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Bee Gees in the early 70s. |
I had an email from a fellow diehard Bee Gees fan yesterday reminding me about arguably the most overlooked period in the Gibb cannon, the early 70s. Sandwiched between the brothers’ first wave of 1960s Beatle-esque hits (though that is a too simplistic descriptor) and their enormous R&B hits of the mid-late 70s, these transitional years tend to get forgotten.
I’ve written about this rich period before, explaining how while it wasn’t the most glamourous time in the history of the Bee Gees, it still gave them number one hits in Asia like Saw A New Morning and Wouldn’t I Be Someone, US or UK top 20 hits like Lonely Days, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, My World and Run To Me as well as the US top 40 Alive.
It’s that last song that was focused on in the email*. Five years before Stayin’ Alive, there was Alive and for the casual Bee Gees fan, they may find it hard to believe the two songs were by the same group. And yet it was always this ability to write in such a variety of styles and genres, tempos and tones, that made the brothers Gibb the peerless pop songwriters that they were.
Crucial to the story of the Bee Gees is that throughout their entire 40 years of international success, they were always successful somewhere. You Win Again (1987) might’ve only hit US #75 but it was a UK #1. For Whom The Bell Tolls (1994) was a UK #4 and Brazil #1, but wasn’t even released in much of the rest of the world. One (1989) returned the Bee Gees to the US top 10, but didn’t make the UK top 40, and if you wind the clock back, Don’t Forget To Remember (1969) was an NZ #1, UK #2 but somehow only a US #73. Not to mention I Started A Joke (1969) a US #6 but unreleased in the UK, and Spicks And Specks (1966) a top 5 in Australia, NZ and Holland but nowhere else etc etc etc.
As for Alive, it may not have set the UK or US charts alight beyond a modest US #34, but sailed all the way to #4 on the Australian charts in early 1973. A soulful Gibb ballad, the introspective lyrics contain a couple of standouts, notably, “I ain’t lost and I ain’t searching,” and, “I know I should be going somewhere, I just can’t arrive.” Drenched in the same kind of lyrical and vocal Americana as Elton John and Bernie Taupin were using at the time (think Levon, Tiny Dancer, All The Nasties and others from Madman Across The Water), here is the underrated Alive:
*Thanks to Bee Gees fan Jostein for the email.
Great soulfull song from the greatest songwriter ever.