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

Put on your 18th century frock coat and/or satin windbreaker and pull up a chair as we explore the dizzying highs and breathtaking lows of over two-decades of the Brothers Gibb! This will probably take the better part of a year, even doing a song a day, so let's get this party started.
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-Nae4_TVLdGI%2FTS6nJi6S9EI%2FAAAAAAAABFY%2FYSpEBCMmgjI%2Fs1600%2FDSCF3356.JPG&f=1
(not pictured: the best Bee Gee)

here's a picture of Robin just to be fair
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F2a%2Ff7%2F58%2F2af7580d42646622244602b5cba6e162.jpg&f=1

shit this should be 1967-1981 d'oh

first up, from Bee Gees 1st, "Turn of the Century". In the vein of other late 60s chamber-pop psych pining for bygone eras, fashions, and manners (The Association's "Wasn't It a Bit Like Now", The Hollies "Ye Olde Toffee Shoppe", Tomorrow's "Auntie Mary's Dress Shop" etc.) and yet I think this one harkens *back* the farthest - not just to the 20s or pre-war UK but actually to the previous fucking century. For who among us has not longed for hoop skirts, unwieldy bicycles, and oversized cravats. As with many other tracks on this album, it sounds hastily composed and is not particularly complex and has daft lyrics - but the eerie orchestration, harmonies and finely tuned melodies ultimately sell it. The teary-eyed nostalgia for a vanished British Empire was a mode Robin would return to again and again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P9COyXDe4g

*crickets*

Not a great idea to launch this when (seemingly) 90% of ILXors are getting all giddy and light-headed over an indie band from Glasgow.

But, yes, "Turn of the Century", much better than those other songs you cited, not as good as the Bonzos' "The Equestrian Statue" though, which resembles this.

huh didn't know that particular Bonzos track

so many harpsichords, when is someone gonna bring back the harpsichord in pop music

A concert favourite for over 30 years, Maurice Gibb often provided the audience with comedic antics by attempting many failed attempts to join Barry and Robin while singing this song. Evidence of this can be seen in the 1989 "One For All" concert video where Maurice takes a camera from a film cameraman standing nearby and films Barry and Robin as they sing the song.

Who knows what this song is about, really. Beautifully eerie.

https://youtu.be/_hQ1HQh9_JM

i’m in !!

I'm in too. Coincidentally, I'm writing about these dudes tonight.

FUCK YES I'm so glad I suggested this

"Who knows what this song is about" is an excellent question about so many bee gees songs

god some of these early songs should really be licensed out for horror soundtracks

they have to be the weirdest looking gaggle of freaks ever to become oversexed pop stars

"Who knows what this song is about" is an excellent question about so many bee gees songs

I think a lot of them are about fitting any old words that'll do to a good tune, they have written some very weird lyrics over the years.

I think they were quite good lyricists from time to time, but it’s clear from their demos and recording habits that their overriding priority was always melodies (and harmonies) first and foremost

imho this is an excellent approach to lyric creation

so many harpsichords, when is someone gonna bring back the harpsichord in pop music

something something indie band from Glasgow...

Oh ffs.

yknow, I'll be interested when you guys get to tunes that Maurice sang…like I have the 1990 box set, but I can't tell the difference easily between his voice and Barry's, at least in the early years…like what's the most prominent tune he sang? or what's the song that's most his but one of the other two sang? My understanding is that he was the boffin of the three, but there must be something else noteworthy about him…it does seem that Barry was the massively talented one, and Robin was notably toothsome, charmingly awkward…

He only very occasionally had a lead vocal - and I don't think he sounded much like Barry, he didn't have a particularly distinctive voice, he did a good John Lennon impersonation though! I would say the title track of "Trafalgar" is his most prominent vocal?

I know him best as keyboarist and harmonist.

did maurice do lead on "have you heard the word?"

(xp) Bass player!

Of course. Less so on later albums.

One odd thing about Barry Gibb, of course, is that he plays in Open D tuning. Worth remembering if you're trying to learn Bee Gees songs on guitar!

