ROBIN GIBB (1949-2012)

Robin Gibb, one of Gibb brothers from the popular Bee Gees musical group passed away on May 20 after a long battle with cancer at age 62 . Brother Barry Gibb is the last surviving brother of the hit musical family. Fellow band member and brother Maurice passed in 2003. Younger brother and pop star Andy Gibb died in 1988 of a heart condition. Andy was never an official member of the Bee Gees but collaborated with his songwriting brothers on his biggest hits.

I was never a HUGE Bee Gees fan though from the mid-60s until the '80s their songs were pretty hard to avoid. In the early days, Robin was always the one we’d make fun of as kids with his weird finger-in-the-ear stage stance. Little did I know that in those days before decent monitors and the present day in-ear monitors, he was just trying to hear himself and when you’re singing close harmonies like the Gibb Brothers were known for the importance of hearing yourself was more important than looking silly to unknowing fans. While Barry got the lion share of the lead vocals and Maurice was the major multi-instrumentalist of the band, Robin was always the oddball in the big sweater with the swoop of shoulder-length hair and his finger in his ear. But boy, could he sing. The strange timber of their individual voices always made it a bit of a stretch for me to really embrace them until I really noticed just how well-written the songs were and how great they sounded when the three of them sang together.

Some of the biggest early hits featured Robin’s voice including “Massachusetts” from their 2^nd album Horizontal released in 1968.  Though Barry’s was the most heard lead voice on hits such as their breakout tune “To Love Somebody”, and later when he patented the helium disco tweet of the Saturday Night Fever-period songs like  “You Should Be Dancing”, the harmonies of Robin and Maurice were essential to the band's sound.  Like most brotherly singing groups, The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys and many great bluegrass bands like Jim & Jesse, The Monroe Brothers, there is something about the blend of the voices is impossible to approximate with bands of unrelated singers.

Probably Robin’s most popular showcase number was “I Started A Joke” from their 3^rd album, Idea.  Reached No. 6 in the US. Robin quit the band for about a year and a half beginning in early 1969. Once he was back in the fold, the Bee Gees scored their first US #1, “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” which followed the No. 3 hit “Lonely Days’. The latter has always reminded me at the outset of a CSN-type harmony tune before tearing into the Beatle-y production elements. Love the later, more up tempo live versions of it better the the original in fact. The videos below are for the latter two songs and are gems of early promo music video. Very basic and static in today's post-MTV age.

After a lull in the mid-70s the band took Eric Clapton’s suggestion (they shared Robert Stigwood as a manager) to record in Miami with the recording team and studio that Clapton used on his comeback album, 461 Ocean Blvd. The result was a more R&B and dance influenced record ripe with Barry’s falsetto vocals and tastes of the disco groove that was beginning to be heard in clubs around the country. Main Course, is quite possibly the Bee Gees crowning achievement melding the ballads of their early records with the danceable sounds that would launch their chart-topping rejuvenation. “Jive Talking” and “Nights On Broadway” (#1 & #7 on the charts respectively) got things rolling. I remember hearing this album in my first semester in college and being bowled over by the crisp production and the freshness of the sound. In a few short years, the bane of the unavoidable disco tidal wave that this album helped spawn would practically kill my enthusiasm for this band. Barry has noted that the huge success of SNF was both a blessing and a curse. While the world went nuts for Saturday Night Fever (granted the album is still quite listenable especially the gorgeous melody of “How Deep Is Your Love”), I was attending my first batch of Grateful Dead shows, discovering the initial wave of American punk bands out of CBGBs while still under the thrall of the fusion jazz movement and prog rock like Yes, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Weather Report. I was getting my jazz ears in shape listening to Miles and Trane and Mingus daily as I roamed the used record bins around San Diego State University. But what do I know, even at this late date Saturday Night Fever is the 4^th largest selling album worldwide.
 

One forgets that this band has had so many big hits in their long and storied career, quite monumental by any definition. A self-contained group for the most part, like The Beatles, who wrote all of their own hits, much less producing and writing huge hits for so many others.

Just a few of the Gibb written hits they were a part of: “I've Got To Get A Message To You”, “Words”, "One", "Staying Alive", "Heartbreaker" (Dionne Warwick), "Grease" (Frankie Valli), "Guilty" and "Woman In Love" (Barbra Streisand), "Chain Reaction" (Diana Ross). "Night Fever", "More Than A Woman", "Tragedy", "If I Can't Have You" (#1 for Yvonne Elliman), "Islands In The Stream" (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton). With over 2,500 covers of their tunes (400 alone for "How Deep Is Your Love") they've been interpreted by artists as diverse as Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elton John, Flaming Lips, Tom Jones, Destiny's Child, Faith No More, Conway Twitty, Janis Joplin, Elvis Presley, Percy Sledge, Joss Stone and many others. The Bee Gees were inducted in to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

ONE NIGHT ONLY, the full length version recently removed from YouTube is a worthwhile, a nearly two-hour concert which can be purchased on DVD.

This is a rare full-length concert video recorded in late 1997. Maurice died in 2003 and Barry and Robin retired the name of the band until 2008. This DVD is a wonderful career spanning collection. Especially cool are the early tunes “Morning of My Life”,“New York Mining Disaster 1941” and “Too Much Heaven” sung primarily band less around one microphone with Barry’s acoustic guitar as the main accompaniment. Great harmony singing. Also in this little break from the huge sound is the Robin feature “I Can See Nobody”. The signature sound of the Bee Gee’s early ballad sound was Robin’s crystal clear vibrato. Barry’s great vocal on “Run To Me” is next with Robin hitting the chorus before the signature 3 part hook, unfortunately, they only do one verse of the tune here. Robin’s vibrato reigns in “And The Sun Will Shine” and is followed by a killer stripped down roar through just one verse of “Nights On Broadway” possibly my favorite from Main Course. Makes me want to go back and revisit that album again after 40+ years.

Robin’s signature verse which opens “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart” was nabbed by Al Green and turned into one of the great soul covers of all-time. Green had a real thing for the Gibb Brothers tunes as evidenced by his original version of this tune from my Al Green blog posted here on Sept. 8, 2011 and a more recent take below. Here are some more interesting covers of signature Robin Gibb tunes.