Shadow Puppet Storyteller

Brothers Gibb

An act that has brought fame to their name as long as I have been alive. I was first aware only of their ultra popular music dominating the American scene from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. And not just for a summer; there probably wasn't a time during the period of 1977-79 on the radio, in print media or TV without them present. And it was the first time I was aware, really aware within myself, that there was an incredible energy to longing. Perhaps ten is too young to have a deep physical attraction, but let's be honest, everything in the media in the later Seventies was sexually charged. (OK, maybe not The Waltons, but even Kermit the Frog was having a relationship with a diva pig dressed in satin and sporting alternately, Farrah Faucet, Bo Derrick, or Donna Summer hair.)

But I wasn't focusing on the female idols of the Seventies. I don't remember what restaurant my parents and I could possibly have been in, but there was a huge framed drawing of the Bee Gees on the wall and it was selling for something close to $100. It might have been $50 or $60 actually, even that would have been a huge sum for the time, and especially outside the norm for my parents' usual budgeting.Money and value wasn't the point. The whole thing was dark sepia line drawing printed on a creme stock. The triad of the singers faces was slightly larger than life-size as the foreground, and there was also a smaller background grouping of them in performance. My dad still worked in printing at that time, so maybe he saw something in the quality of it. Otherwise, I am not sure how I convinced him nor my mother to spend so much. Maybe they had just gotten a tax refund and felt flush I felt very lucky to have successfully expressed my absolute need for this artwork. It dominated a wall across from my bed when I occupied half the dining room rather than continue sharing space in my sister's nursery.

Barry Gibb had the look that I found the most attractive, even though I knew he was the older brother. There was something dazzling about their youngest brother too, yet his presence flamed across the sky too briefly. That was then. I now much more admire the whole body of their combined accomplishments.

Before last month, I had not realized that Robin's twin, Maurice Gibb had died in 2003 at the age of 53. And I was happy little less than a month ago when Robin came out of a coma to the delight of his gathered family bracing for the worst. But tonight, he has slipped the bonds. There is much music and loveliness left. I wish his soul well.