Today’s entry, more flutes and mellotron and some nonsense lyrics about childhood (afaict). A goat appears to have snuck into the studio towards the end. To me, this one always feels a little bit of a piece w Syd Barrett’s similar obsession w fairytales, nursery rhyme sorta stuff (albeit w out the same level of creepy undertow)
https://youtu.be/AldVXUgCY1Q

This possibly their most psychedelic track, though there's a lot of them - it's brilliant anyway.

By the way, to return to the earlier discussion on Maurice's contribution to the band, I believe he's responsible for the mellotron on this and other tracks.

Yeah his bass and keyboard playing is p distinctive. Not sure what his first lead vocal is - one of his tracks from odessa or cucumber castle maybe?

And four songs into the first album we finally get something with a relatively conventional lyrical POV, and one the bros would mine extensively - the pleading lover. Musically I don't think it's that distinctive from other orchestral balladry of the era, but it's not bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuvGSWU5xw0

Who are those other 2 rando's on the cover of this album? Also, is Maurice getting a message on one of those secret service earpieces, or did he just have a toothache?

the other two are the drummer (Colin Petersen) and the lead guitarist (Vince Melouney)

wiki implies that Maurice's first solo vocal turns are on Odessa ("Suddenly", where you can definitely tell him apart from Barry and Robin; less so on "I Laugh in Your Face")

(xp) Yes, they were a fully-fledged band by the time they got (back) to the UK.

Could "In My Own Time" be them at their most beatlesque? The bass line definitely bears a strong resemblance to Taxman.

no skipping ahead!

(but yes)

My bad - i have no idea how these listening threads work... someone mentioned "One Minute Woman" already, but there was no mention of "Holiday".

They're not exactly short of Beatleseque tracks.

"Holiday" was posted on Saturday
xp

Missed it too, great song, great non-ovine vocal from Robin too.

Ah, so it's a track a day. Got it.
(i'll save my Taxman/Doctor Robert comparisons for tomorrow)

I can skip tracks on weekends, if ppl aren't around as much

I almost missed this! Yay! Bookmarking so I can join in. Thanks for starting this up Shakey... we are in for QUITE a journey I think! :D

I missed the start of this as well. Cool idea – tho maybe we should name the song explicitly? Esp. since the song titles don’t show up if using the app and they’re embedded in videos.

Anyway...

Turn of the Century – not much I have to add to Οὖτις’s take on this.

Holiday –

Who knows what this song is about, really. Beautifully eerie.

Great thread. I don't expect to add much but will listen with pleasure.

yeah sorry, I will add the songtitles in posts from now on!

so.

much.

harischord

"Boys Fall in Love" would've been touching in 1983 as a A Flock of Seagulls or Peter Schilling knockoff: a lonely planet boy riding to earth on synths.

Robin is the original lonely guy just thinking baout things.

oh shit

omfg are we really up to "spirits having flown"

i have so much catching up to do

That was a whole album ago

Track No. 179: Be Who You Are ("Living Eyes", 1981)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwyEE9ExD2o

In yet another stylistic left-turn, this song opens with an extended and sumptuous orchestral introduction (over 2 minutes long!) worthy of Robin's more grandiose moments. When Barry finally enters it's just his isolated vocal and a bit of electric guitar, with strings and piano gradually creeping back in and building up through the first verse. Barry's melody is kind of all over the place; he leaps from his lower register all the way into his falsetto more than once, and by the first chorus we are solidly in 80s power ballad territory complete with melodramatic power chords and plodding drums. Wordless harmonies come in, doubling by violins, towards the end of the second verse (or is it a chorus? the structure of this one kind of eludes me with its endless crescendos and diminuendos). The 80s gloss on this type of overblown balladry feels a little off to my ears, maybe this would've worked better with a more roughly hewn early 70s-type sound, there's at least half of a good hook somewhere in Barry's lead melody but it gets lost. An album closer that reaches for epic but doesn't quite get there.

This album is a bookend for the second phase of their career. I wish I could say we were ending this survey on a high note, but let's face it this album is pretty bad. They still had quality material in them - the 80s hits they penned for others are generally very high quality ("Islands in the Stream" obviously at the top of that heap), plus weird solo experiments and a certain white-jumpsuited duet smash hit, and they would regroup and return to the charts again towards the end of the decade. But by 1981 they were exhausted, adrift, and feeling like more of a running joke than one of the most successful bands ever. By this point, thankfully, I think some measure of critical rehabilitation has set in; they've always had a massive fanbase in Europe, and the hits from their peak eras are undeniable.

