The Bee Gees: Stayin' alive after all these years - CONVERSATIONS with Ricky Lo

When I was small and Christmas Trees were tall; we used to laugh while others used to play.

– from First of May

Oh, yes, of course, I remember. When I was small - well, not really that small – I used to lock myself up in my room on lazy jobless afternoons (Martial Law in 1972 dislodged me from my first job at the old Manila Times) and endlessly play my Bee Gees album, alternating it with that of The Beatles, my other all-time favorite, and I felt like I was the richest man on earth even if I wasn’t getting any (bi-monthly) salary.

The Bee Gees kept me company in my Lonely Days, put back the Sun In My Morning and, with their Words, assured me that being jobless wasn’t quite a Tragedy (not like the New York Mining Disaster 1941, anyway) and I told myself, It Doesn’t Matter Much To Me. I was getting Too Much Heaven, enjoying my protracted Holiday, just by spinning those Bee Gees records over and over again (until they got worn out – yes, like broken records – only to be replaced by ... who was that kind soul now? I forgot... a complete collection of The Bee Gees (1967-1990) a few years later when I got back to active (meaning, writing for a living) journalism. If Only I Had My Mind on Something Else!

Now, let me ask you fellow Bee Gees lovers: How Deep is Your Love for the Eternal Trio?

Anyway, Don’t Forget to Remember that your and my Bee Gees, still going strong after more than four decades of making beautiful music together (guess how many people lost their innocence to a Bee Gees song, guess!), have just come up with a new album called This Is Where I Came In, a 14-song collection written by the brothers that returns them to the more organic, guitar-forged sounds of their earlier days (as Billboard describes it).

Will This Is Where I Came In become as big a hit as, say, Stayin’ Alive (1978) or Night Fever (remember how John Travolta swayed and swang his sexy hips to the Bee Gees music in Saturday Night Fever?) or the trio’s 28 other all-time smash-hits?

Also, Don’t Forget to Remember that the Bee Gees, besides piling up Grammys and platinums and golds, have seen their songs covered (or remade) by the most number of artists, including Janis Joplin, Nina Simone, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gary Puckett & the Union Gap, Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and the Lightning Seeds (To Love Somebody); Elvis Presley, Rita Coolidge, the Boyzone and Glen Campbell (Words); Vonda Shepard, Faith No More, the Beautiful South and Robbie Williams & the Orb (I Started a Joke); and the likes of Jose Feliciano, Brenda Lee, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, Diana Ross and Destiny’s Child (Emotion).

Conversations was invited last week by MCA-Universal (local distributor of This Is Where I Came In) to have a one-on-one with Maurice Gibb in Hong Kong where he was promoting the album (while brothers Barry and Robin are somewhere else in the world, doing their own individual promos). Here’s an invitation for you to, well, eavesdrop.

Maurice, I’m sure the new generation of music lovers are wondering why the Bee Gees are called the Bee Gees.

(Deadpan) Pretty good! (Breaking into mild laughter) Oh, I’m sorry, I’m jet-lagged. (Turning serious now) It’s like ... actually ... there’s a guy called Bill Good, er, Bill Gates (The British DJ who first invited the Bee Gees back in the ’50s to perform on his radio show and opted to be the trio’s manager. - RFL), and other guys called Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb and Maurice Gibb... Names with "Bs" and "Gs." This guy Bill Gates was disc-jockeying in Brisbane, Australia. He listened to us and he loved what we did. And we recorded something in the studio and he put on what we called "the acetate," which is very old. We did that and he played the recording on his program again and again.

Over and over again, like what Bee Gees fans are now doing with their Bee Gees tapes and CDs, as if everytime is the first time they’re listening to Bee Gees songs?

(Face lighting up) Yes, that’s right. Over and over and over again. Bill Gates played our recording a lot and people kept calling up and asking where they could buy the record and Bill Gates kept telling them, "This is not a record; this is just an acetate." He looked around the room and saw these guys with names that started with "Bs" and "Gs" and he said, "You’ve got to be BG’s," apostrophe "s". So that was it. We eventually became known as the Bee Gees.

This album, This Is Where I Came In, kind of makes a full circle of the Bee Gees’ (durable and enduring) career, doesn’t it?

Yes, five decades ... five decades of influence that we’ve learned over the years. This is where we came in; we’ve heard the music repeat and come back, digitally now instead of analog. Technology has changed, yeah, but really, the music hasn’t, the songs haven’t changed.

How has the Bee Gees music adapted to the times – you know, trends and taste (of music lovers)?

