[A] definitive group biography ... This book, like the others, is both a fanboy’s love letter and a detailed, what-did-they-take-with-their-tea account of the musicians’ daily lives ... By the end, the brothers become a microcosm of everything that happened in the 20th-century pop world.
Stanley makes a strong case for the Bee Gees’ impact on twentieth-century music, but his portrayal also reveals them as harbingers of the global pop of the twenty-first. He repeatedly emphasises that the Bee Gees’ lyrics sound like translationese. In this they anticipate the present era.
Stanley is a wonderful guide, showing us the gems of this vast catalogue with enthusiasm, insight and wit ... It’s a weakness of Stanley’s book that he had no interactions with his heroes – was Barry even approached, I wonder? – and is overly reliant on observations and quotes culled from press clippings. Although he rattles through a complex triple life story at a fair clip, covering 70 years in under 300 pages, he isn’t really interested in their private lives, and I came away feeling I didn’t understand the Gibbs any better as people.
Astute, affectionate ... The book vividly shows how delicate the ecosystems of a band’s success can be ... Stands as a loving vindication of the band, moving beyond the hothouse chest hair and florid falsettos to illuminate an elusive, undersold story. You should be dancing, but as the Bee Gees seemed to know, nothing’s ever that easy.
