable and show really rapid development as a songwriter.

Man, the original of "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" really doesn't hold a candle to the Al Green version, huh? He really worked some alchemy on that song.

I think they're both excellent to be honest

Track No. 88: Israel ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m04tAiqAM-Qi

Love Maurice's opening bass wobbles as this tune settles into its mid-tempo groove. The inscrutable motivation for the lyric makes Barry's increasingly histrionic vocal all the more baffling as it goes on (and this is definitely among the most unhinged lead vocal he has in their catalog). Head-scratching lyrics aside, the arrangement is very effective, particularly when the harmonies split on the 7th chord in the chorus, with Robin and Maurice's backing vocals nestled in with the strings as the song sails into the second chorus. Things get even more dramatic as the song draws to a close - more timpani! more ascending string lines! more harp swoops! more howling! A fine ballad, but really why did they feel compelled to write a song on this subject?

er

as the song sails into the second chorus verse

fixed

The lyrics occasionally threaten to mean something but mostly don't make much sense. Great song though, very stirring!

I went back and forth about whether this song is actually about the country or if it's about a person named Israel but yeah it doesn't really make much sense in either scenario. It does make me wonder what prompted it. There was also a reference to Tel Aviv on the previous album.

He does mention sand, I believe they have quite a lot of that in Israel.

where there's sand, yeah
YEAH

Track No. 89: The Greatest Man in the World ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTifVVj76n8

Internet guitar tabs for this song are (not surprisingly) all wrong, completely ignoring all the weird major 7th and suspended chords that run through it in favor of simple major chords. Barry's chord structures were becoming more complex at this point, branching out from the more simple folk-based voicings that had characterized a lot of their 60s output, and while he wasn't quite on the level of, say, Joni Mitchell, I do think that during this period Barry often drew on an interesting juxtaposition of clear, major-key melodies and harmonies against underlying chord voicings that don't resolve in a traditional manner. On this one, Barry and Maurice deliver a plaintive, worldless opening, with the strings introducing the first verse. Barry shifts from a quavery, breathy delivery to a more robust vocal as the verse builds to the chorus, but falls back to almost a whisper on the titular refrain. Lyrically not much interesting going on - the usual romantic word-salad mishmash. The song ebbs and flows (Bridgford has a particularly thankless task navigating all the shifts in emphasis, but he acquits himself well), builds and falls back over and over, but always with the melody and harmonies as an anchor. By the time we get to the plagal cadence at the end, with Barry ad-libbing on the title phrase, it's like the song is drifting out to sea.

Track No. 90: It's Just the Way ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0EcriumzZU

Maurice's songs on this album are probably the best he ever did, an opinion perhaps shared by his brothers since they made one of them the title track and constructed a promo campaign around it. But I'm getting ahead of myself, this is Maurice's *other* song on the album, and while it's no staggering masterpiece it is a very skillfully constructed slice of Abbey Road-esque orchestral pop - that ascending 12-string + electric guitar arpeggio before the first verse is straight out of the Beatles' playbook, as are the choppy Lennon-esque chords that constitute the guitar solo when the strings come in. All the little touches here are great: the rich guitar tones, the double-tracked vocal that splits into harmonies towards the end, the unresolved final orchestral chord.

Barry plays in drop D tuning which allows the playing of unusual chords, of course. "The Greatest Man in the World" is nothing special but perfectly fine, something about the verses remind me of Bowie! Maurice's song is nice too - odd that, having ditched trying to sound like the Beatles for the preceding two albums, they went back to it on this album.. Actually this sounds like Neil Innes too!

I can hear the Bowie similarity - Life On Mars maybe?

with the vocal starting out quiet and becoming more strident over the course of the verse

Maybe, I don't know what it is, would have to listen again.

Appropriately BBC4 is currently showing a compilation of Bee Gees performances, not only for the BBC but for European TV too. Almost all with live vocals. A lot of stuff I haven't seen before: Robin singing his solo single "August October"; "Lonely Days"; "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" (from something called 'Whittaker's World of Magic' in front of the most miserable sudience of all time ... and featuring the elusive Geoff Bridgford); "Morning of My Life" (from Mrs Maurice Gibb's show, Maurice and Barry on acoustics, all three singing live). Then jumps forward to "Jive Talking", so I imagine it'll be mostly stuff I've seen before from now.

!! jelly

... acoustic "Too Much Heaven" on Pebble Mill At One!

Track No. 91: Remembering ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=num_jqCFwYU

Robin's first turn in the spotlight and he lays it on thick with a melody that spans his full vocal range and another morbidly morose lyric. The orchestration really does the heavy lifting in the arrangement, with multiple countermelodies from the strings popping in and out, plus some timpani accents for good measure. Barry and Maurice are decidedly in the background, their backing harmonies serving more as a choral compliment to the orchestra. Not a bad song by any means, but I feel like Robin overdoes it with the vibrato, making his vocal cross the line from affecting to silly.

