BEE GEES "To Whom It May Concern"

I love love love the overrated-underrated syndrome that some bands seem to accidentally succumb to. It's not their fault. They've sold millions of records, but people seem to dismiss them based on their success. Sometimes their sound one year just clicks with the mainstream. There is no more interesting case than the Bee Gees. They've reinvented themselves so many times without really straying too far from their precious harmonies, smart arrangements, and infectious choruses. You love them or you hate them. You know only Saturday Night Fever or I Started A Joke. Oh, you don't know anything.

Something I learned early on about popular artists who've released music that precursored my formative years is, LISTEN TO COMPLETE ALBUMS INSTEAD OF BUYING GREATEST HITS. Always. There are artists for which this is paramount. Neil Diamond is one. I have a best friend who is a music critic and I can not convince him of the merits of Neil no matter how hard I ridicule him for his suspect taste in college rock (Guadalcanal Diary people, ahem) . He was traumatized as a kid, his parents took him to see Neil and he played America like three times in a row. Too bad, because albums like Velvet Gloves And Spit and Sweet Caroline are incredible. More on Neil later, I'm certain.

The Bee Gees' made To Whom It May Concern in 1972, shortly after they reunited (Robin left the band briefly, c'mon, they were brothers!). The album is not my favorite, that would be 1967's Idea, but I do dig it. I grabbed TWIMC for $2 at a record fair in Austin, sometime in the early 90s. I snagged nearly the complete Bee Gees catalogue that day, including a felt covered Odessa LP. After the successes the teenagers had in the late 60s with Massachusetts, To Love Somebody, and How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, 1972 was an odd year for the Brothers Gibb. The record company clearly had no clue on how to promote the album (there's a promo sticker on the front of my copy that reads: "Suggested Cuts: Sea Of Smiling Faces, Bad Bad Dreams", the single that ended up getting played was "Run To Me"). Their musical direction was more ambigious than say Holiday or even Jive Talkin'.

Something else that I always found endearing, there's home addresses for the fan club presidents, should you want to stalk them. I always thought that was a nice touch, I remember the first Robyn Hitchcock LP I bought added the fan club info. Wherever Mrs. Anne Clark is today, congrats, you're immortalized.

Oh, but back to the music. I really included these three cuts because I wanted to share one of them specifically with you. Sweet Song Of Summer is fucked up. I don't know how else to put it. Moogs were just starting to be used by popular artists (see James Brown) and someone thought it would be a good idea to put one in Maurice Gibb's hands. The album is peppered with a sort of bizarre chanting backing vocals thing, as if they just came back from seeing the Dalai Lama or something. But the flailing Moogs on "Summer" are beyond explanation. Alive and I Held A Party are classic Bee Gees, but probably not songs you've heard before. All the more reason, go buy complete albums, people. If you need suggestions on any one artist you've been curious about, e-mail me. I have answers.

I HELD A PARTY
ALIVE
SWEET SONG OF SUMMER