June 17, 1977
Released: June 17, 1977
Recorded: 1976-1977
Producer: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with Ron and Howard Albert
Track listing[1]
Side A
Shadow Captain
Let It Shine
Carried Away
Fair Game
Anything at All
Cathedral
Let It Shine
Carried Away
Fair Game
Anything at All
Cathedral
Side B
Dark Star
Just a Song Before I Go
Fontainebleau
Cold Rain
In My Dreams
I Give You Give Blind
Just a Song Before I Go
Fontainebleau
Cold Rain
In My Dreams
I Give You Give Blind
The latest album by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had a particularly interesting history behind it; recording for Yacht Folks had begun following Neil Young's departure to focus on a solo career, and yet he was only present on two songs ("Let It Shine" and "Fontainebleau"), both of which were recorded during the Long May You Run sessions but were left off at the time. While they had usually maintained a balance between the four members of at least three songs each - with one or two members sometimes getting four - it was Graham Nash who contributed four songs to Yacht Folks, including the lead single "Just a Song Before I Go". Stephen Stills also contributed four songs, with one of them, "Run from Tears", being held back to serve as the B-side to the single, which charted at #4 in the United States and #57 in the United Kingdom. The following single, "Fair Game"/"In My Dreams", came out in September and hit #30 in America.
Yacht Folks received positive reviews from critics, but despite the acclaim, it had stalled at #2 in the United States (and also topped out at #23 in the United Kingdom), being left off of the #1 spot by Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which would go on to become Apple's biggest selling album of 1977. Yet despite this loss, Yacht Folks still remained Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's best selling album, only behind Human Highway. Save for touring, the rest of the 1970s were fairly uneventful for the now-trio; the most significant being that they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to the music industry on June 21, 1978. Around that time, they had begun work on a new album under Crosby, Stills & Nash, but it'd be two years before it actually came out, largely due to David Crosby's drug problems. But what about their runaway horse, Neil Young?
Yacht Folks received positive reviews from critics, but despite the acclaim, it had stalled at #2 in the United States (and also topped out at #23 in the United Kingdom), being left off of the #1 spot by Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, which would go on to become Apple's biggest selling album of 1977. Yet despite this loss, Yacht Folks still remained Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's best selling album, only behind Human Highway. Save for touring, the rest of the 1970s were fairly uneventful for the now-trio; the most significant being that they received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to the music industry on June 21, 1978. Around that time, they had begun work on a new album under Crosby, Stills & Nash, but it'd be two years before it actually came out, largely due to David Crosby's drug problems. But what about their runaway horse, Neil Young?
July 1, 1977
Released: July 1, 1977
Recorded: November 29, 1975 - April 4, 1977
Producer: Neil Young and David Briggs
Track listing[2]
Side A
Pocahontas
Will to Love
Ride My Llama
Like a Hurricane
The Old Country Waltz
Will to Love
Ride My Llama
Like a Hurricane
The Old Country Waltz
Side B
Hold Back the Tears
Lost in Space
Captain Kennedy
Hey Babe
Powderfinger
Look Our for My Love
Lost in Space
Captain Kennedy
Hey Babe
Powderfinger
Look Our for My Love
Neil Young's first post-CSNY album consisted of a lot of solo material that he had recorded before, during and after the Long May You Run sessions, among the earliest being "Like a Hurricane", representing the more electric side to Young's music. The final sessions, taking place in April, featured backing band Crazy Horse alongside the likes of Ben Keith, Nicolette Larson and Linda Ronstadt, adding a more country sound to the album, further showcasing Young's diverse range of music styles.
Chrome Dreams was released under Highway 61 Records, charting at #15 in the United States and #10 in the United Kingdom, but it performed best in Young's home country of Canada at #8. Since its release, it has received mixed to positive reviews from critics and fans, with one of the tracks, "Will to Love", recorded May 1976, being especially divisive. Some call it one of the highlights of Neil Young's career, while others claim it's one of the worst.
