In The Hunt for Red October, Captain Ramius says “Your conclusions were all wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly." Sean Connery as Ramius to Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan
A good friend of mine worked on this movie about the Bee Gees which is currently airing on HBO. I'm going to print an alternate universe review here that may not be in the main review, but it is fun.
My conclusions are usually right, as y'all know.
1)The Sgt Pepper film is what ruined the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. I did not see it in the movie and I've watched the new flick one and a half times and will watch again.
Bee Gees and Framp appeared with Aerosmith, Earth Wind & Fire and Alice Cooper in Sgt. Pepper. Those three other artists got rave reviews and escaped the backlash that hit Frampton and the Bee Gees...and hit them hard. Robert Stigwood overpressed the double Sgt Pepper film soundtrack album and it was one of the biggest "returns" in rock history (along with Lou Reed's intentional Metal Machine Music which he unleased (4 sides of all noise) to get out of his RCA deal, and Bob Dylan's Planet Waves (also overpressed by over eager now movie mogul David Geffen) and the four Kiss solo albums.
2)Despite the phenomenal sales, some of the biggest in rock history, Stiggy should have stayed with Atlantic Records. Bee Gees could've gone soul with Arif Mardin but Atlantic kept them from working with the brilliant Mardin again, as revered a producer as you will ever find, once the Bee Gees and Stiggy went with the new imprint, RSO.
3)Not enough about the alleged 96 track production (minus the harnessing of the 24 track machines, which will cost you at least 2 tracks per machine, 88 tracks or so before Pro Tools came into vogue and computer recording) ...
4)Bee Gees could have reinvented themselves as a soul band with Peter Frampton. They all had it in them and they WERE the chameleons that the film notes...
When I managed the major Rolling Stones producer - considered one of the greatest rock producers of all time, our offices were at 1775 Broadway at West 54th New York NY, the office of Bert Padell...the Rolling Stones had their office across the street from us at 1776 Broadway...
https://variety.com/2018/music/news/bert-padell-accountant-notorious-big-dead-1202678342/
So I would wander about the building...we were on the same floor with Alice Cooper's management, Paul Butterfield's management ...all under Bert's amazing umbrella...upstairs were the offices of RSO, Robert Stigwood Organization, home of the Bee Gees.
Now what was odd about Robert's office, if I recall, it was around 1986, 1987, that unlike the stark hallway throughout the building (think 3rd floor of Medford City Hall...boring...) Stiggy's office had ornate oak or a similar wood, it was magnificent. The heavy wooden door looked like it was the entrance to a castle...juxtaposed against all the ordinary doors down the hall (think, again, 3rd floor Medford City Hall.) A handsome blonde-haired guy opened the door (but of course...Stiggy being Stiggy...no he was NOT married to Yvonne Elliman to my knowledge...ahem...as radio dj's would say...) The blonde guy's name was Jxxxxx and he actually became one of our drinking buddies. *(keep in mind, I would be in bars to perform, not sit AT the bar like some of my colleagues. In the business environment people would drink...but I always stopped after two beers and went to cola or something, even though we took cabs everywhere in New York and didn't have to drive. The music biz can drag one into alcoholism...thankfully I made the right choices in THAT department.)
That was how business was done in Manhattan. Well, my producer friend went off one night with a lady friend of mine, so Jxxxx and I went to some club with awnings...we were out on the sidewalk under a tent, and his friend Michael from Malta came to town. Michael was stunning...drop dead gorgeous with eyes that sucked you in. Jxxxx was so in the closet that Michael and Jxxxx had "girlfriends" with them (beards) and it was so blatantly obvious. The girls were damn pretty, but of course...one would expect that. I had my stash of New York boyfriends, of course...but I'm out with Michael and Jxxxxx and Michael is hitting on me. Now I'm under no illusions ...Michael was "winding Jxxxx up" as my colleague would say. A "jet setter" I am not but Jxxxx could get so pompous and having this handsome creature Michael hitting on me ALL NIGHT LONG was a turn on, a bigger turn on because it got to Stiggy's boy...in a huge way.
