Althouse: Goodbye to Robin Gibb.

May 20, 2012

Goodbye to Robin Gibb.

3 days ago, we lost Donna Summer. And now, another disco star has fallen.

I hated disco, at the time, when it took over the airwaves, ousting the things I liked. But that was long ago, and it's sad to see the old stars die.

I kind of liked the Bee Gees pre-disco, back in the 60s. Here's Robin Gibb singing the lead on "Massachusetts":

When they wrote that song, they'd never been to Massachusetts. They just liked the word. I don't think they knew too much about America at all. Note that Gibb mispronounces "San Francisco."

53 comments:

Anonymous said...: The Stayin' Alive is one of my favorite songs. I use it on my iPod. The movie SNF with John Travolta had this song as a starting point.

RIP Robin Gibb; 5/20/12, 6:26 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: I hated disco, at the time...

Yeah, sure. Just like nobody voted for Nixon.; 5/20/12, 6:27 PM
campy said...: I've lived in Massachusetts since 1972. The word is the best part.; 5/20/12, 6:30 PM
Bob_R said...: Chuck Brown - Godfather of Go-Go died last week as well. Makes a trio.; 5/20/12, 6:36 PM
Michael K said...: I made a movie of my sailboat trip to Hawaii in 1981. We were racing in the Transpac. The sound tarck was mostly water swishing by. I added a music track of the songs from that summer, mostly the BeeGees, plus of course, "Betty Davis' Eyes."; 5/20/12, 6:37 PM
edutcher said...: Of the 4 brothers, only Barry's left.

Very sad.

The Bee Gees started out as part of the British Invasion. Remember "Words", "Lonely Days" (loved that song - and the way they did it), "New York Mining Disaster (actually about a terrible landslide in the Welsh town of Aberfan)"?.; 5/20/12, 6:41 PM
ndspinelli said...: Whenever I hear about the Bee Gee's and disco I think of Steve Dahl and his Disco Night @ Comiskey Park. RIP Mr. Gibbs and know you helped cancel a MLB game.; 5/20/12, 6:51 PM
MB said...: There's a video of a BeeGees concert on YouTube. And a link to jump to Lonely Days (I like that one too.); 5/20/12, 6:51 PM
Anonymous said...: Gibb mispronounces San Franciso? Gee, he pronounces it the same way I do and I used to live there.; 5/20/12, 6:54 PM
Darrell said...: Whenever I hear about the Bee Gee's and disco I think of Steve Dahl and his Disco Night @ Comiskey Park. RIP Mr. Gibbs and know you helped cancel a MLB game.

No, fat slob Steve Dahl got a MLB game cancelled, without refunds or exchanges on the tickets for the second game. Dahl was destroying disco records, not promoting them. I was there and Dahl still owes me. Plus interest.; 5/20/12, 6:55 PM
Bob_R said...: Disco was designed to be music that even white people could dance to (the Polka of the 70's.) It's basically a useful music. Not a beautiful music. I saw a really great performance of Ravel's Bolero by the Pittsburgh Symphony. 1928 version of Donna Summers' Love To Love You Baby. Useful.; 5/20/12, 6:57 PM
edutcher said...: And you can see how the crowd gets into it.

Thanks, marybeth.; 5/20/12, 6:58 PM
ndspinelli said...: Darrell, I'm sorry you didn't get to see the second game of the twinbill. I know Dahl was blowing up disco records between games and the crowd went wild. He was just doing the right thing vis a vis disco records. Your beef is w/ Bill Veeck[as in wreck]. Was Garry Meyer involved in that fiasco?; 5/20/12, 7:02 PM
Darrell said...: Disco was about women--for most of us. Women dressed up in something other than blue jeans and t-shirts. Learning the moves was like paying union dues. And there were moves to learn--complicated ones. Men dresssed the part and did the moves and they got 10-20 minutes dancing next to a goddess.; 5/20/12, 7:02 PM
MadisonMan said...: Disco was all about getting women to nod.; 5/20/12, 7:07 PM
Darrell said...: Meyer was always lurking around Dahl--in between Dahl smacking his nose with a rolled up newspaper just to show him who was boss. Dahl instigated the riot--Hey, it was a joke!!! Yeah. He encouraged fans to come out on the field to "fight the power" and throw albums around. He refused to help the team regain control. His fans wouldn't want him selling out like that--according to him. He should have been sued back into The Stone Age.; 5/20/12, 7:08 PM
Ann Althouse said...: He says "San Franchisco"... the Italian approach to a c + i... like your last name, Mr. Ciotti. Do you say "see-ott-ee" or "chee-oat-tee"?; 5/20/12, 7:11 PM
Ron said...: Althouse should be preparing for when they go to the great compost heap in the sky so that we still have an Alt-bot grinding out posts.... and circuitously finding a way to vote for Obama XIV....; 5/20/12, 7:12 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Italian approach... might just be the Kathleen Falk approach... if you know what I'm shaying.; 5/20/12, 7:12 PM
Jason said...: Stayin' Alive was one of the great, great recordings in pop history. It rocked from the first downbeat, and still sounds great. It was superbly conceived and executed from start to finish.

