Maurice Gibb - Career

Career

Maurice Gibb's role in the group focused on melody and arrangements. He sang harmony and backing vocals, and played a variety of instruments. Very early on in 1965 and 1966 he played lead guitar, but as early as 1966 he was playing other keyboard and string instruments in the studio. Bee Gees records from 1967 to 1972 are dominated by Maurice playing piano and bass guitar, along with mellotron ("Every Christian Lion Hearted Man Will Show You" and "Kilburn Towers"), rhythm guitar (along with Barry), and other parts. The piano on songs like "Words" and "Lonely Days" is Maurice Gibb sound. On stage he usually played bass guitar, with an additional musician taking bass when Maurice switched to piano. Maurice was less influential in the disco Bee Gees sound of 1975 to 1979, when he played mostly bass guitar. After that time for the last 20 years of his life he played primarily electronic keyboard instruments on stage and in the studio, but occasional lead guitar (including the acoustic guitar given to him by John Lennon, with Maurice used on "This Is Where I Came In", 2001). In the reunited Bee Gees from 1987 onward, Maurice was the group's resident expert on all technical phases of recording, and he coordinated musicians and engineers to create much of the group's sound. In 1972, the Bee Gees performed "My World", on that performance, Maurice is playing Gibson EDS-1275.

As a songwriter, Maurice contributed mainly to melody, with his brothers writing the lyrics that they would sing on the finished song (for the most part). It is difficult to identify his contributions because the songs were so shaped to the singer, but his brothers' continued writing collaboration with him on solo projects shows how much they relied on him. Maurice sang lead on average one song per album. He was sometimes known as "the quiet one" for his less obvious contributions to the group, but privately he was a good teller of stories who immensely enjoyed talking with fans. His reputation as a mild-mannered stablishing influence with two very ambitious brothers continued though his life. His comic personality shone on stage during Bee Gees concerts when the brothers would perform an acoustic medley. Many times during the song "Holiday", Maurice would mock Robin while he was singing or pretend he was bored (Maurice did not sing on the original record)

Away from the Bee Gees, Maurice recorded an unreleased solo album The Loner, Stone the Crows guitarist Leslie Harvey plays guitar on that album. In 1981, he recorded some instrumental tracks for his unreleased instrumental album Strings and Things and in 1984, he did some instrumental writing and recording including the soundtrack for the film A Breed Apart, The only work released under his own name were two singles: "Railroad" in 1970 and "Hold Her in Your Hand" in 1984.