The Bee Gees and Me

Local hero Maurice Gibb died last week. The Brothers Gibb sold over 110 million albums as the Bee Gees [official website], trailing only Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney; they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. They are best known for their disco hits even though their career spanned decades and a range of styles. Hearing The Beatles is what inspired them to get serious with their music in the first place.

Our local PBS affiliate preempted the scheduled programming last night in favor of a pair of Bee Gees specials, shown without interruption: a 1999 Las Vegas concert and a biopic. Now, I would not call Sandy and I big fans of the Bee Gees, but we have grown up with their music (110 million records!). Watching some of the concert -- we tuned in late -- brought back memories.

Most notable for me was hearing Lonely Days, a big hit when I was a kid. Sandy and I both remembered liking it a lot, especially the chorus with it's echo effect on Barry's voice: "lonely days days days... lonely nights nights nights..." A good song in its day and definitely not disco.

The disco era was another story. I'll confess, I have never seen either Grease or Saturday Night Fever. I guess will watch them someday, but I was very anti-pop music when those films came out, listening mostly to so-called progressive rock bands like Yes and Rush. Soon I would make the leap to punk and New Wave, and the Bros were not playing in that space, either. Anyway, the concert included plenty of disco era hits, and I listen to them now with a different mindset; I can appreciate the fun spirit of the songs and the groove that makes you move. Not that I'm gonna run out and buy a "Best of Disco" CD, mind you, but I can now listen with a smile to music that once made me cringe. Don't ask me to dance, though!

Some of the biography (I forget the title) was shot at the brothers' Miami Beach recording studio, Middle Ear [read one fan's Middle Ear story] which is about 2 blocks away from my apartment. The real "and Me" part of my Bee Gees story is this: I've been in Middle Ear. Old friend Scott Glasel was an engineer and manager of the studio. Scott brought me in a couple of times when the place was empty, and we mostly played with the Fairlight and Synclavier samplers, which were quite exotic and expensive back then in the early/mid 1980s. Sections of the 48-track console were undergoing maintenance. 48 tracks, wow! Whenever I drive past the little building on Bay Road I wonder what's going on inside and who's been there lately. What are they working on that I will soon hear on the radio?

I have not found corroborating info on the web, but at least some of Michael Jackson's Thriller album was recorded at Middle Ear. I remember Scott playing a preliminary mix of the title track for me in his car, complete with the crunch sound at the end (presumably where Michael the werewolf bites into his girlfriend). The crunch was a combination of someone biting into an apple and into a pretzel, each sound transposed down an octave or two (Scott couldn't recall which at the time). I also recall Scott's comment that the studio was packed full of rented audio processors, particularly a large number of high-end digital delay units, and I remember his excitement at meeting the legendary Tom Dowd (who passed away last October) during those sessions.

There's one more audio tale to tell. I know Scott (I doubt he still goes by the name Seven, but who knows?) through good friend Laura Mendillo. One day Laura had us listen to a cassette tape that Scott had given her of something that he found while organizing the Middle Ear tape archives. It was a recording of John Lennon playing piano and singing Strawberry Fields Forever. As I recall, John was just giving the bros a little preview of the unreleased song and it ended up on tape. Very strange. (Yeah, the phrase "very strange" is from Penny Lane, but cut me some slack! Penny Lane follows SFF on the album, so there.)

The most recent anecdote: Earlier this week I was heading to the office, which takes me past the Riverside Memorial Guardian Chapel (mere blocks away from here). There was a major to-do at the funeral home on this day, with a multitude of police cars and traffic barricades; it didn't occur to me until later that the fuss was for Maurice. The evening news revealed that celebrities such as Eric Clapton and Michal Jackson were in attendance, explaining the extra security.

From growing up with the band's music to playing in their studio, hearing tales of the Thriller sessions and hearing that song before almost everyone else, listening to the John Lennon tape, to living around the corner from the studio in the band's adopted home town of Miami Beach and witnessing the episode above, I suppose that my Bee Gees story is unique. Watching them on TV last night made me realize the number of ways in which the brothers have touched my life in various ways.

There are plenty of Bee Gees stories on the web, for sure. Here are two random finds that seem interesting: Stayin' Alive with the Bee Gees and Bee Gees Biography in Brief. The fan club site is http://www.brothersgibb.org/.