It would still be a hit if it never came out til tomorrow.; 5/20/12, 7:13 PM
Michael said...: Andy sang Odessa, one of their pre-disco bits. Very cool song. Very odd.; 5/20/12, 7:14 PM
Curious George said...: "Darrell said...
No, fat slob Steve Dahl got a MLB game cancelled, without refunds or exchanges on the tickets for the second game. Dahl was destroying disco records, not promoting them. I was there and Dahl still owes me. Plus interest."

Bullshit, Steve Dahl didn't do anything that night that the Sox didn't know about. As a matter of fact, Dahl was off the field and gone when the riot started. The only one you have to blame is Bill Veeck's retarded son Mike, who helped plan the promotion, and was blacklisted from baseball because of it.; 5/20/12, 7:15 PM
Titus said...: Massachusetts and San Francisco-the two gayest places in the U.S. Sad.; 5/20/12, 7:26 PM
Darrell said...: He was at the microphone. Veeck agreed to let him set up the pile and set off a small explosion. Then get everything cleaned up so that the second game could go on. I heard Dahl telling fans to come onto the field. I was there, as I said. How is any of that Veeck's fault? He should have known not to trust a radio DJ from a major station? There were other twin bill events over the years/radio DJ tie-ins and nothing like that had ever happened. Mostly because the DJ would have gotten blackballed for life for that kind of stunt. But Dahl was left-wing and edgy and the station thought it was good for ratings. And the Sox never sued. If I saw Dahl walking out, I would have kicked him in the mouth. Just a joke, mind you.; 5/20/12, 7:26 PM
Petunia said...: The beat for "Stayin' Alive" is 100 per minute, which is also the appropriate rate for CPR compressions. Good song to have in your head if you ever have to do them.

Another 100/minute song is "Another One Bites the Dust". Maybe not as appropriate for a CPR metronome.; 5/20/12, 7:33 PM
ken in tx said...: San Franchisco, Shibbolith, look it up.; 5/20/12, 7:34 PM
Petunia said...: The most amazing part about the video is the tightness of Barry's pants. They cannot have been comfortable.

The other great movie use of "Stayin' Alive" is, of course, "Airplane!" :); 5/20/12, 7:38 PM
Chip S. said...: Quick medical question for any MDs present: Are cotton balls sufficient to stop the bleeding in my ears, or should I go to the ER?; 5/20/12, 8:03 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: I hated disco, at the time, when it took over the airwaves, ousting the things I liked.

You old fogies, causing grief for everyone and everything that came after your bullshit. "Disco sucks!" you screamed, as it rolled over you. Punk attacked you from the rear, with Rap coming in on it's tattered coat tails and (along with Electronica) tearing your world apart.

I love it, because I had to put up with the smug tyranny of your lame folk bullshit, listening to your type condescend - for decades. That's the one thing you guys never thought about:

Anyone else.

I don't give a fuck about Robin Gibbs dying. The last time I saw him he was on some shitty PBS special, contributing to that tripe. Die, hippies, die and finally leave us alone. Your reflections went to your heads.

And I ain't talking about thoughts, because you didn't have any worth mentioning,...; 5/20/12, 8:12 PM
Ron said...: The Bee Gees were NOT a disco group. Such a label demeans them. They transcended a dead end genre, this was just a phase of their career.

Nothing wrong with voting Nixon.; 5/20/12, 8:13 PM
Curious George said...: "Darrell said...
He was at the microphone. Veeck agreed to let him set up the pile and set off a small explosion. Then get everything cleaned up so that the second game could go on. I heard Dahl telling fans to come onto the field. I was there, as I said. How is any of that Veeck's fault? He should have known not to trust a radio DJ from a major station? There were other twin bill events over the years/radio DJ tie-ins and nothing like that had ever happened. Mostly because the DJ would have gotten blackballed for life for that kind of stunt. But Dahl was left-wing and edgy and the station thought it was good for ratings. And the Sox never sued. If I saw Dahl walking out, I would have kicked him in the mouth. Just a joke, mind you."

Dude, the promotion was the idea of Mike Veeck, who sold Dahl's station WLUP on it. Dahl was off the field when the riot started. He did not incite it. There were n estmated 70,000 "fans" there. High and drunk. What happened was inevitable.; 5/20/12, 8:26 PM
Steve Austin said...: RIP Robin.

I liked the brothers Gibb music. I can admit it. Was a big deal as a middle school kid growing up.

