00:00i mean john couldn't dance to stay in
00:02her life but he he said he
00:04was comfortable walking to it okay so we
00:08apple music essentials the bee gees
00:12music's most influential artists and the
00:14stories behind their songs
00:16we're talking about give about
00:17essentials right here and it is the
00:18longest most comprehensive list of songs
00:21and we're not even talking necessarily
00:23the songs that everyone else recorded
00:25just the ones that you recorded with
00:27it's unbelievable the list of songs here
00:29and i cannot wait to dive into it it's
00:31great to have this opportunity and
00:32you were such a weird band in the
00:34beginning because i've watched the
00:35documentary as well and i'm very
00:36familiar with your older music
00:38in the early days because i got turned
00:39onto it in recent years like
00:41you were a weird band you went out to
00:43the uk i mean you had a few
00:44records coming out of australia new
00:45zealand and then you went out to the uk
00:47and you immersed yourself in the 60s
00:49psychedelia weirdness
00:51and somehow you found success out of
00:53that i mean what do you put that down to
00:54because you listen to these records now
00:56yeah yeah but listen saying naivety is
01:00you know you we we were as naive as you
01:03we were suddenly signed to uh nems brian
01:06epstein and robert stigwood and
01:09and from there on we were just floating
01:12we were just going along with the tide
01:14i was i remember being in an elevator
01:18going up to the dems offices and
01:21in those days you could dress any way
01:24it's different now but you could dress
01:26any way you want it eric was a cowboy
01:29you know um i was a priest
01:33and but it was flower power it was
01:36we didn't just we didn't just turn up in
01:40we walked into flower power as it was
01:41happening and so what do you do
01:44you you go down to king's road and you
01:46you buy caftans and you buy beads and
01:50just the way we were we were so naive
01:52and even during the 70s we were still
01:55naive we just didn't understand the
01:56industry we only understood
01:59that if we wrote a good song it might be
02:01successful let's talk about
02:02massachusetts which is one of the oldest
02:04songs if not the oldest on the playlist
02:06that i've got right here um a song that
02:07kind of brought you you know a real dose
02:09of success at the time
02:11and um kind of falls into that beautiful
02:12tradition of of picking apart some of
02:14these iconic and really idyllic
02:16parts of america that you never visit
02:18but you imagine what they're like i
02:20don't know if you had been to
02:21we actually sang in the park in boston
02:25and it was a wonderful experience but um
02:29the song came up the song would came
02:31about on our first trip to new york as a
02:34robin was sailing around the harbor on
02:37some kind of tourist trip
02:39got the idea and came to the hotel we
02:42were just checking into
02:43the st regis and he said i've got this
02:47we took out the guitars and we just
02:49started playing because we didn't have
02:50anything else to do at that point
02:53and it the song just grew and grew and
02:56it was robin's idea and it was a
03:00and it was our first number one record
03:02you must love learning about your
03:04songs from other people covering them i
03:05mean that's let's talk a little bit
03:06about that because your songs have been
03:08have been written you know you've
03:08written songs for people and they've
03:10made them hits in their own right but
03:11ultimately your songs get covered a lot
03:14um it must be one of the real thrills to
03:16be able to hear the way people interpret
03:18your music i met with otis reading in
03:211967 and um robert had arranged that
03:24because he wanted me to write a song for
03:27and we talked for like half an hour and
03:31and to love somebody sort of came to
03:33life that same night
03:46to love somebody the way i love you
03:50and janice joplin of course immortalized
03:52that from the stage at woodstock as well
03:53which was a huge moment and
03:55i mean that's one of the most powerful
03:56performances of that entire weekend and
03:58it's so remarkable i think that people
04:00are still discovering that these moments
04:02they thought that i think a lot of
04:03people thought that that was
04:05that she wrote that song and it's just
04:07crazy i didn't even know
04:08that she'd recorded it until i heard it
04:10all of a sudden you know
04:12and i would blew me away because i think