We always strive to go forward. We don’t stay back ... we don’t go back to our roots or to what we have done. But this album is an exception. We did go back to the ’60s and ’70s by recording the way we used to, which is purely live. We’ve always been a band, we’ve always played, we’ve always been instrumentalists. And we are three brothers known for writing songs. That’s what we do – play and write songs. We’re not a pop group that falls out of fashion and comes back again. What we are is a songwriting team. That’s what we are.

The title track – This Is Where I Came In – aptly describes the Bee Gees’ coming full circle.

This Is Where I Came In is one of the last songs we wrote for the album. We wanted a purely acoustic-sounding song, which we hadn’t done for quite a while. There’s no drum-tracking or any of that stuff; it’s all straightforward. I dubbed on the electric riffs in the background but the vocals, I think, we did only twice. I was listening to Robin singing as I played, bouncing ideas off him, so it remains unexpected and spontaneous.

It’s very obvious in the song.

It just came to us, that song. We just sang it. I was playing acoustics. I was jamming away. Barry came in, Robin came in. They listened to me and asked, "What are you playing?" I told them, "I was just jamming." They said, "Great! Keep on jamming!" And all of a sudden we all started singing together and that was how the song was born. And then we did the vocals around one microphone; we did the harmonies, we balanced ourselves among ourselves. It was all done purely "live."

To what would you attribute the Bee Gees’ longevity ... its enduring success and popularity?

(Deadpan again, then breaking into a wide smile and laughter) I think it’s sex. With a lot of sex you can’t go wrong. (Seriously now) How I feel today was how I felt 10 or 15 years ago. In fact, I feel even more comfortable. The Bee Gees never take things for granted. The three of us love what we’re doing and we continue to enjoy what we’re doing. If we’ve success, then great. If not ... (Shrugging) ... it’s okay. Just keep moving; don’t stay stagnant; don’t stay in one area. Always keep moving, moving, moving on. And that’s what we’ve been doing – always moving forward.

Has there ever been any, well, professional jealousy among the brothers?

(Sighing) No, none at all, oh no! Just creative argument...

... like brothers ...

... well, yeah, like brothers ... we’ve been doing this together for 45 years so we’ve got to understand and love each other more than we do other people. So I understand what Barry likes and what Robin likes and they understand, too, what I like. I know what their influences are and they know what my influences are. And we bring all the influences together when we go to the studio to work or whenever we’re performing. I’m the musical guy who plays the musical instruments. That’s my forte and that’s my function.

But you did pursue individual careers – you know, tried going solo.

Oh, yeah, for about 13 months in the ’70s. Then we got back together again and recorded Lonely Days (The Bee Gees’ first US No. 1 hit. – RFL), followed by How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. Two songs in one day. When we got back together, I got this idea and I played on the piano and Lonely Days was born; then I played the acoustic and How Can You Mend a Broken Heart was born.

Fantastic!

You know, all these happened for a reason. Everything happens for a reason. There’s no coincidence in this life. Everything happens for a reason. My first wife (unnamed) ... I always thank her for falling in love with me because my wife (of 27 years) today, she gave me two wonderful kids, two of the most incredible kids in the world. If she hasn’t done that, I don’t know where I would be. But that was meant to be. So I don’t take it for granted. I don’t go out and say, "This is gonna last forever, for the rest of my life." I accept new challenge every day, I create a new day. I’m a creator. I’m creating my moment right now as you are creating yours as everybody in the world is creating his or her own moment. Everybody is creating ideas that they love to do.

You and Robin are (fraternal, not identical) twins. Are you alike in many ways?

I tell you ... when we were small, Robin was hurt in an accident. He went in front of the car and he got hit. He was rushed to the hospital and I was left home, not knowing what happened. When Robin got back home, I noticed that he had bruises, some on his knee cap. Surprise, surprise! I got the same bruises, too. Yeah, right here on my knee cap (Touching knee).

Same number of bruises?

Yeah, same number of bruises. In exactly the same places.

And how are you different from each other, if you are?

(Deadpan again) Since the sex change? (Seriously now) No, we’re not different from each other, Robin and I. Barry is just like us, too; we could have been triplets, you know. We’re all alike. There’s no older brother or younger brother. We’re just brothers. When Andy was alive (Andy died in 1988. – RFL), it sort of connected us more. Andy was a replica of Barry – in songwriting, in singing, in everything! Wow, you know! they could have been twins. Andy also did what I love to do. I like doing things differently – you know, living on the edge. I love to play pint ball. I also love flying, as Andy did. Barry and Robin would never do that, but Andy and I would fly. Whenever we were home, I take wings. I fly!

