Bee Gees: Classic or Dud

The Streisand/Gibb record got 5 stars ("indispensable") in The New Rolling Stone Record Guide (1983) and I remember thinking, "...really?" But hearing "Guilty" and "Woman In Love" recently I thought, ok, maybe I should check out the rest of the album.

And "Bernard Lupe" is credited as the drummer on three of its songs!

Woman in Love could almost fit on the moody AOR thread.

I was thinking about "Grease" (not mentioned in the film) and how odd it is that a song written by a singer who recently discovered his falsetto voice, for a singer known for falsetto, contains no falsetto at all.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, December 17, 2020 7:42 AM (one hour ago)

Also the incongruity of a contemporary disco song in a retro film about the 50s.

Sure, but you're gonna have a Stigwood-produced, Travolta-starring film in 1978 without a disco song?

There was already a similar time warp thing with "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)"

It's kind of a disco song too, isn't it

Really good points about "Grease." Here you have a guy known for his falsetto ... singing *not* in falsetto, just after the Bee Gees made it fashionable (for white people), and for that matter singing an incongruous if denuded disco song on the soundtrack to a movie about the '50s ... right at peak disco, written by one of disco's prime engines. As Travolta would say, that's like, so weird.

Okay, the fact that it wasn't sung falsetto really is kind of bizarre. It's barely even sung, some Rex Harrison stuff.

I think the major issue with "Grease" (song) is that we live a life of illusion, wrapped up in trouble laced with confusion...

What are we doing here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbeNpqE0Ys4

https://ew.com/movies/2018/04/20/barry-gibb-grease-demo-40th-anniversary-blu-ray/

Okay, always thought it was weird that the title song of Grease was not a doo-wop song and seemed so fixated on the actual word “grease.”

There's a story somewhere of Robert Stigwood telling Barry Gibb he needed to write a new theme song for his upcoming film Grease.

"'Grease'? How the hell do I write a song called 'Grease'?"

"Oh Barry, you know... Grease di di di, Grease da da da..."

Okay, the fact that it wasn't sung falsetto really is kind of bizarre. It's barely even sung, some Rex Harrison stuff.

Some of that stuff (xpost) is covered in the interview I linked to.

Are you excited to have people hear this demo?

No, not particularly.

lmao

I guess it's similar in approach to a George Clinton song about The Funk.

Most of all we need The Grease.

https://theaudiophileman.com/true-falsetto-talking-frankie-valli/

Intriguingly, however, Valli generally only uses the falsetto when singing with the Four Seasons. For most of his solo hits, it’s nowhere to be found, “Falsetto is a great tool to have, if it’s not overdone.”

Valli was going all in on disco at that point, he also recorded the first version of "Native New Yorker" at about that time

He was also having some kind of hearing problems at the time, which is one of the reasons the drummer in the (new) Four Seasons was singing so many of the their material - including their singles.

Here we are:

Valli began suffering from otosclerosis in 1967, forcing him to "sing from memory" in the latter part of the 1970s. Surgery performed by Los Angeles ear specialist Victor Goodhill restored most of his hearing by 1980.

“Falsetto is a great tool to have, if it’s not overdone.”_

Is that a quote from The Sopranos?

Goodfellas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPYDZsXBvw

and that continued on into the '80s. i had no idea that they wrote islands in the stream. which means two members of the fugees had solo tracks that interpolated songs written by the gibbs bros.

wow, that's great, thanks. ethereal, yeah. would have slotted in beautifully next to late yacht stuff, and also "Cruisin'." hard for me to not hear it as a duet after all these years with Dolly and Kenny though!

i note a small instrumental lift from "S.O.S." (the "when you're gone" part) about 2/3 of the way through...

My favorite Gibb brothers tune written for another artist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KBfkDaOxEk

Which I had forgotten about until the doc, and then the second I heard the second of it included in the movie I started humming along.

Another great Barry demo of that one, tho I think I still prefer the final version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPnbs3YHkXg

This is another one he did for the Kenny Rogers album he wrote, I love the chorus on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiCnUqjAueY

saw two Bee Gees threads bumped back to back and was afraid Barry died. phew.

The doc should have been a series, like the Grateful Dead one on Amazon. Also, a lot of the vintage interview clips, etc, seemed to have been sped up, perhaps to fit enough material in the timeframe?

Maybe they were just changing the pitch to make it sound more like they were speaking in falsetto.

so the Barry Gibb talkshow was real?

Barry’s new country duets album Greenfields is great, have been listening to it a lot

Barry sounds great and Little Big Town guesting for "How Deep Is Your Love" is every bit as smooth as one would hope.

if they do more of these I would KILL for a countryfied "Mr. Natural"

yeah agree!

i could listen to Butterfly on repeat, it sounds so good, the way his voice blends w Gillian Welch is lovely

and the Keith Urban opener, Got To Get A Message To You really knocked my socks off

the one w/ miranda is great... sounded like something that could've been on one of her records

it took me a couple of listens to get into that one - it was weird hearing it slowed down like that, i wasnt sure if i liked it! but i agree now that they really nailed it

miranda manages the impossible, making "Jive Talkin" sound like it's about something

otm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHa6vYq6Nyk

Am I unwise
To open up your eyes

Indeed. Though that line about needing someone older has always irritated me somewhat.

I used to sing that song to my kid when she was tiny at bedtime, though I obviously changed that whole problematic chunk of lyric. Still one of my favourite Bee Gees jams though.

You need a boulder?

You look like a soldier?

You need someone’s folder?

What did you sing?

I'm trying to remember the fudge. I think I may have just repeated "you need someone's shoulder" or "someone to hold yer"... She was only 3 then and not so demanding an audience, I totally would not get away with it now.

Robin and Maurice's birthday yesterday.

Anyone picked up the Bob Stanley book?
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jun/02/how-the-bee-gees-ruled-late-70s-pop