Saturday, May 16, 2009

Robin Gibb - Robin`s Reign - `70 - Atco Records




phooey , i dont care what the critics say about this one , i love it !
very rare indeed this one : i couldnt believe when i found it , think it was 5 bucks too ! anyway , fave tracks here mother & jack & down came the sun !
love the drum machines eh ?
lol

Although not many people remember it today, there was a moment when the Bee Gees' lineup literally exploded into pieces — in the wake of the 1969 double-LP Odessa, the sibling music trio split, first into two parts, with Barry Gibb and Maurice Gibb initially retaining the Bee Gees name, and later into three parts, as even they stopped working together. You can judge the depth of the antipathy felt between Robin Gibb and his brothers from the lyrics in "Most of My Life," the last song on the album at hand, which are steeped in bitterness. Ironically, amid a ton of solo activity by all three brothers that resulted from these breakups, Robin's Reign by Robin Gibb was the only full-length solo effort by any of them to see the light of day commercially, and it has never been reissued on CD, despite the fact that it contained a number two U.K. hit in "Saved By the Bell." What is here is almost as much a "lost" Bee Gees creation as the two-man lineup's Cucumber Castle album, notwithstanding Barry Gibb's protestations at the time that the songs weren't up to a standard that would have allowed him to sing on them — the main problem is the "almost." Cucumber Castle was strong enough as a body of music that it only needed the addition of Robin Gibb's voice to have qualified as a classic '60s Bee Gees effort, and even as it stands there's enough good music on it to justify its presence in the CD catalog. Much of Robin's Reign, however, needed just a little bit more work on the composition side — perhaps the input of another of the Gibb siblings — to reach that same standard. On the first side, "August October" and "Gone Gone Gone" could have passed muster on any of the group's late-'60s albums, and "The Worst Girl in This Town" on a sonic level is as great an achievement as a Bee Gees cut in everything but name (complete with Maurice Gibb's presence — he's also elsewhere on the album, as is drummer Colin Petersen). But too many of the songs (and "Down Came the Sun" is a perfect example), although very pretty, don't quite go anywhere — they lack a second idea, or a middle eight, or something, to take them to the ending without being predictable. The record also ended up being a bit disjointed and confusing, as Robin Gibb and his manager announced it with several songs that never made it onto the record, while others that weren't announced were present. Among the most unusual of the latter was "Mother and Jack," a calypso-flavored piece that was sort of Robin Gibb's answer to the two-man Bee Gees' "I.O.I.O.," and ended up on the B-side of "Saved By the Bell." The presence of two different conductors and arrangers, Zack Lawrence and Kenny Clayton (along with Gibb's arrangement of one song), didn't help unify the result. And for the record, Lawrence came closest to emulating the most densely produced Bee Gees sound. "Mother and Jack" offered possibilities for a new, leaner, different sound, but as it was, the album couldn't get far enough away from the Bee Gees' own roots to count as more than a footnote — albeit an often beautiful and reasonably entertaining one — to their history. He would do better, and generate more lasting music, with his subsequent solo albums in the decades to come.

Robin Gibb - Robin`s Reign - `70 - Atco Records
MP3 @ 320 , w/ high rez scans - ALL TRAX FROM WAX

1. August October
2. Gone Gone Gone
3. The Worst Girl in This Town
4. Give Me a Smile
5. Down Came the Sun
6. Mother and Jack
7. Saved By the Bell
8. Weekend
9. Farmer Ferdinand Hudson
10 Lord Bless All
11.Most of My Life

DOWNLOAD :
-- here --

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cy here,
This one is for my wife: tho Robin was the main Bee Gee for me too.
I was looking for this when I first began downloading and that's been since ONLY April this year, so the wait is over thanks to you.
Cy

Anonymous said...

Look forward to this, thanks. Saw your comment about lack of comments on Red Tel: I'm a typical example - always appreciate the shares but tend to take without always thanking. Haven't visited here for a while, but when I return I'll try to be more polite! MF

akashaman said...

thanks MF , sure means alot when folks give me some feedback.
not just about recognition & all. i like to hear stories about these recordings , when u first heard something , any associated memories etc. alot of this music goes way back & i know there are myriad stories involved !

keep sharing & i will too.

aka`

Anonymous said...

Hi from Cy
Kath sends her thanks for this. We agree that the reviews about this are all wrong, we were thinking that Robin's voice was going to be swamped by orchestration and drumming etc, no way. Great listen and truly thanks for this share. We recall Top of the Pops and in glorious black and white being blown away by their '67 hits.

Anonymous said...

I`ve been looking for this for ages. Only A few years ago I got into the earlier Bee Gees and I love it!!!! This in one of the records that I haven`t listen until now...thanks to you. It contains really great tunes.
Thanks for your came-back and your hard working.
Miguel Brochado

Anonymous said...

Thanks akashaman, I remember 'Saved by the Bell' when it was first released. The last time I saw this album it was in the bargain bin in my local Woolworth's store in 1971. Re the Odessa album, it was very ambitious for it's time. A few of my friends who wouldn't have been seen dead with a Bee Gees record owned copies. Thanks! Colin, Scotland.

Trolley said...

awesome site, man - thanks alot!

Anonymous said...

Robin also had a semi-hit dance single in the early 80's titled "Boys Do Fall in Love". Very catchy (and gay) tune.

Anonymous said...

Slight correction, Robin's Reign did get a CD re-issue albeit very briefly on the German Polydor sub-label Spectrum in December 1992.

akashaman said...

i love this LP !

robin indeed reigns !

aka`

Joe said...

Thanks for the post, I love anything related to the Bee Gees. I have all of their studio albums from Bee Gees 1st through "This is Where I Came In". Would like to get me hands on "Spicks & Specks" or "Bee Gees Sing & Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs". Great collection! I would download 90% of your posts if I could figure out how to do it, It's been hit and miss for me, only a few have been successful. What is the best upload service to use? Mega-upload, EZ Share?? Please help? -Joe White

furrball said...

Where exactly is the dl link on the 2Shared page, anyway?

akashaman said...

hahaha , bottom right where it says - save file to computer !

good luk

aka

Anonymous said...

I will have to admit that I don't remember seeing (or hearing) this album way back when. Thanks for giving me the chance to hear it now.

rilester

Anonymous said...

Check out more of Robin at

http://www.newreleasesnow.com/song/0712_2011/12/no/Robin+Gibb/In+Concert+With+The+Danish+National+Concert+Orchestra+%28DVD%29