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Early Bee Gees

Started by Custard, November 02, 2020, 12:19:28 PM

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Custard

They were superb, weren't they

Won't go for the obvious belters like Massachusetts, I've Gotta Get A Message To You, To Love Somebody. Though they're all great

Don't Want To Live Inside Myself
https://youtu.be/ZpQa4wRlMf4

Spicks and Specks
https://youtu.be/5N3DzJx9378

Lonely Days
https://youtu.be/Wa2_CL-2ZI4

Run To Me
https://youtu.be/B7F_qfopI_c

Don't Forget To Remember
https://youtu.be/FIdewXHh3eQ

Were all number ones in better dimensions

Bently Sheds

Every Christian Lionhearted Man is an absolute certified psychedelic masterpiece. Early Bee Gees were great.

jobotic

Quote from: Bently Sheds on November 02, 2020, 01:42:14 PM
Every Christian Lionhearted Man is an absolute certified psychedelic masterpiece. Early Bee Gees were great.

yeah that's a brilliant song.

My knowledge of them is scant, and I know it's not early Bee Gees but the music to the song Spirits Having Flown is just wonderful, but I can't help wishing the lads would shut up.

sevendaughters

All Bee Gees is great, even Robin's miseryfest solo debut.

They're the best transatlantic (pacific even) multi-genre hit machine, surpassing Fleetwood Mac.

the science eel

The debut is an absolute solid-gold classic from start to finish. The next two are pretty damned good too.

This is one of my favourites, have a look! Robin not a million miles from where Lennon lived and the song itself could have made Revolver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFN3Rfx___k

kalowski

So much better than their disco phase. I bloody love Odessa.
Also love New York Mining Disaster 1941.

lipsink

I know it's not exactly early Bee Gees but the song 'Nights On Broadway' is apparently when they started using the falsetto voices as the producer asked them to try screaming to make the song more exciting.Even before they sang falsetto they had pretty strange voices though. The fact they're all a bit goofy looking kinda reminds me of Supergrass.

Anyway, my nomination for early Bee Gees belter is Holiday.



the science eel


Brundle-Fly

Yes. Clive Anderson deserved to be walked out on.

famethrowa

Quote from: badaids on November 02, 2020, 07:41:47 PM
This is the best early song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ9RdE0R-Ts

Great stuff. But is anyone else annoyed that the music staff notes don't quite match up to what we're hearing? And it could so easily be right.

famethrowa

Quote from: Shameless Custard on November 02, 2020, 12:19:28 PM

Spicks and Specks
https://youtu.be/5N3DzJx9378


It's a wonderful thing. Recorded in the back of a shop in a Sydney suburb around an old upright piano, and still up there with what was going on at Abbey Road at the time.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on November 02, 2020, 09:06:06 PM
Yes. Clive Anderson deserved to be walked out on.

I like Cive, but he really was the tosser there, pal. He doesn't strike me as man with any knowledge or love of popular music, he's a stuffy old bore who glibly took the piss out of one the greatest pop groups of all time - to their faces - while thinking he was being terribly clever.

The Bee Gees were an odd group, but that's what made them so special. They could be naff, bewildering, clueless. They were also bona fide pop geniuses who were entirely within their rights to basically tell Clive Anderson to fuck off.

Dropshadow

"Jumbo". Not only a lovely little slice of psychedelia, but also the best song about masturbation ever written:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvGQkxLEKL8

"Mr. Barker of the UFO". Just like the above, minus the masturbation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIiAcEj6hA

I like the vaguely absurd 'Lemons Never Forget' - apparently an oblique swipe at The Beatles and their Apple business empire:

'An apple is a fool, but lemons never do forget.'

https://youtu.be/jlk8swBeOu8

Noodle Lizard

Gregg Turkington (Neil Hamburger, On Cinema) did a pretty good breakdown of their discography on Mark Prindle's site a while back: http://markprindle.com/beegees.htm

famethrowa

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on November 02, 2020, 11:26:47 PM
I like Cive, but he really was the tosser there, pal. He doesn't strike me as man with any knowledge or love of popular music, he's a stuffy old bore who glibly took the piss out of one the greatest pop groups of all time - to their faces - while thinking he was being terribly clever.

The Bee Gees were an odd group, but that's what made them so special. They could be naff, bewildering, clueless. They were also bona fide pop geniuses who were entirely within their rights to basically tell Clive Anderson to fuck off.

I think Clive just assumed he was talking to the BeeGees of 1983, a washed-up band of old jokers. Time was catching up to their legend status, but maybe not just yet.

Menu

Quote from: famethrowa on November 03, 2020, 02:37:19 AM
I think Clive just assumed he was talking to the BeeGees of 1983, a washed-up band of old jokers. Time was catching up to their legend status, but maybe not just yet.

The weird thing about that incident was that Clive wasn't doing that sort of 'insult' interview any more. He'd made his name doing interviews on his 'Clive Anderson Talks Back' show where he had a scripted series of gags at the interviewee's expense and he'd sort of arrange the interview in such a way as to motor through the jokes and get as many out as possible. The fun was to see how each guest would react, but they pretty much all knew it was coming.

But once he left Channel 4 and to do this show on the BBC he conspicuously dropped all that. He just interviewed them in the same way as any other talk show interview. So there'd be jokes, and his personality would show through but he was definitely not doing the insulting stuff any more. And then the Bee Gees come on and for whatever reason, he clearly has a prepared joke based on their old name. And I think he'd got in another prepared joke earlier. It was a weird return to his old 'character' and it went badly. He looked stunned at the end. He sort of wraps up the show and hangs his head. His own fault though. Great TV.

daf

#19
Looking at the interview on Youtube, I don't think Clive's gag was prepared - Barry is the one who first mentions 'Les Tosseurs' - and in reading a later interview with Maurice, it seems it actually wasn't really an old group name, but an in-joke refering to a gag they pulled backstage at the Brit Awards.

Trouble is, the real old names are just as ridiculous, so Clive and the audience appear to take this as a genuine bit of band history (pre-internet etc)

I'm blaming Barry's delivery here - I don't know what he expected to get dropping that line - a huge laugh from the audience? But he doesn't give any tip off that this is a gag - so they're none the wiser - and neither is Clive! He probaby STILL thinks they were really called 'Les Tosseurs' back in the early 60s!

QuoteMaurice : "You know, we called ourselves Les Tosseurs, you know, 'cause we put it on the Brit Awards - when we were doing the Brit Awards in London at the Earl's Court. We had dressing room things, and Elton [John] wanted a garden with his so we said, "What's going on?" They were building all afternoon with it while we were rehearsing. And then they built a whole garden with a fountain and everything for Elton and he said, "I was only joking."

"Anyway, we put on our door "Les Tosseurs As Seen On Father Ted." Just as a joke, you know, on our dressing room door. So everyone was going around saying, "Who could do that to the Bee Gees dressing room? Who put that on our door?" And everyone was getting real mad because they thought someone was taking the piss on this. And Barry said, "No, we did it." And they went, "Oh! It's very funny, isn't it?" You know? But everyone was looking around for the [bleep] who put that on our door. But that's what it's all about. It's fun. And we thought Clive was gonna be like that."

Menu

Quote from: daf on November 03, 2020, 08:27:23 AM
Looking at the interview on Youtube, I don't think Clive's gag was prepared - Barry is the one who first mentions 'Les Tosseurs' - and in reading a later interview with Maurice, it seems it actually wasn't really an old group name, but an in-joke refering to a gag they pulled backstage at the Brit Awards.

Trouble is, the real old names are just as ridiculous, so Clive and the audience appear to take this as a genuine bit of band history (pre-internet etc)

I'm blaming Barry's delivery here - I don't know what he expected to get dropping that line - a huge laugh from the audience? But he doesn't give any tip off that this is a gag - so the're none the wiser - and neither is Clive! He probaby STILL thinks they were really called 'Les Tosseurs' back in the early 60s!

