Some thoughts about the #BeeGeesHBO [THREAD]

First, I loved watching it. It was so heartwarming to see a family work so well together (with gaps and heartbreaks and such, as in every family) for so long and to make millions of people happy.

If you take one thing away from the Bee Gees and their career, let it be this: They made people smile and dance.

What's better than that?

They always seemed like nice, generous people. They always tipped their hats to their influences and helped those coming up after them (a lot of acts over 40 years). They were loyal to their bandmates and production teams.

And like Bowie they made about 20 unforgettable, amazing songs over that span of time. That's fewer than the Beatles/ex-Beatles. And it's fewer than the Rolling Stones or even The Band. But it's remarkable anyway. They have left us many gifts.

The documentary makes all that clear. I was surprised to find myself most moved by the last clip, of Barry, in his 70s, playing without his brothers at a music festival in 2016 or so. "Staying Alive" made the security staff dance in formation, and made 100,000 people joyful.

THAT was exactly what I needed.

Ok. The problems with the documentary:

The first hour of the documentary traces influences, early family history, etc. And it emphasizes the particular phenomenon of brothers harmonizing since childhood.

While everyone gets the Beatles' influence, and it was so strong in the mid-1960s that Mr. Gibb crashed Brian Epstein's office, which is how he met Robert Stigwood, there is more to it.

What about the Hollies? What about other UK- and Australia-based male, pop-vocal groups? No mention. No sense of immediate complex influences.

The Motown and Atlantic influences are clear, however. The film does a good job of showing the debt the Bee Gees owed to American R&B. The one fact I did not know before: Ahmet Ertegun asked Barry to write something for Otis Redding.

The result, written too late for Otis to record it before his death, was the great "To Love Somebody."

But if you are trying to make observations about brothers who can harmonize, maybe brothers who have been in a band together since childhood and have a driven father trying to compensate for his own failures, why not make comparisons to -- oh -- the Beach Boys?

Instead we hear a Jonas brother and a Gallagher brother opine about what it's like to be in a band with brothers. Really? Seriously? That's the best you can do? No Chris and Rich Robinson? No Ray and Dave Davies?

Now here is the major historical glitch. We know the Bee Gees suffered a commercial drop from about 1980 through about 1988, although many other stars like Dolly Parton recorded songs they wrote. But they could not fill arenas or get radio airplay.

The documentary blames the anti-disco movement. That's interesting. And it does let the film slam the homophobic and racist nature of the anti-disco movement. But there are a couple of problems with this theory.

First, the anti-disco movement was strong and loud from the dawn of disco. Because it was inspired by homophobia and racism, it was instant and fierce. The Comiskey Park riot made the news. But it was part of every FM rock DJ's schtick for six or seven years.

Even Dr. Johnny Fever (take that, Mr. Epstein!) on WKRP was part of the anti-disco movement.

Rolling Stone magazine was against disco. Many A&R guys wanted their industry to move on fast from it.

The fact is that the Bee Gees succeeded with Saturday Night Fever (and for two albums of dance music before) by transcending the marginalized disco fans and making disco into pop music (and vice-versa). They were always bigger than disco.

No, the Bee Gees faded after 1979 because they stopped being compelling performers who consistently produced the sort of pop music that caught the ear of industry gatekeepers OR the public.

But there was more.

If there was one event that undermined the Bee Gees second act in the late 1970s it was their involvement in one of the worst film debacles ever:

Robert Stigwood's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film in 1978.

The film was unwatchable. And I say that as someone who was at age 12 the biggest Beatles' fan in Buffalo, NY and a pretty big Bee Gees fan as well. I also loved Steve Martin a lot. So I had high hopes and was inclined to like it. Even I could not.

I was not alone. No one liked it. The Bee Gees hated it. After the bomb the Bee Gees started questioning Stigwood's management. They sued him in 1980 for mismanaging royalties, among other things.

The breakup with Stigwood, following the embarrassment of Sgt. Pepper did more to stop the Bee Gees than anything about the anti-disco backlash.

Things change. The Bee Gees had already gone through one such lull between 1968 and 1976. So they knew how to cope. And they did.

Anyway, the Bee Gees were great. Their songs still are. The documentary is good, despite flaws. It's well worth your time. It's even good for music nerds because it gets into some studio magic and such. Please do watch it.

@Unrollme