Robin Gibb was a great musician, not just a leader of a fad

Robin Gibb, a member of the Bee Gees, died of cancer at the age of 62 Sunday.

|
AP
Robin Gibb (center) and the other members of the Bee Gees were masters of the romantic ballad.

Bee Gees member Robin Gibb lost his battle with cancer Sunday at the age of 62. Yeah I was never a disco dude as a boy, but I later appreciated The Bee Gees and what they did accomplish.

Like another recently deceased member of the disco era, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees are often remembered as the leaders of a musical “fad” and not great musicians. It's so not true. They were prolific songwriters with harmonies that rivaled The Beach Boys. Even in my “disco hater” days I considered them the masters of the romantic ballad. Only Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, and Paul McCartney have outsold the Bee Gees.

Listen to the 1969 album Odessa and you’ll hear what I mean. For the whole enchilada, listen to The Ultimate Bee Gees.

The Power Popaholic staff blogs at Power Popaholic.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Robin Gibb was a great musician, not just a leader of a fad
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Culture-Cafe/2012/0521/Robin-Gibb-was-a-great-musician-not-just-a-leader-of-a-fad
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe