Thrilled to come across Sue Bell’s review of the Bee Gees’ newly released Love Songs. Over at Stylus, Bell contends–and I couldn’t agree more–that “the Brother Gibbs’ best came before polyester.” Her close listening to the exquisitely heartbreaking ballad “To Love Somebody” is particularly fine:
…in such cases of unrequited angst, there is little room, all too little time for string-pulling harmonies to get the point across. Instead, the Bee Gees ditch the falsetto, and go forth applying a clenched fist phrase here, a moment of last-minute desperation there. Even at its softest, the whole thing is pretty overwhelming. But the best part, the very best part, is a three second phrase that proves, once and for all, this gal hasn’t the faintest of what it’s like. Obviously. Picture it for a moment: The paranoid tenderness in the refrain “You don’t know what it’s like” over steady orchestra swells. Then, things softly sink into the convincing, fading whisper of “To love somebody…the way I love you”. And then…here we go… “AAAHHH NNOOOO! …You don’t know what it’s like!…”. That “ahh no!” right there? One of the greatest rock and roll lung-thrusts since Otis Redding’s breakdown in “Try a Little Tenderness.”
On a separate note: the new album does not contain one of Robin and Barry’s more haunting collaborations, “New York Mining Disaster 1941.”
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Did you see that one of the Gibbs, I think Barry, just bought Johnny Cash’s old house?
Thanks for the link in your sidebar. I shall reciprocate.
Wow. I hadn’t heard of that particular Cash-Gibb estate transaction. At first, it sounds incongruous, and then, somehow… right. Thanks for the tip–and the link.
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[...] Here’s an earlier post about one of the “greatest rock and roll lung-thrusts,” and more Brothers Gibb genius here. [...]