DIANA ROSS – "Chain Reaction"

Commissioned to write and produce an old-school but up-to-date Motown facsimile, the Bee Gees end up more or less taking over the record. The easy nostalgia of “Chain Reaction” coupled with its period monochrome American Bandstand pastiche video (occasionally exploding into affluent ’80s colour, with Ross creeping around what appears to be a giant-sized, floodit Twister board), gave Diana her first British number one in fifteen years, tying in as it also did with the resurgence of interest in sixties soul sparked by the various Levi’s ad campaigns (of which latter, more anon). Despite the Gibbs’ habitual bemusing lyric, which reads like Holland/Dozier/Holland fed through Babelfish Dutch and Japanese before being translated back into English (“And I was there not dancing with anyone,” “You give me all the after midnight action,” “You taste a little then you swallow slower,” “You get a medal when you’re lost in action”), it’s actually a rather smart song; with their usual assiduous monitoring of current trends, the Bee Gees seem to have taken Trevor Horn’s drum patterns into account, so that their architecture, to coincide with the various “motions” and “explosions” hidden within the song, at least betrays some sign that they had some idea about where to put the drum cascades, and why (as opposed to the now routine ’80s bigness which tended to dump them any which way). Its subtle continuous harmonic ascent also helps to keep the concept of climax fairly alluring.

But Ross’ lead vocal itself is disappointingly airbrushed and emotionally neutral, as though she had been in her comfortable cocoon for so long that she has actually forgotten how to recapture her twentysomething joie de vivre. We had to wait a further fifteen years before the song’s strengths were brought out fully by those accidental genii, Steps; their “Chain Reaction,” as arranged and produced by Graham Stack and Mark Taylor (a number two hit in October 2001), turns the song into a true post-Horn Gothic kaleidoscope of tolling bells, schaffel explosions, that tremble of bass under the central “tremble,” the last pause before the final apocalyptic onset of orgasm.

Aye, this does feel more like a Bee Gees track than anything else, to the extent that whenever it comes to mind it’s their voices I hear rather than Miss Ross’s.

Yeah you can admire the craft on this one without loving it. Not something you can say about the Stalinist video which re-imagines Ms Ross’s past without the intrusive presence of Mary or Florence.

This was really a major comeback for the Bee Gees whose early 80s “Slough of Despond” was actually longer and deeper than their similar decline at the beginning of the 70s. Their 1981 album “Living Eyes” was the most calamitous flop of the year even surpassing Deborah Harry’s “Koo Koo” and their association with the “Staying Alive” film in 1983 didn’t do them any favours. This reminded people they were,ahem, still alive – their prominence in the chorus is no accident- and set the scene for their return as artists the following year.

Sometimes I am just in awe of the Gibb brothers ability to knock out a pop hook seemingly with the ease of buttering toast. This is a much better song than I remembered but a lot simpler and more sleek too, for some reason in my head it had big drums and harmonies. But Ross doesn’t do much with it does she? Shame the Gibbs didn’t give it to Gloria Jones.

What a brilliant chorus!

Haven’t heard this in a long time, and missed out on its time at the top due to spending this period up a grapefruit tree.

Observations-
I think the Bee Gees’ increasing presence on b/vs detracts from the singularity of the piece. This is a Diana Ross record, and while it might work for the Bee Gees’ inimitable falsettos to crop up all over Samantha Sang, the clash with Ross mars and disrupts the flow and feel of the record (not that the b/v harmonies aren’t good – they work very well, but they should have been a chorus of Dianas)

I love Diana’s vocal – as always so incredibly pop on uptempo numbers.

There’s a moment before the verse when it sounds like it’s about to go into Bad Company’s “Well I take, whatever I want/And baby, I want you…”

The programmed drums and bass are the biggest disappointment – too resolutely 1986. I can see that a production a la “Woman in Love” would have sounded dated at this point, but still, it does dent my overall appreciation of the song.

I’d give it 7 though – with a more sympathetic production, an 8

Wasn’t there also a legal dispute of some kind (with Stigwood?) which actually prevented the Bee Gees from putting out records under their own name in the early-mid ’80s? I seem to remember Barry Gibb in an interview referring to this and complaining about “Heartbreaker” and “Islands” not being Bee Gees records when they should have been but would be grateful for evidential back-up (if this is indeed what happened).

I don’t like this. Like #3 it’s the Gibb voices I hear, and like #5 I see much to admire in the craft. It really is very skilful, the knitting together of all those hooks.

But like it? No way – you couldn’t, it’d be like loving a Rubik’s Cube.

I was reading Paul McCartney’s ‘Many Years From Now’ last night – he was describing scoring ‘Yesterday’, specifically learning the variation of wandering up & down in pitch, as opposed to his rock tendency to block out all his chords. That ‘blocking out’ is exactly how I think of the Bee Gees’ vocals. They’re just too full-on, there’s nowhere for the listener to insert yourself into the song.

I actively disliked this, and not just because the Bee Gees were a bête noire of mine from Saturday Night Fever onwards. Diana Ross made some beautiful solo records in the 70s, not least the sublime one-two of “Love Hangover” and the theme from “Mahogany” in ’76, but it was striking from her cover of “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” onwards that much of her 80s output was pretty soulless and, as pop, not all that good. Similarly with this vocal, and matched with the unsubtle beat, this one just seemed to me like a bit of a clunker. Speaking of clunkers, those lines Marcello quotes at #1 above – were the Gibbs going for some kind of prototype Bad Sex Award?

