The Bee Gees

by David N. Meyer

  That’s not to say that Robin hadn’t been put through the wringer by Barry and Stigwood. But when band members under stress are all on different substances, they inhabit different universes, and communication breaks down.

  “Robin tried to leave the Bee Gees in a peaceful way,” Robin’s spokesman told the press, “and bring about an amicable solution, but negotiations finally broke down last weekend.”{171}

  “We can’t even get him ourselves,” said an RSO spokesman. “When we phone him,” Barry said, “we get Molly and she won’t let us speak to him.”{172} Barry was following Stigwood’s lead—casting Robin’s wife, Molly, as a manipulator and claiming that Robin was under her control.

  “I picked up the paper like anybody else and I wondered what it was all about,” Barry said. “I phoned [Robin] and was told to bugger off. He wouldn’t speak to me. Many attempts have been made to contact him but he has made no answer. So we have stopped. Robin wants to sunbathe in the spotlight while the rest of the group stand in the shadows. The things he has said have been extremely rude, from my own brother, and I would not forgive him for that. I would say that he is unwell. He has got a big persecution complex. He thinks everybody hates him.”{173}

  When Robin wouldn’t respond, Barry went after Molly again. “The wife should have nothing to do with the husband’s business affairs. I’ve never got on with Molly. I tried hard because she is my brother’s wife. He is being pushed around.”{174}

  “I make my own decisions,” Robin rejoined. “I love her, but my wife is second to me in my own house. Molly and I have a partnership, not a dictatorship. She’s a wonderful person and these stories that she’s some kind of demon . . . they make me sick.”{175}

  “Molly and Lulu nearly split us up,” Maurice said. “One wife would be jealous if another Bee Gee was getting attention. They even counted how many close-ups we each got on Top of the Pops.”{176}

  Stigwood wasted no time having a writ issued against Robin by the High Court for breach of contract. Stigwood’s claim was that Robin was obligated to record and perform only with the band for another two years. This was the same legal hammer Stigwood threatened Barry with when Barry wanted to make movies. Barry had yielded before Stigwood actually got the writ. RSO, Maurice and Barry claimed that Robin once more had nervous exhaustion. They did not want the public to discover the split before it could be healed, and, like a couple going through a divorce, they did not want to lose face by appearing to have been abandoned by Robin.

  At an April 27 BBC taping of Talk of the Town, Lesley Gibb, the seldom-seen sister, replaced Robin on vocals. RSO told the BBC that Robin had given them a doctor’s certificate proving he suffered nervous exhaustion and so could not make the gig. Robin’s lawyers weren’t playing that.

  “Robin Gibb did not submit a doctor’s certificate to excuse himself from appearing on Sunday,” said Robin’s attorney, Michael Balin. “And it is not contemplated that he should supply such certificates for future agreements. His decision not to appear is one which he feels is legally justified.”{177}

  In early May, Robin told the Mirror: “I’ve never felt happier. I’m broke—but I’m happy. Happier than I’ve ever been. My health doesn’t come into this. My family are involved in a High Court action against me. So how can I answer my door to them? Or take their calls? I hate doing this to them but I have no option. Until the case is heard I can’t say a thing to them. I intend to defend the case and tell the High Court all that has been happening. I want to sing on my own, write my own music and create my own little scene. I only wish my family would get round to realizing this. I haven’t been ‘got at,’ as some people may think. I came to my own decision. My family make me feel as if I am the black sheep of the fold, but I have to act for my own good as I see it, and I don’t share their outlook on the future. Already I feel free. Free of all the restrictions that one finds as a member of a group. Now I can decide everything for myself.”{178}

  “The last time I slammed out,” Barry said, “was three months ago when I said I couldn’t work with Robin again. Since then, he’s had the daggers out for me. I didn’t know he had left until I read it [in the papers]. He didn’t say goodbye or tell our parents he was leaving. That’s what annoyed me.”{179}