Also this signifies the end of one of greatest running Saturday Night Live skits. The Jimmy Fallon and Justin TImerblake hosted Barry Gibb Talk Show.; 5/20/12, 8:30 PM
Peter said...: I'm sorry these people died and everything, but disco was the musical equivalent of worm-filled dog diarrhea.; 5/20/12, 9:14 PM
Darrell said...: Dude. You're full of shit. Did you find a Wiki entry? Dahl probably fixes it to his liking every day. Why would Veeck hate disco or come up with the idea? That anti-disco stuff was being pushed by Dahl for years. It was part of his shtick. Veeck liked stunts/gimmicks to fill the ballpark--like the exploding scoreboard. The Loop (WLUP) and Dahl approached with the idea and the Sox agreed. I recall that roughly 1/3 of the people there were Loop fans--it wasn't hard to miss them from their t-shirts and long hair and joints. Most looked like they had never been to a ballgame before in their life--and they certainly weren't interested in the baseball in the first game. The little stunt went OK (there wasn't much to see). Dahl was on the mike doing the countdown to the small explosion--and only a few of the albums actually shattered. When his Beavis and Butt-head-prototype fans started to go onto the field, he was egging them on. More and more of the t-shirt wearers moved onto the field as they saw that Sox security wasn't busting heads, as they normally did when a single jerk tried that stunt. Now who benefited? Dahl and Meyer with the National publicity. If the stunt would have ended with the explosion, the story wouldn't have gotten out of Chicago.

You have to be a real asshole to blame, say a mayor, for letting some group have a rally that winds up burning the downtown district. The people sitting where I was sitting along the third base line, stopped some people from going over the short wall. And dragged a few more off the field. More would have given a South-Side welcome to those idiots, if we would have known what was going to happen.; 5/20/12, 9:18 PM
Anonymous said...: I vaguely remember wanting my own era's stuff to dominate and so resented lingering FM classic stoner rock and then-AM disco primarily for crowding the still-relevant airwaves, but that didn't stop me from loving Donna Summer as a kid. Divas is Divas. And there's a direct line, I'd say, from George Clinton, Parliament to house/rap/hip hop. A slightly older friend (7 yrs) spent the 80s still in love with Led Zeppelin, her brother in love with Funkadelic, which sampled combination thereof pretty much birthed the entire 90s.

Ah, but this is the moment for the Brothers Gibb isn't it? There was the alt BF who insisted on listening to "Thomas Edison Invented the Light" by 60s BeeGees whilst in the shower. That was interesting.; 5/20/12, 9:38 PM
Ralph L said...: I liked their pre-SNF stuff better. My sister had the "Trafalegor" album. A little falsetto goes a long way.; 5/20/12, 9:40 PM
MathMom said...: Without the Bee Gees, we wouldn't have this to remember...; 5/20/12, 9:53 PM
Michael said...: Nice tribute to one of the most underappreciated song writers of the 20th century.

By which, of course, I mean Buck Owens; this is a near-perfect imitation of a Buck Owens song like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dBdO3zYclI

Yeah, I like their early stuff too. British country, that's cool.; 5/20/12, 10:29 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/20/12, 10:38 PM
Anonymous said...: One of my favorites is Justin Townes Earle. See his Buck Owens song here:

Close Up The Honky Tonks (at Bonnaroo 2009)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROSRa6NY4ls

Cheers!; 5/20/12, 10:39 PM
KCFleming said...: Certain songs trigger an entire season's worth of memories.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart does that for me, every time.

Here's a live version.

Safe travels, Mr. Gibb.; 5/20/12, 10:48 PM
Curious George said...: "Darrell said...
Dude. You're full of shit. Did you find a Wiki entry? Dahl probably fixes it to his liking every day. Why would Veeck hate disco or come up with the idea? That anti-disco stuff was being pushed by Dahl for years. It was part of his shtick. Veeck liked stunts/gimmicks to fill the ballpark--like the exploding scoreboard. The Loop (WLUP) and Dahl approached with the idea and the Sox agreed. I recall that roughly 1/3 of the people there were Loop fans--it wasn't hard to miss them from their t-shirts and long hair and joints. Most looked like they had never been to a ballgame before in their life--and they certainly weren't interested in the baseball in the first game. The little stunt went OK (there wasn't much to see). Dahl was on the mike doing the countdown to the small explosion--and only a few of the albums actually shattered. When his Beavis and Butt-head-prototype fans started to go onto the field, he was egging them on. More and more of the t-shirt wearers moved onto the field as they saw that Sox security wasn't busting heads, as they normally did when a single jerk tried that stunt. Now who benefited? Dahl and Meyer with the National publicity. If the stunt would have ended with the explosion, the story wouldn't have gotten out of Chicago.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050401/how-i-did-it.html

"I'm the one who came up with the idea for Disco Demolition Night, when fans were encouraged to bring disco records to Comiskey Park, and we'd blow 'em up between games of a double-header. Did it work? So well that more than 100,000 people tried to get in, traffic was snarled for miles, and when we did blow up the records, our customers -- bless them all -- rioted in celebration, forcing us to forfeit the second game. The embarrassment to baseball was so great that soon enough, after Dad sold the club, I was essentially blackballed from Major League Baseball. No one would hire me." Strike 1

The riot started after Dahl left:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o98PcPvS-54 Strike 2

He never told anyone to run on the field. You can watch the whole thing on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xsrz-6U_hc Strike.

