Note Robin Gibb looking straight at yours truly approvingly during this 1990s Disco Revival photo op (see LINK) because I didn't dress like a photojournalist. To stand out from the press corps and foster amity with the subjects, I wore my own saved, vintage 70s clothes plus tall blue suede platform boots* and was rewarded by the Bee Gee's approval as a fellow post-trendy in the know, fashion-era-wise. Robin, jovially smiling at my retro-garb mufti in happier days today remains critically ill with post cancer complications.
Current musos either might have forgotten or never have known that prior to their immensely lucrative but unfortunate disco fixation, The Bee Gees were considered worthy songwriters as well as pop chart darlings.
Besides penning "To Love Somebody" which was covered by, well, everybody in the '60s Cool Club elite, they offered unusual song topics and clever, catchy lyrics, "New York Mining Disaster" indicative of the first with its doomy "Do you know what it's like on the outside?" and of the second, "Marley Purt Drive"'s frothy cadence of "With 16 kids and a family on the skids we gotta go for a Sunday drive."
Post Nik Cohn's "Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night" genesis of the "Saturday Night Fever" blockbuster elevating the Bee Gees into higher ground, much tragedy belied their mega-success, with brothers Andy and Maurice dying relatively young. Robin seemingly attained remission from earlier, serious cancers.
However, as of this week's enumerable centennial memorials to the sinking of the Titanic, Robin Gibb remained hospitalized and unable to attend the premiere of his own Titanic Requiem as performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London (LINK.)
Pop culture enthusiasts everywhere wish him the best possible outcome.
Post script, rest in peace Robin Gibb 5.20.12
*never to be worn again even as Halloween costuming due to subsequent automobile crash ankle injuries.
Besides penning "To Love Somebody" which was covered by, well, everybody in the '60s Cool Club elite, they offered unusual song topics and clever, catchy lyrics, "New York Mining Disaster" indicative of the first with its doomy "Do you know what it's like on the outside?" and of the second, "Marley Purt Drive"'s frothy cadence of "With 16 kids and a family on the skids we gotta go for a Sunday drive."
Post Nik Cohn's "Tribal Rites of a Saturday Night" genesis of the "Saturday Night Fever" blockbuster elevating the Bee Gees into higher ground, much tragedy belied their mega-success, with brothers Andy and Maurice dying relatively young. Robin seemingly attained remission from earlier, serious cancers.
However, as of this week's enumerable centennial memorials to the sinking of the Titanic, Robin Gibb remained hospitalized and unable to attend the premiere of his own Titanic Requiem as performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London (LINK.)
Pop culture enthusiasts everywhere wish him the best possible outcome.
Post script, rest in peace Robin Gibb 5.20.12
*never to be worn again even as Halloween costuming due to subsequent automobile crash ankle injuries.
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