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

I was waiting for this one. I finished my PhD in 2000 and had to print and assemble temp copies for marking the night before I was going away, which I finished at 2am. I had the SNF soundtrack in the CD player of my Alfa 33 and when I hit the road to drive home, the six lane highway was wisped in fog and I was the only car on the road for the entire trip. As this song played I kind of left this earth for an astral plane for a minute. Untouchable.

Classic winding melody from Barry. Chord chart for days. Not until the chorus is finished do you even hear one musical phrase repeated. The arrangement practically glows. All around simply stunning.

I think we've officially arrived at peak Bee Gees.

Track No. 153: Night Fever ("Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, 1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ihs-vT9T3Q

For a song with "fever" in the title, this is considerably less feverish than some of their other dancefloor jams to my ears. It's propulsive, but the vocal melodies are drifting and ethereal. Maybe that's due to Barry reigning in the falsetto a little bit, alternating between the breathier verse and chorus parts and the more full-throated pre-choruses. Instrumentally, this is all about those syncopated guitar parts that dominate the arrangement; there's even some distorted power chords in the pre-chorus in the back of the mix. As for the rest: once you hear that Stayin' Alive drum loop you kind of can't unhear it, but it sure works. The strings and Blue Weaver's electric piano parts get in some nice, understated counterpoint melodies. Speaking of which:

...'Night Fever' started off because Barry walked in one morning when I was trying to work out something. I always wanted to do a disco version of Theme from A Summer Place by the Percy Faith Orchestra or something - it was a big hit in the Sixties. I was playing that, and Barry said, 'What was that?' and I said, 'Theme from A Summer Place', and Barry said, 'No, it wasn't'. It was new. Barry heard the idea - I was playing it on a string synthesizer and sang the riff over it.

Track No. 154: More Than a Woman ("Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, 1976)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy0rYUvn7To

Cuz, y'know, a woman's just not *enough* for a Bee Gee, you've got to be MORE than a woman. Condescendingly sexist lyrics aside, this is another marvel of compact writing and glistening production. Oh sure, maybe you're getting sick of that drum loop by now, but check out how the multi-harmony vocal line in the second half of the verse goes through three lines ("and if I lose you now I think I would die...") but then abruptly segues to a solo Barry pre-chorus bit ("oh say you'll always be my baby, we can make it shine..."). It's not hard to imagine Barry singing this an octave lower over a completely different arrangement just a few years earlier, it exemplifies his mastery of melodic construction. Doesn't overstay it's welcome or get overly histrionic either, Blue Weaver's twinkling keys, Barry's chicken-scratch guitar, and the billowing strings just gliding along.

Great as this run of songs has been, it's not hard to guess what's coming next: the band's "New Jersey".

Track No. 154: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGr2jdCu_Yg

This is depressing

has there ever been a more dramatically wrong-headed career 180

Track No. 155: Getting Better ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC20A5B75qI

Just... why. Everything about this project is wrong. The Bee Geees *never* covered other people's material once they came to England, they were riding high with a completely different style, they had always resented the Beatles comparisons, they're paired with randos.

Honestly when I started on this project I completely forgot that this thing even fell within the bounds of the survey and now I'm kinda bummed.

That's awful, but notable for two reasons - how slavishly they replicated the original arrangement including the Indian instruments, and the realisation that I love that mantra jackhammer chord so much that I can ignore whatever else is going on.

Frampton's strained yawp is such an awful match for the Gibbs' voices. And the whole arrangement is just thin and lifeless, a pale replica.

tbf to the Bee Gees, they pretty much don't do anything except sing backup for most of these tracks. Which is mind-blowingly insulting in and of itself, as if that's all they were good for.

I blame Stigwood and George Martin more for this abomination than the Bee Gees tbh. Never actually seen the film, of course.

I watched it fairly recently (tbf my wife insisted) and it is bad.

Track No. 156: I Want You (She's So Heavy) ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnLhs5VFCNw

I can't even

I mean I guess they do okay with the harmonies at the end but this is a total trainwreck of an arrangement. Donald Pleasance ffs.

I had never heard this before and what the everloving fuck lol

lmao at the overqualified bass playing

and yes the harmonies at the end + the white noise assisted ending are kinda great. this could have been salvaged!

Track No. 157: She's Leaving Home ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfYWSJK2d-s

well okay at least the vocoder effect here is kinda interesting. Of course, it's completely ruined once the other two (Jay MacIntosh and John Wheeler? who the fuck are these losers?), non-Bee Gee singers come in. Honestly, the song is tailor-made for Robin so once he comes in it's like "ahhhhh, of course!" But again, this is totally ruined just a couple bars later.

really I just want to get these out of the way so let's keep going, shall we?

Track No. 158: Oh! Darling ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xD249ijYE0

Probably the best track on this entire abortion of an album, with Robin getting a lead spot on a song that's pretty well suited for him. The arrangement is still thin and generally cheesy, but you do get the sense of how they might have pulled off a superior Bee Gee-ized version of this in their early 70s period. The lead electric guitar (is that Frampton? who cares) is pretty bad, and the orchestral is weak as fuck but at least there's no one else stepping on Robin's vocal.

