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Maurice Gibb dead

Spatula Clarke

12:08 / 12.01.03

Story here

Apart from their contributions to Saturday Night Fever, does anyone here have anything good to say about the Gibb brothers and their Alvin & The Chipmunks take on disco?

Stayin' Alive, my arse.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:15 / 12.01.03

In my younger days, I'd probably have found it hilarious. But I'm sure he was actually a really nice bloke. Or he may not have been. Who can tell?

But no. In fact, only a day previous to this untimely demise, I walked out of a shop without buying the stuff I went in to get purely because they were playing the Bee Gees and I couldn't handle it.

I'm sure it's very sad, he's got a family and friends and stuff who are probably gutted, but I don't think I'll be going the the funeral.

Ganesh

12:32 / 12.01.03

Wasn't Chaka Khan, was it?

Matthew Fluxington

13:26 / 12.01.03

I don't know, I think just for "How Deep Is Your Love", the man deserves respect.

A punk hero dies, and now a disco hero. And so it goes. These things come in threes, right? Maybe a late 70s singer-songwriter type is going down next. Joni Mitchell and James Taylor, watch yr backs...

Char Aina

05:35 / 13.01.03

ozzy is about due...

Foust is SO authentic

10:20 / 13.01.03

Which one was he again? The one who played Moe to the other two's Larry and Curly?

Loomis

10:38 / 13.01.03

He was the Zeppo I think. He was always the weird looking one. Well, the weirdest.

It would only be a tragedy if Barry died, coz he's so pretty.

The Natural Way

10:41 / 13.01.03

I quite like staying alive, really. Aaaah, goodbye, Gibb.

Opalfruit

10:59 / 13.01.03

Mickey Finn died on Saturday too. Former member of T-Rex. Seems like we're losing the 70's legends this year.... they were all in their 50's..... far too young to go.....

Our Lady of The Two Towers

11:15 / 13.01.03

It's only the Paul Gambachini's of the world who will be mourning this I think. Still, at least in Heaven he won't have to wait for god to clap his hands before he's allowed to speak.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:21 / 13.01.03

It's only the Paul Gambachini's of the world who will be mourning this I think.

Yeah, I bet his friends and family are too busy listening to *proper* music to shed a tear.

Can I get a "for fuck's sake!" over here?

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:08 / 13.01.03

Hey, I'm an unashamed purchaser of their 2CD greatest hits set. There's some great stuff there; even if it's as mainstream and cheesy as shit, they could hit the right buttons, and the songcraft is good. "New York Mining Disaster" is something that, with a little less jauntiness, Smog could've produced, perhaps. They're just good songs, regardless of the kitsch value that goes with them - like the descending bassline bit in Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", there's some moments in their work that have surprising emotional resonance.

So yeah. And Maurice wore a hat and was taught to drink by John Lennon, so that makes him cooler than Barry, hands down, Loomis.

01:57 / 14.01.03

Pre-disco, the Bee Gees were a pretty damn cool pop/rock'n'roll band. Spicks & Specks is a downright classic tune in anyone's language.

Loomis

07:17 / 14.01.03

Oh, I'm not anti-BeeGees! They've got a few great songs. But Barry is a beautiful beautiful man. Maurice was always the geeky one, so he had to wear the hat to compensate. Lookit me! I'm quirky! I wear a hat!

From the Edge to Slash (well, okay, Slash was cool) to Molly Meldrum, the perpetual hat wearing has always covered inadequacy. The biggest problem though is when you've been doing it for 20 years, and you then feel obliged to wear it forever. Even Jay Kay takes his off sometimes though doesn't he? That's why he's still alive in the disco era and Maurice ain't.

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:58 / 14.01.03

Loomis, I have two words for you: Tom Waits.

How you like those apples?

schmee

21:12 / 14.01.03

out of probably 20, i don't know a gigging musican who doesn't have utmost respect for the bee gees.

incredible song writers, and their disco crap - while intensively perverted by the movement and associated with a lot of things people form that time would rather forget - remains some of the most incredible recordings ever made.

it's just that if you're 30-60 or so, they make you cringe (or giggle).

11:56 / 15.01.03

As Bart Simpson has shown us, there's no better music to strut to.

The Natural Way

12:04 / 15.01.03

Schmee, what does "intensively perverted by the movement" mean?

Jack Fear

13:57 / 15.01.03

Oh, you know: co-opted, and made to stand for something it was never meant to.

Just as the film SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER wasn't supposed to be a celebration of/manifesto for the disco generation: it is, at heart, more of a Scorsese-type socio-economic portrait of a certain kind of working-class powerlessness and the futile dream of escape—and just so, I don't think anybody excpected the soundtrack to be as big as it was, and to be embraced so unironically.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:30 / 15.01.03

Actually, thinking about it, surely the problem is that the music was embraced ironically, as was the film - it was seen as this kind of campy, kitschy, "wacky" thing - "ooh, let's all go out and dance to some disco, wouldn't that be funny" - whereas in fact, as you say Jack, the film is all about working a crap job and then spending all your money dancing at the weekend because you *love* the disco - wholeheartedly, honestly, with none of these ironic wink crap. Travolta's character lives to dance, and the music reflects that.

The Natural Way

14:55 / 15.01.03

Mmm, yeah, that's kind of why I was Umming and Aaahing over Schmee's post. Disco never understood itself as ironic and crap.

The Natural Way

14:55 / 15.01.03

And bloody right, too.

No star here laces

15:16 / 15.01.03

Also disco fans never saw the BeeGees as disco, and I don't believe the BeeGees ever saw themselves as disco either. My impression is that they knew quite a lot about the genre and saw themselves as producing disco-influenced pop (which is what it was) rather than disco. It's just unfortunate, as has been pointed out above, that the all-pervasiveness of SNF meant that those not in the know thought that disco was all about the Bee Gees.

How deep is your love is indeed great and the bassline off Stayin Alive will live forever.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:03 / 15.01.03

I quite liked that mash-up with them, Shakira and the Bee-Gees but otherwise, I agree with Clive Anderson.

The Natural Way

11:22 / 16.01.03

Basically, if you don't like Stayin' Alives' bassline, you don't like to dance. And probably only wear black and are afeared of the sun.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:02 / 16.01.03

Exactly: if you don't like it, there's something wrong with you.

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