353) Maurice Gibb — “The Loner”
Some of my favorite Bee Gees songs were written and sung by Maurice and were never (or only barely) released. What are the odds? Let’s start with the wonderful “The Loner.” Bruce Eder writes that:
Maurice . . . has been almost exclusively a backing vocalist for his four-decade career . . . . The major exception arose during the 1969 split between . . . Robin Gibb and his two brothers . . . . Maurice . . . did begin work on a solo LP to have been called “The Loner.” He worked for three months with Billy Lawrie [brother of the British singer Lulu, Maurice’s wife] playing and singing, and with guitarist Les Harvey of Stone the Crows, drummer Geoff Bridgeford, and John Coleman and Gerry Shurry, the latter three members of the Australian band Tin Tin — whose 1970 debut album Maurice . . . had produced . . . . [The sessions] only yielded one released song, “The Loner[“, which] appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Bloomfield (aka The Hero), starring Richard Harris [and the soundtrack version was released as a single in ’72 by the Bloomfields (Maurice and Lawrie)] . . . . Like the other solo albums begun by his brothers [during the break-up, the] LP was never released officially . . . .
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/maurice-gibb-mn0000865286
Maurice stated in an interview with Nicky Horne on Radio 1 that:
“My solo LP is one thing that, well, to tell you the truth, I don’t think it should be worth releasing because I did it a while ago, and I was under a great depression at the time when I did it, because I missed the boys very much. I just did it because I thought I had to do it.”
Andrew Hughes, The Bee Gees: Tales of the Brothers Gibb.
Joseph Brennan believes that the brothers’s shelving of their solo albums was an aspect of their reconciliation. (http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beegees/70.html) That might be the case. Maurice sings in the song that “I’ve been hung up and I’ve been let down by the only friends I had.” Could those words be about his brothers?
Here is the soundtrack version:
354) Maurice Gibb — “Touch and Understand Love”
This is such a miraculously beguiling song that it’s almost impossible to believe that it wasn’t released. The song is also uncannily reminiscent of John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band’s “Love”, released just about 12 months later (see #113). Could Lennon have possibly heard “Touch and Understand Love”? What do people think?
Here is a ’71 version by Myrna March:
355) Tin Tin — “She Said Ride”
“She Said Ride” appeared on Tin Tin’s first album in ’70. How could this song with such a brilliant and buoyant melody (complemented by downbeat lyrics) not have been a hit? The authoritative Milesago: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 states that:
Tin Tin are really only remembered for their shimmering 1971 single “Toast and Marmalade For Tea”, a US and Australian hit in mid-1971. Predictably they’ve been pegged as one-hit wonders, which obscures the fact that Tin Tin recorded a body of quality harmony psych-pop songs during its short life, with nine singles and two LPs to their credit. . . . Tin Tin was founded in London in 1969 by Steve Kipner and Steve Groves. Both were ambitious young veterans of the fertile Aussie beat scene of the mid-1960s. Kipner . . . had been the lead singer-guitarist with popular mid-60s Sydney band Steve & The Board. His partner in Tin Tin, Steve Groves, came from another highly-rated band of the same period, The Kinetics, who scored a Melbourne Top 20 hit in 1966 with “Excuses”.
http://www.milesago.com/artists/tintin.htm
Pay to Play! The Off the Charts Spotify Playlist!
Please consider helping to support my website/blog by contributing $6 a month for access to the Off the Charts Spotify Playlist. Using a term familiar to denizens of Capitol Hill, you pay to play! (“relating to or denoting an unethical or illicit arrangement in which payment is made by those who want certain privileges or advantages in such arenas as business, politics, sports, and entertainment” — dictionary.com).
The playlist includes all the “greatest songs of the 1960’s that no one has ever heard” that are available on Spotify. The playlist will expand each time I feature an available song. At present, over 80% of the songs on the Off the Charts roster are available on Spotify and are on the playlist.
When subscribing, please send me an e-mail (GMFtma1@gmail.com) or a comment on this site letting me know an e-mail address/phone number/Facebook address, etc. to which I can send instructions on accessing the playlist.
Just click on the blue.
Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! / Off the Charts: 60s Rock Revelations😊 