Chrome Dreams was released under Highway 61 Records, charting at #15 in the United States and #10 in the United Kingdom, but it performed best in Young's home country of Canada at #8. Since its release, it has received mixed to positive reviews from critics and fans, with one of the tracks, "Will to Love", recorded May 1976, being especially divisive. Some call it one of the highlights of Neil Young's career, while others claim it's one of the worst.
Pre-September 1977
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| Andy Gibb, 1977. Since joining the Bee Gees, he had often been labeled in the press as the "baby Bee Gee", as he was the youngest of the Gibb brothers, consisting of himself, Barry and twins Robin and Maurice. Andy was younger than the twins by about eight years and two months. |
ANDY GIBB: "It was a huge deal for all four of us. I was only eighteen, almost nineteen, in fact, when I joined my older brothers in the Bee Gees. Barry was helping me at the time with a potential solo album, but then Robert [Stigwood] heard two of the songs ["I Just Want to Be Your Everything", "Thicker Than Water"] and said that I should probably hold them back for a Bee Gees album. Whether that was a good move or not, I still haven't figured it out to this day." (1995)[3]
Robert Stigwood, the Bee Gees' manager, head of RSO Records and producer for Saturday Night Fever, had purchased the rights to use the Beatles' music in 1974 for a live Broadway show dubbed Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, and had even commissioned Henry Edwards to write a script based around the music. It was later submitted to Apple Corps for approval before starting work on filming in October. To Stigwood and Edwards' disappointment, the script had been rejected by not only Michael Lindsay-Hogg, but the four Beatles as well.
JOHN LENNON: "I've a lot of respect for the Gibb brothers, but that Sgt. Pepper movie idea was just stupid. No way it could've worked. Not then, not now, not ever." (2006)
GEORGE HARRISON: "Had that Sgt. Pepper film come out, I think it would've damaged the Bee Gees' image, their careers, and they didn't need to do it. It's just like the Beatles trying to do the Rolling Stones. The Rolling Stones can do it better." (1979)[4]
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Brian Epstein and George Martin also had similarly negative views on Edwards' script.
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| Robert Stigwood (far left) with the Bee Gees, 1970 |
ROBERT STIGWOOD: "When interest in the Bee Gees had been revived, the label had re-issued their 1969 album Odessa. Critics and fans didn't care for it back then, but when it was re-released, in shortened form, they liked it. So I figured that this should be their film instead jointly produced with Apple Films." (1987)
ROBIN GIBB: "I was skeptical about Robert's Plan B. I didn't even like working on the album back in 1968 and a lot of arguments among myself, Barry and Maurice forced me to leave the group for a while. Still, I was at least willing to try and give the Odessa film the benefit of the doubt." (1994)
The story of Odessa, released March 30, 1969, was intended to be about the loss of a fictional ship in 1899, not dissimilar to the story of the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic in 1912. Disagreements between the Bee Gees regarding the album's direction had changed the final product, and it was a dispute over what should be the main single (it was "First of May", released two months ahead of the album) that forced Robin to leave the group. An early member of the band, Vince Melouney, had also left during that time.
With a new script by Henry Edwards locked down and approved, and with Lindsay Anderson and Gilbert Taylor brought in to respectively direct the movie and do the cinematography, it was now a matter of choosing who to star as supporting cast alongside the Gibb brothers. Among the actors for consideration were George Burns, Frankie Howerd, Donald Pleasence and Paul Nicholas, as well as a relatively unknown Sandy Farina playing a love interest to one of the brothers, plus Peter Frampton as a stowaway. There was even a special appearance written with up-and-coming actor Steve Martin in mind, portraying a slightly eccentric doctor on the Odessa.
