The good news: Barry Gibb has included a concert in Napier, New Zealand on February 23rd as part of his Mythology world tour.

The bad news: Idiots still have access to the internet.

I know I shouldn’t get defensive about online nonsense written about the Gibbs, but every now and then it’s fun to engage in a bit of an internet shouting match with someone you’ve never met, in this case the good Dr. Zoldberg (possibly not his real name). In rebuttle to the doc’s ignorance about the Bee Gees on the Stuff.co.nz website and indeed to some other internet negativity about Barry headlining the Mission concert, I had this to say:

Good grief Dr Zoldberg, I love Bruce Springsteen too, he’s one of my heroes, but you don’t know the first thing about the Bee Gees. For a start, they didn’t sing “mainly in ridiculous falsetto.” In a studio album career from 1965 – 2001, falsetto only dominated their sound from 1975-1979. And that falsetto was inspired by the black soul music they loved.

If the Bee Gees weren’t “loved by multiple generations” as you point out Springsteen is, then how come they are the only songwriters to have had UK #1 hits in every decade since the 60s? How come their 1999 concert in Auckland became the highest grossing concert in NZ history with 70,000 fans? How come their 2001 album “The Record” went 8x platinum in New Zealand? How come they are second only to Lennon & McCartney with 21 different US/UK #1 singles across a 30 year span? How come as recently as 2006 they had the most played catalogue on radio around the world? You say you “don’t see many modern acts crediting the Brothers Gibb as an inspiration.” You are embarrassing yourself, unless your definition of modern is limited to say, this year alone.

Since the 60s when a teenage Barry Gibb was the most in demand songwriter in Australia through to the present day, the songs of the Bee Gees have always been interpreted by countless other artists across many genres. They are in actual fact the most covered songwriters in history so what you need to say is that you personally don’t like them and don’t know much about music history, not that they lacked either popularity or influence.

Don’t believe me? The hip hop #1 “Ghetto Superstar” by Pras and Mya was based on the country song “Islands In The Stream” by Kenny & Dolly – written by who? The Bee Gees. Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and Wyclef Jean have all sampled the Gibbs. The Smashing Pumpkins, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ray Lamontagne, Adam Lambert, Destiny’s Child, Taylor Swift and Faith No More have all covered Bee Gees songs. A-list artists like Al Green, Nina Simone, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Tina Turner, Frankie Vallie, Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley and literally hundreds and hundreds of other famous artists have had mammoth hits with Bee Gees songs. So again, your problem is not with the Bee Gees, it’s that you know next to nothing about them.

So with that off my chest, here is a non-falsetto piece of Barry Gibb magic, from the country / gospel tinged album Cucumber Castle (1969) – Then You Left Me: