I learned a majority of my music history listening to my fathers stories, and watching VH1 documentaries. I also watched a television show on VH1 called "8 Track Flashback" which consisted of videos from the seventies, and had minidocumentaries of the artist. I believe it was like 3 or 4 videos, John Fugelsang was the host of the show, and it only consisted of old videos. One artist that I became interested in from the seventies was Andy Gibb. Andy was the youngest brother in the Gibb family (Bee Gees). He was the first artist to have his first three singles reach number one on the pop charts.
I will be very honest I do not like Bruno Mars, though I am interested in listening to his most recent album. I was so glad that Bruno Mars did not beat Andy Gibb's record despite the fact there are similiarities in both artist. The problem I have with Bruno Mars music is just that he sounds so weak, and desperate in the songs that he writes. Andy Gibb was somewhat the same, but it was more bearable to listen to. I felt that Andy Gibb's music had a lot of expression and meaning to it, while Bruno Mars music sounds like a desperate plea for attention. The first song I heard by Andy Gibb was "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" I first heard it I believe in winter of 1997 on VH1's show "Pop Up Video." The song was well put together, has a nice melody, I believe Joe Walsh from The Eagles played the guitar on it by the sound of it, you can sing and dance to it, and very addictive to listen to. To me as a kid who was a fan of hardcore rap music, this track was definately a guilty pleasure. It was a departure from the sex, drugs, and entertainment culture that mainstream nineties music promoted.
Andy Gibb's second single was "Love Is Thicker Than Water" a mid tempo track that had a very deep meaning to it. He gives a broad understanding of the four letter word LOVE, by using metaphors of what it can be, and how it affects a person that is in love. I will go into my own breakdown of the song through the chorus. The first part of the chorus is "love is higher than a mountain love is thicker than water" this means love brings you on a natural high, but at the same time the definition of love is broader than what it appears to our natural senses. The second part of the chorus is "you are this dreamers only dream heavens angel, devils daughter." This means that love can go one of two ways: you have someone in front of you love and they love you in return everything seems perfect, while it can also be deceptive and you have that person that does not love you, but uses love as a reason to hurt you and benefit them. Basically what Andy Gibb is saying is love can hurt you as much as it can benefit you, and you can lose your mind over the four letter word. Hands down one of the deepest tracks that was released to the mainstream.
My least favorite of the three number one singles was "Shadow Dancing" not because I dont like the song, but because it is a departure from Andy Gibb's sound, he sounded a lot like his brothers music, and I think Andy should have stepped away from his brothers and did his own thing. Andy always worked with his brothers, but he had his own sound that separated himself from the other brothers, also keep in mind Andy Gibb was not on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I understand that the Bee Gees, were the most critical artist of this era, but whoever worked with the Bee Gees after the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack did not last long after, and their careers did not pan out anywhere! This is one reason Andy's career stalled after Shadow Dancing, because now he moved from a pop sound to a more disco sound, and the Bee Gees were victims of the "Kill Disco" era. This is where Andy Gibb's career peaked and then went on a quick decline. Believe it or not Shadow Dancing was his most popular single, but it was because disco was very popular at the time, and disco artist were seen as novelty acts.
Andy Gibb's career did not necessarily end after Shadow Dancing, because he did have songs that charted in the top 10, but they were not seen as huge hits compared to his first three singles. Andy was a victim of being very successful early in his career, and having to live up to expectations. I am sure a lot of people did not know this, but when Andy was being heralded as the next huge pop icon, he starred in the Sgt Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band movie. As much as I love Andy Gibb, and the Bee Gees the fact that this movie was made was blasphemy!!!!! I hold The Beatles to high acclaim, but this was their greatest concept endeavor! I guess what happened was Andy got deep into drugs, he got married (you know its the beginning of the end), and his career continued to decline. While he was trying to make a comeback he died at the age of 30.
Andy Gibb's final recording was very haunting. He had a song called "Arrow Through The Heart" which was never released until 2010. It will be easy to look at Andy Gibb's life and say that drugs made him die very young, but if you put yourself in his shoes, and walk a mile or two you will never understand what he went through in his lifetime. His marriages ended abruptly, he never really saw his daughter, and he had trouble searching for happiness. I dont think it was drugs I think his heart was broken, which defines his arrow through the heart, and its an arrow through the heart of the music industry losing such a great, compassionate, and talented musician.
RIP Andy
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