Ah ok. It makes more sense that he hadn't prepared it. I must have misread the situation. Like you I don't quite understand what they were expecting? Its like they feel defensive of a name that isn't real.

kalowski

Watching that for the first time in ages it's Barry who comes off worst. He's a miserable cock throughout.

Menu

Quote from: kalowski on November 03, 2020, 09:44:18 AM
Watching that for the first time in ages it's Barry who comes off worst. He's a miserable cock throughout.

And perhaps some dissent within the ranks which might be an underlying cause of the walk-out. BEE GEES AT WAR.

Custard

Tbf, if I'd written Run To Me I'd tell everyone to get in bin too

I used to think they were the villains of that interview, but watching now it's clearly Anderson. He'd never have spoken to any of the Beatles like that. Because of the disco period (which I also enjoy), people considered them some kind of joke. In the 90s, at least. But they were fucking brilliant

sevendaughters

The prickliness of Barry and the fragility of Robin (combined with the relatively normal but drug-wild Maurice) is sort of what makes it for me. They're very self-serious, they took what they did as having the same significance as Mozart, and I think Barry in particular couldn't make that transition into postmodern japery where everything is up for a joke. That's what Walliams and Lucas picked up on best about them in Rock Profiles.

famethrowa

I think it was Taylor Parkes on Chart Music who said they could only have fun on their terms. True for a lot of "the stars" I think, humour is only approved when it's their idea. (Idea?? geddit?)

DrGreggles

'Holiday' is the best Bee Gees song*.
There, I've said it.



*and Madonna song

daf

It's astonishing how many of those one-off 'Psychedelic Landfill' flop-singles in the late 60's turned out to be unreleased songs written by the Bee Gees - this sort of thing : Sands - Mrs Gillespie's Refrigerator  /  The Monopoly - House Of Lords

grainger

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on November 02, 2020, 11:26:47 PM
I like Cive, but he really was the tosser there, pal. He doesn't strike me as man with any knowledge or love of popular music, he's a stuffy old bore who glibly took the piss out of one the greatest pop groups of all time - to their faces - while thinking he was being terribly clever.

That was the point of his show. He took the piss out of all his guests, be they musicians, actors or whoever. I think the Bee Gees said somewhere that before agreeing to go on the show, they sought assurance that he wouldn't take the piss out of them, and were given it. If that's true then the production company/Anderson/whoever made the promise wasn't honest, but it's hardly surprising to see Anderson take the piss out of his guests.

The Bee Gees had form for storming out of things and OTT angry outbursts, so it wasn't just Anderson. They were definitely highly sensitive to perceived criticism. I don't really blame them for that, but there is a wider context to the Anderson storm-out that often gets left out of discussion of the incident online.

grainger

Quote from: sevendaughters on November 03, 2020, 11:25:57 AM
The prickliness of Barry and the fragility of Robin (combined with the relatively normal but drug-wild Maurice) is sort of what makes it for me. They're very self-serious, they took what they did as having the same significance as Mozart, and I think Barry in particular couldn't make that transition into postmodern japery where everything is up for a joke. That's what Walliams and Lucas picked up on best about them in Rock Profiles.

I heard Robin storm out of a radio interview after being asked a reasonable and sympathetic question that he took the wrong way. I've got the impression in other interviews that he feels the Bee Gees weren't given their dues. I am not an expert on them, but I think they are sensitive to being labelled as disco artists, and their other work being forgotten. Also, I understand they were victims of the (IMO truly horrible) "disco sucks" movement in the USA. So on some level I understand his (and Barry's?) sensitivity.

The Rock Profile piece is very funny, but from my limited knowledge it's not really fair in painting Barry as some tyrant who rules the other brothers with an iron hand.

Also, I'm not a Bee Gees fan, but I don't accept that rock/pop music is automatically not as good as Mozart.