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Home » Open thread 4/2/21

Open thread 4/2/21

The New Neo Posted on by

Here are the Bee Gees on Australian TV at around ages 13 or 14 for the twins and around 16 or 17 for Barry, who wrote the song.

This is three or four years later, in England. Big changes. Here they’re 17 for the twins and 20 for Barry. Barry and Robin wrote this classic R&B song together:

Comments

Open thread 4/2/21 — 32 Comments

  2. I like that Neo isn’t perfect…gave my wife & I a chuckle this am…
    We also liked the music to start our day!

  3. “The Bee Gees” = “The Brother’s Gibb.”
    “Gee Gees” = “Group of Gibbs’?”

  6. To Love Somebody:
    I like the attire on the twin playing the Hammond organ. Reminds me of the British style of Noel Redding or Mitch Mitchell of the Hendrix Experience.

    The orchestral arrangement is very nice. The French horns have a great open, more brassy sound, a bit like a hunting horn sound. There is a measure or two where you can hear a flute harmony alone in the orchestral tracks. I can’t quite make out if it is two flutes or not. It could be a conventional soprano flute with an alto or bass flute. Bass flutes are very nice, but rarely used.
    https://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical_instruments/winds/flutes/yfl-b441/index.html

  7. Art Deco,
    Wow. John Boehner on Politico,

    Sean Hannity was one of the worst. I’d known him for years, and we used to have a good relationship. But then he decided he felt like busting my ass every night on his show. So one day, in January of 2015, I finally called him and asked: “What the hell?” I wanted to know why he kept bashing House Republicans when we were actually trying to stand up to Obama.

    “Well, you guys don’t have a plan,” he whined.

    “Look,” I told him, “our plan is pretty simple: we’re just going to stand up for what we believe in as Republicans.”

    I guess that wasn’t good enough for him. The conversation didn’t progress very far. At some point I called him a nut. Anyway, it’s safe to say our relationship never got any better.

    I’m not a big Hannity fan. Too repetitive and tedious most of the time. But …

    The Dems have got orgs like the Center for American Progress with John Podesta and many others who constitute an army of tacticians and strategists and creative narrative spinners like Ben Rhodes. And the GOP had John Boehner who’s KISS plan was “to stand up for what we believe in as Republicans.” Thanks John.

  8. Late-night proofreading is never going to be my favorite task, all ye cruel cruel mockers! I do kind of like “Gee Gees” though, come to think of it.

  9. TommyJay:

    The Bee Gees often used brassy horn background instruments for their songs, in order to complement the hornlike/brassy nature of their vocals, especially Barry’s.

  14. Zara:

    I agree – that’s a really good cover by Urban.

    But for me no one compares to you-know-who.

  15. I saw this post only after the heading had been corrected, apparently.

    My first impulse upon seeing the group presented agian, had been to (not so) “cleverly” quip, ‘Gee, the Bees!”

    But, it won’t do at all now. Some watchful force may be staying my hand for the good of both myself and of others. As, I shall publicly acknowledge at the bottom of this comment

    By the way,
    1. I am missing something as regards the Mbunge and Politico reference.
    What is it?

    2. Sharyl Atkisson has just proved that if Roger Ailes was paranoid, it did not mean that he was not being spied upon as well; by persons working for those in government.

    Of course, anyone who knows who Lyndon Johnson was, knows that petty, conniving, and vengeful amoralists shielding behind a facade of public virtue have been operating in Washington for a very long time.

    In connection to that point, I was just about to declare with regards to the corrupt and scheming Lyndon Johnson’s eternal legacy, that ultimately, ‘ He decended into Hell, and on the third day remained there …”

    But not only would that be a vicious misuse of a sacred rite in order to mock a moral cretin … one made all the worse by the liturgical season … but I have been personally damning all too many souls to a perdition, over which I have no say.

    So, I’ll just leave it with St, Paul …1st Corinthians 9 thru 10. https://biblehub.com/kjv/1_corinthians/6.htm

    By my count Johnson bags 4 of the 10

    I, on the other hand, had better watch out for that “revilers” part.

  16. DNW:

    For what it’s worth, it wasn’t the headline, it was the first sentence.

  17. Anyone know how to get Pandora to play the older B Gs stuff. It seems stuck on falsetto city. Not that it’s bad, I just like the old stuff too.

  18. “To Love Somebody is the most enchanting song”

    Agree, I retain my fascination for the lyrics especially. But, sorry, I like Keith Urban but his version in particular leaves me cold. Oh well, just a matter of taste.

  19. Correction (embarrassed) USS Johnston found in the Philippine Trench (Battle of Samar – prevented the Japanese disruption of the US invasion of the Philippines at Leyte Gulf), not the Marianas Trench.

  20. Taffy 3, the stuff of legends.

    A healthy sane society would teach this to 5th Graders.

  21. Thanks for posting these clips.

    Born in ’60, I was very young, but can still recall occasional viewings of the Brothers Gibb on such national musical shows as Brian Henderson’s “Bandstand” on Saturday nights through the ’60’s and into the ’70’s.

    Even at about the age of about 10 I recall being mesmerised by their sound and almost eerie harmonies.