  Once Stigwood understood that Robin intended to record, he turned to the New Musical Express (NME) as a forum for threats. He wasn’t worried about making things worse; Stigwood knew that no matter what happened, the band’s public squabbles would only spur sales. In the same issue of NME, an RSO spokesman said: “We have not heard from Robin Gibb since we read of his announcement in the newspapers that he intended to leave the group, so it is impossible to see how he can say there have been negotiations. Myself, his brothers and his parents tried to contact him well before litigation started, but his wife would not let anyone speak to him. There is no real reason why he cannot talk to myself, his brothers or his parents since litigants can always speak to each other. Immediate proceedings will be instituted in the UK and USA against anybody who purports to issue a recording by Robin Gibb, in breach of the Stigwood Group of Companies’ exclusive rights. It is believed that the proposed recording may contain material by Maurice Gibb and, if so, he will join in any proceedings to restrain the record’s issue since he and Robert Stigwood have given no consent. Meanwhile, the action against Robin Gibb is proceeding.”{180}

  When Robin’s lawyer denied the nervous exhaustion excuse, Barry rushed to get his version into print. “He has said that he was not getting enough credit but he never said anything to us. If we had sat down and discussed it . . .” Barry said. “It is getting to the stage where we should be thinking of going round and smashing the door in. If Robin wants to come back he will be welcomed with open arms. But I won’t speak to him again unless he speaks to me first. If he doesn’t come back we will continue as a trio. There is no question of us breaking up.

  “The Press are closer to him than we are. I just get abused. But I would remind him that he only wrote four songs on this new LP. I have been writing for the past nine years. He has been writing only a few years. Over the past year we never argued about him not getting enough credit. I saw something coming because we were arguing a lot. We have grown up together and never been out of each other’s sight. Three brothers are not usually like that. That is one of the reasons this happened. Robin was lackadaisical about sessions. He would turn up at the last minute or an hour after we had finished. So we didn’t get anything from him to put down. He still has one of the greatest voices I’ve ever heard. He has a far better voice than I have. And he is a great songwriter too. I don’t think he knows what is going on. One day he is going to find out the truth. He has not only made a mistake; he has ruined his career.”{181} In June, Maurice took his turn, discussing how he and Barry were getting along, and the state of their musical collaboration. “Barry and I are a lot closer,” Maurice said. “We’re working much more together. We’re having a ball. We know we don’t want to split up.”

  As far as replacing Robin, Maurice said: “We’ve only seen two people. We’re getting tapes from Wapping and Nottingham and Stoke and all over, but . . . we want to get someone who can sing nice, we can take care of the hair and the clothes and all that. At the moment we’ll go on as a three piece and if we find someone suitable to take Robin’s place, we’ll take him on. We’re not looking for a copy of Robin. I did the majority of the backings anyway, even when Robin was with us, but there’s more work for me now. It’s bringing me out more—I do six leads on the next album, before I think I only sang three all told.”{182}

  In May, the Bee Gees—Maurice, Barry and Colin Petersen—released their first single, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow.” It tanked, reaching only #54 in the US. “Tomorrow” is a strange, appealing amalgam: Maurice’s opening vocals, the funky beat and the Muscle Shoals–Burt Bacharach horns reflect Maurice’s love for the southern soul of Tony Jo (“Polk Salad Annie”) White or Joe (“Games People Play”) South. The drums are further forw
ard in the mix than in almost any other Bee Gees number; that must have pleased Colin. Just as the swamp groove gets cooking, though, the song comes to a screeching halt and Barry sings over a piano and strings that “tomorrow everybody’s going to know me better.” The co-written lyrics reflect Barry’s worries over the split and his crowing over triumphs he knows will come. It’s off-putting, and seems, especially for Barry, a little desperate.

  Despite Stigwood’s attempt to stop it, Robin’s single “Saved by the Bell” dropped on July 12, as Barry and Maurice’s “Tomorrow, Tomorrow” faded from the charts. Robin’s spokesman maintained that Robin could not wait for a legal settlement before releasing the single. Waiting too long, Robin felt, might make him fade from public consciousness and he would be unable to resume his ­career.

