Home » Thrills and chills: the Bee Gees’ medleys

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Thrills and chills: the Bee Gees’ medleys — 17 Comments

  1. They were surprisingly sparse in terms of actual concerts given. Had I the means, I would have attended one of them. A shame they felt the need to go into hiding after 1979.

  2. Legendary concert in Australia in 1989.. Highest professionalism of performers and charming magic emanating from them! I envy eyewitnesses 🙂

  3. OT – Neo, FYI you need to update your permalinks. Slow Saturday night had me trying some old familiars I hadn’t been to in a while, and a couple like QandO and Betsy are no longer around. Unless you keep them for sentimental reasons.

  4. “It’s about twenty years after their first success as a baroque pop group, and ten years after their disco years abruptly ended. In the early 80s they didn’t tour, having experienced a backlash (primarily in the US) towards their extraordinarily popular disco music …”

    Doubtless true, though nearly self contradictory.
    I never got into disco, seemed frivolous. But I never backlashed against it either. Does anyone have anecdotes from Teh Disco Backlash?
    Were fans canceled, lose their jobs, mocked by strangers on the street?

  5. I took my kids to see them at Dodger Stadium. They filled it. Can’t recall the year but they were teens and are now in their 50s.

  6. JimNorCal,

    The backlash wasn’t against the fans of disco- it was against the musicians that produced it. I turned 13 in the Summer of 1979- Disco dominated radio all that Summer, and had done so for the previous 3 years, then there was the huge anti-Disco bash at Comiskey Park that turned into a riot in the middle of July that year. It was like someone turned a switch in all the radio stations I listened to- you couldn’t find a single one that played Disco after about November of that year. I didn’t hear, just for an example, “Too Much Heaven” on the radio again until the 2000s, and it isn’t even a Disco song, it is just a Bee Gees song. I didn’t hear any of the Bee Gees previous non-Disco songs either. They went from selling multiple millions of albums to tens of thousands in the US even though the music quality hadn’t changed at all.

  7. That was wonderful. Thanks for posting. It’s art, and the joy it can bring, that takes us away from [fill in blank] that surrounds us today.

  8. I like Too Much Heaven so much better without the falsetto. Lovely! Aside from the musicality, they radiated charm. Barry had such great stage presence – or maybe that’s just me :).

  9. Was Barry an inspiring and loving big brother? I’ve only seen a couple interviews but in that small sample I get that impression

  10. That has to be tough- to be the oldest of the 4 brothers (Gibb has an older sister, but I don’t know if she is still alive), and to outlive them anyway. I have three younger siblings (I am the eldest child of my parents), and I hope all three of my siblings outlive me by a good number of years.

  11. The Bee Gees always performed flawlessly live, as evidenced by this concert and countless others on YouTube. Their medleys are my favorite part of their performances as the focus is solely on their beautifully crafted melodies, powerful voices and unbelievable harmonies. Their individual voices are fantastic but when they harmonize together, it’s pure magic.

    As one commenter said of their live acoustic performance of “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” on MTV unplugged: “Two guitars and three vocals and they sound like an orchestra. Funny what talent can do.”

    And as Neo noted, it looks and sounds effortless. They just casually gather around a single mic and produce these gorgeous sounds. Bonus points for the jeans.

  12. I turned off the Bee Gees in the disco era, and was dismissive of them thereafter. But this series from Neo has really produced in me a new-found appreciation of their music and their abilities. Thanks for the education, Neo!

  13. James S.:

    That warms the cockles of my heart!

    I had zero interest in them till about 3 months ago, when I rediscovered them and learned their story for the first time and heard the bulk of their brilliant and immensely enjoyable music output. I find them immensely charming as well, on a personal level.

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