Sometimes you just know it will be a hit: Stayin’ Alive
…[The Bee Gees’ tech guy Karl Richardson] also has a clear recollection of how he first came to hear ‘Stayin’ Alive’: “I distinctly remember Barry saying ‘Boy, Karl, have I got a song for you,’ and sitting down to play ‘Stayin’ Alive’ on an acoustic guitar. It was like a chant and it was unbelievable. I said ‘Barry, don’t forget that rhythm. That’s a number one record.’ I knew, five bars in, no questions asked. You couldn’t get past the intro without knowing it was a smash.”
I’ve watched a lot of people react to the song on YouTube. Usually within about 5 seconds their faces light up with a big big smile. I played it recently for some jaded forty-somethings who were asking for a song to dance to, and although when I said “Stayin’ Alive, of course” they protested that it was hopelessly cheesy, within those same five seconds of hearing the first few notes they were smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves.
More:
One thing that distinguished the Bee Gees from traditional R&B was their characteristic rhythms. “A lot of that was Barry’s right hand,” Richardson says. “I mean, every one of those records has some form of acoustic guitar with Barry going ching-ching-ching. Whether it’s hidden or not, it’s there, driving the track along.”
The Bee Gees’ father was a professional drummer and bandleader.
Think the song is simple? Think again. Here’s what I consider a fascinating video that breaks it down by separating out the tracks. One of the things it demonstrates very clearly is Barry’s right hand going “ching-ching-ching” to drive the rhythm (as well as Mo’s bass line). It also shows the brothers recording on one mic, which often puzzles analysts who aren’t aware that they did it not “to save space on tracks” (as this reactor speculates) but for the simple reason that it was the way they learned to sing and to “sense” each other. Most groups record their parts on separate tracks and then assemble them, and although the Bee Gees did that for the musical portions they did not do it for the singing. Of course, if one of them made a mistake they had to all start over again. But they were known to be pretty much error-free when they sang. After all, they’d been professional singers as a trio since early childhood.
This is a slightly different version than the one that was released (you can find the more familiar version here), but not all that different. He starts by playing the song, but if you just want to listen to the separate tracks you can skip to 7:40, and I think it really starts getting especially interesting at 13:40 and just keeps building after that.
And by the way, the drum track that sounds simple (labeled “drums left drums right”) is the first drum loop ever created. Their drummer had to go deal with a sick relative, and so they proceeded without him by coming up with the idea of taking a short drum part from another of their songs and looping it.
That was done in 1977, and it wasn’t unusual for Bee Gees’ songs to have that sort of complexity of instrumentation and voices, even quite a while prior to that. And yet their songs often sound simple and inevitable, which I think is part of their genius.
Yep, I wrote “genius.”
Would you please just stop pumping politcal essays that age like milk in the noon sun and start writing your bestseller: “THE BEEGEES: Because Now More Than Ever.“ We all beg you. Call for votes here from commentors — more long looks at Sinema or a book on the beegees by Neo?
Gerard vanderleun:
Why must it be either/or?
How divisive of you 🙂 .
And by the way – if a person reads the Sinema essay, that person would see that it’s not about Sinema, it’s about cynicism. That never gets old, does it?
Snooze.
Australia’s premier contribution to pop music here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJKNqr3BVHI
Art Deco:
Snooze away.
The Seekers and the Bee Gees admired each other, by the way. Here’s the Seekers’ tribute to Bee Gee Maurice Gibb after his death, singing one of the Bee Gees’ hits that was actually originally written with the Seekers in mind.
I’ve heard a few singer/songwriters say they knew right away that some song was going to be a huge hit and sometimes I wonder if that is a little bit warped by what came after or maybe that is just me being too cynical.
All of our officials
In the House of Representatives
Screwing us blind
Scrdwing us blind
One of my commentors came up with this new title for this fascist age:
“MausClicks — Online graphic novel about controlling misinformation”
I like both of them. When I sailed to Hawaii in 1981, I made a movie of the race. For a sound track, I took my favorite songs from that summer. Several were BeeGees songs.
Here is a clip of that movie with a bit of sound track.
If it resonates strongly enough, there’s no doubt that it will be welcomed.
I’m more struck by the Bee Gees particular talents so seamlessly fitting within that time period. It’s almost like they were purposely inserted into that specific cultural milieu.
Of course, that posits divine intervention.
Neo sez “Why must it be either/or?”
The answer is “Yes!”
The role of the acoustic guitar interested me, especially the remark from the engineer about the big role that “Barry’s right hand” played in some of their hits. I never even knew there was an acoustic guitar on that track. Any moderately proficient player could do that technically, but not anybody could/would come up with it, much less build a song on it. I can see why it caught the engineer’s ear.
Alas, hearing the vocals isolated only made me dislike the sound more. With all due respect and honor to the technical ability involved, which is massive, I just don’t like the sound. It’s one of those fundamental taste things which is simply not accessible to persuasion. If you think brussels sprouts taste bad, no amount of explanation of how good they are for you, how much skill it takes to grow them, etc., is going to make them taste good.
Mac:
I’ve said several times that hearing the Bee Gees’ sound – particularly during the disco years – tends to evoke a love or hate reaction in the listener. People seem to have strong reactions both ways. So what you say is not at all surprising.