(I guess I should clarify that it's the best BEE GEES track on this album, obviously Aerosmith's rendition of "Come Together" is tight)

Yes, "Oh Darling" is a boring song at the best of times but it's the only one of these worth listening to - and that's entirely down to Robin's vocal.

Track No. 159: Rise to Stardom Suite ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcVN3QVWi5M

This ill-advised cocaine-encrusted arrangement demonstrates that, all other garbage ideas aside, you could at least rely on the Gibbs to sing well. The congas and phased guitars and Peter Frampton and the limp rhythm section all sound like utter crap but somewhere in all that glop you can still hear a glimmer of what the brothers were best at. Sad!

fuckin hell there's a whole other record of this double LP (!) to get through

Track No. 160: Because ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNpduzQaJGY

well, this happened.

(yes, that's Alice Cooper singing with the Bee Gees)

This is actually not terrible in its relatively slavish recreation of the original + creepy Alice Coopering but ultimately it bears the same weight of pointlessness as every other track on this album.

Track No. 160: Carry That Weight ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCTJX65f0W8

The boys are only on the back half of this, again singing backup (in... unison? again what is the point of this) for Frampton, which is an embarrassment/insult depending on your POV I suppose.

Track No. 161: Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUaVd-VXBCA

let's agree to pretend this never happened

Track No. 162: A Day in the Life ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" soundtrack, 1978)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFcEac7NzEc

And finally, tucked into the last side of this lamentable double album, the Bee Gees get a track to themselves, sans any ill-advised "collaborations". Credited on the record sleeve, for some obscure reason, to "Barry Gibb and the Bee Gees", like many of the other tracks this is mostly a slavish recreation of the original but with general overall lower production values. Barry nonetheless delivers a capable vocal, and none of it sounds outright bad, just perfunctory.

I still insist the George Burns version of "Fixin' a Hole" is better than the original.

Track No. 163: Tragedy ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJcozEOWgxI

An argument could be made that the Sgt Pepper's debacle effectively broke the band. Presumably desperate to regain their footing and maintain the momentum of their world record-breaking career peak, Barry doubles down as leader, further sidelining Robin and Maurice and leaning heavily into the songwriting and production techniques that put them on top. Maurice, grappling with alcohol + drug issues, is AWOL for much of "Spirits Having Flown" and Robin is effectively relegated to "occasional backup singer". Nonetheless, the band landed back at number one with this driving slice of synth-disco. There's a touch of Moroder about this, the way it incorporates both a very Harrison-esque lead electric guitar
and buzzing arpeggiated synthesizers, set to the familiar disco throb (altho they at least refrained from re-using the "Stayin' Alive" drum loop yet again). The arrangement is a bit overstuffed - horns, strings, and Barry's shriek all clamoring for attention - and Barry hammers that chorus melody into the ground, catchy as it is. The lovelorn sentiment of the lyrics are well-worn territory; of course one could uncharitably read them as a grim foreshadowing of their career and of the album in general, which is definitely the Bee Gees "New Jersey" in ILM parlance.

Track No. 164: Too Much Heaven ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6iBAuwBODA

The intro with the horns (courtesy of Chicago) sounds like so much AOR/TV movie music from this period you'd be forgiven for thinking you're in for some garden variety schmaltz. What you're really in for is some A-grade, top shelf schmaltz! With what sounds like a couple dozen multitracked harmonies, the boys slide into the song with an exquisite Barry vocal melody, a chorus as indelible as any of their earlier classic ballads. The chiming guitar provides some counterpoint, the strings and electric piano creating a lush bed for Barry to roll his falsetto ad-libs around on, especially after the key change midway through. Lyrically this is again a song that seems to reference hitting limits, eternal disappointments, etc., hard not to read into that given where their career was.

Track No. 164: Love You Inside and Out ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SouY1MKclZ4

Of all their clunky and bizarre lyrics, this is the only song that, to me anyway, comes across as creepy and gross. I mean, I don't exactly picture Barry's "heart" hanging out when he gets to that line, it's just eeeyuch. Starting off with a groove that again reminds me of Nilsson's "All My Life" and a shit-ton of synthesized strings, things are a little somnolent until they get to the first chorus - and that hook is catchy as hell. The counterpoint synth melody in the chorus is also just a great sound. The bridge feels like pointless padding, they could have cut it and just stuck with the chorus and shortened the song by 30 seconds or so.

I don't exactly picture Barry's "heart" hanging out when he gets to that line

if you don't already know the story behind this line, get thee to Wikipedia

exactly

Track No. 165: Reaching Out ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwkUFghR6II

Barry's falsetto now officially reaching overuse, just steamrolling over everything and drawing attention to itself. This song has a decent refrain, dreamy suspended chords, and fine harmonies - it could have easily been a sweet, mellow ballad. But Barry's just gotta Barry it up, running his signature not-so-new-anymore gimmick into the ground.

