I'm not quite a rock snob. I can come off as one sometimes, but I have way too many gaps in my knowledge to qualify. I'm enough of a rock snob to seem like a rock snob to people with pretty mainstream tastes, but seem like a clueless moron to real rock snobs.
Case in point: I knew the Bee Gees were a somewhat successful British Invasion-type group (they're from Australia of course, so they don't actually count as Brit Invasion) before their days as disco Gods in the mid-70s, but hadn't ever actually heard anything from those days. My father recently picked up the band's new Number Ones album (which seems like an incredibly sloppy collection) and I've finally heard some of their stuff.
It's really freakin' good. Not quite the big Three (Beatles, Stones, Who) but a solid second-level band like the Zombies, Hollies or Kinks. I think I've played "I've Just Got to Get a Message to You" about a hundred times in the last week.
Posted by Frinklin at December 2, 2005 10:07 AM | TrackBackYes, their late-'60s stuff was damn good. "I've Just Got to Get a Message to You" is great, as is "Massachusetts." My favorite song of theirs, though, doesn't appear to be on the album: "You Don't Know What It's Like."
The Bee Gees have been associated in our pop-cultural memory with the disco era, but their pre-disco stuff proves that the Gibbs did, in fact, have solid musical chops (and range).
Posted by: Mediocre Fred at December 2, 2005 02:06 PMThe Number Ones album is a very sloppy collection. It skips over "New York Mining Disaster" as well.
Posted by: frinklin at December 2, 2005 05:10 PM