Keppel Road is readily available in the UK. I see a used copy on sale for £7 and a few years ago I picked it up new for £13.
I am a huge fan of High Civilization. I like the hard-edged nature of the songs, the length of the tracks and the production (I understand that others may use the term over-produced). It still sounds fresh and exciting to me today. And I see the album as one collective thought. "When He's Gone" should have been a monster hit, but sadly it goes on the list of Bee Gees hits that should have been.
It's amazing that "When He's Gone" never makes any compilations. High Civilization is one of the albums I really didn't know at all and when I listened to it during my deep dive, that song grabbed me immediately and became an instant favorite. I couldn't believe I had never heard it before, and while that was partially on me for never paying attention to the album, it WAS a single and it is a great tune. It's certainly better than "Secret Love"!
I think they performed the song live on Arsenio Hall back then. Unfortunately they didn't tour the HC album here in the US, but there is an excellent sounding boot from a BBC radio broadcast of the Wembley Stadium gig.
Yes! There is a video of that on YouTube, and it's a pretty great performance! But given I was in single digits at the time, I wouldn't have seen that then! And other than that, it's pretty much ignored. Funny enough, I DO remember "One" from when it was on the radio a lot. When I got into the band later, it was fun to realize that I actually DID like one of their songs when it was new, and not everything I remembered was from an oldies station.
Secret Love was a good ballad in its own right (owing a lot of gratitude to Chain Reaction) and was quite successful across Europe. Why WB didn't release it in the US at all is quite perplexing. I'm fine with them testing the waters with When He's Gone first but to completely drop promotion of the album after just one single in the US (albeit bombing).... even more so when Secret Love climbed the charts elsewhere.
Today's song! I really like how current this song is. It fits in with the music that was popular in the early aughts. I once saw someone describe this song as a what a boy band song sounds like when it's sung by man, who's experienced more of life. I feel like that kind of nails it. I could hear a younger group taking this song and having a hit with it, but I love Robin's singing of it. (Side note: I have been pulling out songs I'm enjoying here and there in this thread. I'm happy to start a different thread for more discussion of specifc songs if this is cluttering up this one!)
I like the idea of discussing specific songs, especially since we have missed quite a number of gems on the "Single by Single" thread. Whether on this thread or a new one is immaterial to me.
When He’s Gone is definitely another one I like a lot. I think part of the problem, which you point out, is they can’t simply keep making the same album over and over, as they do need to sound fresh. It did, but then you risk alienating your current fans. I didn’t dislike the album (I don’t dislike any of them starting with Mr. Natural) but obviously some are better than others. How do you change your sound while holding onto long time fans? It must be very difficult. But, they more or less succeeded if you were a fan in the 70’s. I do see a dividing line between 60’s fans and fans from the 70’s going forward, but not always. Overall, I think they have done a fantastic job keeping their sound identifiable enough to keep the majority of fans, while attracting new ones. Look at the Still Waters album. Overall, it has a fresh new sound but it features their famous harmonies and knack for fantastic melodies. But the production is very much of it’s time. And so was High Civilization. And I wasn’t a big fan of new music during that period, so that likely explains why it doesn’t speak to me as much as their other albums. And that is no fault of theirs, obviously.
Isn’t that “la la la la la” section near the end of the song magic? They were so amazing when their voices were blended. That song had to grow on me, as did the entire album (I still have very mixed feelings about it...another rather strange album imo) but in the end it won me over. Robin’s vocal is terrific. And truth be told, the songs are very good, it’s the cold production (which is a criticism I have with the One album though I love it anyway) that I dislike. I still don’t like the title track, and what was up with the video and Barry in a bed with the teddy bear? Sheesh, that wasn’t going to win them any new fans! Of course, I think we were all simply pleased that they put an album out at all, especially given the now apparent huge rift growing between Robin and Barry. By the way, I think it would be fantastic to start a thread discussing various songs by the group as you mentioned. However, I think we’ve all discussed their hits quite a lot. Given the high quality of many of their album tracks (one of my favorites wasn’t even a single, Baby As You Turn Away from Main Course) I would be willing to bet most of us would be even more compelled to participate if it focused on key album tracks and not just the hits. Just my opinion of course. Wish I had the time to do one myself, but I would be pleased to participate as I’m sure others would.
I like the suggestion of perhaps just tagging it to this thread and making it a part of the general discussion!! And we could all participate in selection of songs, so perhaps that would be better...I would really enjoy that! I think all of us will discover a new song or two that just wasn’t on our radar. I like that some are posting random Youtube clips...thank you!
Hmm, I'm not sure how to tag that. I did just start this thread, is it possible to tag it? My idea was to have it be something everyone could participate in, and not be too super organized about it! Though admittedly my first song was going to be the song that got ME into the group, which WAS a single, I def don't want to focus on singles and would love for it to about any and all songs! The Bee Gees: Song by Song
That was just Robin though, with a little assistance from PJ Vettese. This was one of Robin's solo tracks.
I thought so! I actually just found Magnet when I was cleaning. May have to give that a spin, it's been... a very long time.
It's just like when Maurice in like 1969 is like "and all the money was gone!" and I was like "ALL the money?! Really ALL of it?!"
They were all young, immature and probably not that good with money. That plus I think Stiggy got the most of it with him being both their manager, record boss and handling the publishing as well. Something that Colin got wise to as he was starting to look at the business end as he was looking to manage artists of his own. *Bam* and he was out!
