The Battle of the Blue and the Grey / The Three Kisses of Love (1963.03.22)

Reviewed by Lesley Price on July 21, 2024

So this is where it all started. Well, kind of. The Gibbs had initially started performing in Manchester back in the late '50s, and back then they were called the Rattlesnakes. They were all somewhere around ten years old at that point in time, which made them possibly the youngest skiffle band in the country. By the early '60s, the young lads had moved to Australia and had changed their image considerably. Having abandoned ramshackle Everlys covers, they were now regularly appearing on TV as something of a cabaret musical act. Barry being the eldest played the straight man to his twin brothers' vaudevillian antics, which would be interspersed with covers of old-timey standards like 'My Old Man is a Dustman' and 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. At that point in time, the average Gibb fan was probably a sixty-year old mom glued to the TV, so I guess some things never change.

Well, even if the younger demographic found their act to be lame and chintzy, they were still popular enough in Australia to warrant the release of this, their debut single. And surprise - both songs are Barry Gibb originals! That's right, you would never know it from their television routine, but Barry was already an earnest songwriter at the age of 16, and he confidently delivers two very different slices of 1963-era pop on this platter. Right off the bat his chameleon-like ability to channel whatever is going on in the charts is on full display, the A-side's Civil War-inspired prose being more than a little reminiscent of concurrent works by Johnny Horton. Musically however, it's chipper as all get out. Whereas Horton sounds like a teacher telling tales of battles of yore with a grave countenance, the Gibbs sound like they're bouncing up and down, reading their history report in the throes of a major sugar rush. Both artists cull from the country tradition, but where Horton's work approaches plaintive folk territory, the Gibbs' backing band sound like they're about an inch away from diving into a full-blown bluegrass jamboree. In that way it's almost like a supremely polished skiffle, which serves to bridge the Rattlesnakes to the brothers' earliest recording venture.

The B-side, The Three Kisses of Love, sounds more squarely aimed at the teen market, a goopy malt-shop doo-wop number that could have easily been sung by the likes of Paul Anka or Ricky Nelson. Barry's young tenor is smooth, and he slips into the role of crooning teen idol like a snug blanket, but Robin and Maurice's childlike shouting routinely spoils the mood. That being said, it's hard to resist that swooning melody or the palm muted, pseudo-Lonely Teardrops guitar lines. It's corny, but it also feels like the musical equivalent of watching a Leave It To Beaver episode. Look, I may pretend to have super avant-garde taste, like I sit around stroking my chin listening to Stockhausen, but if you were to walk in on me at any given time there's a good chance I'd be listening to crap like this. I love bubblegum crap, it's my bread and butter. I may fool people into thinking I have taste by sitting on the bus with a Hüsker Dü shirt, but deep down inside I'm a "Three Kisses of Love" kind of guy at heart.

Rating: 7/10

Timber! / Take Hold of That Star (1963.07)

Reviewed by Lesley Price on July 21, 2024

The brothers are going more explicitly for the teen market on this single, with Timber! sounding like Bobby Vee (think The Night Has a Thousand Eyes) played at 45rpm. That's not only a commentary on the trio's squeaky teenage voices, but also on just how damn uptempo this thing is. Clocking in at a brisk 1:46, if you were to replace the Adam Faith pizzicatos with buzzsaw guitars, this would seriously sound exactly like a '70s Ramones song. Barry is already evidently skilled at carving out pop hooks that stick in your head like gum under a desk, but the Bee Gees as an act have yet to stray outside the realm of novelty. I don't even think teenagers found this stuff cool, this was music made exclusively for moms to listen to and go "aww, that's sweet". And yet I can't deny that there is something slightly infectious about the song's breakneck, giddy energy - there's an exclamation mark in the title for a reason!

Take Hold of That Star is the complete opposite, a dreamy country-ish doo-wop ballad that would be right at home on a Ricky Nelson platter. Once again the melody is extremely well-rounded, which leads me to believe that even at the age of 17 Barry would have had no energy finding work in the Brill Building under different circumstances. And for a guy who would later become infamous for his throaty, limited vocals, he absolutely shines in the song's middle eight, the most dramatic bit and consequently my favorite. The song as a whole, however, is one I rarely put on, being just a bit too lugubrious and "lazing on the porch with a guitar" for my tastes. So I usually wind up flipping the record over and hopping around like an idiot to Timber! once again. Seriously, does any punk band out there want to take a crack at covering that song at their next gig? If not, I'll do it!

Rating: 7/10