September 23, 1977
Released: September 23, 1977
Recorded: May 1976 - 1977
Producer: Barry Gibb, Albhy Galuten and Karl Richardson
Track listing[5]
Side A
Night Fever
Words and Music
How Deep is Your Love
Rest Your Love on Me
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water
Words and Music
How Deep is Your Love
Rest Your Love on Me
(Love Is) Thicker Than Water
Side B
I Just Want to Be Your Everything
If I Can't Have You
Emotion
More Than a Woman
Stayin' Alive
If I Can't Have You
Emotion
More Than a Woman
Stayin' Alive
Four of the tracks on the Bee Gees' latest album Night Fever - "Stayin' Alive", "How Deep is Your Love", "More Than a Woman" and the title track - would also later turn up on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, as well as Yvonne Elliman's version of "If I Can't Have You". "Rest Your Love on Me" had been recorded during the Children of the World sessions, but had been left off before being reused for Night Fever. "Emotion" would later be given to Samantha Sang, and the remaining three tracks - "Words and Music", "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" - were all sung by Andy Gibb, with the latter two having writing contributions from Barry.
Night Fever managed to reach #1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. "How Deep is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever" were all also #1 hits in the former country as well. They were later followed up by a non-album single in April the following year, "Shadow Dancing" (with Andy on lead vocals) backed with "Warm Ride", that also hit #1. The Bee Gees were now on a hot streak that almost rivaled the Beatles back in the 1960s. But now they were working on a movie based upon an album that the Bee Gees themselves did in that same decade; could the Odessa movie continue that hot streak or bring it to a grinding halt? Well, it wasn't due for release until July, so only time would tell.
Night Fever managed to reach #1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. "How Deep is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever" were all also #1 hits in the former country as well. They were later followed up by a non-album single in April the following year, "Shadow Dancing" (with Andy on lead vocals) backed with "Warm Ride", that also hit #1. The Bee Gees were now on a hot streak that almost rivaled the Beatles back in the 1960s. But now they were working on a movie based upon an album that the Bee Gees themselves did in that same decade; could the Odessa movie continue that hot streak or bring it to a grinding halt? Well, it wasn't due for release until July, so only time would tell.
Footnotes
- All tracks are sourced from CSN (1977), excluding "Let It Shine" and "Fontainebleau", both taken from The Stills-Young Band's Long May You Run. "See the Changes" was already used on Human Highway, and "Run from Tears" is relegated to a B-side.
- Track listing is based upon what Neil Young was intending for Chrome Dreams in OTL, with some changes made to replace tracks used on previous albums; "Ride My Llama" and "The Old Country Waltz" appear on side one in place of "Star of Bethlehem" (already on Homegrown) and "Too Far Gone", respectively. On side two, "Lost in Space" replaces "Homegrown" (also already on Homegrown), and "Stringman" and "Sedan Delivery" are both removed in favor of "Hey Babe". "Lost in Space" is sourced from Hawks & Doves, "Look Out for My Love" from Comes a Time, and the remaining tracks are from Hitchhiker and American Stars 'n Bars.
- Some time after the release of Flowing Rivers, Andy Gibb revealed that a lot of people said that it sounded like the Bee Gees.
- Near verbatim to what George Harrison said about the Sgt. Pepper film. Dialogue was changed to reflect the film being scrapped before filming had even begun.
- "Words and Music", "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" and "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" are sourced from Andy Gibbs' Flowing Rivers. "Night Fever", "How Deep is Your Love" and "More Than a Woman" are all sourced from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. "Rest Your Love on Me" was the B-side to "Too Much Heaven", recorded 1976 but not released until 1978. The Bee Gees' version of "If I Can't Have You", performed by Yvonne Elliman for the movie soundtrack, was originally the B-side to "Stayin' Alive" before later appearing on Bee Gees Greatest; the extended seven-minute mix of the latter track can also be found on said album as a bonus track. The band's version of "Emotion", originally performed by Samantha Sang, appeared on Their Greatest Hits: The Record, albeit recorded in 1994 for a cancelled album called Love Songs.
