When did it start? Oh, I don't know, somewhere between "Jesus Loves Me" and Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock", but I was there in my bedroom just listening to the radio. The bedroom, mind you, was a shared room. I had two older sisters and Mom placed my smaller-than-a-twin sized homemade crafted bed that Daddy made in his workshop, in between my Big and Bigger sisters. Mine was the less attractive piece of real estate in the room, as it wasn't an end piece, and the front of my bed faced the open closet. It would have had doors on it, but Daddy had taken them off to paint them and that project got set back on the back burner for a few years. Our matching beds were long boxes with a large drawer that pulled out for storing clothes. Daddy also made small (maybe 15-18" wide) tall cabinets that reached from the ground to the ceiling. Those cabinets had drawers too, and two shelves on top. In the middle he had crafted a hidden cubby that was "hidden" using a flat door that opened to make a desk that was about 15" x 15" wide. I'm telling you, we were special.
I laid on my little bed with my tiny little transistor radio, that if I had to guess I would say it had both AM and FM bands. I don't really remember, but I know I listened to WKY which was on the AM band. I listened to the Top Forty mainly, but you know there were hundreds of other songs being played. I knew most of them, and I liked many of them, but I got really excited when I heard the Bee Gees singing...no other band could capture my spirit, no other band could keep my attention. To this day, if you ask me who my favorite artist is, it will be the Brothers Gibb - - The Bee Gees. When I met my bestest best friend Jeannie in high school, she was wearing a Bee Gee t-shirt. I literally said "I get Maurice" before I said hello. He answered back, "I get Barry". We're still best friends, even after all I've put her through.
One of the reasons I liked the Bee Gees so much was that I had decided at age 6 or 7 that I was going to marry Maurice Gibb; he was the younger of the twins, and he and his twin brother Robin were about 3 years younger than Barry. Maurice was already married to a pretty lady named Lulu, and she was a singer, but I was pretty sure that if I waited it out, grew up, and moved to England I could convince Maurice to marry me. I was really excited to find out a few years later that he had not only divorced Lulu, he was living in Florida, so that would have made things so much easier I guess it it wasn't for his new beautiful wife Yvonne. I'm telling you, my timing has always been off by just a smidge. (giggles) Married or not, it didn't stop me from writing to Maurice when I was about 14 and we became pen pals of a sort. He wrote to me, I wrote to him, we chatted twice on the phone about music and about the Oklahoma vs. Florida State game. He was more of a U of M fan, because he lived in Miami I guess, but it was fun chatting with him.
On Saturday, August 4, 1979, my best friend Jeannie and I (and three others) pooled our money together and we rented a hotel room in the same hotel as the Bee Gees for their Spirits Having Flown concert tour. I can't say it without being understated, but I was pretty excited about finally getting to meet Maurice in person, and being able to see the "Boys" in concert. You don't know the backstory of how it was that I came to work for Concerts West, or how I was able to wrangle tickets at next-to-nothing if not nothing prices. I think Jeannie and I have attended more than 300 concerts together, and separately, I couldn't tell you. I really couldn't, the years between 1978-1985 become a blur after I try to force myself to remember who all I've met, what jobs I worked, what assignments I had, and all the fans I had to beat back with sticks to keep my job(s). I was a driver, an errand girl, I cooked, I made reservations, I worked backstage, I worked the stage, I worked front stage, I couldn't really be counted on for security due to my size, but I was alert and used my cat-walking tight-rope skills to pull a few excited fans from places they weren't supposed to be roaming! (It made it so much easier for myself to roam because I worked for the venue!)
The Bee Gees put out about 28 albums I think, several singles, and they did some solo work as well. I KNOW I have every last LP even "To Whom it May Concern" which REALLY sucks. Sorry Barry, I know, you know it sucks. Sorry. Not sorry. I have not listened to it since 1982 I think. I also caught Andy Gibb in concert. Andy being the Boys' younger brother. His concert was a hoot too! My mom had made me a white satin pantsuit to wear, and I purposely curled my blond curls to look as close to Andy's as possible. I knew I would be on stage, but I had no idea how that was going to happen. I wasn't working for the venue at that time. Make it on stage I did. I went backstage and one of the roadies literally grabbed me and pulled me to the side saying it wasn't safe for me to go out without my manager present. Well, there you go. He thinks (in the dark) that I'm Andy, so I'll stay put. I met Andy. He laughed. The roadie shook his head and basically chased me off stage after that.
The Bee Gees have forever and will forever be in my spirit, in my mind, in my veins, in my dreams. I can't let them go and I have no plans to stop singing their words any time soon. I'm too too too excited that all of the Boys are Christians, this means I'll have eternal concerts to go to, and Maurice and I can talk more about football, music, paintballing, animals, living in Australia, and horseback riding. I'm still planning on hanging out with him for about a million years once I get to Heaven. (Nobody gets "Too Much Heaven" you know.) Ha! (If you know, you know, and if you don't, you should.) There has never been a time when I couldn't pull myself out of a funk just by recalling the words to a tune I have known a 138 years; or longer. Jeannie and I will often text one another using ONLY Bee Gee lyrics as means of communicating, and that can be hilarious. I'll start off with "I had to follow you, though you didn't want me to." and she'll come back with "You stepped, into my life, and I'm oh, so happy". It goes on and on and it may take us days before we run out of things to say.
With years upon years of happy songs, sad songs, crazy songs, and songs no one has ever heard before "Mr. Natural", "Blue Island", "High Civilization", "E.S.P." and more, and I know virtually every song on every LP....and every silly movie - - I don't know of any other band with a more eclectic range of titles or subgenres. I mean, Cucumber Castle in and of itself is more than enough to send most die-hard Bee Gee fans into endless conversations about which of the brothers they would follow. For me it's no question, Prince Marmaduke all the way -- silly sexy man, that one. Forever! I will follow that man around Heaven FOREVER! ("You can believe what you wanna, but I know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna believe in the Lord!) At age 53 that man left us far far too early.
If you've never seen the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" from 1978, you should run out, don't walk, RUN out ("Run to Me") and buy it. It's probably less than $2 and let me tell you, the acting in that film is not worth that, but you'll never forget it, you'll watch it over and over again, you'll sing, you'll laugh, you'll shake your head, you'll laugh more, then you'll realize that the Bee Gees (and Peter Frampton) sing the Beatles songs so much better than the Beatles. Aerosmith too! Yeah, Aerosmith, and Alice Cooper!! They're in the movie. Aerosmith's version of "Come Together" far exceeds expectations...it really lands! You'll just have to listen and watch and watch and listen. But you can't have Bob...Bob Henderson is SPOKEN FOR!! He's mine. Mine. All mine, just....just .... well, he's mine. I'd love to get "Closer than Close" and go "Above and Beyond" but it's not going to happen, he was and will be the "Omega Man" and he is gone; until the rapture. HURRY UP, Jesus!
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