Ed's Bee Gees Appreciation Thread Part 2: 1975-Present

No offense meant. What I meant is: First/Idea/Odessa (perhaps Horizontal should also be included) established the Bee Gees as an emerging force in the pop scenario of late sixties. Therefore their importance to establish BRM Gibb as singers/composers. MC was indeed an important release to keep their career going on, but I wonder if one should consider (or not) that SNF was the album that actually made the difference. Of course one could always argue that there would not be a SNF without MC. Problem is I always had this dubious feeling about MC, the songs are very good but something is missing in the production. Just some thoughts.

Regards,
Helio

 

A pompous title(if fitting), HERE AT LAST...BEE GEES....LIVE further consolidated the group's success by gathering together a strong mix of older material(from 1967-68)with a smattering of others up to MAIN COURSE and CHILDREN, which they nicely showcased. Indeed, "Edge Of The Universe" was, if anything, improved over the studio version, a bit more dynamic and energetic, and it's that intensity that made the album a nice listen. Recorded during their 1976 US tour, you could hear the confidence....but who knew that just months later they'd go from well known veterans to the most popular act on the planet. At times, on this album, you can almost hear them preparing for a stardom few attain, for however brief a time.

1. I've Gotta Get A Message To You
2. Love So Right
3. Edge Of The Universe
4. Come On Over
5. Can't Keep A Good Man Down
6. New York Mining Desaster 1941
7. Run To Me / World
8. Medley: a. Holiday
b. I Can't See Nobody
c. I Started A Joke
d. Massachusetts
9. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart
10. To Love Somebody
11. You Should Be Dancing
12. Boogie Child
13. Down The Road
14. Words
15. Wind Of Change
16. Nights On Broadway
17. Jive Talkin'
18. Lonely Days

A 2-Lp set, this was on CD for awhile, but I think it's OOP now, unfortunately.

 

It's included in the japanese reissue series!

 

Was always a big fan of this album. Think the live version of Gotta Get A Message To You and Edge of the Universe are fabulous. The energy they showed is tremendous.

It is interesting to go back and listen to this knowing what was to come. Given their past, not kowing how long this would all last again only to have something unforeseen explode in poplularity with them in the middle.

 

Released in 1977 (before Saturday Night Fever), this is the best Live album recorded by the Bee Gees in terms of performance level and quality of songs. This is the Bee Gees captured live at their peak. One of my favourite Live albums of all time.

 

This album was my real introduction to the Bee Gees. My father's wife gave it to me for my 13th birthday in August 1977, even though I'd never expressed any interest in the Bee Gees previously. I've recently asked her why she bought this for me, but she can't even remember doing so. So a last minute choice for a present has lead to a 27 year love for a band.

After this album I bought Bee Gees Gold and eventually found second hand copies of their 1960s albums. I was hooked and would remain so.

 

And now the BIG one: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER! No one knew how well the movie would be received, as it was fairly low budget, starred a guy know for his TV work on WELCOME BACK, KOTTER, and a few hit pop records. But it wasn't just John Travolta who shot to megastardom: the Gibbs went from being well known popsters to international superstars as this one topped charts around the world and brought disco(and the Bee Gees)fully into the mainstream.

Of course the album is only partly theirs; others artists shared the space, including incidental score composer David Shire. But the lads got feature credit on the cover, and it was their hits, more than any other, that defined the era. If it doesn't seem so important now--in fact, it all seems very dated--at the time the impact was far-reaching, and the brothers would never quite live down success of this magnitude, made all the more special because of leaner years when their music was still vital but their audience had all but abandoned them. A new audience climbed aboard, and it would be years before they, too, left for other things.

1. Stayin' Alive(Bee Gees)
2. How Deep Is Your Love(Bee Gees)
3. Night Fever(Bee Gees)
4. More Than A Woman(Bee Gees)
5. If I Can't Have You (Yvonne Elliman)
6. A Fifth Of Beethoven (Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band)
7. More Than A Woman (Tavares)
8. Manhatten Skyline (David Shire)
9. Calypso Beakdown (Ralph McDonald)
10 Night On Disco Mountain (David Shire)
11. Open Sesame (Kool & the Gang)
12. Jive Talkin'(Bee Gees)
13. You Should Be Dancing(Bee Gees)
14. Boogie Shoes (K.C. and the Sunshine Band)
15. Salsation (David Shire)
16. K-JEE (M.F.S.B.)
17. Disco Inferno (The Trammps)

 

No matter what other people say, this double LP soundtrack remains in my top 100 favourite albums of all time. The same goes to the movie "SNF" which I consider classic.
Next to the Bee Gees, I also like M.F.S.B. and Walter Murphy.
"K-JEE" can also be found in MFSB's Universal Love LP while "A Fifth Of Beethoven" is also the title of Walter Murphy Band's debut album.