RIP Robin and Maurice.

*crickets*

― Οὖτις, Friday, December 14, 2018 11:08 AM (ten months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Don't really know what they're trying to do with that closing track but I suppose it's different. I hope people re-visit this thread, if only to listen to some Bee Gees (how) deep (are your) cuts!

This album feels like a compilation of random leftovers from other albums

That final song sounds like compilation of random leftovers from other albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5eLLmpulqI

what a strange trip it's been
Thanks for your tenacity, shakey, I have heard some pretty, pretty odd music via this thread, and I wouldn't have otherwise.

Yeah, this has been a super-fun thread. Thanks for doing it! Any other bands you'd want to do this for?

Me? lol no I’m takin a break

OK, having sorted through this thread here's my pick of Bee Gees' deep cuts. "Children of the World" I know was technically a hit but since I managed to go 43 years never having heard it before I'm going to classify it as a "deep cut".

How Deep Are Your Cuts? The Bee Gees 1967-1979

Record 1: The 1960s

Side 1:
Cucumber Castle
Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You
I Close My Eyes
Sinking Ships
Down To Earth
Out of Line

Side 2:
Kilburn Towers
Indian Gin and Whisky Dry
Swan Song
Edison
Odessa (City on the Black Sea)

Record 2: The 1970s

Side 3:
The Greatest Man in the World
It's Just the Way
Paper Mache, Cabbages & Kings
Please Don't Turn Out the Lights
Dogs

Side 4:
Charade
I Can't Let You Go
Lovers
Children of the World
Until

Note: I didn't listen to every single song posted to the thread...

Charade? For real?

I like clarinet solos.

If this collection was ever released that would make two albums I'd have to skip "Charade" on.

whatever, you probably don't like benny goodman either

it did occur to me reading this thread that the osmonds literally rock harder than the bee gees. that's pretty impressive.

Thanks for this whole thing, Οὖτις! I was quietly reading and listening along to this oddness almost all the way through. (Though I think I de-lurked a bit before realising I was never really saying anything.) Cheers!

it did occur to me reading this thread that the osmonds literally rock harder than the bee gees. that's pretty impressive.

You can almost count all the instances of the Bee Gees legit "rocking" on one hand:
Heavy Breathing
In My Own Time
Such a Shame
Idea
Back Home
Bad Bad Dreams
Down the Road

Even after following along with this thread, it wasn't apparent to me just how popular the Bee Gee's were prior to their falsetto reinvention, but this data visualization really drove it home:
https://youtu.be/a3w8I8boc_I

They were one of the top 10 selling artists for most of the 70's (i.e. the first 2 minutes of the video)
Didn't realize the Odessa/Trafalgar/Tin Can period sold so well.

I would guess a lot of that is back catalog sales actually. None of those albums sold particularly well.

Although Lonely Days and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart were big hits in the US

that data visualization is fun to look at and doesn't even remotely track with reality.

That's why you're my fact-checkin' cuz

I hate that I gave up on this thread.

Ok I’ve been getting back into this thread as a result of the documentary. So great. Some proverbial thoughts – I’ll quote the full posts bc they deserve more love and attention:

Track No. 42: I Have Decided to Join the Airforce ("Idea", 1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzWwtAu_J8c

In the vein of Pink Floyd's "Corporal Clegg" or the Kinks' "Tin Soldier Man", in my opinion this fairly silly military nostalgia cosplay song/character sketch achieves a little bit of added depth when it swerves into minor-key territory on the middle eight. Accompanied by a time change that switches from a stiff march to a standard 4/4, the "don't ask me why/it's my mind and it's right/don't ask me why/it's my life/it's better, it's better than being alone/alone on the ground" adds an eerie quality that undercuts the otherwise child-like arrangement and delivery. Another in a long line of Robin's misty-eyed fantasies of the bygone British empire.

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.

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...