Author's Comments
Lately, it seems as though I've been uploading chapters on a fortnightly basis. That's probably not a bad thing, to be honest, as it gives me more time to think about the direction each chapter and story arc will go. In the case of Crosby, Stills & Nash, however, we're not going to be seeing much of them during Phase Three, largely due to lengthy gaps in collaborations and recordings between 1977 and 1988 (save for 1982's Daylight Again). Their peak in quality was certainly during 1968-1976, but since then, it's been kind of downhill from there, finally crashing and burning in 2015 when they broke up for good, largely due to David Crosby being kind of a dick. Granted, the others weren't exactly angels either, but David and his personal problems were certainly a factor. He has offered an olive branch to get together again, but at their age... who knows what'll happen?
Neil Young, on the other hand, is going to be a bit more prominent than the others during Phase Three, largely due to his output being greater in terms of quantity. I think it'll be interesting to see where I take his music in the 1980s, especially with the (soon to come) birth of his son Ben. Maybe his output won't be as controversial as it was in OTL?
Lastly, there's the Bee Gees. Yes, I have effectively removed the Sgt. Pepper movie from existence. Why had I done that rather than try to make it more tolerable? Well, I think all you need to do is see Across the Universe from 2007 and the problem should clear itself up. Plus, considering that Odessa was given a reevaluation in 1976, it probably would've made better sense had a movie been based on that instead. Plus, it spares the Bee Gees the embarrassment of starring in a movie featuring Beatles songs. Earth, Wind & Fire's cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" can still exist as a non-album single, and I've got an idea in mind for Aerosmith's take on "Come Together". You'll find out what it is soon enough.
Also, Andy Gibb is officially a Bee Gee. I couldn't come up with a reason as to why that happens, but if you have an idea, please let me know. I had the idea of bringing him into the band because the Bee Gees had almost enough material for an entire album, plus Andy's music sounds reminiscent of them in a way, so I pulled a few tracks from Flowing Rivers to flesh out Night Fever to make a ten-track album. There is one other album with Andy on a Bee Gees album, but after that, I'm not sure what happens next.
Lately, it seems as though I've been uploading chapters on a fortnightly basis. That's probably not a bad thing, to be honest, as it gives me more time to think about the direction each chapter and story arc will go. In the case of Crosby, Stills & Nash, however, we're not going to be seeing much of them during Phase Three, largely due to lengthy gaps in collaborations and recordings between 1977 and 1988 (save for 1982's Daylight Again). Their peak in quality was certainly during 1968-1976, but since then, it's been kind of downhill from there, finally crashing and burning in 2015 when they broke up for good, largely due to David Crosby being kind of a dick. Granted, the others weren't exactly angels either, but David and his personal problems were certainly a factor. He has offered an olive branch to get together again, but at their age... who knows what'll happen?
Neil Young, on the other hand, is going to be a bit more prominent than the others during Phase Three, largely due to his output being greater in terms of quantity. I think it'll be interesting to see where I take his music in the 1980s, especially with the (soon to come) birth of his son Ben. Maybe his output won't be as controversial as it was in OTL?
Lastly, there's the Bee Gees. Yes, I have effectively removed the Sgt. Pepper movie from existence. Why had I done that rather than try to make it more tolerable? Well, I think all you need to do is see Across the Universe from 2007 and the problem should clear itself up. Plus, considering that Odessa was given a reevaluation in 1976, it probably would've made better sense had a movie been based on that instead. Plus, it spares the Bee Gees the embarrassment of starring in a movie featuring Beatles songs. Earth, Wind & Fire's cover of "Got to Get You Into My Life" can still exist as a non-album single, and I've got an idea in mind for Aerosmith's take on "Come Together". You'll find out what it is soon enough.
Also, Andy Gibb is officially a Bee Gee. I couldn't come up with a reason as to why that happens, but if you have an idea, please let me know. I had the idea of bringing him into the band because the Bee Gees had almost enough material for an entire album, plus Andy's music sounds reminiscent of them in a way, so I pulled a few tracks from Flowing Rivers to flesh out Night Fever to make a ten-track album. There is one other album with Andy on a Bee Gees album, but after that, I'm not sure what happens next.
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