 

I just played the album last week! It's a treat to hear it every time!

 

The funny thing is, Saturday Night Fever is really little more than half a single pocket (remember that term?) Bee Gees album. 6 Bee Gees songs. Of course, you can stretch that to 8 if you include the Yvonne Elliman and Travares songs which are essentially the Bee Gees with standin lead singers. So OK, maybe it was a short full single album of Bee Gees material.

Certainly, no one was buying it for anything else. (There were other hits on the album, but those were older songs available elsewhere).

I wonder, if they'd known what was going to happen, if Robert Stigwood and the Bee Gees would have been so generous in sharing album space with those other guys (who must be counted, along with those whose songs the Beatles covered and Nick Lowe as among the luckiest artists ever)?

There was a promo album that nicely condensed the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack down to 5-6 Bee Gees songs on one side, and the 5-6 songs from Grease that anyone cared about on the other side.

Of course, Robert Stigwood decided that if he could hoist two larded double LP soundtrack sets on the public and go zillion times platinum both times, he should go for number three. Hello Sgt. Pepper, goodbye millions of dollars and a career or two.

And then there was the 2LP soundtrack to Times Square, which was a pretty good new wave sampler, but short on unique material. It did have a Robin Gibb track, though!

(Which brings us back to the topic at hand, the Bee Gees...)

Kwad

 

Great thread!

I consider myself a Bee Gees lover and have always treasured Horizontal and Saturday Night Fever the most.

I think their early work is great, but I've always been awed by the power of Bee Gees music circa 75-77. A run of fantastic songs and records (including those they farmed out to other artists).

I quite like that SNF is front loaded with the Bee Gees material, as it is this that I listen to when I spin the record.

 

I take it you don't really like the music on SNF...

 

Well, the Bee Gees music is great. The rest? I have what I need/want from other sources. Take the Bee Gees music away, call the rest a soundtrack and what do you have? Nothing of any consequence. Not to take away from some of those hit disco tracks that fill out the album, but they didn't originate on that soundtrack and weren't new when it was issued. Some were already tired hits when the soundtrack came out. The Bee Gees were the lure of the soundtrack. The rest was, I maintain, mostly lard.

File this one under Kick Self In Head, Repeat Daily: Boz Scaggs was asked to license a song for the SNF soundtrack (Lowdown or Lido Shuffle, I believe). He declined, deciding instead to allow a track from the Silk Degrees album to be licensed to the soundtrack of the promising upcoming movie Looking For Mr Goodbar. (Apparently, he didn't want to spread his licenses too thin...)

 

Hey, Ed!!! What's up with this thread? I was really looking forward to seeing more on the Bee Gees albums to come. Are you going to resurrect this thread?

 

More to come later! Patience, ye rabble....

 

A few things about SNF before Ed gets to either Sgt Pepper or Spirits Having Flown:

