The Bee Gees album recorded in 1999 as three separate projects was judged not satisfactory by the end of the year. They decided to record a few more songs together and fit them alongside some of the solo tracks. These songs were completed by May 2000 and prepared for a release around October, which would be three and a half years after Still Waters. For whatever reason, this master was scrapped, and they made small changes to a few tracks in October. Release was pushed on to the second quarter of 2001, a full four years since the last album.
The title of the forthcoming album was given as Technicolor Dreams sometime in 1999, but by February 2000 they had backed off that title because of the trademark in Technicolor. The title This Is Where I Came In was announced by June.
THE EXTRA MILE
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
album cut by Bee Gees, 2001
SHE KEEPS ON COMING
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
album cut by Bee Gees, 2001
THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
A side by Bee Gees, March 2001;
album cut by Bee Gees, 2001
DON’T LOOK MY WAY
Samantha Gibb, Laz Rodriguez, Adam Gibb, Maurice Gibb
album cut by M E G, 2005
INSIDE MY HEAD
[ IN MY HEAD ]
Samantha Gibb, Laz Rodriguez, Adam Gibb, Maurice Gibb
album cut by M E G, 2005
Bee Gees
Barry Gibb — vocal; guitar (‘Sacred Trust’);
programming (‘Sacred Trust’, ‘The Extra Mile’)
Robin Gibb — vocal
Maurice Gibb — vocal;
guitar (‘Sacred Trust’, ‘She Keeps On Coming’,
‘This Is Where I Came In’);
keyboard (‘Just in Case’, ‘Sacred Trust’)
Alan Kendall — guitar
George Perry — bass
Steve Rucker — drums
John Merchant — programming (‘Sacred Trust’,
‘The Extra Mile’)
Ben Stivers — keyboard (‘Just in Case’)
orchestra arranged by Peter Graves (‘The Extra Mile’)
engineer: John Merchant; Ashley Gibb
producer: Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb
first and second quarter 2000, Middle Ear, Miami Beach
JUST IN CASE
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1996)
undated 2000
stereo 4:22, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
B side, March 2001;
This Is Where I Came In, 2001
SACRED TRUST
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (1998)
undated 2000
stereo 4:53, lead vocal Barry Gibb
This Is Where I Came In, 2001
THE EXTRA MILE
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (2000)
undated 2000
stereo 4:20, lead vocal Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb
This Is Where I Came In, 2001
SHE KEEPS ON COMING
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (2000)
undated 2000
stereo 3:57, lead vocal Robin Gibb
This Is Where I Came In, 2001
THIS IS WHERE I CAME IN
Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb (2000)
undated 2000
stereo 3:56, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
A side, March 2001
stereo 4:55, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
This Is Where I Came In, 2001
stereo (extended version) 7:17, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
unreleased
stereo (DJ Domino remix) 5:07, lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
12-inch single, 2001
stereo (DJ Domono remix edit) 3:45 , lead vocal Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb
12-inch single, 2001
The last Bee Gees recordings were made sometime between January and May 2000. Ben Stivers and Matt Bonelli left after the New Year’s Eve show, so these recordings were made by the three brothers with Alan Kendall, Chocolate Perry, and Steve Rucker. With this small group of familiar musicians, with Maurice contributing substantially to the finished tracks on guitar and keyboard, the Bee Gees felt like they were going back to basics, as they said repeatedly when describing the album in 2001.
‘Just in Case’ has a long history going back to 1996 when the brothers were filmed writing it, seen in the Keppel Road documentary. The song was supposed to be for Toni Braxton. The Bee Gees version that was ultimately released must have been started in 1999 or earlier when Ben Stivers was working with them, but it was still being reworked well into 2000. The last bit of recording for the whole project was to replace Barry’s falsetto vocal on ‘Just in Case’ with natural voice vocals by Barry and Robin. But the song ended up only as a B side and bonus cut on the album.
The 1998 song ‘Sacred Trust’ had been made for the Backstreet Boys, but since they did not record it, it was still available for the Bee Gees. They made no attempt to simulate the multiple lead vocals that the Backstreet Boys would have done— Barry sings lead for the entire song. These first two songs were safe choices for the brothers to do together, older songs. What next?
The Olympics were held in Sydney in September and October 2000. The Bee Gees were asked to contribute a song and were invited to perform it at the games. In March they wrote ‘The Extra Mile’ and recorded it with an orchestra of horns and strings arranged by former Boneroo Horns leader Peter Graves.