  “The controversy hasn’t harmed us,” Maurice said, playing the middle brother for all he was worth. “I hope his single is a hit. I wouldn’t stop it. I read somewhere that I was supposed to be against it, but at the moment we’re all happy with the way things are.”{183}

  “I have left the Bee Gees,” Robin said. “There won’t on any account be any get together with them again. I don’t regret leaving and I don’t think they will miss me. The only thing I do regret is that we couldn’t have come to a compatible settlement when I first left. I haven’t heard from them for a long time. The reason we didn’t talk during the split was because my lawyers advised me not to make contact. The first time I met Maurice after that was at the NME Poll Concert in May and we were friendly and chatty. He asked me if I was coming back and I said no. That was that as far as he was concerned.”{184}

  “Robin’s popularity as a solo singer is an unknown entity,” the NME’s reviewer wrote. “In terms of quality this has the makings of a largish hit. And it should be doubly interesting to compare its chart fortunes with the current Bee Gees release. Something of a do-it-yourself single, this was arranged and produced by Robin and written the night before he went into the studio to record it, just a few days after his departure from the Bee Gees. There are really no surprises. It’s very Bee Gee-ish in conception, with orchestra and particularly strings prominent, and Robin sings it in that marvellous tear-racked voice of his that always to my mind made him the most vocally interesting Bee Gee.”{185}

  “Saved by the Bell” reached #2 in the UK, and only #87 in the US, but Robin took the UK sales as vindication. “I am absolutely thrilled about it,” he said. “I always expected it to go in [the charts], though I thought it would either do it very quickly or I would be in for a long wait. But I always had the confidence in it.”{186}

  Over lush orchestration that evokes Frank Sinatra’s arranger (and inspiration to Brian Wilson) Nelson Riddle, Robin opens on a refrain of loss, repeating: “I cried for you,” over and over and over, like a man devoured by grief. The rich production and Robin’s emotive, straightforward singing—free of his overwarbling on Odessa—create an atmosphere of overwhelming inner pain. The emotion, if not the music, conjures up Phil Spector’s teen operas. Robin always did obsess about his own suffering in a way Barry never seems to have understood. Perhaps Barry was embarrassed by so much sentiment, and could never present such straight-up anguish in his songs. As Robin intended, his beautiful wallowing in suffering grants the listener a powerful sense of redemption.

  Barry was always a human jukebox, pouring out material shaped by the sounds of the day or by his perception of what a song-writing client should be singing. Barry had a gift for being in the moment of current music. Robin’s aesthetic sprang from the late 1950s and early ’60s. His sound, even when it sold well, was always out of style. His voice belonged in the early ’60s. Barry, awash in the sounds of London from the moment he arrived, synthesized and regurgitated everything he heard. He was attuned to trends and adapted them for his sound. Robin paid no attention to contemporary rock. The solo and duo singing models for Robin’s vocals and themes were being overtaken by group rock and roll even before the Bee Gees hit England. Robin’s evocative—never specific—lyrics and his exaggerated emotion show the powerful influence of Gene Pitney, Roy Orbison and the Walker Brothers. All three sung songs of heartache, emotional deprivation and bad luck in heartbroken voices; all three preferred—no matter what the time signatures—operatic song structures that showcased their astounding vocal range and ability to evoke pathos. As with Robin, their best vocals hover on the edge of hysteria.

  No other rock artist would cover “Saved,” but it’s easy to think of, for example, Céline Dion wielding it to bring down the house in Vegas. The power and beauty of “Saved” suggests that Robin’s leaving the band unleashed strong creative forces. It would be ungenerous to suggest that Robin might have held back one of his best songs from Odessa for his solo album.