I like this song very much as a whole, but in general I’m not too fond of the falsetto sound compared to the Bee Gees’ natural voices. I love their natural voices, particularly when they harmonize, which is often. I’m not sure how familiar you are with their natural voices, which are used in much of their five-decade output with only the four or five disco years featuring a lot of falsetto. You may be quite familiar with their regular voices and not like them, either. But there are a lot of people who love the falsetto most of all, and also a lot of people who love the natural voices most of all (that’s the group I’m in).
One more point is that each of the Bee Gees didn’t just have a falsetto and a natural voice, but each had a variety of types within their natural voices. They were very voice-versatile, and those who only know their falsettos are sometimes surprised to discover that.
Neo, I like their early Beatles-esque work a whole lot. Or used to. I haven’t heard it for many years but I’m pretty sure I’d still like it.
What’s even more remarkable is that (at least in Israel), CPR/first aid classes recommend the rhythm of Stayin’ Alive as that needed when doing resuscitation — right pace and right message.
I prefer to sing harmony on separate mics with … certain vocalists.
Reason? The unpopularity of dental floss.
Staying Alive … a song that will forever Stay Alive.
I cannot hear it without immediately breaking into disco moves much to the mortification of friends and family.
“Good Morning, Mr. Sunshine” was a favorite of mine on 45 when I was just a sprout, and retains its appeal to this day. I lost track of the Bee Gees during my teenage years only to be thoroughly caught by “Stayin’ Alive” in my early 20s. Probably no disco sound would have been likely to draw me in but that one, as it was obvious at the time that disco was an evil innovation crowding out the True Rock ‘n’ Roll of my first youth. “Stayin’ Alive” is one of the most classic examples ever of a catchy hook and surprising style, a real ear-worm.
Not sure why, but falsetto is an enduring pleasure. The male voice in general is just pure sex, of course. Thanks for posting all these videos, which are a pleasure.
The synth tracks he plays together starting at 26:42 that he calls “whirly” sounds very Alan Parsons Project to me.
There is an acoustic guitar track on Fleetwood Mac’s Go Your Own Way. According to band lore, Lindsay Buckingham directed the arrangement of the song, but the producer (Ken Calliat?) insisted that the song needed a bit more, and had Buckingham record the acoustic track. You can hear it kick in just a few bars into the song.
I can’t find a video of it, but I heard the song without the acoustic, and it sounds like it’s missing something. Of course we’ve always heard it with the track.
Go Your Own Way was recorded at almost the same time as Stayin’ Alive.
Gordon Scott,
Have you seen this?
‘What Makes This Song Great? Fleetwood Mac ‘Go Your Own Way’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ylXt4DsB24
For anybody who’s put off by that high voice, don’t think of it as falsetto – think of it as merely a pop-funky countertenor. 🙂
What’s even more remarkable is that (at least in Israel), CPR/first aid classes recommend the rhythm of Stayin’ Alive as that needed when doing resuscitation — right pace and right message.
Alifa:
True in the US too. My sister, a senior nurse, tells me so.
I sent her a YouTube from “The Office” tv show (American version) in which the dysfunctional Office co-workers receive CPR training, are taught the “Stayin’ Alive” method and get funky instead of saving the test dummy. My sister found it insane and hilarious.
_________________________________
Michael Scott is performing first aid techniques when the Office suddenly breaks in to ‘Stayin’ Alive’ by The Bee Gees.
–“The Office”, CPR episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmb1tqYqyII
Griffin, I had not seen that video, and thank you kindly for sharing the link.
I am not a musician in any way or form, other than a bit of karaoke. Breakdowns like Rick’s are fascinating to me, even though I don’t really grasp the language. Never, in a million years, could I come up with an arrangement like that.
My stepdaughter, who elected to not pursue professional music, could sit with Rick and argue the most minor details of the piece. Then she could hum each instrument pitch absolutely perfect. I can hear when a string instrument is out of tune–it absolutely grates. She can hum a perfect 440hz A on demand good enough for an orchestra to tune. I know this because I watched her do that before a concert.
Thanks, Neo. That video is a wow. And suspenseful…I almost wondered if he could reassemble the song after peeling away all of those layers.
Beatles producer Sir George Martin had an interesting observation about “Stayin’ Alive” and its tremendous forward propulsion. His expert ear could hear the words landing a fraction of a second ahead of the beat. In effect, they push, push, push the beat.
As we see in this reaction video, there’s a lot (!) going on…but that one device contributes greatly to the movement & energy…makes it seem so, well, ALIVE, some 45 years later.
Perhaps not entirely unrelated: by the time John Travolta arrived on the set of “Saturday Night Fever” a stunt double had already filmed portions of the famous opening walk-scene to “Stayin’ Alive.” Travolta took one look at the footage and said, “Nobody walks like that!” So they re-shot it…that’s really him stepping out so memorably. What a great open for a film…the music kicked in and we knew at that moment we were in for something special!
If we all pitch in, we could get this for Neo:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/BEE-GEES-Lunchbox-with-Thermos-Maurice-Gibb-Vintage-1978-/363694533901?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
Jim Melcher:
Less than an hour to go on the auction. Put me down for $25 if you can get a syndicate together to make it happen.
I generally hate disco (although my opinion has mellowed over the years because of the nostalgia factor), but the BeeGees were always exempt from this. Those guys crafted amazing songs.
@ Jim – Bidding is over now, but that was a great idea!