-- The original copies of the 2-LP set contain the studio version of "Jive Talkin'." For reasons probably related to the joint ownership of the track (at the time) between Atco and Polydor, the studio version was replaced fairly early in the press run with the live version of "Jive Talkin'" from Here at Last ... Live. The inner sleeve notes also were changed to reflect the different version. You can tell which version you have by looking at the Side 3 trail-off wax; if the master number is followed by "REV-1," you have the live version of "Jive Talkin'." By the time SNF was issued on CD, the legal issues were resolved, and all CD versions contain the studio version of "Jive Talkin'."
-- It is almost certain that, had the Bee Gees chosen to release it as a single, "More Than a Woman" would have broken the record at the time for the hghest debut on the Billboard Hot 100. (For the curious, the record, since broken, was the #6 debut of "Let It Be" by the Beatles in 1970.) Even when "Night Fever" was firmly ensconced at #1, and when the Bee Gees became the first artist since the Beatles to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time, and when Bee Gees-related hits by Andy Gibb and Samantha Sang also were in the top 10, "More Than a Woman" was already getting saturation airplay. But the Gibbs refused to allow it to be issued as a single. It was never even assigned a number. In 1980, once the Fever had subsided, RSO was able to issue "More Than a Woman" on its "Top Hits" oldies 45 series.
-- At least two songs appeared in the movie that were not issued on the soundtrack LP: Carol Douglas' version of "Night Fever" (heard early in the movie) and "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots (used in the scene with out-of-shape people trying to learn how to disco dance in a dance studio). Unlike many so-called soundtrack albums that were "music from and inspired by ...," I think you can hear every song on the SNF album in the movie somewhere.
-- Practically every song on the soundtrack was issued on 45; even at least one of the three David Shire instrumentals ("Salsation") was on a 45! Some came out before the movie, such as "A Fifth of Beethoven," but three songs other than the Bee Gees' made the top 40 as a direct result of appearing in SNF -- "More Than a Woman" by Tavares, "Boogie Shoes" by K.C. and the Sunshine Band (originally a B-side), and "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps.
-- Both "How Deep Is Your Love" and "Stayin' Alive" received 45 rpm single edits, and "Stayin' Alive" got a promo-only extended 12-inch remix that has not appeared legitimately on a Bee Gees album.
-- A non-LP B-side was the Bee Gees' own version of "If I Can't Have You," which later appeared on the LP Bee Gees Greatest.

 

One more side note: I do believe David Shire's "Manhattan Skyline" was also issued by RSO on 45(edited, of course)...don't remember that it did anything on the charts....

 

On now: on to the surreal and strange....

SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND was a project that must have seemed a gimme on paper: adapt a great and legendary Beatles album to the screen, with the red-hot Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees the leads! Brilliant! Can't miss! Even George Martin and Geoff Emerick were involved! Dozens of fine(even great)musicians! And of course they'd surround themselves with all sorts of stellar, charismatic lead talent, right? Make sure the arrangements were first-rate, right?

Well.....there are a few more than worthy versions here, the most obvious also being the two big hits from the 2-Lp set, EWF's workout of "Got To Get You Into My Life" and Aerosmith's rendering of "Come Together." Then there's the Gibb bros. nice(albeit brief)reading of "Nowhere Man," which is inexplicably buried in an otherwise wan medley.

After I'd played this mess for the first time(there haven't been many replays since...), it occurred to me someone had made a few little blunders. First, the musical arrangements, with only intermittent exception, are limp, without anything near the power of the originals. That's understandable, but some of the garish absurdity of some of it makes the Beatles' originals seem sedate. Second, while there are some interesting guest appearances(EWF, Aero, Alice Cooper, Steve Martin, even George Burns doing "Fixing A Hole" rather than "When I'm Sixty-Four--which might have been cool!), this album, when the Bee Gees and Frampton aren't around, is dominated by the competent but faceless singing of Sandy Farina, Dianne Steinberg(where was Yvonne Elliman when she was really needed? ), Paul Nicholas(amazing what one hit for RSO will getcha!), Frankie Howard, and Stargard. Indeed, this bunch got so much space on the album that it seemed criminal EWF and Aero got all of one song! And finally, hadda wonder why so many songs from ABBEY ROAD, thus all but obscuring PEPPER at times. [How bad? Well....after hearing the "Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight" medley, went and pulled out the Trash cover version from '69. You know something has gone terribly wrong when a no-name, forgotten band like that turned in a better version than what was found here!]

The whole affair--both soundtrack and film--were excessive and mostly meaningless. In fact, disappointing, so much so that the originator's versions PEPPER and ABBEY ROAD--after years off the charts--made successful returns and racked up even more weeks, and served to inform those new to their music that the originals were indeed not only the best, but in a league only a few cuts here even get near. The attempt to make Frampton a teenybopper heartthrob worked briefly, but it wound up stifling and derailing his career(a fine guitar player, he should never have been pushed in that direction). In spite of all, however, this film sank quickly enough that the Bee Gees were not much affected, even though most of what they did will likely not(except for maybe a few decent cuts, like Robin's Top 40 turn with "Oh! Darling")be part of any future retrospectives of their illustrious career.