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

Track No. 79: The 1st Mistake I Made (2 Years On, 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMbORTuTjus

Honestly this song makes me a little irrationally angry, its half-assedness is practically an insult to the listener. With little more than a barely-there 4-bar vocal melody repeated ad nauseam, Barry delivers a nonsensical lyric that consistently undercuts the titular refrain (how can you have more than one first mistake?), begging the question of how something this stupid was not immediately flagged as a mistake in its own right. The one mildly interesting detail is the brief snatches of Maurice's phased electric guitar, which was a relatively new sound in their arsenal. But this is the second song in a row where their usual attention to craft and innate melodic skills really fail them, as they don't seem to have been deployed at all.

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. 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.

(Worth noting that I’m discussing mostly 2 Years On and Trafalgar here—I think there’s a good but more energy and variation on To Whom This May Concern—but holy shit those records are a slog)

I don't have any particular comments about the tunes just mentioned, but I wanted to say that although I wasn't here to comment on this thread at the time, I was reading every post. I do agree that the 70-73 period is hit-and-miss compared to before and after. Two Years On is especially dreary.

I'd love to have the chance to participate in more threads of this sort, either song-by-song or (like the Lightfoot thread) album-by-album. Xenakis is a little too dry (no offence intended to his biggest fans).

Agree. I could mayyyybe be interested in contributing to or doing an addendum for Robin’s Reign and Sing Slowly Sisters (which wasn’t officially released when we did the tracks poll).

Robin's solo material is every bit as nutty and, in some ways, even more nutty but there's a lot less variety to it. Love it, of course.

somebody should consider taking up the mantle on shakey's abandoned sly stone track-by-track thread

Honestly, I found that thread slow going. It never seemed to get out of Sly's adolescence.
It's good to be judicious in selecting a time period to explore. How much of a slog would this thread have been if it started with the Bee Gees' Australian albums?

I think Shakey starting the thread when Sly was 4 years old (or whenever) was a bit much. After all, he ignored all of the Bee Gees' Australian recordings, which had at least produced, "Spicks and Specks".

(xp)

A few more thoughts:

The discussion around To Whom It May Concern about Robin's last sole compositions and lead vocals reminds me of an interview I saw recently, might've been in the documentary, where Barry says it was Robin, of all people, who really pushed Barry to write songs for his falsetto. He also said that Robin was the one who was most driven for chart success.

Good posts on “I Held a Party” — a song I really like.

"You Know It's For You” feels like Maurice has traded Nilsson for the Moody Blues.

By the time To Whom It May Concern reaches “Please Don’t Turn Out the Lights” and “Sea of Smiling Faces" I realize how much more I enjoy listening to this record than anything since Odessa (other than the Robin albums, each of which leaves 2 Years On and Trafalgar in the dust in terms of consistency). It’s clearly a (the?) highlight of their post-reunion/pre-disco records.

Plowing through the disco records now ...

Re. their songs about getting laid too much, it’s interesting that Barry has been happily married to the same woman for, like, 50 years.

Good call on “Country Lanes” having an Eric Carmen vibe.

And yeah, I agree that Main Course feels a lot more similar to the previous records than it seemed – the second side in particular is really a throwback to the 70-74 grab bag era once they got their disco out of the way. As a result, the disco records feel like less of a slog – like what they really needed was some tempos variation!

On to Children of the World ...

That being said, even with Barry firmly in the lead, it's worth noting that song credits on their disco era albums are all almost uniformly split between the three brothers, possibly an act of solidarity on Barry's part that was both smart and generous.

In terms of songwriting credits, I remember reading that Robin in particular was good at coming up with memorable lyrics at the spur of the moment, even if a given song had its genesis with Barry.

I also remember Blue Weaver complaining that a song where he composed the chords that Barry sang a finished lyric over came out credited Gibb/Gibb/Gibb.

He doesn’t get a credit on “How Deep Is Your Love” notwithstanding the fact that he and Barry both remember writing the song the same way.

By the time To Whom It May Concern reaches “Please Don’t Turn Out the Lights” and “Sea of Smiling Faces" I realize how much more I enjoy listening to this record than anything since Odessa (other than the Robin albums, each of which leaves 2 Years On and Trafalgar in the dust in terms of consistency). It’s clearly a (the?) highlight of their post-reunion/pre-disco records.

