The Smiley Smile Message Board

 Hell0 men, ( and few women) Name me a begees tune that you all dig, -10 points for stayin alive... dont get me wrong that is a great song but thats like naming Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts  club  as yer  faviorte tune off  said album....

I have to say mine is Massachusetts.....  God Bless them for that tune (may they  burn in hell for trying to portary the beatles in Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts club movie.)


xoxoxoxoxo  suga

"Massachusettes" isn't really much more obscure.

My favorite is Kilburn Towers off Idea. Unbelievably gorgeous tune.
A close second is Melody Fair off Odessa.

My favorite song is "Meaningless words in very high voices"

"World"...

Heaven that.

"Black Diamond." (Love Kiss' cover version, too.) (Har-de-fucking-har.)

I know they wrote at least one great song (How do you mend a Broken heart by Al Green at least is) but I hate them as much now as when they first annoyed me by being whiney and ugly with Massachussets back in 68 on TOTP for what seemed like years. Deeply repellant. In every conceivable way. Can we not mention them again please?

U trippin dawg,  the Begees are fuckin awesome.... and its ok at like 14 to think they suck but in yer adult life if you still think they  suck you are freakin trippin......

New York Mining Disaster 1941

Can you keep your completely off-the-mark and wrong comments to yourself?

I have a deep and abiding desperation to hear "Robin's Reign," a disc which thus far has eluded all my best efforts to obtain it.

Excellent, but the unreleased masterpiece Sing Slowly Sisters is far, far greater.

Heard nothing but greatness about that ephemeral baby, too.  :'(

There will be a thread about that album with "audio samples" very soon on the other board.

"SAL-VAY-SHUN!"

(Cue the pygmy Stonehenge ... )

Me personally, my favorite BeeGees song is "To Love Somebody."


No idea what my "FAVIORTE BEGEES song" is.

Great choice, Beck, but gotta say James Carr's version annihilates the Bee Gees' cut.

Burrito Brothers and Janis Joplin did pretty nice versions too.

Because of Elvis' stellar cover, I am partial to "Words".

Elvis covered Words?  Gotta check that out...

Oh, do indeed.  Let me help -- Elvis' first live album, from his 69 Vegas stint.  One of the best live albums ever made, with a version of Suspicious Minds that went on for almost 7 minutes.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002WFC/qid=1137126276/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-6145522-2449440?s=music&v=glance&n=5174

Versions of Words can be found also on various FTD releases and the deluxe version of That's the Way It Is, but the original 69 version beats them all to me.  If you like Elvis and don't have that album, GET IT!!!!

While we are at this, what is the best CD for the Bee Gee's Best for pre-disco material?  Any good recommends?  I only know the radio stuff for the most part but obviously that is good stuff. 

Jeff, you would LOVE their early LP's. They're all great, every one of em. Some of the finest, most gorgeous pop music ever made.
But start with the 1st, digest, then move on chronologically.
So, in order:
Bee Gees First
Horizontal
Idea
Odessa
Cucumber Castle
Two Years On
Trafalgar
To Whom It May Concern
Life In A Tin Can
Mr. Natural

Then the 70's "hit" years, which are amazing too.

Easy, for me: "How Deep Is Your Love."

It's a predictable choice, but it does it for me.

At least I didn't pick "Stayin' Alive."

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

...

..

.

A worthwhile double CD to look out for is "The Birth of Brilliance"; has most (if not all) of the stuff recorded in Oz before the Gibbs went back to the UK. Highlights include "Coalman" (sounds something like The Hollies crosscut with The Beatles doing "Taxman" and "Paperback Writer"), "Exit, Stage Right" (again, has echoes of "Paperback Writer") and a cover of "Paperback Writer" itself. Lots of other good ones, too.

I'm gonna have to say.. uh.. Tragedy.

Night Fever - I love the bridge on that one. I tried the single disc reissue of Odessa once and couldn't get into it, but I really wanted to.

I'm tempted to say "NIghts on Broadway" or "Jive Talkin'," both of which I love deeply, but I'm gonna have to go with "Night Fever" too.

The early stuff is fantastic too -- New York Mining Disaster and To Love SOmebody are both indespensible.

Barry Gibb is one of the few who approaches the same league as Brian Wilson...and Robin and Maurice are amazing as well...