Track No. 165: ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWBFpoErDCM

I confess we are not getting into territory that is unfamiliar to me (never having listened to the entirety of this album before). That's Herbie Mann supplying the yacht rock flute vibes on this vaguely Carribbean track. Honestly it's nice to hear breathy-Barry shift back to acoustic, and those falsetto-led harmonies on the chorus are very effective. The flute is cheezy as fuck though. This calls to my mind similar (and tbh vastly inferior) wayward experiments by the Beach Boys from around the same time, that attempt at creating the aural equivalent of a langurous island vacation. The melody feels a bit underdeveloped though, and the hook doesn't stick. The most fun thing about it is probably the ridiculous lyrics ("I am your hurricane/Your fire in the sun/How long must I live/In the air?" ok Barry).

I remember as a kid thinking that "Tragedy" was awesomely dramatic and exciting, but looking at it now it's pretty risible watching them gather round the mic to shriek in falsetto.
"Too Much Heaven" sounds like it was written for Diana Ross (but a great song nonetheless).

Track No. 166: ("Search, Find", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWMDuYArw2s

To its credit, this ode to how Barry will never stop never stopping rides along on a neck-snapping groove and a churchified refrain, but I have to admit I am getting really tired of Barry's falsetto at this point. I suppose as a vocal approach it's not any more limited than Barry's sad-faced breathy-voice but it kind of just draws too much attention to itself. The arrangement here is fine, a perfectly credible dancefloor banger. The horns (is that Chicago again?) pop, the guitars chime, the synths are luscious but once Barry starts yelling at everybody his voice just sort of swallows up all the sonic attention, especially when it's like the umpteenth song where its deployed this way. Dial it back, Barry.

Track No. 166: Stop (Think Again) ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ufk0OjnYJI

I think that's the Chicago horns playing the opening salvo, followed by Barry's oddly naked, unadorned falsetto and then... well we're in for a 7-minute slow jam with twinkling electric piano, strings, and an awful lot of high-pitched emoting by Barry, intermittently bolstered by tightly stacked backing vocals, and the obligatory saxophone solo. The rising and falling vocals really put me in mind of Prince tbh, that kind of melodramatic lead vocal phrasing punctuated by bursts of clipped harmonies. Otherwise this drags.

this is one of my very favorite Bee Gees deep cuts tbh

what's the appeal?

Track No. 167: Living Together ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZsHGmsLfw

Ridiculous overture/intro that smashes strings, horns and synths together before pivoting to a P-Funk-ish strut with snappy horns and strings weaving in and out of a standard 4/4 drum stomp. You would never know this is Robin's lone (co)lead vocal, he's so clearly in Barry's shadow throughout. Vocal arrangement has some pretty complex, multilayered call-and-response stuff going on, although the hook is not particularly distinctive and the lyrics are a bunch of repetitious nothing. Feels like some filler that they knew was filler and so they just overstuffed the arrangement to compensate.

Track No. 167: I'm Satisfied ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E8Musc0oDo

Sick as I am of Barry's squealing at this point, I have to admit that this song hooks me from the first bar with that slow foot drum pattern and the harmonies on top. Built up from a simple two-chord pattern that shifts into an ascending, stair-stepping melody before landing back on the refrain, punctuated once again by a brassy horn arrangements. Is this the most horns they've ever had on an album? Kinda feels like it. By the end we are once again treated to the familiar back-and-forth between Barry ad libbing at the top of his register and the tightly harmonized group vocals (which, to be fair, are probably also mostly Barry).

sorry that was
Track No. 168: I'm Satisfied("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)

and this is

Track No. 169: Until ("Spirits Having Flown", 1979)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmhUzUDqqjI

Barry ditches the falsetto (mostly) and gets all misty-eyed over a fantastically eerie and spacey electric piano backing. Stuffed at the back-end of the album, it's an oddly minimalist and intimate detour on an album that is otherwise bombastic and maximalist. The vocal is understated and effective, Barry sounding like he's wandering through an abandoned disco after-hours as the neon lights slowly wink out. One of the high points of the album imo, an unheralded deep cut, and a fitting end to their unprecedented commercial peak.

this one really deserves some love before we move onto the career denouement

Very pretty, like a proto-Frank Ocean track.

Track No. 170: Living Eyes ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0z-dwj3SN8

What do you do after being the biggest band on the planet for over two years and everyone is getting sick of you? Naturally you fire the band, hire a bunch of session musicians, and change styles (yet again). You also apparently revert to the tried and true tactic of hanging a bunch of vague non-sequitur sentiments on a sturdy melody, in the hopes that no one will notice or care. "Would you believe me if I told you your tomorrow is my yesterday? But be alive, I know that we will". To be fair, this song in particular isn't a huge shift - it isn't disco but it does have a groove (thanks, Jeff Porcaro), and Barry's falsetto is still present, albeit backgrounded. More to the foreground is Barry's lower vocal and the harmonies from Robin and Maurice, backed by the familiar acoustic guitar shimmer and interjections from slide guitar and synth. The chord progression kind of wanders, when the chorus pops in it feels unexpected (to my ears anyway). Not the strongest hook either.

Why are they singing to a bunch of 5 year olds? Wandering is a good word to describe this song, seems a bit aimless and hookless.

presumably because they are of age, they are in time, they are forever