Poll: Bee Gees/Solo. Pick your favourite 70s and 80s albums.

Good point.

I would love such a discussion. Why was "BOOGIE CHILD" a single? I mean, I love it as a musical joke, but it´s not really chart fodder, is it? Some of their choices seem obvious, others are bewildering.

 

COTW isn't the singles goldmine that Main Course was.. Even so, they could have found something better than Boogie Child. Nice bridge, but the rest is a trial.

That said, Boogie Child was a hit so what do we know?

 

Well, a tiny hit, I suppose. Don´t get me wrong - I like the song, but it feels more like they´re sending up a musical style more than a "serious" attempt at creating something "lasting". I don´t know why, but I find it funny. I like to listen to it - but not too often.

A song that was briefly out as a single was the title track of "CHILDREN OF THE WORLD". It´s a lot of falsetto to take in, but it´s one of their most elegant songs ever. Love it.

 

There is no question that when they got it right it was awesome but yeah that is a head scratcher.
He`s A Liar from Living Eyes is another one although a part of me wonders if they just intended to tank that whole project.

 

I´m not sure they did, but the cover certainly didn´t help.

I would have released the title track as the lead single - a much better song, and the LP and single would promote the same "brand". I still like the album a lot, and the title track stands out.

 

I always loved Cryin' Every Day - epic vocal from Robin and fantastic songwriting. Another I loved on that album (Living Eyes) was Don't Fall In Love With Me; also a Robin vocal. Either could have been a single.

 

Another potential single from the Living Eyes album was Paradise (this time a Barry lead vocal). Perhaps they thought it was too similar to Too Much Heaven?
But then again, how much heaven would be too much?

 

The drop-off from Spirits Having Flown to Living Eyes was astounding. I wonder if any single could have rescued the latter... I think radio and the public were ready for a rest from them. That said, He's No Liar wouldn't have helped.. Great verses but a let-down chorus.

 

I lived through the Bee Gee backlash period but Living Eyes was released almost 3 years after Too Much Heaven from Spirits Having Flown and 2 years after that album had faded.
Guilty was very much a Bee Gees sound and obviously their efforts so really not chalking up its failure to public fatigue.

To me it just seems like a lackluster effort of fine tuning and promotion by the group.
The internal turmoils of the time between the brothers,management,production styles and personal lives show through as (imo) He`s A Liar was almost a guaranteed flop.
It is almost a musically grating sound rather then one a person (in that day) would be running out to buy or searching the radio to hear.

The title track might have salvaged it followed up by Don`t Fall In Love With Me,Wildflower or Paradise.

 

I love the title track but not the album. I think they made a mistake not releasing that as lead single, or including that song on Tales box where it may have been given a reappraisal.

For me, the songs are just not as strong as the material on Guilty or Heartbreaker.

 

Paradise did get a release in both Japan and the Netherlands, this was probably around early 1982. Don't believe it did much noise in either country's charts.

 

I'll take BEE GEES FIRST over any of these later albums!

 

I don't remember the name of their original Greatest Hits, but that's the winner for me. Before the disco sh!t came along.

 

Interesting! What was the flip side?

 

Nothing Could Be Good

 

Awesome album track! And another great Barry vocal. Was it edited for the single release at all?

 

Probably my favorite track off Living Eyes (Don't Fall In Love With Me comes in close second). Really underrated album. I don't know why they regarded it as "a turkey"; I love Spirits Having Flown, but the change of pace was welcome. I always gravitate toward their slower ballads anyway.

 

During the 60s, they were known for their big melodramatic ballads. But the Bee Gees made a lot of excellent psychedelia.

 

I wonder if they went off it because it didn't do well? A lot of acts turn against their albums for this reason. Elton John does it all the time.

 

I don't own it myself, but there is no indication of either side being edited.

 

Yeah, sometimes I wonder if they were a bit too obeseesed with chart numbers. It doesn't always correlate with the quality of the songs/album.

 

I find it hard to believe they were disappointed with Living Eyes as an album. They spent ages recording and putting it together. They must have been crushed when it underperformed.

 

It was a big hit in some parts of Europe for sure. I remember that back in the 80's "Juliet" and "Another lonely night in NY" were constantly on the radio in my country (and there was practically just one radio station airing some pop music back then), plus they aired often a "live" performance from some German show on the main TV channel (and there were only two TV channels in total. Was also a hit in Italy (I had cousins living in Italy and they were crazy about "Juliet") We were about 10 years old back then.. The album was also one of the very few western pop music LPs officially released by the Bulgarian state owned label "Balkanton" (in 70s and 80s they released something like 5 foreign pop/rock LPs per year, usually very popular big sellers like Queen Greatest Hits, ABBA Lps etc., so this can give you an idea how popular this one was), and not only for the local market, but also for export in other Eastern European countries and Russia.

 

1. Children Of The World
2. Spirits Having Flown
3. Saturday Night Fever: Soundtrack