Listen to Looch: a new documentary about the Bee Gees
by Mary Lucia
December 23, 2020
You've seen the Bee Gees documentary, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart? It's everywhere right now: People are watching it, talking about it.
Directed by Frank Marshall, the documentary is streamingn on HBO Max, and it's a really nice look at the history of a band of three brothers who share that harmony that maybe can only come from familial blood.
Despite their success, the three brothers didn't all get along too terribly well; in fact, Robin and Barry, sadly, didn't really speak much towards the end of Robin's life. Now, I should mention almost the whole story is told through Barry's eyes … and chest hair.
The film talks about their careers, and talks about the fact that they had been asked to write a song for this movie called Saturday Night Fever — and they weren't necessarily thinking that they were going to become the sound of that era and the face of disco.
One thing I'm really glad that they put in the doc was that whole "Disco Sucks" event when some yahoo and DJ wanted to blow up a bunch of disco records at Comiskey Park in Chicago, and the filmmakers talked to one of the people who was working there as an usher that night — a Black gentleman, music producer Vince Lawrence — who said, "I looked at the records that were getting tossed into this what-would-soon-be-pyre," and he was like, "They weren't disco records. They were Black artists. And the whole thing felt incredibly racist." And even homophobic, for that matter, because disco and all of that had really gotten such a huge launch and start in gay clubs. So I'm really glad that they touched on that, because I always think that's a weird footnote in history, of "Oh, yeah, isn't that cool, they blew up disco records." And I think, "No. Not really."
The Bee Gees continued a long career, shifting to writing for others. It's a fascinating look at an iconic band, and it's streaming now on HBO Max.
Official Trailer
External Links
The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart - official HBO site
The Bee Gees - official site