My faves (in no particular order)

Country Lanes (Main Course) - listen to Robin! wow
Melody Fair - I think it was a single
The Only Love (High Civilization)
Winds of Change (Main Course)
Love You Inside Out (Spirits Having Flown)
How Deep Is Your Love - I just NEVER get sick of this one. Especially that intro.
Juliet (Robin solo from How Old Are You, but Bee Gees did it live on '89 tour)
Nights on Broadway (Main Course)
I Can't See Nobody

Maurice's passing is like Carl Wilson's passing - Barry and Robin, despite recent feuding, can continue but it will not nearly be the same

Theme from “The Barry Gibb Talk Show”….

…I mean, “How Deep Is Your Love”.

  "Lonely Days"   from 2 Years On

i like the  Odessa album a lot ..also Jive Talkin cause i remember that coming out of the  radio shack transistor radio during the summer while we were in the pool and  that would make us circle the pool and create a whirlpool . And then we would ride the whirlpool to the strains of . Jiiive talkin ..yout telling me lies..chlorine it get's in my eye's....

Apologies if you are offended by the comment Ian - I just have never liked them, even more since the disco period . It's not a wrong comment, just my opinion. I could have gone for the more humorous approach re the 'very high voices...' answer, but... you obviously like them, I don't. We all have our blind spots!
Cheers.

"Please Read Me" I find thoroughly convincing as an mid-period Beatles pastiche that would have not been out of place on "Rubber Soul."  Brilliant harmonies and song structure.

I thought many more people were into their early stuff....I'm pretty surprised and disappointed.

you mean more people here?
Hell, their early stuff is ripe for discovery.

I myself only know 1st.  Have Horizontal on LP and find it just so...
I have heard tracks off of Odessa that are fantastic.  But need to buy that pup.
I just got Cucumber Castle and haven't even tapped it yet.

Bottom line, Bee Gees first is simply a must for fans of the more soulful side of the Beatles and Beach Boys.  It's got amazing songs on it!!!!  Amazing!!!!  I can't really vouch for the others yet but it's just a matter of time.  I'll go back to that Horizontal record.

I am, Ian, they are in my top 5 bands of all time...I just picked a few tunes as the topic said "favorite song" - but I absolutely adore (in addition to I Can't See Nobody and Melody Fair):

First of May
Holiday
Spicks and Specks
And The Sun Will Shine
Run To Me
Sea Of Smiling Faces
and Robin's second best vocal, (after Country Lanes) I Started A Joke. Especially his live version from the One tour

I sure am, but my favorite stuff will always be the 70s stuff. It is absolutely great. No arguing.

Yep, Artie, I noticed you were a true-blue fan, which is wonderful. These guys have the most consistently impressive discography of any band, for me.

That's the thing: they are rock-freaking-solid from the very beginning through like the early 80s, which is a VERY impressive run -- certainliy more consistently right on than most bands from that era.

The one thing I've yet to check out is the early-early-early stuff! The pre-"first" albums.

All time fave: "Gotta Get A Message to You." Shimmeringly beautiful pop song about a guy who's about to be executed--how can you not love it?

"Nights on Broadway" Love the ballad section in the middle, which could have been an entirely different great song in its own right.

The classic mid-period heartbreakers "How Can You Mend..." and "Run to Me."

"To Love Somebody" might be their best song, but the Bee Gees own version is only my third or fourth fav version.

But I have to say the Bee Gees song I find myself singing to myself most often is, for some reason, "The Lord" from Cucumber Castle. The boys from Oz pull off some authentic  Appalachian sheetkicking!

It's not that I am not into them, i.e. dislike them, I just don't know them and can't absorb new music quickly.  In the last six months I have gotten into:

Free Design
Bobbie Gentry
Johnny Cash
Stevie Wonder

plus countless Elvis FTDs and other interesting music by my favs.  I can only go so fast, you see....

their nineties output ain't too shabby either...
in 1991 they released High Civilization, which contained a couple of GREAT tunes, "Secret Love" and "The Only Love" -
in 1993 they did "Size Isn't Everything" which included "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Paying The Price Of Love" and the greatest Bee Gees throwback of the 90's, "Kiss Of Life" - check that particular tune out if you haven't heard it...

Definitely. My only regret is I never saw them live. And now I never will.

While they made some great music through out their long run, my favorite remains the Beegees First ALBUM.  This is the MUST HAVE from the catalogue.