Speaking of Andy, have the Bee Gees ever written a song about him, for him?

Oh, yeah; oh, yeah! Oh, God, yeah!

How did it feel writing that song?

The song was called Wish You Were Here. Months before, I got a call that Andy had died. I asked Barry and Robin, "What are we gonna do? We went to Andy’s funeral in LA and came back home. I had this idea of a song for Andy. When I started playing the strings and they played the orchestra and the keyboards and all the beautiful atmosphere came in, wow, we couldn’t go on working; we just broke down and cried.

It must have been painful.

(Sadness crossing his face) It was very painful. Andy was the love of my life. It was a different kind of grief, different from that felt by our mom and dad who were grieving for their youngest child. We brothers were grieving for our youngest brother. They were two totally different kinds of grief. That grief is immeasurable and we don’t take it for granted. It brought us closer to God.

Do you use music as outlet for that grief?

Oh, definitely! That’s one of the most beautiful things about music. It’s the greatest language in the world. With or without lyrics ... just music.

Understood by everybody.

Yeah, understood by everybody. You may not understand the words and the lyrics but it doesn’t matter because you will be touched by the music. Andy had a great gift of music. It’s a good thing that it’s recorded for posterity in a lot of videos, films and records.

What’s your fondest memory of Andy?

(Eyes turning somewhat misty) Oh, the day we flew. I was riding on his plane, a Cessna twin-engine plane. I was telling him what to do and what not to do.

Oh, you were co-piloting with him.

(Smiling weakly) Yeah, I was his co-pilot. He turned to me and said, "God, you’re incredible!" Until now, we could feel Andy’s presence in the studio. I don’t feel that he’s gone. The chair that we have in the studio ... I tell everybody, "That’s Andy’s chair." Whenever we recorded, that’s where he sat, on that chair. During a pause while we were doing the vocals for This Is Where I Came In, there was a squeak on the vocal tracks. When I looked at the chair, it turned a little bit. Nobody was there. After the vocals, I looked at the chair and it was facing me already. It had turned around! Nobody was there. I knew it. Andy was there. He’ll always be there; he’s always with us. It’s as if he didn’t die at all.

Obviously, you believe in the afterlife. Are you Catholic?

No, but I believe in a Higher Power. I believe that if you go within, you don’t go without. It’s always within us, the Higher Power. How to feel Its presence? All you have to do is learn how to connect with It.

Could you briefly describe the family that you came from? Very musical, I suppose.

My mom was a singer in the band and my dad was always there at the club where the band was performing. That’s how they met and fell in love, until they got married. Until he died, Dad was always where we were performing, watching among the audience with Mom.

What are you brothers like when you’re not making beautiful music together?

We’re with our (respective) families. But we do get in touch, constantly, even if we don’t call up everyday to ask, "Are you okay?" We know exactly where we all are at what time of the year when we’re not working together. It’s because we love each other so much.

Are your (respective) families close to one another?

Very! Our children are close to one another, too. Very close. Barry’s kids have gifts of music, too, and so are Robin’s kids and my kids.

Do you expect your kids and their cousins to form The Bee Gees of the New Millennium?

If that’s what will be, then that’s what will be. My son is 25, my daughter is 21. They’ve been very blessed. I will support them in whatever they want to do, whether becoming a lawyer or a singer. But I could see that they have this passion of doing what I love to do – making music, that is. They both write songs and play the keyboards and the piano.

It runs in the family.

Yeah, it does.

Of the hundreds and hundreds of songs that the Bee Gees have sung and written, what are your three favorites?

(Sighing) Like with your kids, it’s hard to separate them.

The three most memorable to you.

I can name two, Too Much Heaven and How Deep Is Your Love.

Favorite line from Too Much Heaven.

Oh, nobody gets too much heaven. It’s that simple. You don’t get enough of it but if you strive together, who knows, you might get enough of heaven.

What about New York Mining Disaster 1941?

That song was about an incident we didn’t comment on directly until years later. It was inspired by the Aberfan mining disaster in Wales (Oct. 21, 1966) in which 144 people were killed, including 116 children. The lyrics were entirely fictitious but the disaster was our real inspiration. We were very affected by it, the news of the terrible disaster. We wrote the song in the dark in the hallway.

The Bee Gees are the most "covered" singers in the world. It must be flattering isn’t it?

Oh, it is! We were blown away when Elvis (Presley) did Words (also done by Boyzone and several other singers).

If you were to describe yourselves as Bee Gees songs, what would you (three) be?

Barry would be To Love Somebody, Robin would be I Started A Joke and me... I’m the song that the Bee Gees have yet to write.