The Bee Gees: Odessa, Part 2
Album #97 - March 1969
Episode date - November 8, 2017
This show represents part two of the Bee Gees’ “Odessa” album. In a decade that was full of weird music and ambitious projects, “Odessa” qualifies as one of the weirdest and most ambitious albums of the’60s.
The Bee Gees were never guilty of understatement, and here they add every possible ingredient to ensure that each song comes loaded for maximum impact. It’s as if every song was designed as a symphony, or an anthem of some sort. One of them actually is an anthem, while another calls itself a symphony. With so much grandeur and bombast, the album simply proved to be too much for most fans of the band.
There is no doubt that the album takes some time to appreciate at face value, but the songs here have outlasted the criticism that they met upon release. “Odessa” is a flawed masterpiece and may be the best representation of the band’s first iteration, before they became the darlings of disco music.
Featured tracks include:
Lamplight
Sound of Love
Give Your Best
Seven Seas Symphony
With All Nations (International Anthem)
I Laugh in Your Face
Never Say Never Again
First of May
The British Opera
March 1969 – Billboard Charted #20