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How about some love for Maurice Gibb?

#61
My two pennies: Like any band with a long career in a short career business the Bee Gees sound evolved with the times.[kinda like the Doobie Bros going more urban in the late 70's]
Love them or hate them, they could write songs, even if you hate disco, their songs were GOOD disco songs with great hooks. I give props to anybody who can write a great hook consistently no matter what genre of music it is.
 
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#64
Bonelli joined the Bee Gees in the early 90's, Maurice stopped recording bass in the 80's (officially), when Chocolate Perry took over and Mo became a keyboard wizard, Maurice always played bass in the 70's and 60's as well as 8 other instruments, almost every disco track is Maurice on bass.

As I say, Bonelli rarely recorded with the Bee Gees, only on the Miami recorded songs on their 2001 album, Perry also played on that album.
 
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#67
The late 70's Bee Gees were not about disco unlike many cheap, one hit wonder disco artists. They simply wrote exceptional pop music. I think Barry Gibb has written 15 No. 1 songs, only behind Sir Paul.

As for Maurice's bass playing, I dig it. He played very tasty bass lines. I also love his P bass tone. Plus, with the way he played the bass and sang in the 70's, Maurice had amazing stage presence. Check out Bee Gees live performance at Midnight Special, especially Nights on Broadway. Maurice shreds on bass and sings high falsetto vocals - a true display of covering both ends of the sonic spectrum.
 
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#68
Chrisk-K said:
The late 70's Bee Gees were not about disco unlike many cheap, one hit wonder disco artists. They simply wrote exceptional pop music.
Click to expand...

Good point. "You Should Be Dancin'," "Nights On Broadway," and "Jive Talkin'," all pre-date Saturday Night Fever and were quite "disco" long before the term became popular. The Bee Gees never tried to tap into a genre, rather, the genre tapped into them.
 
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#69
Ah the BeeGees - only artist I ever liked so much I bought their OLDER material after I discovered their music (in the years just prior to the disco era breakout). I loved it all, 60s onward, both their own recordings and the multitude of stuff they produced for/with other artists.

They had a sound and style all their own, and their place in music history is indelibly stamped. Much much love for Maurice indeed (RIP) - always fun playing his lines.

Thinking of them as a group, and Andy, is always bittersweet - I feel like old friends have gone away.
 
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#70
Love Maurice and consider him one of the great bass players. And I'm a guy who grew up on AC/DC, Scorps and RATT, and later followed the work of Motown & Blues greats like James Jamerson and Tommy Shannon. Maurice is up there. Pure smooth. Some of the most tasteful chops around.
 
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#72
Still waiting on another round of album reissues. I haven't heard any news in years. I did manage to accumulate decent-quality soundfiles of a lot of the still-un-reissued B-sides, outtakes, etc. including everything from A Kick In The Head... But it would be nice to have a complete official collection.
 
#75
As far as I could tell from different posts on TB and other web sites, he played Ric with flatwounds untill mid 70-ies, when he switched to natural Precision with flats, and from '79 he endorsed Guild. But at that time, he was heavy drinker so he was sadly replaced on bass and just played rhytm guitar live.
His studio choice is a mystery. For Saturday Night Fever, some say that's Ric, who knows.
 
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#79
jerry said:
This weekend HBO is running a Bee Gees documentary, It should contain some good info/footage.
Click to expand...

Sadly, Frank Marshall and the rest of the guys involved in the doc would never care about important stuff for us bass players.

Maurice Gibb's first American studio experience had some impact on his gear (fortunately not on his bass playing). It was back in 1972, when the Bee Gees chose the Record Plant in LA to record one of their worst albums ever, Life in a Tin Can, when while in the studio Maurice was handed a Precision bass which he seemed to like a lot. You know the P bass was a big part of the American recording industry and culture, and I always believed Maurice wanted to capture a bit of what was mainstream back then. The band was trying new things and leaving the Rickenbacker behind was probably part of that. The Gibbs loved success, and worked very hard to get it.
 
#80
I'm not a fan of the disco era tunes anymore but a couple of the ones on Sat Night Fever are still in my regular 70's playlist. And we routinely drop Stayin Alive in our playlist at gigs if the crowd is hip for it.

Like any famous artist, be it U2 or Garth Brooks, that I don't really like, if they worked hard for their success and put out material alot of people liked then I can still respect them. The music business is not known for being a "secure" career choice so if you put in the hard work you deserve the success you get.
 
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