All in all a remarkable album from the Bee Gees that while often misunderstood, never failed to deliver high quality pop, no matter what style they chose to dabble in.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: The Bee Gees
ALBUM: Main Course
LABEL: RSO
SERIAL: SO 4087
YEAR: 1975
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Barry Gibb – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar * Robin Gibb – lead and backing vocals * Maurice Gibb – bass, guitars, backing vocals
Additional Musicians: Alan Kendall – lead guitar, steel guitar * Dennis Bryon – drums, percussion * Blue Weaver – piano, keyboards, synthesizer, clavinet * Joe Farrell – saxophone * Ray Barletto – percussion * Don Brooks – harmonica * Arif Mardin – orchestral arrangements * Gene Orloff – concertmaster
TRACK LISTING: 01 Nights On Broadway * 02 Jive Talkin’ * 03 Wind Of Change * 04 Songbird * 05 Fanny (Be Tender With My Love) * 06 All This Making Love * 07 Country Lanes * 08 Come On Over * 09 Edge Of The Universe * 10 Baby As You Turn Away
WEBLINKS: Official Site
Background
After their previous LP ‘Mr. Natural’, the Bee Gees were up for a change. The RandB based album while very good came up zilch in the singles department and barely charted in America. At the suggestion of Eric Clapton, the band recorded their follow-up ‘Main Course’ at sunny Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida and the results were astounding.
The Songs
There seems to be two camps when it comes to Bee Gees fans and their hordes of detractors. On one side those who love the early and colourful Beatlesque albums and on the other the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ crowd who are convinced the Bee Gees were solely a disco band and turned away in droves after the glittery movement bottomed-out commercially, making Barry, Maurice and Robin tragically unhip seemingly overnight.
The sad part is in dissing the Bee Gees middle work, they’ve missed out on what I think is the trio’s best album: ‘Main Course’. The record and its singles were the soundtrack to my troubled summer of 1975. To this day the sound of ‘Nights On Broadway’ brings to mind the first time I saw a hot, humid and smog layered Manhattan from the back of my parents packed station wagon while on our way to a new and unknown life in one of the city’s vast suburbs.
The bubbly disco RandB of ‘Jive Talkin’ went all the way to number one and while both tunes were the band’s first experiments in disco as well as their trademark falsetto vocal style, the album is wildly diverse moving into both country rock and mellow soft rock territory which includes the sets jewel ‘Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)’.
I can listen to this poptastic beauty over and over again and never grow tired of it. Beautiful stuff and say what you will about these guys, they knew how to write killer hooks wrapped around to-die-for melodies like few before or after. The countrified pop of ‘Come On Over’ was a huge hit for Olivia Newton John the following year and the fun ‘Edge Of The Universe’ was pulled as a single off 1977’s ‘Here At Last. The Bee Gees Live’ and became a moderate hit that year.
In Summary
All in all a remarkable album from three men that while often misunderstood, never failed to deliver high quality pop, no matter what style they chose to dabble in. I give ‘Main Course’ my highest recommendation.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
