quote:

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I am a country artist, always have been a country artist

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Why is something that is professionally executed and tuneful automatically written off as 'cheesy'?

The Carpenters suffered the same fate on a recent SGF thread. Guys - it's all just pop music! Even Gene Watson, Merle haggard and Ray Price - just pop music!

Some is better-presented than others, but I hate to see it vilified for that reason alone.

I certainly can hear Big and Rich doing "Staying Alive".

In my opinion, the Bee Gees are up there with some of the greatest songwriters in pop music. I will even go as far as to say that the Bee Gees are my favourite melody writers, next to The Beatles. Songs like "Heartbreaker" and "Islands In The Stream" contain gorgeous melodies that are unfortunately overshadowed by the sentimental lyrics that accompany them.

[This message was edited by Chris LeDrew on 17 December 2006 at 10:55 AM.]

The rumor is, also, that brother Richard (who produced and arranged most of the Carpenter songs) figured, hey - this song needs a pedal steel. What great insight the cat had.

The Bee Gees are super song craftsmen.
Even if it is not always produced to my taste,
it always produced supurbly for the market at the time.
Some of their dance stuff still sounds
pretty good to my ear today.
In some ways a corney white counter part
to Earth Wind and Fire.

It's a tremendous shame that one of the 3 brothers, Maurice, died several years ago in a Miami hospital, due to a medical accident. If Barry and Robin have done any work since that fateful day, I'm not aware of it (but then again, they wouldn't necessarily call to let me know... )

Kevin, I suspect Barry means,
he has always listened to and written songs that were too country to play with the Bee Gees.

'Please Come To Boston' sidled up to country through folk music,
and I think he just goodn't push it closer
after that.

The record companies and market demanded the Bee Gee's
style and it was a group endevour.
He pointedly says, he can do this now that the group is disbanded.

I wish him well.
His heart seems to be in the right place.
And he has a voice that can do anything he CHOOSES.
Let's wait and see what he chooses.
It's ain't like he needs to for the money.

Who'da thunk Van Morrison would be getting good reviews for a Rhyman Hall performance
of classic country songs...

[This message was edited by David L. Donald on 18 December 2006 at 01:20 AM.]

Glad you reminded me of that Streisand/Gibb record - I loved it! I liked the Dionne Warwick stuff a lot, and I liked the band on their own, too.

Lots of artists were afflicted with disco-itis around then (the Beach Boys come to mind) but their inherent musicality always shone through. Same with the Gibb brothers. They weren't my absolute favourites at the time, but listening in retrospect reminds me of how lucky we were in those days!

Take a couple of big hits from the 60's: Charlie Rich doing "Mohair Sam"-a top 40 rock song, and Charlie later went on to become one of the most revered country singers in history.

As a songwriter, Chip Taylor no doubt has had his mortgage and a number of cars paid for by what is, along with "Louie, Louie" perhaps the ultimate beer drinking party song, "Wild Thing," which became a hit for The Troggs. Chip has for years been a country singer/songwriter, and also authored "Angel In The Morning."

I'm willing to cut Barry some slack and see what materializes out of this project, instead of slamming him on his way into the studio.

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 19 December 2006 at 10:30 AM.]

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The whole "crossover" thing has been with us since the 50's.

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Well, that's true I suppose, but only because the modern obsession with genres and labels started about then.
There was no classification for "country and western" on the billboard charts until 1949. You couldn't really cross over until you had a genre label hung on you.
The genre labelling thing is pretty much entirely for marketing purposes anyway.
I wonder how Mr. Gibb would feel if all the record stores started moving the BeeGees cd's from the pop section to the country section, where nobody would find them ?
-John

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www.ottawajazz.com

[This message was edited by John Steele on 19 December 2006 at 12:03 PM.]

Jim C., I believe the proper title was "New York Mining Disaster".

DD, I think "Come To Boston" was a Dave Loggins song.

Or is it MY memory that's shot? : )

AND...

"I Just Got To Get A Message To You"- "The preacher talked with me and he smiled, he said come walk with me, come and walk one more mile..."

"Sing Me Back Home"- "The warden led a pris'ner down the hallway to his doom..."

Sounds like two versions of the same song, doesn't it?

Maybe his is the most remarkable success in pop music history!

RR

[This message was edited by Roger Rettig on 20 December 2006 at 10:24 AM.]