Of course the day the DVD was issued, had to go out and get a copy. Never know when something like that will suddenly be OOP.... And in its own fashion, the film is a camp classic of sorts. The album, I'm afraid, is not, for without the visuals, it just goes on and on and on and on....

Rather than list the whole contents, here's the tracks the Gibbs were involved with:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With A Little Help From My Friends/Getting Better/I Want You(She's So Heavy)[No she ain't--this is as lightweight as you can imagine this one ever being]/Good Morning, Good Morning/She's Leaving Home/Oh! Darling[Robin solo]/Medley: Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window/Nowhere Man/Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band(reprise)/Because/Golden Slumbers-Carry That Weight/Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite/A Day In The Life/Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band(Finale)[Credited to 'The Cast'--never has such a huge cast seemed so small...]

And to think I thought ALL THIS & WORLD WAR II was screwed up.....

 

Let's not forget that the Bee Gee's Sgt. Pepper is the album that is said to have shipped platinum and returned double platinum, a reference to both the incredible number of "counterfeit" copies that made it into the pipeline, and the fact that RSO shipped WAY too many copies of the album to retailers.

From what I have read elsewhere, the Bee Gees agreed to do Sgt. Pepper long before the SNF soundtrack was released. Also, they supposedly realized at some time during filming that the movie was going to suck and tried to get it cancelled and/or extricate themselves from it. But Robert Stigwood would have none of it...

(Speaking of Robert Stigwood...what happened? There was an article in the Wall Street Journal several years ago that basically described him as an extreme eccentric living on an estate somewhere in England. But I was surprised that he so thoroughly disappeared after RSO tanked and got assimilated by Polygram as partial payment for money they owed Polygram...I would have thought he'd start another label or something...but he didn't).

Kwad

 

I wondered for years why some pressings of SNF had the live version of "Jive Talkin'" instead of the studio version. The first copy I had of the album was the second pressing that I bought in early 1978. Once the rights to the Bee Gees tracks that were controlled by Atlantic/Atco had reverted back Robert Stigwood's company, they switched versions on subsequent repressings of the album. There was a repress of the album in the mid 80's issued in a single pocket sleeve(instead of a gatefold) with plain plastic inner sleeves, and silver RSO labels that has the original of "Jive Talkin'" on it.

That 12" promo EP from SNF contained extended versions of all five tracks included on it. To date only Yvonne Elliman's "If I Can't Have You"(included on a Polygram Special Markets disco CD compilation), and the Bee Gees "You Should Be Dancing"(on The Brothers Gibb box set) have been released comercially. So far the extended versions of "Stayin' Alive", "Night Fever", and "More Than A Woman" haven't turned up anywhere else.

 

I personaly love the soundtrack though it's too bad Olivia Newton-John didn't sing the female tunes. THAT would be perfect. Well, the movie was sure.... Isn't it strange that no tracks from Pepper turned on the boxset?

 

Next up: the hugely successful SPIRITS HAVING FLOWN. Released in early '79, as the lads were still the toast of the world, the SNF buzz will still on, and thankfully, the PEPPER debacle already half-forgotten....

SPIRITS is a lively collection of basic pop and rock nuggets. IMO, "Tragedy" is the pinnacle of this period of their career, and while it was a big dancefloor hit, it's really a lot more rock than disco. I felt they stayed true to themselves here, didn't try to suckle on the disco teat overmuch(in sports jargon, one could stay they 'stayed within themselves'). Good effort, I believe, though only a few real echoes of the past.

1. Tragedy
2. Too Much Heaven
3. Love You Inside Out
4. Reaching Out
5. Spirits(Having Flown)

6. Search, Find
7. Stop(Think Again)
8. Living Together
9. I'm Satisfied
10. Until

 

I think Spirits is a musical perfection from start to finnish, though the whole album done in falsetto is a bit too much even for me. However, here Barry's falsetto use reached the absolute level. There are numerous moments of divine beauty on this record which IMHO stands as one the most unique musical accomplishments of the XX century. PERIOD!

 

By the way one stupid question folks: how do you pronounce G in Gibb in English. Like G in Genesis or like G in Guilty? In Russia we usualy go for the latest variant. Wonder if we're right.

 

I agree with antonkk on the falsetto overuse/abuse. I finally ahd had enough of the falsettos and really ended up getting into the album's title song because of the absence of falsettos. While I agree about the greatness of Tragedy, the falsettos really grate with repeated listening.