Track No. 92: Somebody Stop the Music ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGcg9We_TAA

This one *really* feels like a throwback to a few years prior, albeit with a glossier production sheen and more confident performances from the players. Bridgford adeptly handles the rhythmic shift to the B-section in the middle, which feels like it was thrown in as an afterhought to give the song some energy and keep things interesting. The main body's completely inscrutable lyrics are carried off by Barry's committed vocal - he (and Robin too) sure sound like they care a lot, but precisely what it is that they care about is impossible to tell. Great string arrangement on this as well, the cello countermelodies in the verses in particular. Perhaps most importantly, the song is relatively compact and has enough melodic ideas that it doesn't wear out its welcome.

"Remembering" is pretty bad, though there's worse to come. "Somebody Stop the Music" is one of their "Let's stick this bit with this bit and see what happens" portmanteau songs, it's a good one!

I find the chorus for "Remembering" pretty catchy, but Robin's performance on that song is... not good

Yes, I think I said it upthread, he's a bit out of control, vocally, on some of these early 70s albums, and the songs are morose to an almost laughable extent.

Track No. 93: Trafalgar ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bew7yCinZ3A

Maurice's finest song to-date, and possibly ever. Given the LP cover image and attendant media campaign (I really want a copy of the tour poster tbh), one has to assume this song is nominally about the Battle of Trafalgar but as usual detecting any kind of relevant details in the lyrics is a fool's game. Nonetheless, the lyrics *do* work within the song, matching the general elegiac tone. And what a great arrangement it is - miraculously the only song on the album with no strings or participation from Bill Shepherd, Maurice shoulders the majority of the instrumental burden and deftly weaves together his typical array of McCartney-esque bass runs, compressed piano, and finely tuned harmonies, this time augmented by some churchified organ. Bridgford and Kendall demonstrate a marked improvement over Melouney and Petersen in every way, gluing the song together and providing all the right details and filigrees. Also ends with one of my favorite (if not particularly unusual) Bee Gees arrangement tricks: a key change towards the end for the final choruses, as everything modulates upwards.

wait, shit apparently Maurice is *also* playing drums on this song, not Bridgford!?

Ron Nasty himself could have written this song. Maurice should have written (and sung) more!

(xp) I thought he played guitar on this one too?

it's not clear to me if that lead electric guitar part is him or not. If it is, that would basically mean he played everything on the track, which is even more insane.

Track No. 94: Don't Want to Live Inside Myself ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBojE5-x960

For evidence of just how far Barry's innate melodicism can carry a song, look no further than this passionately delivered slice of total nonsense. A bunch of randomly thrown together lines, very sloppily overdubbed, sail over an arrangement that never seems to settle on a tempo, with random dramatic drum fills, pounded 8th notes on the piano, and melismatic strings just sort of bobbing along trying to keep the vocal afloat. That being said, the overall effect still somehow works, to my ears at least; the descending refrain still managing to convey that particular Bee Gees combo of eeriness and melancholy.

Love this one!

In another of a fairly long lineage of baffling decisions, they chose this as the album's second single. (It bombed).

Regarding this song, Barry once wrote: ""...the dawning, or the closing, of the 'gotta find out who I really am' era." OK!

It was the last song recorded for the album.

The song is great but it's a verse and a chorus too long. The image of proto-Goth Barry hanging out in a graveyard is irresistible but that seems more Robin's style.

Track No. 95: When Do I ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hw6i6ZSW5U

Speaking of songs that go on too long... Shepherd's orchestration is probably the most sympathetic backing Robin could ever have hoped for, and it does a lot of heavy lifting here. Robin's stair-stepping melody on the choruses is definitely catchy, in spite of his range-spanning delivery getting a bit awkward. It's like he wrote something that he knew was good but was close to being beyond his abilities to deliver. And then it gets repeated over and over at the end, which becomes a bit much. Should have cut it a bit short and brought the horns in earlier, in my opinion.

Robin's singing on this is ridiculous, what was he thinking? I can imagine the studio engineers rolling around in hysterics recording this vocal. The song stinks in any case, it's nowhere near as good as even the worst of his solo material.

I don't entirely disagree, but his worst/most inexplicable singing on this album is still yet to come

Track No. 96: Dearest ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFxqVSPlm-A

This album's most ridiculous stretch of songs continues with this slog through Mantovani territory as Robin and Barry trade off sappily histrionic lines (with Robin's voice audibly breaking at several points). Apart from its relative minimalism (just strings, piano, and two vocals) I can't really identify anything remarkable to recommend this song. Melodically it's okay I guess but it feels like a real dead spot in the album.