  Robin took the occasion of his success to bolster himself in the press. “I could not take the Bee Gees any more,” he said. “I felt like a prisoner, like I was in a whirlpool. We used to be compatible on everything and then we started to clash. I’m not saying they became big-headed but I found the simple things we used to talk about were not happening. In Australia we used to work till four in the morning for usually £6. Barry had £1; we got 10s each. On the ship over here we were going to try and become the biggest group in the world. Success changes people and I think it left me alone in the Bee Gees. Where it did change others, maybe unfortunately it didn’t change me. There became this false aura in the recording studios where they were more publicity conscious than work conscious. I found myself working by myself for half the time. It turned slowly to hatred after a while because they didn’t care if I was interested in the work or not. Their heart wasn’t in their work, but it is now, because I have left.”{187}

  In August, Barry and Maurice released “Don’t Forget to Remember,” from their forthcoming Cucumber Castle. It’s a Nashville mainstream country ballad with (legendary Nashville producer) Billy Sherrill–style weeping strings. The lead vocals’ put-on drawl sound like parody, but Barry and Maurice were dead serious. Lyrically, it’s pure Boudleux and Felice Bryant, authors of “Love Hurts,” and most of the Everly Brothers’ hits. “Don’t Forget” also evokes the great Mel Tillis, a singer-songwriter who wrote for country star Web Pierce. The critics trashed “Don’t Forget,” but in the hands of Tammy Wynette it could have been a hit. “If they’d only taken this to Nashville and given it to people who really understand this kind of music,” said music critic Jené LeBlanc, “it would have been a #1 on the country charts.”{188}

  “Don’t Forget” got to #2 in the UK but only #73 in the US. Robin told Melody Maker: “We never did anything like this when I was part of the group, although we used to jam on this type of number. I think it’s great. I’ve always liked country music. I think it might be a hit. I am not saying that because they are my brothers. I love the arrangement and it is one of the best records the Bee Gees have ever done.”{189}

  Barry leapt into Melody Maker to refute the bad reviews and get his licks in on Robin. “I can only beg to differ with the critics,” he said. “They made some pretty insulting remarks—remarks that would have been uncalled for even with a new group. As for your critic’s remark that our record ‘wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell’—then just wait and see. And why criticize it for having a country and western flavour? You may as well be just as critical about Glen Campbell and Dean Martin for doing country and western type songs. But they’ve had big hits with them. The last Stones record was a flop. They came back with ‘Honky Tonk Women’ and made No. 1. We don’t mind critics, but to use a phrase like ‘not a snowball’s chance in hell’ is a pretty low comment.”

  Addressing questions of whether he and Maurice would keep working together, Barry said: “Lennon made a film but that didn’t mean that the Beatles were splitting up. Maurice is making a film, and I will be making films. We shall be doing a lot of work individually—but we will stay together as a group. Eventually, we shall be going on tour.” When asked about replacing Robin, Barry
’s hackles rose: “A replacement for Robin?” he said. “I don’t believe in replacements when someone leaves a group. It doesn’t matter who joins when a person leaves, he is never really accepted. Mick Taylor, who joined the Rolling Stones, is not to my mind a Rolling Stone. He’s not one of those five guys who started together. He will be accepted by the fans—but the Stones are the Stones, the Hollies are the Hollies, and the Bee Gees are the Bee Gees. We’re certainly not desperate for anyone to join in place of Robin.”{190}

  Shortly after “Don’t Forget to Remember” came out, Colin ­Petersen got fired.

  “I did not leave,” Colin said. “I was sacked. I was happy to continue with the Bee Gees. We were working amicably together. I got a short letter—not even a phone call. The letter was delivered by a driver. It was four lines and signed by Maurice, Barry and Hugh Gibb—their father. The letter said they no longer wished to be associated with me, therefore my association with them was terminated.”{191} “Colin’s departure is all part of our natural progression,” Barry responded. “He has been spending an increasing amount of time on his management activities, and we have been aware for some while that he would eventually leave the group.”{192} “The only way to continue as the Bee Gees is to continue as two people. A lot of songs on our albums haven’t had a drummer at all. That’s no reflection on Colin, but they haven’t needed a drummer.”{193}