I get the feeling that "To Whom It May Concern" is sometimes considered the nadir of their 1970-74 period (by those lucky people who might not be aware "Life in a Tin Can" even exists), the title has such an air of desperation about it, but I agree it's actually pretty enjoyable. "Trafalgar" is something ridiculous like 48 minutes long and if you lopped off about 15 minutes it would be a really good album. "Mr. Natural" is clearly the best post-reunion/pre-disco album.

A few more thoughts re. the disco years ...

Blue Weaver is kind of the secret weapon of this era. He clearly was paying close attention to Stevie Wonder and Cecil/Margouleff programming on stuff like “Lovers” and “Children of the World” with all that floaty melodic polyphonic stuff. But he’s also clearly the engine behind a lot of these arrangements other than the horns. Great Rhodes and piano parts everywhere. Even as late as Spirits of the World, he’s adding synth riffs and textures.

“Boogie Child” really is a kick – it takes Bowie’s “Fame” riff and actually does something with it. All in all, I think Children of the World might be their best from this period.

Lastly, re. “Country Lanes,” I listened to that song about 7x in the car just now. There’s something incredibly moving about that chorus as it builds and builds, with Robin melodramatically proclaiming he’ll never “belong” to anyone again. Hits me right there as well, Tom (tho why is it “in” country lanes instead of “on”?). Makes me feel like writing some of those gloppy YouTube comments mentioned upthread.

Has no-one pointed that the narrator of "I Started a Joke", be it Adolf Hitler or whoever, actually dies in the course of the song?

― The Vangelis of Dating (Tom D.), Friday, 8 March 2019 16:39 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

wracking my brain for whether or not that's unique in their catalog - it might not be!

― Οὖτις, Friday, 8 March 2019 16:48 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

It isn't. Robin (who else?) also dies in his solo track, "One Million Years" - although the first line in the song is actually "I'm dead" he later tells us "I passed away". It's like Sam Beckett but managed by Robert Stigwood. He also claims he dies in "Saved By the Bell" but that's a bit more ambiguous.

"i started a joke", same energy same voice:

In the past, I have fallen for this trick over 100 times. I've suffered professionally and mentally as a result. Their tactics are ruthless.

— wint (@dril) December 6, 2021

Okay

i regret having fallen off of this thread early, after a binge-y catchup on the first two albums. but that experience absolutely stuck with me, 'cause i've recently ended up acquiring copies of both records! i've really been loving the time spent with Bee Gees' 1st this week. it's an odd duck in that it's definitely greater than the sum of its parts, but also really oddly sequenced... even several listens in, i keep expecting something to be a side-ender and then there's two more songs after it. why on earth is "Please Read Me" not the album closer?? that would be great.

but it's really enjoyable as this charming and sometimes brilliantly hooky exemplar of slightly trippy 1968 pop-rock, tremendously influenced by both Pet Sounds and the Beatles' last few releases, but without the rockin' instrumental deftness of George and Ringo, or the harmonies and more directly emotional/confessional lyrics of Brian Wilson and Tony Asher. the combination actually does work, mainly because of the really distinct and committed (if sometimes mildly affected) vocals. and the songs are more varied and interesting than pretty much any other up-and-coming bubblegum psych act i've heard. like, i have a longstanding fondness for the Lemon Pipers' Green Tambourine, and this is a way way better record than that. i would guess that the Brooklyn Bridge's debut album is probably in a similar vein but i remember trying it out once and it was just a dreary chore. etc.

most especially "to love somebody" has risen tremendously in my estimation over the past ~4 years, i now think of it as an obvious towering classic of the genre. you can easily imagine that chorus as a fondly-remembered garage-rock hit by an otherwise unknown band, but the strings and vocals are so unmistakably part of this unique Bee Gee fusion. it really packs a wallop!

"Birdie Told Me" has been stuck in my head for days, I'm slowly losing all grip on reality

This thread is so great. The group discussion of Robin’s vocals around the Trafalgar-period is hilarious, insightful and ILM at its best.

I had to look out this video, it's missing above and it's also mislabelled, not because I think the song is all that great but to check if I was correct about Robin looking like John Lennon in it - and, it's weird, but he really does at times. Also that is definitely Alan Bates on drums ca. 0:40.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0QUoEX-gA0