THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,321) The Bee Gees — “Kilburn Towers”
This ’68 B-side and track on the Idea LP is an ode to an apartment building* in Sydney, Australia, “affectionately named the ‘Toilet Roll Building[]'” (Steve Pafford, https://www.stevepafford.com/bg10/) that is “[a]stonishingly beautiful (RoySmiles1007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JMUZ0PdrT8) — the song, not the Towers! — “like the most beautiful daydream” (sashastarshanti3599, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JMUZ0PdrT8), “dreamy, humble, and at the same time as romantic as anything” (George Starostin, https://starlingdb.org/music/bee.htm), “a hidden gem . . . . [a] beautiful evocation of the sun setting over Sydney on a summer’s evening . . . drift[ing] along on a warm breeze of acoustic guitar and mellotron. Slight, but irresistibly lovely.” (Alexis Petridis, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/19/the-bee-gees-40-greatest-songs-ranked)
Andrew Sandoval notes:
[“Towers”] featur[es] Colin [Petersen] on bongos and Maurice on Mellotron[]. “I know it was written in my flat,” says Barry of the song’s inception. “I would just sit and strum on my own. I think it was just something that I sort of came up with and that was it.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20131029203134/http://aln2.albumlinernotes.com/Idea__1968_.html
As to Idea, Bruce Eder writes:
The Bee Gees’ third album is something of a departure, with more of a rocking sound and with the orchestra . . . somewhat less prominent in the sound mix than on their first two LPs. The two hits, “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” and “I Started a Joke,” are very much of a piece with their earlier work, but on . . . other cuts, they sound much more like a working band with a cohesive group sound, rather than a harmony vocal group with accompaniment. Their writing still has a tendency toward the dramatic and the melodramatic . . . but here the group seemed to be trying for a somewhat less moody, dark-toned overall sound, and some less surreal lyrical conceits, though “Kilburn Towers” (despite some pop-jazz inflections) and “Swan Song,” as well as “I Started a Joke,” retain elements of fantasy and profundity.
* Here’s a story commemorating its 60th birthday: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/manly-daily/kilburn-towers-the-distinctive-residential-building-on-manly-point-turns-60/news-story/40b71dde339337155a01a8caf0b79bd1.
Here is America’s “Ventura Highway”. Notice any similarities?
Here’s William E. Kimber (‘69):
Here’s Another Sunny Day (’89):
Here’s Damian Youth (’02):
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