Barry Gibb - Victim

THE KID'S NO GOOD - 1970 Barry began recording his solo album with four songs including ''VICTIM''. They went onto 2-inch 16-track tape, very early use of this new format. Robin and Maurice continued to use 8-track, and even the Bee Gees album later this year was made on 8-track. The personnel are not known, other than Barry on lead and backing vocals and guitar, and Bill Shepherd handling the orchestral accompaniment. Since he started with it, Barry may have already chosen the country weepy ballad ‘I’ll Kiss Your Memory’ as his first single. ‘Victim’ picks up the pace a little while ‘Moonlight’ is a classic Italian crooner ballad appropriately recorded later by Jerry Vale. Only the first two of these made the cut for his album. Both the others were placed with other artists. Barry quickly recorded five more songs just days later. He must have had all these prepared as demos before he went in. If so he had saved three outstanding ones for this date. ‘Mando Bay’, ‘Born’, and ‘Peace in My Mind’ show that Barry had not lost his knack for writing fully realized pop songs in many different styles, arranged here with Hawaiian guitar, uptempo soul horns, and dreamlike flutes respectively. Sadly none of this was released. Barry finished work on his solo album in March after a two-week break. He also went back to a song from 1969, the slow pop ballad ‘The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine’. After another two weeks Barry recorded the last two songs he would use for the album. (One Bad Thing / Happiness) The first was another visit to 1969 that brought in an upbeat pop number, ‘One Bad Thing’, which he considered for a second single off the album. ‘Happiness’ was another soft ballad. The first Barry single followed a month after Maurice but was not issuedin the United States. '' I'll Kiss Your Memory'' was a country weepie in the mould of Bobby Goldsboro's hit single, 'Honey', a widower recalling his happier days. As a simple song with verse and chorus of essentially the same melody, it is disappointing both lyrically and musically, from a man considered The Bee Gees' main songwriter. ''It's not the same orchestra as we used with The Bee Gees'', Barry explained. '' But Bill Shepherd is the only arranger I'll ever work with. On the single I double-tracked my voice seven times, because I knew exactly how I wanted everything done. Now I want to make one mark on my own, before I get too involved in anything else. I don't think my past associations with The Bee Gees are a bad thing to have as far as it affects my solo efforts, because people already know me. And also in this business, it's who you know!'' 'This Time' on the B-side was a little more hopeful, another country style ballad, as are many of the songs considered for the album. ''I love country music and I probably allowed a little more than I should have to influence me'', Barry admitted. ''But I do music that I enjoy and hope that everyone else will enjoy it too. If you try to work for whatever everyone else wants, I think that you get lost. I think you've got to be in love with what you've done and then see what happens. That's what helps for me anyway''. A second Barry Gibb single, 'The Day Your Eyes Meet Mine'/ One Bad Thing', came very close to release around August 1970. Barry performed the latter song on German television, and in the United States an initial batch of Atco singles were pressed but destroyed. Needless to say, at least one copy escaped unscathed, and was offered up for auction during the Eighties. Barry's album may have been near completionby August, but no definite song selection or sequence is known. Recording began using eight-track facilities on February 15, but in less than a week, master tapes were being submitted in 16-track. The litle '' The Kid's no Good'' was rumoured, but no song by that name is known. Tapes leaked out to fans since show predominantly the country-with-strings style of the first single. And exception is 'One Bad Thing', and upbeat pop number which, according to a US copyright filing, was written with Maurice in September, 1969. Some are story songs, such as ' Clyde O' Reilly', and others are mood pieces, such as ' Mando Bay', possibly the best of them. Another, 'Victim', sounds as if it could have been written for Gene Pitney, perhaps inspired by '' Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart'' as Barry's vocal delivery is virtually identical to the American singer in several portions of the song. Fan reaction to the tracks is generally lukewarm. Something seemed to be missing. Many of these songs were at least published, and most of those were recorded by other artists, but none were hits. Although everyone connected with the group (himself included) describes Barry as reclusive in those days, he continued to be in demand. He appeared on the panel of judges and performed for the '' Miss Teen Princess Of The World'' pageant in Germany.