04:15i think she was amazing and and and i'm
04:18delighted that she sang that song so
04:21tell us the story about making jive
04:22talking i need to i need to know
04:23try and try and think of an image or a
04:24memory or something that really springs
04:26to mind about making that song guy
04:29came came to life about midnight the
04:32we hadn't figured it out what the lyrics
04:34were but we knew where we were going
04:37and we sang it to a reef and and he
04:41what it really meant jive talking we
04:43weren't sure what it meant but we loved
04:45and he focused the subject and said
04:48go write the lyrics and that's what we
04:50did when you come off the back of
04:51jivetalk and you know there's so many
04:52hooks and so many things to remember
04:54about that song there's so many
04:55production elements and so much playing
04:57in there which is incredible the guitar
04:58the rhythmic guitar playing on that song
05:00but the one thing that everyone really
05:02remembers musically and arrangement wise
05:08it's so playful and and just so much fun
05:12uh it's almost it's almost guilty um and
05:15loud in the song as well what's the
05:16story behind that how did that do
05:22because it's got a strange time
05:23signature about it as well it's almost
05:25yeah it turns around on itself and i i
05:28love to try and come up with
05:29things like that for me the best fun i
05:33was knowing where things should be
05:37when you stop singing something has to
05:40you know you can't just stop singing and
05:42let the track continue there has to be
05:44something else to attract people yeah
05:45how much is too much how much is not
05:47enough what's the right thing yeah
05:49part of it's all it is arranging the
05:52staying alive came from alby what was
05:55the vibe in the room when you heard that
05:57for the first time because i mean that
05:59doesn't exist and then
06:00it does yeah i know i know can't i can't
06:03i can't even explain that except that
06:05when when he came up with it
06:07let's try this and alan played it allen
06:11it worked a treat and and you know you
06:15all i can tell you is you don't know
06:16this is the song this is the this is the
06:18if you know there it's it's not going to
06:20be the one that people are going to
06:22refer to in the canon is
06:23as the greatest example of of songs
06:26about love or and you've got so many
06:28that you can't boil it down to one but
06:30that one song right there is
06:32insane when i hear it now i i hear how
06:34prophetic those words were
06:35you know new york times effect on man
06:38whether you're a brother or whether
06:40you're a mother you're staying alive
06:42how appropriate is that now yeah when in
06:44those days you might not have thought of
06:47but a lot of people who who had heart
06:50attacks and things like that
06:52were saved by that groove because
06:55and doctors were starting to use staying
06:59some form of cpr you know
07:02really absolutely and and when we were
07:06or when i was doing shows about maybe
07:08two years back i was meeting fans all
07:11that that would tell me that their
07:12father had survived a heart attack
07:15because they did cpr to stay in alarm
07:18and so that's that's that's gratifying
07:21it's a wonderful thing
07:22and it's whether you like the song or
07:26couldn't dance to stay in line and and
07:29it wasn't a dance record if you think
07:32he said he it was comfortable walking to
07:36so we off you go that's how that iconic
07:39scene came about as he didn't want to
07:40dance to it if he said let me strut to
07:42it yeah because it's not really a dance
07:45and and and he said you should be
07:46dancing that's great i'll i'll dance to
07:49but he didn't want to dance staying
07:50alive well it is a complicated it's
07:52the arrangement is tricky and i mean
07:54it's it's a powerful song and it's got a
07:56lot of vocal gymnastics in it i mean
07:58that moment again that hook that hook
08:00where you guys jump in there and do that
08:04like he got just that moment there you
08:05go looking very good
08:11got a falsetto little secrets in the
08:12canopy can you tell us a story about
08:14that and that moment when you realize as
08:16you say that there's space between the
08:18lyrics and the chance for you as a band
08:20to put a vocal hook in there a riff
08:22well i mean the the falsetto was a
08:23discovery i didn't know i could do it
08:26and and uh arif marden wanted a
08:29wanted one of us to scream uh something
08:31like paul mccartney might have done and
08:33i saw her standing there