Number Two Watch: two more deserving candidates for the top in my book, the Bangles’ “Manic Monday” and the really rather underrated “Absolute Beginners”, Bowie’s last serious stab at the singles chart.

Punctum, I’m not sure about Stigwood stopping them (can look it up in their vast biog later) but I remember a similar story, the brothers travelling in a car hearing Heartbreaker on the radio and feeling frustrated that it wasn’t THEIR record.

Best Bee Gees key changes are on the astonishing finale of their other proto-bad sex award single, Fanny (Be Tender With My Love). Why didn’t they just call it Annie (Be Tender With My Love)?

“It was one of those records that you knew would be Number One as soon as you heard it ”

Wow. Man, I guess I had to have been there, because there is really not that much about this that screams “huge hit” to me, and I certainly do not hear anything that sounds remotely “big” or “kiloton drums,” not even at the end. If it can be called big, it’s a lumbering, stodgy kind of big (like an Iron Man suit!) But no, I don’t see it even there. Coming within a few years of Duran Duran and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, this sounds quite thin actually. Neither Diana Ross or The Bee Gees have voices I’ve ever really equated with sheer muscle or force — I mean, if we’re doing it comparatively, then yes, the Gibbs and Miss Di sound bigger than they usually do, but not compared to the other hits surrounding it. I’d give it about a 5.

as Tom Lane noted, this went nowhere in the US, and so it continues the odd streak of American R&B stars having UK #1s that barely got airplay in the States (Phyllis Nelson, Sister Sledge). I wonder what the deal was? The UK pop audience being more receptive to slightly “dated” R&B sounds? It’s a bit odd.

but yes, it does sound big and thin. Not doing much for me–a 5 at best.

I think the Freemasons remix of Solange’s ‘I Decided’ is a strong nod to this btw. Big and thin yes (not necessarily a bad thing).

I think Brits are just suckers for that Motown beat or anything that hints at it. And it did have the 80s vogue for old-timey soul to give it a leg up too.

#18 Bowie might have been helped by the hype around the movie (I really can’t remember) but it being by far the best single in the post-Scary Monsters wasteland of his creativity helped too. Wonderful record.

Meh. I was going to use that “mechanised warfare” metaphor too. Diana’s singing really is at odds with the incessant, militaristic drums, but I like the effect. This is not at all bad, actually – I didn’t recognise the title and was expecting something really torpid, but I was pleasantly surprised. It does sound somewhat familiar as well; emerging from some nameless primordial childhood soup of songs.

The key changes are great and the climax certainly feels like a good way to end the song. Ross gets gradually more lost in the noise as the song progresses, but it works together with the rising intensity – if individual words go unheard, it’s no big deal.

Am I entirely out on a limb when I think it sounds rather contemporary? Tweak the production slightly and you have something that would fit in pretty well with the trends of the last few years – that mechanical stomping feels like a typical 00’s thing. (Which is more or less what the Steps version did; I don’t know whether that proves my point or not).

I’d go for a 7 here.

SwedenWatch: Didn’t chart, nor did it appear on the Tracks chart. So I’m not sure why I think it sounds familiar; Steps’ version didn’t chart here either.

I like this enough to hum along with it if it’s on the radio but wouldn’t feel compelled to pay money for it. Ross’s girlish tones always seem more adaptable to changing fashions in music over the decades than more conventional/authentic ‘soul’ singers such as Billy Ocean (for instance). 6 seems fair to me.

I remember dismissing this at the time as an attempt to dress up a past-it star in contemporary chart clothing (“Upside Down” was better), but it’s actually a bit stronger than that; the chorus is certainly memorable. Can’t say the same for the lyrics – I’d never noticed the ones Tom and punctum have cited – and the production does sound thin (“big and thin” is a good call) – but it all makes for a tolerable enough concoction. I’m in the middle of a tolerable concoction… 5 from me.

Three weeks at number one in Australia, from 21 April 1986.

#30 – I’d put Babs top if only for ‘Guilty’

I’d never noticed the lyrics before. Thanks punctum – sort of – for filling me in.

I’d also never noticed, until I listened to the YouTube clip, that Diana’s voice sounds – almost deliberately so – like Barry Gibb’s. At least at the song’s start, anyway. Or is this just me and my speakers?

It’s great stuff. I love the way that the writers just KNOW that the chorus is so strong that they can get away with that key-change after key-change.

You tell ’em, Mary. Those idiots aren’t actually stopping you from listening to or enjoying the song though, and they do seem to have more interesting things to say about it than you do. Would you care to tell us why you like it exactly?

Yeah I never heard this here in the States, and I remember hearing a lot of stuff on the radio in the late 80s, as a pre-K lad who went with Mom on all of her errands. It does sound like the Gibbs jumping out of their skin to write a Supremes soundalike song, through an ’80s filter

You read it, sucker, the joke’s on you.

It’s fun, bouncy and I think it’s worth a 7/10.