I’ll admit it up front: I can’t sing. I don’t sound like a hippo or anything, and I’m not totally tone-deaf, but busker will never be in my resume. However, in the old days I used to have fun singing in the car. It’s easy to do and doesn’t require taking one’s eyes off the steering wheel. Also, with the windows closed, nobody knows how bad you are.
Now that my driving route is so tediously long and devoid of traffic lights (it’s one major highway straight up and down either way), and I have a CD player in the car, I’ve treated myself to some music in the car again, and my first choice was The Ultimate Bee Gees: The 50th Anniversary Collection. The Gibb brothers have been in the music business as long as I’ve been alive, so there were some songs that were released when I was too young to appreciate them. This was a golden opportunity to catch up and enjoy some classics from “my day.”
I would not recommend a non-singer try what I did: I wound up singing along to the entire album and paid the price with a scratchy throat that lasted for days. Of course, I guess I should have left the falsetto to Barry Gibb, who is best qualified to hit those high registers, but what’s a good Bee Bees song without a bad Barry Gibb impression thrown in by an appreciative listener?
I know I’m not “Alone” (pardon the insider joke) in doing this. Find me a Bee Gees fan who hasn’t tried either the trademark falsetto or holding a note with that heart-stopping quaver like on “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” and I’ll show you somebody who has lost that sense of adventure in their life. Leave the bungee jumping to the adventure geeks: I’ll go for the bad karaoke effort anytime.
The Bee Gees as we knew them over the years has changed slightly. Recently the two remaining brothers, Barry and Robin, performed for the first time as a duo for “Dancing With the Stars.” The third Bee Gee, Robin’s twin brother Maurice (pronounced Morris but affectionately known as Mo), died suddenly in January 2003, and after six years it seemed that the group was finished. The brothers decided to reunite at last, and the collection is a celebration of the last half century of work.
It’s said that when you mention somebody, you honor their life or their memory, so if I’m warbling in the car, poorly, with a sore throat and flat notes and no diaphragmatic ability to hold that sustained note on “Staying Alive” anyway, I guess it’s all okay. And thank goodness I keep the windows rolled up.
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