Bee Gees were excellent Beatles impersonators
WFMUs Beware of the Blog has links to a couple of early BeeGees' songs that sound very much like Beatles and John Lennon songs. The first is "In My Own Time" (RealAudio archive), "which could be the musical result of Dr. Robert meeting the Taxman in the Rain."
And there's "Have You Heard the Word" (MP3), with a snockered Maurice Gibb practically channeling John Lennon.
If this is your cup of tea as much as it is mine, I recommend the Bee Gees' lysergically-fortified Bee Gees' 1st, their first album, remastered and released on the Rhino label, which has "In My Own Time" on it. LinkThe boozily Beatlesque result somehow found release, evidently without the permission of the principals, in 1970 as a single on the tiny U.K. label Beacon Records, with this one-off congregation identified as The Fut.
Did they do a good job? Just ask the bootleggers, who have placed the track on countless Beatles boots, hoodwinking many a rabid Fab Four obsessive.
Again, did they do a good job? Just ask Yoko Ono, who in 1985 attempted to register "Have You Heard the Word" as a John Lennon composition.
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The Bee Gees are quite underrated. I like their sissified older material a lot.
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don't forget that ELO did a pretty good job ripping off 'A Day in the Life' with their song 'Mr. Blue Sky'.
Being a huge Beatles fan, comparing Bee Gees with The Beatles is like comparing a Miss with Marilyn Monroe. Maybe she is pretty, but this just not the point.
For an example of Beatlesness of Bee Gees just check out to the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Movie, starring the bee gees amongst others.
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repking
I remember as a kid thinking their hit "Lonely Days" was a Beatles song, especially the intro.
The Wikipedia page on them also indicates that their first UK single "New York Mining Disaster 1941", released with a blank label, got heavy rotation because DJs thought it was the Beatles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_Gees
They really were remarkable song writers.
Ripping off? Mr. Blue Sky is a great song in its own right. ELO was clearly, admittedly, massively (and almost exclusively) influenced by the Beatles, and that's perfectly fine. Originality is a relatively recent cultural obsession, and overvalued, in my opinion. No artist creates art from nothing. It's all variations.
I think when it comes to psychadelic, orchestrated pop, the Bee Gees are the best (along with the Zombies). The greatest hits compilation (the yellow cover silouette) of pre-disco songs is also a great place to start, since the early records have a lot of filler between the gems. And by the way, on the subject I have to say that the band Cardinal (Richard Davies/Eric Matthews) from the early 90s is one of the most unsung bands ever, but they really channeled the early Bee Gees sound in a very wonderful way. Totally worth checking out.
"don't forget that ELO did a pretty good job ripping off 'A Day in the Life' with their song 'Mr. Blue Sky'."
...And Huey Lewis ripped off Sweet Talkin' Woman when they upchucked Do You Believe In Love?. The only reason Jeff, Bev and the boys didn't sue talentless Huey was that they were far too occupied with their own legal issues over that early 80's concert tour where the entire tour was lip-synched.
"Those in America probably aren't aware of the fact that The Bee Gees had countless European smash hits long after "Saturday Night Fever" (which, contrary to popular belief did not kill the group)"
...Agreed. Spirits Having Flown was the post-Disco follow-up, and the Gibbs used this to make a break *away* from dying disco. At the time it was one of my favorite albums, and - don't laugh now - it was also the last 8-Track I bought. The problem was the album after that, Living Eyes, which was released at a time when America was rejecting everything even remotely associated with disco and embracing the fallout from Punk/New Wave's afterbirth, and the then-evolving New Romantics sound. Except for the title track, there wasn't really any song on that album that said "play me again, Sam!", and even the title track caught flack for being too much of another Gibb Brothers' "UNICEF Jingle".
...Possibly the true "death knell" for that phase of the Bee Gees was when most "formula" Top 40 stations simutaneously altered their playlists so that any "Bee Gees" song was replaced by ones from the likes of The Cars or The Clash. Oldies stations held on to the old stuff from the days before Barry started taking beard lessons from Wolfman Jack, and the Saturday Night Fever hits managed to maintain a clawhold on the playlists, but pretty much anything they made until One was virtually ignored outside of Europe(*).>
Punch Line What will kill the Bee Gees? Well, Maurice notwithstanding, probably natural causes..
(*) Or Japan, where they tend to go apeshit over certain bands for reasons that defy explanation.
