(#2003-3520) - Topics this issue: 1) It's hard, 2) The WALL is coming DOWN !!! (1), 3) The WALL is coming DOWN !!! (2), 4) The WALL is coming DOWN !!! (3), 5) Digest (01/18/2003 12:01) (#2003-3519), 6) Music Heard Around The World, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 12:20:43 EST From: Catbird61@aol.com Subject: It's hard --part1_126.1ff1d6e6.2b5ae6eb_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Everyone. I was away from home, traveling for my job, when all of this happened with Maurice. I was alone, in a motel room, and had no one to reach out to. I had no access to a computer to get the words of encouragement and support from all of you dedicated fans on this list. None of my family members cared to call me. I just sat there alone and feeling devastated. In total disbelief. Now I am home finally, and reading through all the lists. It is amazing to me how we have this forum to reach out to one another and help each other through this time of anger, disbelief, and sorrow. I was one of the lucky ones who got the opportunity to meet Maurice on several occasions, the first being in 1990. In fact, he was the first of the Bee Gees that I got to meet. He just somehow seemed to be the most approachable one of the three. Maybe alot of that had to do with the overflow of fans always seeking out Barry or Robin first. But anyway, his kindness towards me when we met is something I will never forget. I will also never forget the last opportunity I had to talk with him, in 1997 in Las Vegas. There he was, just sitting at a slot machine, and initially I just walked right past him because he was just there like anybody else. There was no big "entourage" , only 2 others with him. And so, I got to chat with him for a few minutes before anyone else realized he was there. What a great treat for me! For the first time in a week, I have access to my Bee Gees music, and so now I plan on listening for awhile. Thanks to all of you for being here. Cathy --part1_126.1ff1d6e6.2b5ae6eb_boundary-- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 18:47:22 +0100 From: "A. Basoa" Subject: Re: The WALL is coming DOWN !!! (1) Another brick off This is from a South African newspaper - The Guardian (http://www.q.co.za/2001/2003/01/16-disco.html). I'll send it in three parts since it's a bit long. Bee Gees are disco kings Before they came along, runs the thinking, disco was a cool, urban phenomenon, exclusively the province of ethnic minorities and the gay community. The success of the Bee Gees' soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever made it straight, suburban and embarrassing. Alexis Petridis, The Guardian | January 16, 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- There was something slightly odd about the obituaries that followed Maurice Gibb's death. They noted the Bee Gees' enormous success, chuckled at their clothes, and mentioned their fraternal bickering and substance abuse. Yet they barely mentioned the music the Gibb brothers made. At best, any praise was grudging - one writer noted their "mechanised efficiency". At worst it was nonexistent. We live in a time when rock and pop music is constantly being revalued. Artists that were once considered beyond the critical pale are newly assessed in the light of sampling, broadening tastes and rock music's borrowing from increasingly arcane areas of the past. Slade were terminally unhip until Oasis borrowed their terrace-chant-glam sound and covered Cum on Feel the Noize. Serge Gainsbourg was dismissed as evidence that the French were cloth-eared until DJs began sampling him and Pulp and Beck pinched ideas from his back catalogue. Yet somehow, the Bee Gees have avoided reappraisal. There is something about them that smacks of early-evening ITV, of lowest-common-denominator populism. Their songs may be endlessly covered, but the artists that choose to rehash them are hopeless. While their peers the Walker Brothers are feted by Radiohead, Blur and Pulp, the Bee Gees are big with boy bands: 911, Boyzone, Take That. When they get sampled, it is never by ultra-hip dance experimentalists, but by novelty acts such as Scottish ravers N-Trance and oafish Kiss FM presenter Brandon Block. Perhaps the Bee Gees have never been reclaimed as cool because of their prickly public image. Ever since they walked out of Clive Anderson's chat show in 1997, the trio have been perceived as humourless and egotistical. Extensive research suggests that they may not be the only rock stars in history to embody these characteristics, so perhaps it's down to musical snobbery. Either way, it's time for a change. It's time to abandon pretensions, to stop sniggering, and to admit that the Bee Gees are fantastic. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 18:47:35 +0100 From: "A. Basoa" Subject: Re: The WALL is coming DOWN !!! (2) The evidence is in the records they made. Their early albums make enormous capital out of stylistic confusion. Audibly unsure whether they wanted to be the Beatles, Donovan or Engelbert Humperdinck, the Bee Gees attempted to be all of them at once, with startling results. On their 1967 British debut album, First, they veer wildly from whimsical period psychedelia to string-laden balladry to perplexing dementia. Every Christian Lionhearted Man Will Show You crams cod Gregorian chanting, a ton of then voguish studio trickery, an inexplicable lyric and a queasy Strawberry Fields Forever-ish melody into its three minutes. It is utterly of its time, and utterly wonderful. Their subsequent 1960s albums are equally uneven, but therein lies their charm. There is something fantastically appealing about records such as Idea and Horizontal, on which cabaret standards ("I've Gotta Get a Message to You", "Massachusetts") uncomfortably rub shoulders with songs called "The Earnest of Being George" and "I Have Decided to Join the Airforce". Not everything works, but after hearing them, you could never accuse