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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nThank the public works department of Biscayne Bay, Fla. One of their bridges\u2014the Julia Tuttle Causeway\u2014inspired the song that redefined the Bee Gees\u2019 career and became the first of their disco-era No. 1 hits.<\/p>\n
Barry Gibb recalled that he and brothers Robin and Maurice were working on the Main Course<\/i> album. \u201cWe were trying to make a comeback. It was 1975\u2014and we were sort of out of vogue at that time,\u201d said Gibb. \u201cEvery night, we were going back and forth to Criteria Studios from Biscayne Bay. The bridge made a clickety-clackety sound. It stayed in my head, and one night, coming back from the studio, I just started singing this thing over top of the rhythm. Robin and Maurice picked up on it, and we actually finished the song late that night.\u201d<\/p>\n
From its working title \u201cDrive Talking,\u201d the song became \u201cJive Talkin\u2019.\u201d It was an American expression the Gibbs had heard, but misinterpreted. \u201cWe thought jive talkin\u2019 meant that you\u2019re dancing,\u201d said Maurice. After producer Arif Mardin explained that it was slang for bullshitting, the three retooled the song lyric to tell the story of a cruel-hearted, lying lover.<\/p>\n
But even more significant than the lyric was the sweaty groove of the record, provided by Barry\u2019s bridge-imitating guitar strum and Maurice\u2019s funky bassline. In one three-minute swoop, it captured the bold new direction that they had been searching for. \u201cThere was the idea of us moving more into R&B, becoming more Americanized,\u201d said Barry. \u201cThis was the first album since Odessa<\/i> where we\u2019d actually come to America to make it. That was on a tip from Eric Clapton. He was signed to the same company, RSO, and he said, \u2018My comeback [461 Ocean Boulevard<\/i>] has really worked.\u2019 He said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you try to work in another country like America and see if you\u2019re influenced by it?\u2019 We did\u2014and never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The song, and the entire Main Course <\/i>album, marked the beginning of what could also be called the group\u2019s falsetto period. Said Barry, \u201cThe story is that during the recording of \u2018Nights on Broadway,\u2019 Arif Mardin asked me if any of us could go out there and scream some ad libs, sort of R&B style high screams. I volunteered and discovered this voice that was hidden back there. Then I started developing it, and started singing real songs with the falsetto instead of just doing ad libs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I look back it\u2019s actually something I ought to be proud of,\u201d he said. \u201cBrian Wilson, Frankie Valli and even Prince\u2014they don\u2019t make any bones about doing that. I think if you go back far enough, the first rock \u2019n\u2019 roll record I ever heard was \u2018Little Darlin\u2019\u2019 by the Diamonds, and that was falsetto. So I think in a way falsetto has been an integral part of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll.
\nI think it\u2019s nice to be one of those falsetto voices that\u2019s quite well known.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it came time to release the single to radio, the Gibbs indulged in a little creative marketing subterfuge, sending out the discs in plain white sleeves with no information. They had employed a similar tactic in 1967 when they released their debut single, \u201cNew York Mining Disaster 1941.\u201d Back then, they were trading on rumors that it was actually a new Beatles record. In 1975, they simply wanted to be heard without any preconceptions of their past.<\/p>\n
The scheme worked. \u201cJive Talkin\u2019\u201d became their first No. 1 hit in four years\u2014and blew open the doors for the platinum-plated Saturday Night Fever<\/i> era.<\/p>\n
\u2013Bill DeMain<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\u201cJive Talkin\u2019\u201d BEE GEES Thank the public works department of Biscayne Bay, Fla. One of their bridges\u2014the Julia Tuttle Causeway\u2014inspired the song that redefined the Bee Gees\u2019 career and became the first of their disco-era No. 1 hits. Barry Gibb recalled that he and brothers Robin and Maurice were working on the Main Course album. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5264],"tags":[7429,7430],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12427,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12425\/revisions\/12427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}