As you can probably infer from the wedding picture below, I was not really into the Disco lifestyle. I was more of the stoner-in-an-army-jacket type who wouldn't dance unless I was held at gunpoint or so drunk I didn't know what I was doing. So you probably deduced that I wasn't much of a Bee Gees fan back in the day. I just couldn't relate to most Disco music. Hate is a strong word, especially since I was receptive to dance music- Sly and Parliament were faves of mine in my teenage years. But most disco just got on my nerves. One reason was because of my job at the time, in the prepress of a large printing factory where they broadcast the local top 20 FM radio station all day and all night over the ceiling speakers. We had to listen to it, you couldn't turn it completely down...I got fed up once and cut the wires, but then I got nervous about getting in trouble so I spliced them back together. This was at the height of the Disco era, and the Bee Gees got constant airplay. I also think it was just that awful Robin Gibb falsetto, with his fricking hand constantly over his ear, being played over and over and over on the radio that I couldn't stand. "Tragedy" was the worst by far, with Robin squealing "loving you, loving you, luuuu-vvviiiing yooooouuu" a dozen times in eight hours for months on end. I often fantasized about taking pencils and jamming them in my ears just to make it stop. But really, when it came down to it I was never one of those "Disco Sucks" clods, and eventually I came to appreciate the music of Chic and KC, among others, but it took me a long time. And I never looked good in a tapered silk shirt, either. Amusing aside-the first movie my wife and I saw on a date was Saturday Night Fever. Oh dear.
However, the passage of time and the (presumed) subsequent maturity have caused me to re-evaluate the music of the Bros. Gibb over the years. The older, pre-disco stuff is somewhat interesting, and when you get right down to it (and they're not being played on a radio at work that you have to listen to all day long) "Jive Talkin'", "Night Fever", "More Than a Woman", and others are damned catchy and pretty darn good R&B slash Disco slash Pop. I've even got mp3s of "Jive" and "Woman" on this very computer. So it is with a little sadness that I read about the death of Maurice Gibb today. You know, the bearded one who wore hats to cover up his shiny head. Now whether or not this means no more Bee Gees I cannot say, and I can't say it will affect my life one way or another if it does...but it's always a tragedy to lose one of the giants from back in the day, and make no mistake, the Bros. Gibb qualify. So requiescat in pace, Mr. Gibb.
