In India, Saturday Night Fever (SNF) was the “launch vehicle” for the Bee Gees. The film, which released in 1977, kept showing up at cinemas in urban India even in the 1980s. A large number of youngsters from that period, who later got hooked on Bee Gees, were first introduced to its music through the John Travolta-starrer SNF. For, six of Bee Gees’ songs went into the soundtrack for the film. Together, the film and the band unofficially launched what is called the disco era, which promoted sounds and beats that reverberate even today, in modern dance halls. Bee Gees should be given much of the credit for this. Doing so would be a fitting tribute to the band in its diamond-jubilee year. Around this time in 1958, the band was formed by Barry Gibb and his twin bothers Maurice and Robin. Between them, the brothers could sing, write songs, play the piano, organ, mellotron and the guitar.
“In the 1980s, as a boy, I watched Saturday Night Fever at a cinema in Madras. The songs by Bee Gees, especially ‘Stayin’ Alive,’ were great. But it was much later that I realised what Bee Gees had ushered in. The four-on-the-floor rhythm pattern is the soul of disco and many of the songs that Bee Gees produced in that period promoted it like no other. In 2007-2008, when I was working as DJ with Chipstead at Taj Coromandel, this pattern came back to me powerfully. I was playing disco house and funky house and that is when I realised how much electronic dance music depends on the four-on-the-floor, a pattern popularised by disco,” says Eddie Prithviraj, director of Unwind Center, which provides a platform for Western music in Chennai.
In my opinion, Bee Gees’ single ‘You Should Be Dancing,’ one of its six songs featured in SNF is an anthem of the disco genre.
The disco wave
Indirectly through SNF, Bee Gees largely influenced the disco wave that swept through India in the 1980s. Besides music, the disco culture ushered in a new sartorial sense and fresh thinking in India. This was evident in its film music: Classic examples include the song ‘I am a Disco Dancer’ in Disco Dancer and ‘Laila O Laila’ in Qurbani. An example from down south: ‘Engeyum Eppothum’ from Ninaithale Inikkum .
While the West had moved on to post-disco in the early 1980s, shunning the elaborate musical arrangement that marked disco, the disco wave continued in India through most part of the decade. And, in this period, many were discovering Bee Gees and their unique disco sound, often spiked with Barry’s high-pitched falsetto, for the first time. The band is readily identified with the three Gibb brothers, clearly the mastermind behind the musical act. Other factors in Bee Gees’ phenomenal success are: drummers Dennis Bryon and Frederick Colin Petersen and guitarist-vocalist-songwriter Vince Melouney.
Going off on a slight tangent, let me point out that John Travolta was able to sartorially influence many Indian youngsters of those times. If you are a Millennial reading this article and trying to make sense of the dressing style of the disco era, head to your father’s wardrobe, where he has kept a few shirts carefully folded, for sentimental reasons. In all likelihood, the collars on these shirts are quite pointed and large — watch the red shirt Travolta wears under a dark blazer in one section of the ‘Stayin’ Alive’ track, one you will know. And these shirts are likely to have a shimmer.
Now, what really made the Bee Gees a spectacular band was that they had more than disco sounds to offer listeners. One of the best songs set in the baroque pop genre that I have ever heard comes from the Bee Gees. ‘Black Diamond’ which featured in Odessa, an album from 1969, has sufficient gravitas to charm ears that itch for classical sounds. For the classical effect, Bee Gees used a mellotron, played by Maurice and Robin Gibb.
We would probably be hearing the band perform even today, if it had not been marred by untimely deaths. Bee Gees disbanded twice. First in 2003, when Maurice died. Six years later, Barry and Robin came together to revive the band, which had a short second run until Robin’s passing in 2012. Since then, Sir Barry Gibb has been having a solo musical career.