    I can still recall that about the age of 8, I once heard the brothers introduced by a tv host by the colloquial, (and not wholly-derogatory), expression: “Ten pound Poms.”

    Such an intro would be wholly out of the question these days but neither the brothers or the audience seemed to mind.

    I recall asking my mother what that expression meant, (not the “Poms” part, which all Australians understood – but the ten pounds part), since by that stage we had abandoned pounds, shilling and pence and were two -years into the decimal system.

    She explained that it was a reference to a post-war assisted passage migration scheme whereby our government sponsored poor English immigrants from Britain for a token fee of ten pounds. The theory was that immigrants from the mother country would assist us in recovering from the war.

    Such a difference to the treatment of my paternal Italian relatives who arrived in Sydney in the 1890’s, prior to federation, yet who were sent to work in charcoal mines during the war, as “enemy aliens”, despite our family having been here for more than 50 years.

    Still, good things can come from bad. When I happened to mention this fact to my army selection board when I was facing my final selection interview for my army reserve commission they must have noted it since on the evening that I was called in to swear my oath to the Queen and “her heirs and successors according to law” my oath was held back. I was then driven out to the very same barracks where earlier officers of my corps, (the Army Legal Corps), had summoned my grand father during the war and sentenced him along with hundreds of other Italian males living in Sydney to service in the Bilimba charcoal mines and my commissioning oath was administered to me on the very same spot where he had stood to be sentenced.

    Not a bad country, Australia. I can see why the Gibb brothers’ parents chose it.

  22. Charcoal Mines? Where do they mine charcoal? Right next to the Spaghetti Tree Plantation?

    Charcoal is manufactured, not mined.

    Was there a charcoal factory in Bulimba, Brisbane back in the day? There’s no Bilimba anywhere including Sydney/NSW as far as I can tell. Last time I was in Bulimba it was looking mighty gentrified, but presumably was light industrial area once given the once famous brewery there.

    Brilliant Nickname!

  23. It occurs to me that I should, in the interests of fairness, (since you are regularly promoting an Australian band), confess that I am an Australian banjo picker.

    It really is a uniquely American instrument and I commend you and your countrymen on it. Though, for me, it was Billy Connelly, a Scot, who captured the true value of the banjo when he remarked that no-one could hear a banjo and not smile. Agreed!

    I know it’s not from your adopted New England, Neo, but this is a wonderful example of Americana:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmJj6LZogms

  24. Per your suggestion I sent my Number 3 Catamite off to the archives with instructions to peruse the records you suggested, where on Page 6 we duly found ‘Bimbimbi Charcoal Kiln’.

    *Bimbimbi* Charcoal *Kiln* vs. ‘Bilimba Charcoal Mines’

    Permit me to introduce you to a radical new concept: Levenshtein Distance:

    https://planetcalc.com/1721/

    In this case we have a Levenshtein Distance of 6.

    Maybe not much call for it in your line of Banjo Picking, but it’s a metric which has its uses.

  25. Hey Zaphod,
    (Love the nickname by the way – really interesting!).

    I’d expect your apology – but that would require a sense of honour –

    [edited for language by nn]

  26. How many generations it takes to breed out voluble excitability is left as an Exercise for the Reader.

  27. Thing is, I didn’t call you a liar. You were imprecise with the info you gave and I expressed curiosity. Anyway we’ve had our fun. Chill.

  30. Scipio Australianus:

    Thanks for the reminiscences about Australia and the Bee Gees. I’ve watched a lot of clips of their appearances as kids, as well as some documentaries on their lives, and Australia was certainly a big part of it. I think their older sister, who is still alive, remained there when the rest of the family went back to England.

    One more thing – I know that commenters are going to fight and argue from time to time, and offend each other in various ways. But if it gets too nasty in terms of insults I ask people to clean up their language. I know that the rules at many other sites might be looser, but I’ve learned in the years I’ve been blogging that it’s best to ask people to try to keep the more offensive language out of their arguments (I edited it out in this thread). Otherwise things degenerate very very quickly, and the blog becomes loaded with really raunchy nasty stuff. I don’t mind arguments, some nastiness, sarcasm, and even snark, but I draw the line at more than that.

    I realize you may have been previously unaware of this general policy of mine, so I thought I’d mention it just to let you know. Thanks.

  31. Just catching on your posts from last week. “To Love Somebody” remains a true soulful classic over fifty years later.

    Barry singing “I’m a man, can’t you see what I am?” … while rocking sideburns and those tight striped pants. I never had a doubt.

    So while reading up on the vast number of covers of that particular song, I happened upon a fairly early version by Eric Burdon & The Animals… which led me to a particularly good cover of “Love Hurts” by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris… which led me to yet another cover – an exquisite rendition of “Sweet Old World” by Emmylou Harris & Neil Young. Their voices meld beautifully and hers is ethereal.

    https://youtu.be/5myH02EYHfE

    It’s one of the most moving duets I’ve ever heard, which I probably wouldn’t have stumbled upon, Neo, if it hadn’t been for your love of harmony and your Bee Gees posts!

  32. I just came here to mention how I always like to see & hear the non-lead Maurice – his honky mixed falsetto adds a surprising lot to this song.

    (I just came in, to see what condition my condition was in.
    So often lyric lines jump into my head.)

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