The Bee Gee's were a unique group who added much value to our music. I am saddened by Maurice's death. |
Played Bee Gee's music all day and found (again) that the early stuff around "NY Mining Disaster" and "I Started A Joke" is among the best pop music of its time.
You'll be missed, Maurice! |
Very sad indeed,
The Bee Gees belong on any short list of great pop groups.
What other group can be compared to them? The Beatles didn't even stick together for more than a decade. Abba, The Hollies, even the Kinks, for that matter, are also mere flashes in the pan compared to the Bee Gees. I read recently that, in the UK at least, the Bee Gees had hit singles in five successive decades! I suspect that England's record buying public will soon make that six decades.
I'm spinning "Jive Talking." Damned! Rare indeed is the white boy who truly understands the soul idiom.
Here's to the greatest pop band of the 20th Century!
Maurice Gibb, this Bud's for you (and the next one, and the next one, and the one after that too). |
I never knew how good they were until I bought their DVD, and dam, they were so much more than the disco stuff I knew them for. One of music's pioneering bands. |
Since other grown men have come out of the closet to admit they appreciate the Bee Gee's I can now confess how much I love The Bee Gee's Greatest Hits Volume 1. Great music even today..I only wished I could have had the courage to be the first to admit my devotion. |
Although I can appreciate the Bee Gee's accomplishment with Saturday Night Fever, that is ultimately not my type of music (but I'll listen to it when it comes on the radio). All the Bee Gee's records I own (and that may just be everything they put out from the mid-60's through the early 70's) predate the disco era, including some comp's of their Australian/British-only early stuff never originally released in America. There's a high degree of chaff amongst the wheat (they were prolific), and even the highlights are not competition for the best groups of their day, but pull together the good stuff and you've got a pretty damn enjoyable collection of timeless pop (and even a few rockers). Barry was the main songwriter, but Maurice was a solid secondary contributor in this department. I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with their trademark vocal style (they'll never challenge The Everly Brothers as my all-time fav brother act), but you've got to acknowledge their distinctiveness and longevity. It's amazing that, as long as they've been at it, he was only 53 according to the news - tells you how early they started out. RIP Maurice, you did good. |
They were a great band also.Great Harmony and musical talent.
Have been looking for a Hits CD for awhile that has the old stuff,have thier Hits-LP.Lost alot after that for myself,but always knew they were greatly talented.WIll not be the same without him that's for sure.Kinda like The Who without Mooney ,but worst.Can't replace a Vocal talent like that,the trinity is gone. |
As someone who came to appreciate the Bee Gees very late in their career, I feel very saddened by the loss of Maurice- I am sure his brothers will fold the group (as a studio band) in a tribute to him. Among the three, I don't think anyone knowledgeable will challenge the fact that Maurice was the glue that really held the band together. He did not have the unique lead voice of Barry and Robin- but was the most musical among the three having played bass, guitars and keyboards. He was the musical director of the touring band and was integral to the vocal and instrumental arragements. His contributions should not be underestimated. |
Linkster: The remaining brothers have already vowed to carry on as The Bee Gees, FWIW. |
Sad to hear of Maurice's passing away at such an early age. It's my understanding that Maurice had previously suffered a heart attack - making additional surgery very risky.
I always thought the Bee Gees had a very unique sound. Although I didn't like everything they did - I did enjoy more than a few of their CDs. In particular, they recorded a concert CD a few years ago "One Night Only" in Las Vegas - that I think is one of their more enjoyable efforts. When my girlfriend and I go on road trips in our Corvette - we usually bring one of their CDs along for the trip. Just great, upbeat music for the road. |
VH1 re-aired the edition of "Storytellers" featuring the Bee Gees (made in '95) last night. It was just Barry on amplified acoustic guitar with Robin doing only vocals and Maurice on keys or guitar (aided by one backup keyboardist is all, though I didn't much care for some of the keyboard sounds they chose to employ), recorded live in an intimate church hall setting in Miami with mucho reverb and an in-the-round audience. Although the instrumental accompaniment couldn't always show all the material off to full advantage - and excepting a few of the disco-days tunes, which simply didn't translate as well sans rhythm section as their earlier classic pop hits - the set was a powerful reminder of just how much music these guys made together, and were still capable of recreating through their harmonies despite bare-bones arrangements and a couple of extra decades on the old vocal cords (though you really couldn't tell in Robin's case). While The Bee Gees' lyrics and melodies may often seem deceptively simple, as they reeled off song after well-crafted and -remembered song (with my girlfriend singing reflexively along on the sofa next to me), you really began to get a sense of the magnitude of their accomplishment, both in quality and over time. Having weathered many changing trends through fortunes both high and low over such an unusually lengthy and varied career, it was quite clear watching them that, whatever success they enjoyed together, it was the firm result of their never having deviated from truly being themselves (and not having tried to be anything other than themselves). Lightweight and easy going down (not to mention the blueprint for at least a few less-loved groups that followed)? Sure - but as I'm still pleasantly humming the songs in my head hours later while I write this, there's no question why that was more than enough to earn the Brothers Gibb their deserved lofty spot in the pantheon. It's sad to think that it may turn out to have taken Maurice's needless death (if what the remaining brothers are now charging - that bad medicine played a decisive part - shows to be the truth) to remind today's audience of that fact. |
Well said, Zaikesman.Thanks for the remembrance of the caliber of these talented brothers.I too have sung along with many of their songs over the years.Even Elvis recorded a few of their songs. |
Stayin' Alive Stayin' Alive Did he right that? |
I think their best was "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights". |
Nobody harmonized like the Bee Gees...their voices were simply meant to be together...and as far as disco goes...Saturday Night Fever really isnt indicative of the genre...outside of this album...99.99% of it is rubbish... |
I just heard on the news that the brothers Barry and Robin are questioning why they went ahead with surgery after he had just had a heart attack. Apparently there was an autopsy performed on Maurice which determined the cause of death to be a blood flow blockage to his bowels.I don't know the details.Hmmmm,I smell a possible lawsuit. |
