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Gibb Songs version 2 by Joseph Brennan, copyright 2006—2013

2015

The MAJOR event of this year is the Robin Gibb set Saved by the Bell released in June. It includes remastered copies of the songs from Robin’s Reign, which has been rare on CD, but even more importantly it offers more than two disks of unreleased recordings.

The other interesting event was Barry Gibb’s live performance of a rather good new song in March, and word that he was recording more new songs. In August an album length collection was being mixed for release. The master was made toward the end of the year for a release date rumored to be in the first half of 2016. Barry explained in August 2016 that the album was mastered twice, so probably the second one was the release in 2016. It does imply that most of the songs were done by August 2015 and that one or more were added later.

The least interesting event was yet another box set with remastered versions of the same old songs. The ten-year contract with Warners that promised box sets with outtakes and unheard songs fizzles out at the end of 2015 with the imaginatively titled 1974-1979.

songs

HOME TRUTH SONG
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Mar 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

MIDNIGHT IN MEMPHIS
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb, Douglas Emery
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by T.G. Sheppard, 2019

MEANING OF THE WORD
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

THE LONG GOODBYE
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

DON’T MAKE ME CRY
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. no record

CROSS TO BEAR
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

IN THE NOW
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

AMY IN COLOUR
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

BLOWING A FUSE
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

DIAMONDS
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

END OF THE RAINBOW
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
written 2012. US copyright Aug 2015, with CD. album cut by Barry Gibb, 2016

ANGELS
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb
US copyright Nov 2015. Film soundtrack, 2016

The above titles are mostly for the Barry Gibb album In the Now that was released in 2016. ‘Home Truth Song’ was the first copyright, because Barry performed it live in March. It is possible some other songs were done by then, but Barry spoke about doing a lot of writing and recording during this year. He mentioned singing ‘End of the Rainbow’— perhaps not in final form— to Robin near the end of his life in 2012. There are two songs not used on the album and one, ‘Angels’, that was written specifically for a film soundtrack.

recording sessions

Barry Gibb

Barry Gibb — vocal, guitar
Stephen Gibb — guitar
Doug Emery — keyboards
Lee Levin — drums, percussion
Julio Hernandez — bass guitar
Dan Warner — guitar
Ben Stivers — keyboards
Richard Bravo — percussion
Greg Leisz — steel guitar (‘End of the Rainbow’)
arranger: Doug Emery
producer: Barry Gibb, John Merchant
various dates, mostly 2015, Hit Factory, Miami

Not much is known of the dates, but Barry definitely was busy recording during April and May, and his live version of ‘Home Truth Song’ in March has the same arrangement as the studio recording. An end date in summer 2015 is likely since the US copyright office has filings dated August 18 for all the new songs. Barry is known to tinker with recordings after they seem to be finished, so he and this band may have done more work after the filing date that did not change the song copyrights.

Three of the songs are older. The credits in the CD booklet list, toward the end as shown here, Dan Warner, Richard Bravo, and even Ben Stivers, who worked with Barry years earlier, and that raises suspicion that one or more of the older songs are older recordings or include tracks from older recordings with new material. This will probably never be clarified. Doug Emery’s writer credit for ‘Shadows’ was dropped, and Stephen was added to ‘Star Crossed Lovers’, suggesting that someone was having trouble keeping track of things.

The songs are given here in the order found on the CD, since no other order is known.

IN THE NOW
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

GRAND ILLUSION
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb, Douglas Emery (2009)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

STAR CROSSED LOVERS
Barry Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2004)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

BLOWIN’ A FUSE
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

HOME TRUTH SONG
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

MEANING OF THE WORD
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

CROSS TO BEAR
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

SHADOWS
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb, Douglas Emery (2008)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

AMY IN COLOUR
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

THE LONG GOODBYE
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

DIAMONDS
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

END OF THE RAINBOW
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo , lead vocal Barry Gibb
In the Now, Oct 2016

Vusi Mahlasela with Barry Gibb

Vusi Mahlasela — vocal
Barry Gibb — vocal
Sidney Rash — drums, percussion
John Ellis — all other instruments
engineers: Brent Quinton, John Merchant
producer: John Ellis
late 2015

ANGELS
Barry Gibb, Stephen Gibb, Ashley Gibb (2015)
undated 2015
stereo 3:50, lead vocal Vusi Mahlasela
A side, October 2016
stereo 3:50, lead vocal Vusi Mahlasela, Barry Gibb
unreleased

This song was recorded for the film Shepherds and Butchers and runs over the closing credits. Vusi Mahlasela is a very popular singer in South Africa, the locale of the story. The vocal track with Barry singing the second verse and some backing vocal was not used for the single, which has instead Vusi singing all of the vocal.

selected record releases

Nothing new here. The best we can say is that the remaster of the relatively obscure Mr Natural album sounds noticeably better. The others may have been remastered. The last disk is a new compilation of non-album cuts from this period including of course the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack songs. Samantha Sang’s version of ‘Emotion’, with a lot of Barry Gibb vocal, was issued in 1977, but this Bee Gees version was recorded in 1994 and released in 2001, so it does not quite fit. The set seems nicely complete for 1974-1979 until you remember that they recorded songs for All This and World War II and Sgt Pepper that no one wants to talk about.

An overwhelming package of riches. Most of it is from Robin’s 14 months of solo recording (March 1969 to April 1970), with a few from 1968 and one from late 1970. All the titles above without years after them were newly released here, although some of them had circulated among fans for years in fair to poor quality.

The source material for Saved by the Bell was from stereo master tape in ‘the vault’ as much as possible, but sadly many songs were missing there. For the rest we owe a great deal of thanks to those collectors who were willing to share rare acetates and tapes for this project, and they are named in the booklet. Some of the songs survived in only one known copy. Andrew Sandoval also deserves great credit for his work in contacting people and mastering the songs from the varied available sources. The sound quality may flag a little occasionally on the songs that had to be rescued from mono test disks, but remember, this is the best we will ever get. And there are some very good ones here.

Apparently even Warners had enough of the hits collections. This was announced in September for release in November, but it was cancelled in October. Everything on it was on 1974-1979 released earlier this same year.

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