COMMENTS ABOUT THE BEE GEES

ROBERT STIGWOOD(Bee Gees manager from 1967 to 1980) Reporter: Mr. Stigwood, what do the fans of the Bee Gees find appealing about them? Stigwood: This might sound corny, but it is their poetry. These boys are completely uneducated. They don't even know how to spell. They write the lyrics out spelled phonetically. And the simple poetry appeals to the public. Robin: We start with a title. The rest just flows from there. It's like a spiritual thing when we write. We know what the other one is thinking. Lonely Days was written in 10 minutes. (Rolling Stone, 1971)

ARIF MARDIN(producer, credited for helping create the band's signature falsetto vocal style and revitalizing their sound into a dance/R&B sound) "Usually when Barry writes the songs, or actually the three brothers write them, Barry would have the electric guitar or the acoustic guitar, and the song would take shape with the instruments they used. And Maurice would go to the piano and play the chords. It's not like one brother goes into seclusion and comes out with a song. They write them together. In the beginning their process is that they have nonsensical syllables to accomodate the melody, and then the lyrics come after that. They do the melody first. Most songwriters teams have their own system. "During the recording of Main Course I asked Barry to take his vocal up one octave. The poor man said 'If I take it up one octave I'm going to shout and it's going to be terrible.' He softened up a little bit and that's how their falsetto was born." (The Light Gibb)

ALBHY GALUTEN(co-producer with Karl Richardson of several Bee Gees and solo albums from 1976 thru 1985) "Karl, Barry and I were the main ones. We had a vibe very powerful and very creative. Maurice was usually out in the lobby holding court, drinking Perrier - which much of the time had vodka in it-, being social and hanging out. Robin was pretty active in the writing, and then he and Maurice were usually not in the studio. Robin was often not around at all, except when he came in to sing, but he often had good incisive comments, which were often quite useful and sort of objective in certain ways." DAVID FOSTER (Well known producer. He produced two songs for the Still Waters album) "They sing as magnificently now as I remember them 30 years ago. They haven't lost any range. You know, the voice is a muscle and like everything, we all get a little older, lose your range, whatever. I see no difference in the way they sing now than when I was a fan like everyone else. Next to The Beatles, they were probably the most creative group ever  http://beegeesfanfever.blogspot.nl/