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Rating: 
Summary: A true homage!
Review: After reading about Maurice Gibb passing, I picked this up as a casual read. I've never read so much deail about any group before. WHat an amazing life these guys led. I wish I had seen them in concert. I'll have to settle for the ONE NIGHT ONLY concert. Very interesting (if long) book.
Rating:
Summary: A true homage!
Review: After reading about Maurice Gibb passing, I picked this up as a casual read. I've never read so much deail about any group before. WHat an amazing life these guys led. I wish I had seen them in concert. I'll have to settle for the ONE NIGHT ONLY concert. Very interesting (if long) book.
Rating:
Summary: Top Class Effort
Review: How can you possibly write a biography about one of the most successful rock bands of the last four decades and get it all right? Writers Bilyeu, Cook and Hughes (along with Brennan and Crohan and many others) have managed to achieve the impossible. With uncountable interviews and years of research, this team has placed the Gibb family and all their triumphs and tragedies into perspective. Starting chronologically with the pre-marriage days of Barbara and Hugh Gibb in the 1940's up to the present, continually active Bee Gees, we are presented with every viewpoint, memory and recollection of the three brothers and their freinds and acquaintances. The highs and lows of the Bee Gees and Andy Gibbs' careers are not glossed over or over-emphasized. They are told with 'matter-of-fact' honesty and sincerity; a refreshing exercise in storytelling. The read is fast and crisp with a personal edge lacking anything close to newscopy. After the conclusion, there are numerous, wonderful appendixes including more comments from folks close to the Gibbs, a complete album and singles discography, a cover versions list and a bibliography with book, magazine, newspaper and Internet Web Sites. All the beauty marks and all the scars are here. It just makes the Gibb family more human. They may be ordinary people, but they have had extraordinary lives.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is huge!
Review: I had already ordered the book when I started reading some of the reviews on here. Some people did not like that the authors wrote about the Bee Gees family or about their younger brother Andy. I tend to disagree with this popular mode of thinking. In order to understand their success and failures, it was their families that were always there for them. The support and love of their families is what molded and shaped them into the successfull and well-rounded individuals they are today. I truly enjoyed getting a glimpse into what life is really like for the Bee Gees. This book was very well written and researched. In many cases, it will give many views from different parties to a particular story. And if the authors felt that some of the stories were embellished or untrue, they would further research the stories and give their opinions to what really may be the truth. This book may not give die hard Bee Gees fans any new information but it is a great book for those just discovering their music. It is a very realistic book that not only follows their success but show each Bee Gee as an individual person, not just as a group.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly organized book
Review: I have just finished reading this wonderful book about the Gibb family. I found it very informative and fascinating. Even though Barry, Robin, Maurice and Andy were and still are famous entertainers, they had problems and triumphs and it just proves they are (were)human. Reading their story makes me feel that I know them. Reading about Maurice and Andy was especially touching, now that they are both gone. (But not forgotten). Anyone who wants to know more about the Gibb family and their music should get this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very DRRRRYYYY Read
Review: I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed with this one. I have been a big Bee Gees Fan since 1977, and also love to read Biographies, so I purchased this book as soon as it was released. It is an extremely disjointed read - there were a few different contributors, and it really shows - it seems like, as each writer finished a section, they just added the pages to the rest, with no thought to continuity or to the art of storytelling. Also, there are so many different names being thrown around constantly, that I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. It reads more like an encyclopedia than an artful biography with a story to tell. I consider myself a diehard Bee Gees fan, and I had a difficult time making it through the entire book. Definitely not for the "part-time" Bee Gees fan.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly organized book
Review: I read the book carefully and the it's a real shame that the authors did not spend more time on research! Many reviewers complained about lack of information of Bee Gees main asset, their music, I regret to say that it's true. Now, should we wait for a Bee Gees Anthology? Official, Authorized and Informative?
Rating:
Summary: long awaited book
Review: i was excited when this came out as it filled a 20yr book gap .
(i have the Larry PRYCE book as well)its good for the lost years- the early 70s and most of the 80s.
its also good for tv appearances - ive now tracked down a few thanks to it!
my only niggle is it does go on a bit about their families! ok mention them, but not whole chapters ,please!
Rating:
Summary: Clip Job Has Moments
Review: Sad but true. The Bee Gees did an amazing lot in four decades, writing songs for themselves and others that topped charts in every corner of the globe from the 1960s to the 1990s. But for most people, even those who know the Beatles didn't originally record "To Love Somebody" and "New York Mining Disaster 1941," they were the ultimate purveyors of pop music's guiltiest pleasure, disco. For 667 pages, "The Ultimate Biography of the Bee Gees" offers a somewhat more rounded take on who the Bee Gees really were and what their music was about. Not that it will change much. This is not a book for anyone but the sincerest Bee Gee fan. The first 300 pages are like a massive loyalty test: Can you plow through pages of choppy narrative, contextless quotes, and drawn-out references to nearly every person who sold the Gibb brothers an ice cream or recorded one of their songs? The Bee Gees were made up of three very creative and somewhat unstable people who never would have spent much time with the others except for the sometimes inconvenient, more often redeeming fact of their brotherhood. Each was a real character onto himself. Since the quintet of authors behind this book didn't have access to the Bee Gees when writing this in the late 1990s, they rely on press clippings and fail at providing adequate attribution, editing, or context. So we get long transcript-like statements from Music Maker articles and the like, say from Barry about not liking Robin's wife Molly. There's no follow-up to say how or if that was ever resolved. All three brothers, talking long ago in various forums, throw up a number of wild comments. These are often long and sometimes contradictory, with little attempt at contextual insight from the authors. The narrative is weak throughout the book; it really lacks a central voice or point of view. Especially early on, it reads like an artless clip job, because in essence that's what it is. The book picks up right when the Gibbs tap into R&B. Being able to interview studio insiders like producer Arif Mardin and keyboardist Blue Weaver first-hand make a difference. The next 100 pages are the most readable in the book, but as it deals with the Helium Years (their 1975-79 disco heyday), that only serves to feed the white-satin stereotype many will have of this band going in. Also, I'm more than a little concerned about the factual integrity of a text that refers several times to the singer of the Gibb-penned hit "Grease" as "Franki" Valli. The authors do try to cram every fact they can into the book, but the result is cumbersome and at times unreadable, especially at the beginning. I'd say this is two stars for fans, one for everyone else. Here's hoping that now that the Bee Gees story is at an end with Maurice's sudden death last year, some writer will come along to give it the class-A treatment it deserves. I'll just hang on to this while I'm waiting.
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