Gibb Songs : 2013

Barry’s short tour of Australia in February inspired Warners to release a box of the Bee Gees’ three Australian albums and a ‘best of’ 1965 and 1966.

Barry did more shows in Britain and Ireland in September and October, billed, like the Australian dates, as the Mythology Tour, tying them in with the 2010 four-disk set.

songs

recording sessions

selected record releases

Bee Gees : The Festival Albums Collection, 1965-1967
Aus: Festival, February 2013

The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs
1 I WAS A LOVER, A LEADER OF MEN (1965)
2 I DON’T THINK IT’S FUNNY (1965)
3 HOW LOVE WAS TRUE (1965)
4 TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1965)
5 TIMBER! (1963)
6 CLAUSTROPHOBIA (1964)
7 COULD IT BE (1964)
8 AND THE CHILDREN LAUGHING (1965)
9 WINE AND WOMEN (1965)
10 DON’T SAY GOODBYE (1964)
11 PEACE OF MIND (1964)
12 TAKE HOLD OF THAT STAR (1963)
13 YOU WOULDN’T KNOW (1965)
14 FOLLOW THE WIND (1965)

Spicks and Specks
1 MONDAY’S RAIN (1966)
2 HOW MANY BIRDS (1966)
3 PLAY DOWN (1966)
4 SECOND HAND PEOPLE (1966)
5 I DON’T KNOW WHY I BOTHER WITH MYSELF (1966)
6 BIG CHANCE (1966)
7 SPICKS AND SPECKS (1966)
8 JINGLE JANGLE (1966)
9 TINT OF BLUE (1966)
10 WHERE ARE YOU (1966)
11 BORN A MAN (1966)
12 GLASS HOUSE (1966)

Turn Around, Look at Us
1 TURN AROUND, LOOK AT ME (1964)
2 THE BATTLE OF THE BLUE AND THE GREY (1963)
3 THE THREE KISSES OF LOVE (1963)
4 THEME FROM ‘THE TRAVELS OF JAIMIE MCPHEETERS’ (1964)
5 EVERY DAY I HAVE TO CRY (1965)
6 I WANT HOME (1966)
7 CHERRY RED (1966)
8 ALL OF MY LIFE (1966)
9 I AM THE WORLD (1966)
10 I WAS A LOVER, A LEADER OF MEN (1965)
11 WINE AND WOMEN (1965)
12 PEACE OF MIND (1964)

Amazingly this was the first straight CD reissue of the three Australian albums originally released on LP in 1965, 1966, and 1967 respectively. Even after decades of legitimate and pirate albums recycling these songs in countless combinations, no company had ever bothered to duplicate the original album lineups. Several compilations had even used the title Spicks and Specks but without using the content of the 1966 Spicks and Specks LP. The package contains the three disks in cardboard sleeves that are reproductions of the LP sleeves.

The songs were newly transferred to digital from tape source, except that the album version of ‘Monday’s Rain’ had to be recovered from a clean LP. (Brilliant from Birth has the single version, a different vocal sung to the same instrumental track.) The song ‘Play Down’ appears here with an alternate vocal track not previously released.

The first album Sing and Play when released in 1965 contained five new songs (1 to 4, and 8) and nine songs from older singles back to 1963. It collected all of the songs written by Barry and recorded by the Bee Gees except the sides of the very first single. The second one Spicks and Specks is the real album here, all of it recorded in a series of sessions within just a few months’ time. The third album Turn Around, released in 1967 after the Bee Gees had returned to England, usefully collected all nine songs from singles that had not yet been on LP, and also duplicated three A sides from the first album, which was already long deleted.

Missing here are the 24 additional songs from 1966 first released in 1970 on Inception / Nostalgia. Because of this the most complete set so far of Australian recordings is still Brilliant from Birth which has all 35 songs on these disks, plus the 24, and also 3 songs recorded for television. It lacks only the alternate ‘Monday’s Rain’ and ‘Play Down’ that appear in this new set. The notes hint that a fourth disk with additional material might be under consideration.

Bee Gees : Morning of My Life
Aus: Festival, February 2013

1 SPICKS AND SPECKS (1966)
2 I AM THE WORLD (1966)
3 I WANT HOME (1966)
4 I WAS A LOVER, A LEADER OF MEN (1965)
5 HOW LOVE WAS TRUE (1965)
6 MORNING OF MY LIFE (1966)
7 EXIT, STAGE RIGHT (1966)
8 JINGLE JANGLE (1966)
9 LIKE NOBODY ELSE (1966)
10 BUTTERFLY (1966)
11 ALL BY MYSELF (1966)
12 GLASS HOUSE (1966)
13 WHERE ARE YOU (1966)
14 PLAY DOWN (1966)
15 SECOND HAND PEOPLE (1966)
16 AND THE CHILDREN LAUGHING (1965)
17 WINE AND WOMEN (1965)
18 I DON’T KNOW WHY I BOTHER WITH MYSELF (1966)
19 ALL OF MY LIFE (1966)
20 HOW MANY BIRDS (1966)
21 COALMAN (1966)
22 TOP HAT (1966)
23 THE STORM (1966)
24 I’LL KNOW WHAT TO DO (1966)

Subtitled The Best of 1965-66, this at first glance seems to be a digest of the three-disk set, but it includes nine additional songs from Inception / Nostalgia that are not on the three disks.