Well well. Let me begin by saying before 1997 I hated, I mean HATED The Bee Gees!  My sister is five years older than me, and had a very healthy obsession with anything John Travolta.  Darling Jaime also intended to go to Juliard, not a heathly mix, at least for me anyway.  I was stuck being my sister's dance partner while she tried to imitate Saturday Night Fever and of course Staying Alive.  I hated it!
      Now, back in those glorious early eighties days, things still came out on records, and as sibling rivalries go, records are very breakable.  I was so fed up with listening to Fever over and over and over, I smashed my sister's lp with a hammer!  Naturally, to get back at me, my sister ingeniously melted my After Dark record.  Jaime hated Andy, and that was enough for me to like him.  Although my Dad couldn't understand how I liked Andy Gibb and not The Bee Gees.

     Dear Old Dad sat me down and gave me a good speech about breaking that record.  It was totally understandable I was tired of it, everybody was! But Dad told me to admit it, some of the songs weren't that bad.  I half heartedly agreed, but still said I was sick of Fever over and over and over.  My Dad said hey, every song on the radio right now is sang, written, or produced  by The Bee Gees. I gave my Dad a big WHATEVER! Of course, at the time I had an obsession with Dolly Parton, and her little duet called Islands In The Stream.....
      Well the years passed.  I remember You Win Again briefly, then One.  That was about the time The Bee Gees did their Disney special.  My dad yelled at me to come and watch.  Look what Fever has done to this awesome band! Put them on The Disney Channel!  I lingered for a few moments, until Staying Alive came one.  I can still hear my Dad, 'You hear one song you don't like and you run from the room!'

       I was still running in 1997.  There was so much hoopla around that time with awards and The Hall of Fame and such.  I actually caught the tale end of the video Alone on MTV. I had a slight chuckle to myself.  Twenty years after disco they can come back!  I flicked to The Catlholic Channel (I'm actually Methodist, but they've got some good stuff on there!) Some Priest talking about people being called to serve God in different ways. Some marry or have children, some become teachers, nuns, or priests, and some people serve God by being alone. 
      I was flabergasted. What oxymoron is that?  Christianity is a religion based on loving each other, how could one serve God by being alone? However, at the same time I knew this was true, for I was alone at the time and it scared the heck out of me."I don't want to be alone!" I thought to myself.  I realized the only person that had always been there was Jesus, so I went back to church.

      Well, not one week after that revelation, my dad calls me to the tv in the middle of the night.  He wanted to know who Celine Dion was, and why she was worthy of singing with The Bee Gees.  Good old Dad demanded I sit down and listen, to just trust him and have an open mind.  So I sat and watched One Night Only.  You Should be Dancing. Eh, but what's this? Oh hey this is that new song?! Drumroll for Alone please! 
      I was doubly flabergasted by Alone. Here were these successful, rich, grown husbands, fathers, brothers, yet they knew exactly what it was like to be Alone.  The music slows and Robin belted that 'I don't want to be alone.' I was %$^&@!^ How the heck do they know? But they know?! Then of course, To Love Somebody, I've Gotta Get A Message To You, I Started A Joke, Grease, all these songs I never knew were by the Bee Gees. I was an oldies kid, always have been.  I kept saying to my dad, 'When did they do all these songs?! I like these songs.'
     Then, of course, Islands in the Stream.  Oh my father's words coming back to haunt me.  All these years I never knew it, and I had to admit it, I liked The Bee Gees!

     (Of course, in 2001 we found out I have Lyme's Disease, and they traced my infection back to 1997.  Everybody laughs that one of the symptoms is 'a change in taste'. Hmmm.....)

