A coupla months before Robin Gibb died he wondered if the early passing of kid brother Andy and twin Maurice, were karmic payback for the Gibb families fortunate life.
But despite all the success, how fortunate was it?
There was the first run of hit singles, sneered at by nearly everybody in the 1960s, followed by the godawful haircuts and sneered at by nearly everybody disco phase. Followed by nothing.
With the passing of time, the Bee Gees also garnered respect but however much respect they garnered, one of the biggest bands ever were still also rans, are never spoken of in the same breath as the Who, Stones, Beatles, Kinks.
Was that unfair? No, it was fair. The Bee Gees were great vocalists, beautiful harmonies, and have countless classic songs but they were not innovators or trend setters. No, not even in their disco days. The karma, there lot in life, was to be considered simultaneously slight and large talents. The Bee Gees were always the bridesmaid and left to their own they ended up in Sgt Peppers Lonely Heartsclub band.
The final temptation of Robin was to wonder where he stood in the middle of all this: some folks appear to have everything but have some form of bad luck about the, How can the man who co-wrote "To Love Somebody" be considered a sad figure in rock? The song was written to order for Robert Stigwood, the band were too commercially calculated.
This following trends, whether it be soul in the wake of Otis Redding's death or disco where their falsetto harmonies were perfect for the genre, for money, today feels, if you believe in pay backs, where the payback occurs. Andy Gibbs' OD was directly related to following disco.
So Robin died and, as tends to happen, things seem smaller from a distance. The karma, and the Bee Gees, weren't all bad after all.
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