The OCD Chronicles: Bee Gees "Idea"

Growing up, I had two Bee Gees records. It’s not what you’re thinking; this is before they struck gold with Saturday Night Fever and even before “Jive Talking.” Hell, this is before “Lonely Days” which came off 1971’s Two Years On. Dude, I was into the Bee Gees when they were still a heavy-Beatlemania pop band, fresh off the tarmac in London from that flight from Australia.
It’s not that big of deal actually, as nobody really gives a shit about the Bee Gees and the entire disco thing nearly ruined anything remotely hip about them. But for me, the fall from grace is harder because one of the albums I had featured a song that was so awesome, it was hard to forgive them when you watched them plant gold medallions in their thick, brushy chest hair.
One of the albums, Rare, Precious and Beautiful, was merely a compilation released in 1968. It was meant to capture the Brothers Gibb newfound success after “I Started A Joke” and “To Love Somebody.” It didn’t feature any of those hits, just a bunch of albums tracks meant to give people a better perspective on the band’s catalog.
But my favorite album out of the two was Idea, their third album. At this time, the band was just that: a band. Sure, the focal point was the brothers (with Robin-or the “weird looking one” as my wife likes to call him), but there was some actual consideration that the other members, namely non-related guitarist Vince Melouney and drummer Colin Peterson, were actually part of the creative process. Peterson even sued the brothers, claiming that he owned the Bee Gees name.
I guess you can understand why the entire Bee Gees “group” concept didn’t last very long.
But when it was in force, the band produced some pretty interesting stuff, complete with those sugar-sweet ‘n note perfect harmonies that brought them acclaim. And no, there’s not a falsetto to be found on this early stuff.
The “band” Bee Gees peeked and imploded with Odessa, an ambitious double disc set from ’69. But the seeds of something special were planted a year before with Idea.
Aside from a freaky looking cover that often frightened me as a child, the album featured some nice pop songs, some verging on psychedelic, others on chamber pop, and standard English pop. It’s very similar to the work of The Hollies in some places, but a bit more musically experimental.
I used to play the title track often and I recently obtained a copy of Idea where I’ve been amazing myself that I still remember the tune nearly forty years after first hearing it and almost thirty years of forgetting about it.
“Idea” starts with three verses before going right into the chorus, again, three lines long.
Try seeing if anything makes any sense:

I been thinking sitting on a pole
I'm getting sick of doing what I'm told
Just me and the mirror and my brain
But that was when I got an idea
Came like a gun and shot in my ear
Don't you think it's time you got up and stood alone?

Fifteen years I lay down on the ground
I couldn't feel any noise or hear any sound
Fifteen million years I spent down the line
But that was when I got an idea
Came like a gun and shot in my ear
Don't you think it's time you got up and stood alone?

Get up and stand alone

That's when I got an idea

I have no idea what the song is about, but I do know that every time Robin gets to the “got up and stand alone” part, the band stops for a second and then Robin breathes out real quick and forceful. It’s totally awesome.

And because it’s so awesome, it keeps playing in my head, forcing me to sing indecipherably like Robin Gibb and accentuating the end with a quick breath of “Heh!” People look at me funny, but they have no idea…