1) Let There Be Love; 2) Kitty
Can; 3) In The Summer Of His Years; 4) Indian Gin And Whisky Dry; 5) Down To
Earth; 6) Such A Shame; 7) I've Gotta Get A Message To You; 8) Idea; 9) When
The Swallows Fly; 10) I Have Decided To Join The Airforce; 11) I Started A
Joke; 12) Kilburn Towers; 13) Swan Song.
In the beginning, Idea sounds like a huge letdown. As the psychedelic haze slowly started
dissipating by mid-1968, and the musical world started splintering into the «roots
rock camp» (which the Bee Gees took a serious liking to), the «art rock camp»
(which the Bee Gees preferred to admire from afar), and the «hard rock camp»
(which the Bee Gees abhorred), the band found this a good pretext to allow
themselves to «let go» of even more of that extra ballast they'd picked up in
1967 — and released their «wimpiest» record to-date (not counting the early Oz
stuff). Lush ballads, sissy folkie tunes, and inoffensive country-pop — this
is what Idea is all about, and no
one but the Bee Gees themselves are responsible.
Ironically, this also happened to be the album
with guitarist Vince Melouney's only songwriting credit: the soft pop-rocker
ʽSuch A Shameʼ, which must have been written under the heavy influence of Dave
Davies' ʽDeath Of A Clownʼ — not a song of any importance, but at least it's
got some bluesy harmonica runs from some anonymous harmonica blower, which adds
an extra touch to the mostly keyboards-and-strings-dominated album. Vince was
the one who pushed the band into a bluesier direction — but what can one
little-known Australian guitarist have against a whole three Gibb brothers? Particularly
once they finally decide that, God be witness, they don't need fuzzy electric guitar on their albums. Because it distracts
them from their spirituality.
But as time goes by, Idea gains back some of the appeal that it never had. Most of these
lush ballads, manneristic as they are and occasionally suffering from the
ever-increasing prominence of Robin's lead vocals, are perfectly written and
laid out, and, most importantly, they usually offer just the right «antidotes»
to the potentially annoying sentimentality. ʽLet There Be Loveʼ starts out
swimming in cotton candy — then, once it gets to the bridge ("I am a man,
so take me for what I am..."), group harmonies come in and add a little
drama and intensity. Same thing happens with ʽWhen The Swallows Flyʼ, where the
dynamic chorus pulls the song out of mediocrity after a rather lackluster piano
verse kinda goes nowhere (but still manages to influence a young Elton John, as
I seriously suspect).
Meanwhile, Robin's two «tour-de-force» highlights
that I used to shun — ʽIn The Summer Of His Yearsʼ and ʽI Started A Jokeʼ —
are, in fact, pretty hard to criticize either from a melodic point of view (the
vocal parts are designed and carried out as harmonic triumphs) or even from a
«mood / style» point: they are subtle psychological portraits or prayers, rather
than cheap sentimental clichés. The former was supposedly written in memory of
Brian Epstein, but could well apply to any young man, struck out by misfortune
at a comparable age — Robin's take on the subject combines just the right
amount of solemn pomp, humanity, and pity.
As for ʽI Started A Jokeʼ, when you look at the
lyrics, it is actually rather gruesome — suicidal, in fact — and this gets me
to thinking that the whole album, in fact, has more brushes with death than any
other Bee Gees product: apart from these two songs, you also have ʽI've Gotta
Get A Message To Youʼ (written from the point of view of someone condemned to
the chair) and ʽSwan Songʼ which is not explicitly
about death, but still provides a sort of «last-wish» conclusion to the album,
much like the conclusive title track to Horizontal.
In other words, Idea may take
another solid step away from the diversity and the «grittiness» of its
predecessors, but that does not mean it has to steer towards the «namby-pamby»:
the overall atmosphere is still fairly dark, and the romance is still understood
more in Byron / Chopin terms than in Hollywood ones.
The upbeat, toe-tappable folk and country stuff
is mostly limited in ambition, and thus, not too durable in terms of live show
favorites or best-of compilation eligibility — but ʽKitty Canʼ is funny and
catchy; ʽIndian Gin And Whisky Dryʼ is one of the most elegantly gallant tunes
written about the perils of alcoholism; the title track features the best (if
not the only) electric guitar lick on the album, delivered in a psychedelic
tone (nice sonic match for the light bulb on the album sleeve); and ʽI Have
Decided To Join The Airforceʼ is an amusing parody on British martial stylistics
(unless the song was actually commissioned by the UK Air Force, which I know
nothing about, but it's possible — after all, if they invested their talents
into writing jingles for Coke, why not this? And best thing of all, in the wake
of The Who Sell Out, it would be
impossible to tell the proper limit between pop-sell out and pop-art anyway).
In the end, I think that the only relative
failure is ʽDown To Earthʼ — still an important song in any case, as it briefly
explores the «cosmic loneliness» theme one year before Bowie's ʽSpace Oddityʼ
made it a commodity (and four years before ʽRocket Manʼ brought it into the
average household), but it sounds a bit too lethargic and, eventually,
unresolved — and applying for epic status on rather thin grounds. Maybe they
should have extended it to seven minutes or something, but in mid-1968, they
weren't quite ready for the big game yet.
In retrospect, I sort of think that Idea was the first album where the Bee
Gees really realized themselves as the band they wanted to be — throwing most
of the peer pressure off their shoulders and going for the heart. This does
not mean that it is a better album than 1st
or Horizontal: those whose musical
tastes and conceptions are close to mine will inevitably prefer the Bee Gees with peer pressure rather than without
them, if only because there is only so much «lushness» and quasi-operatic
vocalizing and strings and romantic loneliness that one can take (although even
from that angle, Idea is like a
little kid compared to Trafalgar).
But if we judge artistic quality according to
how well the artist managed to «find himself», then Idea should be placed in the top range of the Gibb brothers'
immense catalog. The brothers themselves agree with this interpretation, by the
way — "That was when I got an idea / Came like a gun and shot in my ear / Don't
you think it's time you got up and stood alone?" And, well, in a certain
way, they do, so a big thumbs up for stand-aloners and their wimpiness.
The bonus disc on the CD reissue is not as
strong as the previous two, but it does have ʽJumboʼ (probably the strangest,
most «daring» single the brothers put out in the 1960s — naturally, it did not
climb up too high in the charts) as well as a funny tongue-in-cheek send-up
called ʽCompletely Unoriginalʼ (probably a comedy recording to serve as the
answer to some of the band's critics — and a good choice for a banner song for everybody
who denies the importance of «originality» in song, dance, and culinary arts).
On the other hand, there is also some soundtrack muzak (ʽGena's Themeʼ), a few of
those cheesy Coke jingles, and lots of alternate mixes that do not sound too
different from the original ones, so, possibly, upgrading your CD collection in
this particular instance should not be a top priority.
Check "Idea" (MP3) on Amazon
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