Composition and Recording
The song is about a man who, awaiting his execution in the electric chair, begs the prison chaplain to pass a final message on to his wife. Robin Gibb, who wrote the lyrics, said that the man's crime was the murder of his wife's lover. He came up with the idea following a quarrel with his wife and originally conceived the song with
Robin Gibb told the The Mail on Sunday on November 1, 2009 about the slice of melodrama sung from the perspective of a condemned prisoner:
This is about a prisoner on Death Row who only has a few hours to live. He wants the prison chaplain to pass on a final message to his wife. There's a certain urgency about it.
In the same interview, Gibb talked about writing this and other songs with his brother Barry:
Myself and Barry wrote it. It's a bit like writing a script. Sometimes you can sit there for three hours with your guitar and nothing will happen. Then in the last ten minutes something will spark.
"I've Gotta Get a Message to You" was recorded with "I Laugh in Your Face" (released on Odessa in 1969) on July 12, 1968. This track was not recorded during the Idea sessions, the last recording session was June 25, 1968 when they recorded "I Started a Joke".
Read more about this topic: I've Gotta Get A Message To You
Famous quotes containing the words composition and/or recording:
“There is singularly nothing that makes a difference a difference in beginning and in the middle and in ending except that each generation has something different at which they are all looking. By this I mean so simply that anybody knows it that composition is the difference which makes each and all of them then different from other generations and this is what makes everything different otherwise they are all alike and everybody knows it because everybody says it.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“He shall not die, by G—, cried my uncle Toby.
MThe ACCUSING SPIRIT which flew up to heaven’s chancery with the oath, blush’d as he gave it in;—and the RECORDING ANGEL as he wrote it down, dropp’d a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)