Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Bee Gees' Odessa - a mad classic
Posted by DougieJ on 7 November 2009 - 12:23am.
Prompted by Rob Fitzpatrick saying that he'd been on an unrelenting Gibb-binge, I've been listening to the Gibb Brothers' 1969 magnum opus Odessa tonight.
For those who don't use the reductive shorthand that says that Macca = The Frog Chorus, Abba = daft clothes and The Bee Gees = Kenny Everett, it is well worth immersing yourself in. Not that I'm dissing their disco years either, as, Angus Deayton's best efforts notwithstanding, that era contains some of the finest pop music ever recorded. But this is an eccentric delight.
One of the maddest lines, from Never Say Never Again: "you said goodbye, I declared war on Spain."
Love the late 60s Manc nostalgia evoked by First of May especially.
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Oh yes!
Superb album and the 3 before are all magnificent too. The most underrated band of all ?
From what I've read
if the album had been released a year or two previously it would have attained true classic status, instead of the cult following it has had.
Love the story about the equally mad red-flocked album sleeves having to be discontinued because it caused allergies at the record plant!
They may well be the most underrated band, which seems bizarre when you consider their world-dominating success. I can't stand the way great pop music is dismissed on such superficial grounds. I find that Armando Iannucci and Steve Coogan are prime culprits when it comes to this. The three acts most lampooned through Alan Partridge - Macca, Abba and Kate Bush - are lauded by all but the most cloth-eared or snobbish critics. But then, he (Iannucci) only likes classical, apparently...
The Mail On Sunday
is giving away a Bee Gees CD tomorrow that includes some of the pre-disco catalogue.
A big thumbs-up
Yep, a consistently wonderful album. Among other things, "Marley Purt Drive" sounds like The Band during the glory years.
Imagine this has just come out and you're hearing it...
for the first time. Tune!
Does anyone know who played the guitar part? Bloody genius...
If Jive Talking had been released by Stevie Wonder...
it would be acclaimed one of his best. That Moog bass line is gorgeous.
Staying Alive was played by...
Dennis Byron - Drums
Barry Gibb - Rhythm
Maurice Gibb - Bass
Alan Kendall - Lead
Blue Weaver - Keys
Oddly enough...
I was just about to start a Bee Gees thread...
I've been on a major Bee Gees binge over the last week or so; working my way chronologically through the entire catalogue from 1st to This Is Where I Came In.
I have come to the conclusion they are one of THE greatest bands produced in the UK (yes I know about the Australian connection; and the fact that the Isle Of Man isn't technically part of the UK).
From 1960's pop though psychedelia, concept albums, film soundtracks, disco, then 1980's 'Linn Drum-pop' they mastered every style they attempted. They even made their own 'Magical Mystery Tour' of a movie.
There's something in their catalogue for everyone!
The Bee Gees are fab
"To Love Somebody" may be the finest paean to the lovelorn in the annals of pop. Particularly in the version by the ineffable James Carr
That takes me back
to my first ever post! http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/i-have-seen-future-0#comments
I will never get to see da Brothers in all their glory playing live but Tragedy return to the UK in December and that will have to suffice.
I tried it tonight and
it's a struggle, nowhere near the majesty of that Zombies one I can't spell, thanks anyway
East of Eden - bonkers and brilliant
Mercator Projected. Another discovery in the Fields of Old.
Egyptian tomfoolery. Jazzy rocky twiddlings. Dave Arbus a long lost Prog legend. Ron Caines - bebop inspired Sax honkings - a wonderful racket.