Bee Gee Barry Gibb says his recent revelation about being a victim of attempted molestation as a child "just sort of came out," but believes it's important to speak out about it. (June 30)
There's more to the story of the Bee Gees than meets the eye.
Brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb formed the Bee Gees, known for hits like How Deep Is Your Love and Love So Right, and became masters of music andof reinvention.
The band's tumultuous early years,commercially successful disco era and everything in between (and after) are chronicled in a new HBO and HBO Max documentary, "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" (Saturday, 8 p.m. EST/PST).
The film, directed by Frank Marshall,goes deep into the archives with never-before-seen footage from concerts, recording sessions and home videos. It also features interviews with Barry, 74, as well as archival interview footage with his twin brothers Maurice and Robin, who died in 2003 and 2012, respectively.
You never know really what's going to be a hit, you just know what you love, Barry Gibb tells USA TODAYby phone from his home in Miami. But you've got to want to do it more than anything else.
The story of the Bee Gees is chronicled in the 2020 HBO documentary "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart."(Photo: LENNOX MCLENDON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Gibb says he isnt sure what the Bee Gees legacy will be, but he wants the songs to endure. His coming album, Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol. 1 (out Jan. 8),features mainly country stars such as Dolly Parton and Keith Urban duetting with him on Bee Geeshits.
I just want the music to live, he says. I want people to maybe enjoy it years from now. Doesn't matter about whether people remember us or me or the Bee Gees. Its the music that counts.
For bothcasual listeners and fans who lived through it, the documentary is a trove of discoveries and memories.
Among the most poignant moments:
John Travolta and Barry Gibb on the CBS special "Stayin' Alive: A Grammy Salute to The Bee Gees."(Photo: MONTY BRINTON/CBS)
The Bee Gees navigated the trappings of fame and working with family, providing a blueprint for subsequent starson how to maneuver the industry.
Fame, the ego that comes with it, and sibling spats led to the trio disbanding briefly in early 1970.
We had this fascination with calling the newspapers up. You call NME or Disc or Music Echo and you say, Robin said this about me and I just want to be able to correct the record,'" Barry can be heard saying in the doc, as headlines like Robin Breaks the Silence and Barry says Robin extremely rude flash across the screen.
It wasnt until music executive Robert Stigwood formed a record label and took the Bee Gees with him that the brothers began to communicate again, reuniting and writing Lonely Days.
It was a whole strange episode of our lives, Robin said. We needed time apart to think about it. Wed always been boys growing up together, and I think we came back together as men.
Still, Barry has countless fond memories of making music with his brothers.
There's a lot of great moments between the three of us," he says. "Music always kept us happy and together."
Barry Gibb (from left) joins brothers Robin and Maurice in the studio in 1970.(Photo: MIRRORPIX VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Fellow sibling stars Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear in the film to talk about the perils and proud moments of working with your brothers.
Brothers in general, its a very complicated thing. Emotions are heightened and theres things that go back to childhood When you magnify that with the whole world, it changes the game a little bit, says Jonas, whose own band turmoil was chronicled in 2019s Chasing Happiness documentary. "Something about entering the world from the same place I think has an affect on your ability to sing together, your creative awareness and your artistic voice.
Making music with your family is equally the greatest strength and the greatest weakness you could ever have in a musical partnership, says Gallagher, who has had public disputes with brother Liam.
The brotherhood is the secret sauce, it seems:
You cant sing like the Bee Gees because when youve got family members singing together, its unique, Gallagher says.
The Bee Gees, photographed here in Britain in 1970, rank third among groups with the most No. 1 singles in Billboard Hot 100 history.(Photo: SOUTH COAST PRESS/SHUTTERSTOCK)
As the group fell into acreative rut in the years following their reconciliation, they decided to relocateto Miami in 1975, where theyfound a new, more Americanized sound and Barrys falsetto.
The result was Main Course, the album that spawned the hitsJive Talkin (the beat of which, Barry says in the documentary, was inspired by the sound of their car going over a bridge on the way to Miamis Criteria Recording Studio) and Nights on Broadway.
That was the turning point where we literally did find ourselves, because we never really knew what we were until that album, Barry says.
When recording Broadway, producer Arif Mardin asked the band to ad lib background vocals. Barrys signature falsetto was born, becoming part of the groups trademark sound.
My whole life, I didnt know I could do this, Barry says in archival footage.
Though Maurice noted we werent the first to sing falsetto, listing The Stylistics and The Delfonics as inspirations, the group made the new sound its own.
The Bee Gees as photographed on June 5, 1979, in Los Angeles.(Photo: ED CARAEFF/MORGAN MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES)
Tragedy and You Should Be Dancing were on rotation at clubs as the then-underground disco scene thrived,when Stigwood tapped the Bee Geesto write songs for 1977s Saturday Night Fever, starring a young John Travolta. Stayin Alive was among the five songs the group penned for the film's soundtrack.
All at once, disco rocketed the trioto the top. The soundtrack was certified 16 times platinum and won album of the year at the Grammys.
Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb formed the Bee Gees, known for hits including "How Deep Is Your Love" and "Stayin' Alive."(Photo: SHUTTERSTOCK)
But just as suddenly, the '80s revolt against disco, in part because of racism and homophobia, wrapped them in backlash.
Initially, the cultural and musical phenomenon of disco was based primarily in Black, brown and LGBTQ communities, but that didnt stop critics like Chicago DJ Steve Dahl from lumping the Bee Gees and their music in with the takedown of the genre.
A lot of straight people feeling threatened and the corporatization of disco was the straw that broke the camels back, former Studio 54 resident DJ Nicky Siano says in the documentary.
'Stayin' Alive': Bee Gees tune helps hand washing for coronavirus prevention
Even those who think theyve never heardthe Bee Gees have almost certainly heard one of their songs.
Barry reveals the group would write our lyrics in the studio itself instead of composing them ahead of time. The unconventional approach led them to create countless chart-topping hits, with the trio ranking third under groups with the most No. 1 singles in Billboard Hot 100history.
Its very hard to describe how we write, but the only way I can describe how we work at it is by becoming one mind, Maurice said.
Reinventing themselves once again, the band turned to songwriting for other musicians in the 80s and 90s. They wrote songs for Barbra Streisands 1980 albumGuilty, with Barry singing alongside her on the title track; Dionne WarwicksHeartbreaker single; Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers Islands in the Stream duet; Diana Ross Eaten Alive album; and the group'sImmortality duet with Celine Dion.
We just decided to write for other people and to ignore the slings and arrows, Barry says. "You know, let's just write songs (for other artists) and make sure the songs are great songs, and we prove ourselves to be songwriters more than anything else."
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'I just want the music to live': Barry Gibb reflects on the Bee Gees' new HBO documentary - USA TODAY
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