That was freaky. And I still say Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton is one of my favorite movies*, but I still couldn't believe how much Maurice sounded like John there.
*To the point where I got Abbey Road and said I preferred how the guys in the movie sang the songs. (I was five, I got to liking those Beatles boys after that.)
When the Bee Gees originally surfaced, sounding like the Beatles was their schtick. Same with Badfinger.
I was in high school at the time that their first album came out and my girlfriend & I had an elaborate Bee Gee thing going. You see, her initials were B.G., so we plundered that first Bee Gees' album's lyrics for encoded catch phrases and passed notes full of nonsense back and forth. All pre-drugs, mind you, but very cosmic.
I agree about Cardinal, though I like Eric Matthews' solo albums even more. One of my favorite pseudo-Beatles songs is "It's Over" by the Scavengers on The IGL Rock Story, Part One (1965-67). They manage to take the riff from "Day Tripper" and turn it inside out. Great album overall, by the way. Full of obscure Iowa bands.
The vocals on "Have You Heard the Word" may sound like Lennon, but the lyrics are just awful.
Some artists get drunk and crash the car or get in a fight. Maurice Gibb gets drunk and records a pseudo-Fab Four song good enough to fool Yoko. Good on yer, mate.
Sorry, but a dodgy Liverpudlian accent does not a Lennon make. And neither do some lame nasal backing vocals summon the other fab three. Many a pub rock band can testify to this eternal truth.
"Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You", from "Bee Gees 1st", proves true the post title. It leaps over the line from influence to impersonation.
That said, pre-disco, pre-falsetto Bee Gees songs are a marvel, but most people will never look past the disco balls and chest rugs.
It makes me wonder: if the Beatles had continued into the mid 70s would they have made a similar suicidal deal with the disco devil of short-term incandescence followed by banishment to Siberia? Silly Love Songs says they might have.
I still like to listen to Klaatu.
And Emitt Rhodes.
The Bee Gees were pop artists who lost their way briefly at times but until the death of Maurice, always managed to create good material. That is an impressive feat only surpassed by a few artists in modern musical history. Their last CD release was a reflection of their first and both nostalgic and innovative.
It must be said their lyrics were often daft with “Lemons Never Do Forget” and “Red Chair Fade Away” from the early years being the epitome of nonsense (and very Beatle-like in sound). They wrote and crafted pop songs; sang with a familial blend that was likely the best since Phil and Don Everly or the Beach Boys. And that confection is what we might well take from their alleged “Disco era”: exquisite harmonies over stunning hooks and contemporary production to craft a package that both sold and remains immensely listenable today.
These guys were the real deal who unfairly spent much of their career in the shadow of probably the greatest rock band the world will ever experience. Had John, Paul, George and Ringo not arrived first to open the door, Barry, Maurice and Robin (plus Andy?) may not have had an opportunity… but listen to what they didn’t when given their chance. A treasury of tunes!
have any of you seen the "Sgt. Pepper's" movie starring (among others) the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. I wouldn't seek it out unless you dearly love the Bee Gees and/or Peter Frampton. Apparently Steve Martin is in it too, but I couldn't stand it long enough to see him. Quality cinema it is not.
What I found terribly amusing in the brief time I watched it was the film's portrayal of music industry execs coming in and duping musicians into signing lengthy contracts that would likely make the record company millions but screw the musician, and moreover, the recording industry's scheme to corrupt the innocent town of Heartland. Ominous contemporary parallels when viewed with 20/20 hindsight!
"have any of you seen the "Sgt. Pepper's" movie starring (among others) the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. I wouldn't seek it out unless you dearly love the Bee Gees and/or Peter Frampton. Apparently Steve Martin is in it too, but I couldn't stand it long enough to see him. Quality cinema it is not."
...No, it wasn't. In fact, the Gibbs' inability to act was so glaring that all of their dialog was elminated and George Burns' narration was expanded to cover those areas. Barry even admitted after the premier was annihilated in the press that it was possibly "the worst mistake the band ever made", and wound up being the catalyst that got the Gibbs to sue Robert Stigwood for mismanaging their careers a few years later. They later reconciled, but it was never the same.
That Sgt. Pepper's movie was what gave meaning to the Clash's expression "phoney Beatlemania".
Those are great stuff. Sad that they had to go on to do Saturday Night Fever.