Turn Of The Century
Holiday
Red Chair, Fade Away
One Minute Woman
In My Own Time
Every Christian Lion-Hearted Man Will Show You
Craise Finton Kirk Royal Academy Of Arts
New York Mining Disaster 1941
Cucumber Castle
To Love Somebody
I Close My Eyes
I Can't See Nobody
Please Read Me
Close Another Door

Love everything they did on the SNF soundtrack, especially Night Fever.

Check out some earlier stuff, Mayb.

Yeah, where to start?

BTW Ian you look much better brunette than blonde  ;D

"Birth of Brilliance" is well worth checking out ; the second CD is especially good. Some of the songs could be lost tracks by The Beatles (especially "All Of My Life" which would fit nicely on "With The Beatles"). Covers of "From Me To You", "Ticket To Ride", "You Won't See Me", "Paperback Writer". Beatlesque hooks and licks on some of the original songs, too.
Found this via a Google search: http://www.sweeting.org/mark/music/mp3/bee_gees/birth_of_brilliance_1963_1966_disk_1.html
and this:
http://www.sweeting.org/mark/music/mp3/bee_gees/birth_of_brilliance_1963_1966_disk_1.html

Bee Gees First.

Thanks, Maybelline! I wish we all could be favored with a picture of you!

I really like Spicks and Specks, their first Oz-land hit. It has all the hallmarks of BG greatness: banging a single key on the piano simple and incredibly grandiose at the same time, satisfyingly incomprehensible,  disturbed, troubled and delusional in the lyric department (as in so much of their work: see the Messianic content of I Started a Joke later, an 'I am Jesus' song even Manson wouldn't have dared write, or Run to Me, the skankiest jailbait pickup routine ever penned, but so sincerely plastic-passionate that it must have drawn as many underage groupies as bought the single!); plus  two or three guys pretending to be the lead singer of a single first person narrative (very schizophrenic)...and  it's ready made as an aria for any operatic monster or monstress of rock, those bloated power ballad folk who feed on these numbers the way Incan goddess Caltiki feeds on sacrificial virgins. BeeGee mate Lulu could have done this particular one proud, I think, but so could have Elvis, Janis, Barbra, Dolly, Al Green etc. Maybe Celine would be higher regarded if she'd covered Bee Gees material?

Most winning aspect of the band for me: I love their strange almost profound lyrics, Tin Pan Alley desperation meeting an inarguable gift for words and images  like (from another song: "
Edit: The above sounds more sarcastic than I mean it, though I stand by every word. In sincerity and good faith, I'd highly recommend the group's second album Horizontal a record no household should be without, my favorite LP of their first period.

Wonderful post, right on the money as ever.

Lately I can't get enough of More than a woman (love the melody) and Love you inside and out (what a bridge!)

Saved by the bell
Nights on broadway
New York Mining Disaster
You Win Again
Islands In The Stream

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00000G6HZ/103-4586086-0938205?v=glance&n=5174
Hear some samples from "Birth of Brilliance"; doesn't "All Of My Life" sound a bit like  it's the missing link between "Not A Second Time" , "She Loves You" and John's up-tempo numbers from "AHDN"?

The Tavares version is twice as good. Better production, more soul. But the songwriting is the basis, and this goes to the Gibbs.

I can't understand that my far favorite Bee Gees song has not been mentionned...
 
Lamplight

A perfect pop song, amazing vocals, elaborate arrangement, bombastic chorus.

Other favorites:
New York Mining Disaster 1941
Spicks And Specks
First Of May
Too Much Heaven (very underrated song!)
Nights On Broadway

One of the most incredible catalogs of all time. I also heart "Run To Me", "Nights On Broadway", "You Should Be Dancing" and "Night Fever" to name just a few. Some of my favorite Gibb compositions are on the Streisand Guilty album. More recently, I dig "All the Children" from the new Barbra Guilty Pleasures CD. The song and production sound just like a production from the 70's heyday.

Lamplight is the song that broke up the Bee Gees in 1969. When they put out Odessa, Robin wanted Lamplight as the single, Barry wanted First Of May, Maurice sided with Barry. May came out, releatively bombed, and Robin split for almost two years.

!!!!!

From the BeeGees song "Timber"...

Gary Usher from the Surfin' Safari/Surfin' USA liner notes:

To Love Somebody.
New York Mining Disaster 1941.
I've Gotta Get a Message to You.
Words.
I Started A Joke.
And The Sun Will Shine.
Lonely Days.
Run To Me.
Love So Right.


Technically is not considered Bee Gees, but who cares: Heartbreaker, Emotion, Our Love (Don't Throw It All Away), Islands In The Stream.