08:34and nobody volunteered to so i
08:38i'd sung falsettos on a song called
08:41please read me on bg's first
08:43i don't know why i did that but it
08:45worked great really well and i thought
08:47i'll i'll volunteer i haven't sung in
08:49falsetto in maybe 20 years
08:51i never really sang in pulsar but i went
08:54tried to do that and something else
08:58sort of became a lead voice rather than
09:00a voice for special effects you were
09:02trying to get that paul mccartney like
09:05like with the rasp and in the end you
09:06got this really sweet high tone that's
09:09that's right so that was the suggestion
09:12but once we discovered what it was
09:14um everyone started jumping up and down
09:17and i couldn't escape from it so every
09:20time there was a record that might be a
09:22single or a strong song that
09:23the whole everybody's vote was do that
09:27and how'd you feel when they would ask
09:28you to do it because i mean like you
09:29said it wasn't your intention
09:31it was wonderful fun i mean once i
09:33started doing it i started exploring
09:35the range i didn't know i had so
09:42i don't understand how it works it must
09:44be a different set of muscles than
09:46than your natural voice you know justin
09:47timberlake said something really
09:48important in the documentary but the way
09:50that you sing it it's got an instrument
09:52likened your vocal arrangements to horns
09:54and once he said that
09:56a light bulb went off in millions of
09:57people's heads and we all started
09:58listening to your vocals in a different
10:00was he onto something did you treat your
10:02vocals in that way no
10:04and what we did was that we had the
10:07pleasure of suddenly having
10:08like 64 tracks you know in the beginning
10:13and and that became eight and then it
10:16then suddenly you've got countless
10:17tracks so we spend a lot of our time
10:20just adding adding more harmonies add
10:23you know so too much heaven is is
10:25probably a perfect example of that we
10:27just kept adding more harmonies
10:29and it worked and so many elements in
10:32that song the record itself
10:33is actually pretty amazing
10:45you should be dancing tell us a good
10:46story about that one please well there
10:48are there were four different
10:49sessions where you should be dancing and
10:53worked until we buckled down and and uh
10:57and started figuring out what the right
11:00what the right tempo was in other words
11:02you can write a good song but if it's
11:04if the showcasing is wrong it doesn't
11:08you know and so we spent a lot of time
11:11figuring out what that was
11:13i think we came up with it at 461 ocean
11:16in the lounge we were set up to play
11:20and the idea just came how deep is your
11:22love is one of those songs that when you
11:24it's just such an effortless experience
11:27to listen to was it effortless to write
11:31sort of we we were having dinner at the
11:35in harrellville outside paris because
11:36that's where we made that record
11:38and we were having dinner and and the
11:42chorus of how deep is your love which is
11:46is your love how deep is your
11:49love that just hit me in the head and
11:53and i said to everybody let's go back to
11:56finish dinner let's go back to the
11:57studio now something's going on and i
11:58want to get this thing finished
12:00whatever this is let's let's figure it
12:03and so we went up to the studio and i
12:07play me the nicest chord on the piano
12:09and it happens to be a neat lap
12:10so okay that's a good key let's do it in
12:15it basically came about that way and
12:17then we spent the next day
12:18just doing lyrics and and figuring it
12:21out but it was a very
12:24uh what is it a very special floaty
12:27event we didn't we knew it was we knew
12:30but we had to come up you know a lot of
12:32this is when you have a chorus
12:34you might come up with a chorus you
12:36you've got to work backwards you've got
12:37to figure out how you got
12:38how you get to the chorus and the chorus
12:42is something everyone's going to
12:44but you've got to get to it so it's a
12:48reverse thinking and there must be
12:50moments when you came up with a chorus
12:51that probably could have turned into
12:52another smash hit single but you
12:53couldn't figure out the past to go with
12:55that's right it's a little journey but
12:58you've got the chorus you've got it it
13:00it's lovely now we're going to find out
13:01how to where the verse is what
13:03how do you get there who knows what's
13:07such a joy such a joy remember it
13:08forever thank you barry