the Bee Gees of pandering to the middle of the road or refusing to experiment. This characteristic stood them in good stead when their career floundered in the 1970s and they adapted their sound to encompass disco. Before that happened, it was underlined by their tendency to come up with peculiar and intriguing concept albums: Odessa, Trafalgar, Cucumber Castle. The decision to promote the latter by dressing up in medieval costumes was a questionable one, but at least it distanced them from the crooners with which they were usually grouped. You wouldn't catch Tom Jones clanking about in chainmail on his album covers. It was the first of series of sartorial disasters that, in the mid-1970s, ended up overshadowing the music they made. As photos in the recent Wings book Wingspan reveal, even Paul McCartney spent the mid-1970s looking like the unwitting patsy in a couturier's practical joke. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 18:47:52 +0100 From: "A. Basoa" Subject: Re: The WALL is coming DOWN !!! (3) But even when attention shifts from the Bee Gees' wardrobe back to their music, people sniff and carp. With its usual quicksilver grasp of musical trends, the American press has recently concluded that disco didn't really suck after all. Despite this enlightened climate, special opprobrium is still reserved for the Bee Gees. Before they came along, runs the thinking, disco was a cool, urban phenomenon, exclusively the province of ethnic minorities and the gay community. The success of the Bee Gees' soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever made it straight, suburban and embarrassing. That would be true if the records the Bee Gees had made were merit-free cash-ins, but only a churl would suggest that of "Night Fever", "Jive Talkin'" or "If I Can't Have You". There can be few able-bodied human beings under the age of 60 that have never been propelled to a dance floor by the opening bars of "Stayin' Alive". You feel compelled to dance not for kitsch reasons, but because there is something undeniable about the song. Like Abba's blue-eyed disco pastiche "Dancing Queen", "Stayin' Alive" is a perfect record. It boasts a guitar riff that somehow manages to sound simultaneously laid-back and propulsive, an unforgettable melody, and a brilliant lyric that can't decide whether its macho protagonist is a strutting hero or a pitiful figure. It may not be "authentic" - the music bore's favourite adjective - but then, neither was the Clash's take on reggae, and you never hear anyone moaning about that. Two things traditionally happen when a rock star dies. First, their records start selling again, as the public are spurred to the shops by grief and nostalgia. Second, their oeuvre tends to be re-examined in a kinder light than during their lifetime: as Joni Mitchell once pointed out, you don't know what you got till it's gone. Reports suggest that the Bee Gees' greatest-hits set The Record is flying off the shelves. Perhaps Maurice Gibb's death will mean the songs contained on it will cease to be viewed as naff souvenirs of an embarrassing past, and begin to be seen as the work of brilliant songwriters, capable of shifting between genres and effortlessly encompassing new trends in their sound. That would be a fitting epitaph for a desperately underrated musician. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 18:25:31 -0000 From: "Maggie Bleksley" Subject: Re: Digest (01/18/2003 12:01) (#2003-3519) > Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 10:13:47 -0500 > From: "Jan Taber" > Subject: UK TV stations... > > Hi, all, > > I am amazed at all of the shows about the Bee Gees that will be shown in the > UK!! You are lucky people. Only those of us who have satellite TV are the lucky ones that can see these programmes. They are probably in the majority, but, not being great TV watchers, we can only get five channels and - correct me if I'm wrong, but they don't seem to be showing anything at all on those. In fact, I'm quite upset that the TV and radio programmes that I do watch and listen to seem to be completely ignoring such a sad loss to the music world. Maybe I'm just not watching/listening to the right things. Maggie ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 13:12:58 -0800 From: "Kate Bensen" Subject: Music Heard Around The World This is my first post since the passing of Maurice and my first in at least a year. I have been reading all of the posts with condolences for the Gobb family and for fans worldwide. There have been several from fans saying that they are having a difficult time listening to the music, some not being able to listen at all. While I can fully understand this as it has been difficult for me also, I think its time we do listen. The legacy of Maurice is his music. Literally, his lifes work. Just as Barry and Robin say that their brother would have wanted them to go on singing and writing, we as fans must go on listening. Maurice would want the music to help us in our time of grief, just as it has always helped us in our lives. For many their music has been "the soundtrack of our lives." In tribute to Maurice Gibb, especially on this day, one week after his passing, I think it fitting that fans worldwide play his music all day long, all night long until the sould reverberates around the world. Now I am crying....what a terrible loss for us all. Rest in Peace, Maurice we will miss you forever. How can you mend a broken heart? Barry, Robin and Maurice have given us the tools through their beautiful melodies, we have the tolls to heal. Have the courage to listen and sing. Its the least we can do for ourselves and Maurice. In death he was courageous and we can be too. We don't say goodby...........Immortality. Kate Katiejeanbensen _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ------------------------------ End words@brothersgibb.com Digest [01/18/2003 18:01] ----------------------------------------------------