Grab some bench!; 5/21/12, 6:22 AM
ricpic said...: The same people who called the BeeGee's stuff bubble gum music are now telling us what a great artist Gibbs was. I thought their stuff was very catchy. How great or not great it was I leave to the expoits.; 5/21/12, 8:21 AM
ricpic said...: Hey Crack, you gotta get off those bitterness pills. That's the only way to let a broken heart mend. Not that you'll listen to me.; 5/21/12, 8:25 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: ricpic,

Hey Crack, you gotta get off those bitterness pills. That's the only way to let a broken heart mend. Not that you'll listen to me.

I'm staying pretty consistent in my views, which few give me credit for, because it's one thing they can't deliver. You want to cry? Cry. Few gave a shit when I did (still don't) so don't expect me not to learn from that example of compassion.

The only good hippie is a dead hippie.

But I think it's funny how you guys still think everything is a reflection of my divorce. I just did 3 months in Texas that pretty much blew that out of my system. Except for waiting until she kills again - so I can crow about nobody helping me stop another unnecessary death - I think of very little even remotely related to her.

Silly humans.; 5/21/12, 9:06 AM
Chris said...: I preferred the Hee Bee Gee Bees:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-gZKRKNy4w; 5/21/12, 9:38 AM
Swifty Quick said...: Of the 4 brothers, only Barry's left.

The three that died were aged 30 (Andy), 53 (Maurice), and 62 (Robin) at the time of their deaths.

One thing the brothers Gibb are decidedly not doing is Staying Alive. And it's sad.; 5/21/12, 11:00 AM
Unknown said...: I was not a huge Bee Gees fan too but their music dominated the charts when I was growing up and somehow Robin's death reminded me that the times are different and that we all face the same thing. Only people face it sooner. He will be missed.; 5/21/12, 11:40 AM
Amartel said...: Holy shit, the disco kings and queens are dying in droves. Go on now go (find Gloria Gaynor), she will survive!

Love the Beegees. They wrote a lot of hits for a long time, not just for themselves. Barry's the only one left of all the brothers.; 5/21/12, 1:13 PM
rhhardin said...: Armstrong and Getty board operator text on the matter:

"They're not staying alive anymore. Robin Gibb of the BGs had died. First Donna Summer, now this. It looks like God is putting together a disco variety show. Gloria Gayner'd better watch her back. Lots of BG music tomorrow."; 5/21/12, 2:22 PM
Darrell said...: Two years earlier [1977, the actual stunt was Thursday, July 12, 1979] the Sox held a disco dance contest on the field. Afterward, Veeck and Jeff Schwartz, who worked in promotions for WLUP, went for drinks late into the night at Miller's Pub, ''and we were laughing, saying we were going to do an anti-disco night,'' Veeck said. ''Two years later, Jeff called and said, 'Listen to WLUP. Some guy named Steve Dahl just blew up a disco album."

''Steve Dahl went to six-figure contracts and simulcasts,'' Mike Veeck said. ''I went to Florida to hang drywall and wait for the phone to ring.

Everyone has a slightly different version of the genesis of the big night. Schwartz, now station manager at WCKG, puts a little more of the credit/blame on Dahl. "But people have asked if I've had any regrets,'' Schwartz said. "None whatsoever. I didn't call it a riot then, and I don't call it a riot now.'' ...Dahl's boss told him not to talk about it the next day on the radio. He went to a hotel with his wife that night and listened to talk-show hosts say he should be fired. The next day, some of the station's advertisers pulled out. But Dahl felt if he didn't talk, he would be selling out, not giving his young audience the attitude they expected of him.

For the record (Disco Demolition Night - 25th Anniversary)
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | July 9, 2004 GREG COUCH STAFF REPORTER; 5/21/12, 5:18 PM
Meade said...: Pogo said...
Certain songs trigger an entire season's worth of memories.

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart does that for me, every time.

Here's a live version.

Safe travels, Mr. Gibb.

Ditto; 5/22/12, 11:22 AM
destryR said...: Michael: Massachusetts (1967) predates Streets Of Bakersfield (1972). The young Gibbs needed a time-machine to pull that imitation!; 8/25/12, 7:56 PM