Utter garbage, I can't put it plainer than that. What audience was this aimed at? The over 70s? The only interesting thing about this is that Robin genuinely sounds like he's on the edge of some kind of mental breakdown. Barry overdoes the breathiness so much he probably needed an inhaler after finishing his vocal.

this is like the Carpenters at their misty-eyed schlockiest, just totally soporific

Track No. 97: Lion in Winter ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k_Gh2Fp5aM&list=RD2k_Gh2Fp5aM&index=1

There is a kernel of a half-decent song from their 60s psych period in here, and that's the kindest word I can say for it. Opening for no apparent reason with an overlong segment of isolated drum track (which in itself is something of a retread of the similar opening to the far superior "I'm Weeping"), the promise of the band's familiar combo of Barry's plaintive vocal, 12-string guitar, stately strings, and Maurice's bass quickly evaporates under the weight of both mind-numbing repetition and vocals from both Barry and Robin that devolve into an unbelievably shitty approximation of the Righteous Brothers. Perhaps jealous of (or inspired by?) Barry's equally unhinged delivery on "Israel", Robin really outdoes himself in straining to twist his vibrato into some semblance of an African-American soul shouter and it is just embarrassing, possibly the worst vocal he ever formally released. The lyrics are the usual blend of randomly knocked together cliches and gobbledygook, completely overwhelmed by the histrionic delivery. On the plus side, Maurice gets off some nice bass runs. At least he was reliable.

Funnily enough, I don't mind this track! Not much of a song admittedly, more an experience. Robin's vocals are so ridiculous they edge over into being plain weird.

this interview with Robin about his singing style always stuck out to me (conducted around the time of Saved by the Bell):

Robin informed me during a recent interview. "I sing how I feel. I know I haven't got a great voice but I manage to touch something inside other people that they understand. It is an accident but the best kind of accident – one with no blood involved."

Robin quite rightly believes that his distinctive vocal style is an important ingredient in his success although he likes people to listen to the lyrics he writes as well. The imperfect, broken quality of his voice is something that he quite deliberately retains and regards the suggestion of taking singing lessons with understandable indignation.

"If I did that it would not be me, would it?" he says. "Dylan sings in the same way as me. He uses his heart as an instrument. Even I can't understand completely why this works but it does. It's not possible for any artist to jump outside themselves and see themselves for what they are. Even when you look in a mirror you get a reversed image!"

Track No. 98: Walking Back to Waterloo ("Trafalgar", 1971)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Liq146X-96w

At least the boys close the album on a redemptive note, with all their respective talents well in evidence. Opening with a descending minor key melody on the piano over Barry's 12-string, Robin leads into the first verse with a familiar tone of nostalgic fantasy, and when Bridgford's drums and the electric guitar kick in we're sailing through territory not to dissimilar from "Trafalgar" or "Odessa", Robin's florid quaver doing what it does best. The orchestra and backing vocals come charging in for the chorus (which feels like it must have been nicked by Oasis at some point) as Barry takes over the lead and the overall effect is as rich as luscious as anything in their catalog. The odd elements (Barry's "hotcha!" + I swear he sings "and bagels that have never been" in the 2nd verse) only add to its charm.

At this stage it might seem redundant to mention the Bee Gees incomprehensible lyrics, but the lyrics in this song are incomprehensible. Excellent end to the album. It seems, on this album, they went back to the Beatlesque grandeur of their 60s material after the featureless plodding of "2 Years On" - but I wonder if this didn't all sound a bit dated in 1971?

That occurred to me too, like where does a song like this fit into the pop landscape of 1971? It does feel like a throwback, albeit with slightly better production values and performances.

Track No. 99: Walking Back to Waterloo (non-album single, 1972)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0QUoEX-gA0

This footage of them in the studio is by far the coolest thing about this song, which, while not exactly bad, is pretty boring and leans excessively on their well-established formulas. Robin's endearing vocal on the verses lends it some much needed character, but it's overwhelmed by the seemingly endless repetitions of the lunkheaded refrain. Also sounds like the key change at the end takes the horns by surprise, bit of an awkward transition there. Nonetheless, the single was a modest hit. The song was the last single to feature Bridgford on drums (he would also appear on a couple tracks for the next album, "To Whom It May Concern"), and other big changes were afoot, even if they didn't necessarily bear much immediate fruit.

Awesome video. The verses of this song are great but the chorus is like a boot stamping on a human face for 4 minutes 26 seconds.

Curiously, given that he's the only Bee Gee who never tried to sound like him, Robin looks like John Lennon in this video!