Another week, and what a bloody chaotic week, it has been, and another batch of stuff to review.
DVD reviews
The Bee Gees: In Our Own Time
Yes, that lot of brothers who can harmonise well. No I have not been fooled because they are all dressed in black leather on the cover and look like heavy rock trio. Like it or not these guys knew how to reinvent themselves and had huge success both as a group and as song-writers. Yes, they wrote some of the most noxious tripe ever to be popular in any decade. It was the 70s and pretty much everything popular was pretty crap whether it be the cars, the clothes or the music. That bit of their careers is pretty widely known and loathed by many a rocker.
However their earlier career once they returned to the shores of England was interesting. They were doing stuff that sounded like music we know before many of those groups best know for it did it. They have tracks that sound ELOish, psychedelic and even Beatlesque at their most experimental. The Gibb brothers were always trying to push the edge of music into places it had never been. The fact they could harmonise so well has influenced bands of all types since their inception.
They had the same knack for songwriting that Abba had. Abba songs can be played by bands of all different genres and sound right. The same can be said for many Gibb’s brothers songs. They are just incredibly well written whether or not the end result is music to our ears.
While I was watching the documentary another band of British expats who returned to their homeland to make it sprang to mind. AC/DC had a similar story to the Bee Gees and there is that strange interplay between the young brothers on guitar. Of course AC/DC has done the same thing for all these years, but their strength as a group shows similar strengths to the Gibb brothers.
Despite having to listen to some pretty dire 70s music, this was a fascinating documentary on some amazingly talented people.
Twisted Sister: Live in Wacken- The Reunion
This is another great documentary about a classic band as they remembered why they started in the first place. It’s a re-issue of 2005 release as a DVD/CD package. Despite being five years old this makes for great viewing. There is a lot of meat on here as well including bits of their New York Steel gig to raise funds after 9/11 and their gig accompanying Blue Man Group at their fave record exec’s award party. As with most of these things it details their ups in downs in a very honest way. The continuing drama about attempts to get them back together as a band is quite the saga. The fact they managed to actually reunite considering that drama makes it all the more the interesting.
Article comments