#Bee gees holiday movie#

Written for Odessa, but later used as the theme for the 1971 movie Melody, Melody Fair encapsulates the two competing impulses within the 60s Bee Gees. A beautiful evocation of the sun setting over Sydney on a summer’s evening, it drifts along on a warm breeze of acoustic guitar and mellotron. Kilburn Towers (1968)Īn unexpected addition to the setlist of Barry’s 2013 Mythology tour, Kilburn Towers is a hidden gem on Idea. The fact it’s audibly unfinished doesn’t affect its fidgety greatness. The Bee Gees’ version finally came out on a 2007 compilation.

It was mooted for the soundtrack, then abandoned and eventually donated to Andy, who released it on his final album, a post-disco backlash flop in 1980. The missing piece of Saturday Night Fever. The album One is largely melancholy and haunted by the death of their brother Andy Gibb, but there is a pleasing irony about the fact that the Bee Gees returned to the US Top 10 after 12 years with a dancefloor-focused song that – behind the electronic 80s production – could have appeared on their disco-era albums. If they do, it’s ironic that the song in effect split the Bee Gees, Robin quitting in protest at its release as a single. First of May (1969)įraternal relations were fraught during the recording of Odessa, something the lyrics of Barry Gibb’s splendidly morose First of May may allude to, happy childhood memories contrasting with latter-day estrangement. Which brings us to I Started a Joke, on which everything goes horribly wrong, until its protagonist dies, apparently to general rejoicing. I Started a Joke (1968)Īlmost all the Bee Gees’ 60s hits tend to the gloomy, but Robin’s songs amp up the sadness to the point where it becomes faintly disturbing. It was unlike anything they had recorded before – and a signpost to the future.

While it still majored in ballads, Mardin encouraged the Gibbs’ love of rhythm and blues, hence the appealingly gentle funk of Dogs. Produced by Arif Mardin, Mr Natural is a transitional album that links the distinct phases of the Bee Gees’ career. Quick fix: play them Odessa’s title track, seven and a half ever-shifting minutes involving harp, strings, heartbreak, the saga of an 1899 shipwreck and a burst of Baa Baa Black Sheep. It’s sometimes hard to convey to those who know only the hits how weird the Bee Gees’ late 60s albums can be. Singing lead, he sounds as if he is about to burst into tears. Subsequently covered by Nina Simone, I Can’t See Nobody – originally the B-side of New York Mining Disaster 1941 – introduced audiences outside Australia to the extraordinary voice of Robin Gibb, which even his mother said made her “go cold”. Sweet Song of Summer’s eerie analogue synth backing and ominous mood is a haunting anomaly in their catalogue.

The title of the album To Whom it May Concern underlines its unfocused contents, but just occasionally the Bee Gees’ increasing confusion about their purpose led them to try something completely off-beam. Soft and straightforward by Bee Gees ballad standards, the lyrics nevertheless dealt with a hippy hitching to San Francisco but getting no further than New England. But Massachusetts sat somewhere in the middle. The No 1 singles of 1967 usually fit one of two categories: turned-on psychedelia, or the MOR reaction against it. The Bee Gees: Massachusetts (live in 1989) – video

Bee gees holiday