"Joe, you were talking to that young lady, you are being rude to her" Jxxx blurted out in front of the big crowd at our table. It was hilarious. Everyone noticed. Michael was sitting next to me and playing me like a violin, while playing his boyfriend Jxxx like a fiddle. Keep in mind, Jxxxx kept the fort for Stiggy which means he kept the New York fort for Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees...Jxxxx was furious, and adamant, so I calmly...with a smile across my face...wandered back to the young Jamaican woman, she was very nice...we were having fun. In a perfect world Jxxxx and Michael and I would have had a threesome...but Jxxxx and I didn't mix philosophically. Did I think Jxxxx hot? Absolutely...it was his attitude that turned me off. Thinking logically years later I should've pulled Michael aside and we should have all ran off together for a one nighter, but we were both toying with Jxxxx so transparently that that would not have happened. Michael would stare at me while I'm talking to the young lady, I would stare back. Jxxx would get hotter under the collar.
Anyone notice how invisible their alleged "girlfriends" were in this story? HA HA, like they weren't even there.
After the night with Michael from Malta, well, Jxxxx and I were very "professional" after that. He was downright cold and my business partner/famous record producer Jimmy had to deal with Jxxxx from there on out. But a funny aside, it was obvious that Jxxxxx was Stiggy's boy...more than just the office manager...and Michael from Malta was badgering him ...let me paraphrase from almost 35 years ago..."it's time you broke away from Stigwood" Michael would badger Jxxxx. The dynamics I still haven't figured out. It's like both of them wanted a deeper relationship with each other, there was clearly a strong vibe there, and maybe Michael was jealous of Stigwood's uber-wealth (my God, in the office was a photo of Stiggy's yacht that made Fantasy Island's look like a canoe!) ...the photo of the yacht went across the table...we are talking dripping with money.
The badgering on Stigwood continued; the eyes flirting with me continued...(keep it going, I was eating it up!) ...we don't realize how good looking we actually were back in the day till we look at old photos...but that being said, Michael from Malta was not marrying material anyway...I would liked to have filmed the sequel to One Night in Heaven with him...at least a homo version of it...but there's my addition to the movie The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart documentary. A threesome would have been in order to mend Jxxxxx' broken heart...but I knew of his alleged sexual proclivities from a third party so, ahem...perhaps it is best that we all went our separate ways...oh, nothing TOO outrageous...just not my cup of tea.
Combine the repeated digs about how Jxxxx was clinging to Stiggy's apron strings and Michael's hours-long flirting with the guy from the office downstairs and try to figure out THAT psychology. Some kind of quasi-abusive behavior from Michael...and maybe Michael wanted more but the young blonde boy was too tied to his boss's wallet? We'll never know...
from the forthcoming autobiography of the editor, which is in the works (C)MIC, 2021, all rights reserved.
FILE UNDER: A night out with Michael and Viggy, not Stiggy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Fever_(soundtrack)
It is one of the best-selling albums in history, and remains the second-biggest selling soundtrack of all time, after The Bodyguard, selling 40 million copies worldwide (double disc album).[1] In the United States, the album was certified 16× Platinum for shipments of at least 16 million units.[2] The album stayed atop the album charts for 24 straight weeks from January to July 1978 and stayed on Billboard's album charts for 120 weeks until March 1980. In the UK, the album spent 18 consecutive weeks at No. 1.
Stigwood on Wikipedia
RIP Stiggy...a colorful character and quite brilliant
Robert Colin Stigwood (16 April 1934 – 4 January 2016) was an Australian-born British-resident music entrepreneur, film producer and impresario, best known for managing Cream and the Bee Gees, theatrical productions like Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, and film productions including the successful Grease and Saturday Night Fever.[1]
Business deal with EMI[edit]
Other artists Stigwood signed to a management/recording deal included Mike Sarne, whose Komlosy-produced "Come Outside" charted Number One in 1962, and another Meek protégé, Mike Berry, who had scored a hit with the Geoff Goddard-penned "Tribute To Buddy Holly".
He was understood to be gay.[9] Despite the severe legal situation in Britain until the Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised homosexual acts in private, it would not have been a disadvantage for Stigwood's career, as other important figures in the music industry were also gay. Some Australian music writers have suggested that the main reason why so few Australian acts were able to break into the UK music scene in the 1960s was that they were locked out by the so-called "Pink Mafia" that supposedly dominated British show business.[9]
One of the first acts he managed during this period was Junco Partners, a blues band which succeeded the Animals as the house band at Newcastle's Club A Go Go. The band recorded for Columbia (the EMI label) and the French Barclay Records, with one of its first releases being co-produced by Stigwood and Vicki Wickham. The band included Charlie Harcourt, later of Lindisfarne and Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys.[10]
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