      So my parents had a good laugh when I began buying Bee Gees albums.  I'll be big enough to admit it. I liked a kid in school who didn't like me.  Of course every song I listened to reminded me of him.  So I wrote the titles down, and again noticed most of them were Bee Gees songs.  I bought more albums and began to search the web for Gibbyness. In my parent's record collection I found one Bee Gees 45. I played I've Gotta Get a Message to You over and over. My father was amazed I could listen to the stratchy old record when  I had the song on cd.  My sister and I even shared the discovery of her husband's Greatest tape, and we listen to it in her car constantly. My Dad humbly said nothing when I made him watch Live By Request and Biography and Keppel Road over and over.  I started listening to The Bee Gees on any internet radio I could find.  Naturally my nieces heard the music and liked it.  Now they are completely obsessed as well.

     Of course, things were not all good. I was very unhappy at the Church I was at.  I was in a room with one  hundred people, and I had never felt more alone and isolated in my life. I decided to go back to the church we had gone to when I was a little girl.  I was completed accepted and quickly became a Sunday School teacher and Youth Leader.  Soon enough Bee Gees references began coming up in my lessons. Through lyrics mostly.  I presented lyrics to the kids, they shared their own musical revelations.  Naturally, though, I got laughed at by them, and any new youth that was introduced to me was told, 'And She likes The Bee Gees.' This is almost always followed by 'Ahahaha Staying Alive Staying Alive.'
     So I felt confident enough to share my whole Alone epiphany with my students.  If they knew why I liked The Bee Gees, they wouldn't laugh.  I planned my whole Alone story, just as I have told you here.  I even pulled out this old piece of paper I had, with all the negative feelings I had written on it over the years.  I couldn't wait to present all this to the kids.  Of course, it was almost two months before I got to do the lesson. Holidays and such came and went, but finally the day I had to do the lesson arrive: January 12th.

     Of course I was up all night running from the tv to the computer.  I woke my father up to tell him Maurice Gibb had died. Right before I fell asleep it dawned on me. How am I ever going to do that lesson?!  I figured I wasn't going to tell the kids.  They knew I could be pretty nutty with my Lyme's Disease, so they could tell something was wrong with me.  Finally one of the kids blurted out, 'Didn't one of those guy die or something?'
     I said yes, and went on telling them my Alone story.  I read my little ripped and worn negative piece of paper, telling them to write all the words that they had felt.  I got the trash can and told them all to throw the papers away. I even through away my own.  I told them that is what happens when you come to the Lord.  I flat out told them, I wouldn't be there in front of them if it were not for The Bee Gees leading me back to church.  God finds any way in all walks of life to find you. I followed it up with some Psalms, and a few of the kids asked to listen to the Alone (Which of course I had handy.)  My Pastor was very moved and proud.  He said, 'Kristin, I think I'd like to listen to The Bee Jays.'  teehee.

      I told my Pastor all this was really silly, wasn't it? I was crying over a man I had never met and making all these weak connections.  Not so, he said. These men obviously put their heart and soul into their music, their art, and that art has had a profound effect on me.  I was happy I had told the youth about my Gibby circumstances, I felt better knowing they knew where I was coming from.  I can't expect them to relate and understand and speak up if I don't.  I liked my little testimony, but I thought my presentation was weak considering Mo's death.
      The next day I was surprised to find several emails from certain youth.  Sure they said it wasn't one of my best 'morale of the day' lessons, but they were so moved by how heartfelt it was. I was speaking from experience, the same experience these teenagers were going through.  They said what put the exclamation point on the testimony was the fact that Maurice had died. My lesson went from one of vindication to one about the man that just died, and how he changed my life.  I was so upset, yet I came and poored my heart out to these kids, and they were very deeply touched by it. And you know, since then, none of them have laughed.  I've even burned cds for them! Upon request!

     It took me 12 years to see The Bee Gees for what they really are, no stigmas attached.  I find their music very theraputic. They've got a song for everything!  I, as a spiritual person, find many moving lyrics in their songs, but that is the joy of The Brothers Gibb. To each his own! The Bee Gees are talented enough and versatile enough that there is something for everyone, but like religion, people either get it or they don't. No one can tell you, you have to realize it on your own. 

      All this time and my Dad still thinks he is what sold me.  He tried the same thing with Three Dog Night, but as you can see, I don't have a website dedicated to them!

Thanks for reading! Kristin