From ‘Love You Inside Out’ to ‘Tragedy’: Barry Gibb’s favourite Bee Gees songs

Humility is a tough old balance to strike. Too much of it seems fake. Too little of it is gross. It’s fair to expect that sweet spot from the people in our lives, more or less, but what of the people we look up to? What of the actors, athletes and especially musicians? They make and do things that shape the way we see the world, and yet still, a public figure’s entire persona can shift if the balance slips one way or another.

Remember how much we all loved John Mulaney a few years ago? Best to be like Barry Gibb and give yourself credit where credit is due

Because he can’t ignore it, can he? He can’t be a Stan Lee-type figure who took issue with his biography being called The Amazing Life of Stan Lee because he didn’t feel like it was that amazing; he was a literal Bee Gee. A band that began life as folk-rock sensations in the mid-1960s, then broke up before reforming to take disco into the mainstream with ‘You Should Be Dancing’ and then the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.

A feat that still boggles the mind to this day, by the way. Imagine if The Maccabees got back together and became the biggest band in the world playing hyphy music, and you’ve got an idea of the kind of comeback the brothers Gibb made. So, when Barry Gibb was asked about his ten favourite songs in an interview, not one, but two songs by The Bee Gees made the list.

I know this should be an act of hubris. But really, can you blame the guy? Especially when he’s talking about choice cuts like the songs that follow. There’s a difference between patting yourself on the back for the sake of it and acknowledging when you’ve made something truly special, which is precisely what Gibb the elder did with his own family.

Both tracks are from their disco heyday, beginning with their final number one hit on the Billboard 100, 1979’s ‘Love You Inside Out’ from Spirits Having Flown. If you’re going to go out, then you might as well go out on a jam like this. It is a sensuous funk jam that shows the band, with an image as squeaky-clean as their dazzling white suits, could get a little bit adult with it, too. Not only in the obvious way, either.

At this point in Gibb’s career, they could submit a record of debating different detergents and having a hit on their hands. So, the little scamps decided to play a prank on their manager, Robert Stigwood, to see if he was still paying attention to their records. They sent a specially recorded version of ‘…Inside Out’ to him, with the line “backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out” replaced with… another part of the Gibbs’ anatomy.

If they’d put their foot down about the lyric, there’s a chance they would have gone through with it, too. I mean, they were following up one of the best disco tracks ever made, and another of Gibb’s favourite songs, ‘Tragedy’ and when you’re on that much of a hot streak, you just go with it. Ignore the Steps version, ‘Tragedy’ is a banger of the highest order half a century on, one well worth revisiting if you haven’t in a while.

With a back catalogue like that, it’s only fair that Gibb considers them some of his favourite music. It’s a feeling he shares with millions of people.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *