Lonesome Bee Gee

 

If you don’t know who Barry Gibb is, you’re joking. At the very least, if you don’t know of him, you know of the band he founded with his brothers: the Bee Gees, or B. G.’s — for “Brothers Gibb”. That’s right: Sir Barry Alan Crompton Gibb (he got a knighthood a few years back) is the singer responsible for you, your parents and probably your children dancing with the person you/they had your/their eyes set on at school. Indeed, the Bee Gees are by far the biggest sensation to come out of the disco era, and their songs on the Saturday night fever soundtrack effectively rank amongst the top party songs of all time, along with Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” or “Beat it” and a few early Beatles. As close to eternal as you can get in this world, really…

Yet, Barry Gibb and his brothers, regardless of their incredibly successful 70’s disco run, are even more than that! First off, they started performing — and releasing classics — way back in the 60’s, before Gibb decided to sing an octave higher, and already with notable success. Songs like “Love somebody” and “Words” are such early classics, displaying the band’s remarkable talent for emphatic compositions and raw emotional output. Then, there’s the fact that Gibb managed to find the time to work on music outside of the band — with some success: “Grease”, the title track from another movie you might have heard about, was actually written by him and performed by Frankie Valli. He also released solo work over the years, although none that reached the same historic heights… until now.

Introduced to the world at large on January 8th 2021, Barry Gibb’s Greenfields (Volume 1) is a re-imagining of some of his classic songs, with or without his brothers (mostly with) as performed with the finest artists country music has to offer. Think Dolly Parton (on the aforementioned “Words”), Keith Urban (on the whimsical “I’ve gotta get a message to you”), Miranda Lambert (on a boisterous “Jive Talkin'” with a little help from Jay Buchanan)… You name it, the songs — and performers — are there. Even the somewhat lesser known songs stand out, such as “Run to me”, with perfect guest vocals courtesy of Brandi Carlile, who literally takes over the proceedings, served by a voice that comes somewhere in-between Karen Carpenter, Adele… and Mr Gibb himself, of course.

Then you have the hits, as it were: “How deep is your love” gets a remarkable treatment, with Little Big Town and Tommy Emmanuel coming in strong — and rising: the ending of the song features a back vocal arrangements only the full Bee Gees in their heyday could rival. The considerably more intimate “How can you mend a broken heart” is the occasion for yet another perfect match-up, with Mrs Sheryl Crow answering, or rather trying to answer, Mr Gibb’s relentless questioning. And “Love somebody”, in many ways the definitive anthem of 60’s Bee Gees, featuring Jay Buchanan of Rival Songs fame’s subtly raspy voice.

There are but a few songs we haven’t mentioned here (including a beautiful appearance from Olivia Newton-John), but you get the idea: to no one’s surprise, re-recording Bee Gees songs is a great idea. And it was executed in an equally great way. And we hope there will be a great many more volumes…