‘She Keeps On Coming’ is a lively rock number with Robin on lead vocal, Maurice and Alan Kendall on guitars, and bass and drums. The song pleased audiences at several promotional live performances the Bee Gees did for television in 2001. It could have been the second single, but the lyrics may have run afoul of the family-friendly rule.
The very last new Bee Gees song was the title number ‘This Is Where I Came In’, with the same instrumental forces as ‘She Keeps On Coming’ except for acoustic guitars. Robin again handles most of the lead vocal but with a bridge section by Barry. The title suggested that it would be an ending. The song was recorded in May 2000. It was subject to several mixes: shortening for the single, lengthening for the 12-inch single, and editing of the lengthened mix.
This completed most of the recording for This Is Where I Came In, the last Bee Gees album, released in 2001. The tracks were mixed in June, and sent out for an album to be mastered in July. The release date was set for September or October 2000.
Skylla
Samantha Gibb — vocal
Laz Rodriguez — guitar, programming
Nick Yves Sallons — bass, programming
Chris Morro — drums
Maurice Gibb — keyboard, programming, bass
John Merchant — programming
possibly Adam Gibb — keyboard
engineer: John Merchant
producer: Maurice Gibb
third quarter 2000, Middle Ear, Miami Beach
Samantha Gibb’s band Luna Park had never done many shows. In 2000 Adam decided to drop performing, and Samantha and Laz now became the leaders. To make a self-contained band for live performance they added two musicians Laz knew from their days in the Miami Beach High School Rock Ensemble, Nick Sallons and Chris Morro. The new group was named Skylla. Adam explained in 2001 that it was named after the six-headed sea monster of Greek myth, Scylla, because there were six people involved (presumably the four-piece band, Adam, and Maurice).
Maurice produced nine songs for them around the middle of 2000, after the Bee Gees album was completed. By October fans heard that ‘Dance with Me’ and other new songs were being sent as demos to record companies, so recording was probably done by then, in time for Maurice to work on the touch-ups to the Bee Gees album (see below).
Eight of the songs (not ‘Inside My Head’) were made into a demo album around January 2001. Four of them (including ‘Inside My Head’) finally appeared on an officially released album in 2005 called M E G, the latest name of the band. According to the M E G CD booklet Maurice co-wrote ‘Don’t Look My Way’ and ‘Inside My Head’ and played keyboards.
The synth and keyboard playing on ‘Inside My Head’ and ‘Don’t Look My Way’ are reminiscent of Maurice’s work on Bee Gees albums— specifically the intro of ‘Inside My Head’ sounds like a sound used on ‘Haunted House’ (Size Isn’t Everything). The arrangements of ‘When I’m with You’ and ‘Giving In’ are based more on Laz’s guitar. Samantha and Laz were clearly going their own way on songwriting and the familiar Maurice touches here and there are the kind of contributions one would expect from using a well-known session player.
Three more of these songs appeared on the Luna Park download album in 2008.
Bee Gees
Barry Gibb — vocal
Robin Gibb — vocal
Maurice Gibb — vocal
engineer: John Merchant
producer: Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb
about October 2000, Middle Ear, Miami Beach
The album master made in July was scrapped, and Barry instigated some additional recording in October before a new master was made. Three changes are known to have been made.
A sound effects opening was added to ‘This Is Where I Came In’, including a snip of ‘She Keeps On Coming’. Barry added the spoken comments to the start of ‘Technicolor Dreams’. Barry asked Robin and Maurice to add backing vocals to ‘Voice in the Wilderness’. None of this was essential and suggests mainly Barry’s desire to tinker with existing tracks.
VH1 Storytellers
US: Interscope, April 2000
Bee Gees : HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE (live 1996)
A collection of songs performed on the VH1 series Storytellers was issued in 2000 to benefit the City of Hope charity. The last cut was the Bee Gees’ 1996 performance of ‘How Deep Is Your Love’, which had not been released before on CD.
The Three Bees
UK: 2000
SAYING GOODBYE
The first release of the 1983 composition ‘Saying Goodbye’ was on a no-label CD by the Bee Gees tribute band the Three Bees. Vocals are by brothers Thomas Bathgate, Robert Bathgate, and James Bathgate.