THE BEE GEES - “Massachusetts”
(#238, 14th October 1967)
An answer record of sorts to “San Francisco”, but this time a place - or placename - chosen for its delicious phonemes, not its youth-historical weight. So the longing that suffuses “Massachusetts” is really un-placed, and more dangerous for it. The Brothers Gibb mostly hold their harmonic clout in check, preferring to act as a niggling backing murmur, a tidal pull on the lonesome lead vocal.
The story in the song is confused - does he stay, does he go, who with - and so is the singer. His restlessness is clear enough, but vagueness surrounds him - there were “things” he wanted to do, “something” calls him back; but it can’t be put in words. Or can it? That final line - “And Massachusetts is one place I have…” - a pause, you expect “been”, you get “seen”. The difference between them is the sad heart of the record. 6.
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FT's koganbot on July 5th, 2006
Previously, “New York Mining Disaster”/”I Can’t See Nobody” had gone to #1 in about a week on WBZ in Boston - the DJs were marveling vociferously at how much the A side sounded like the Beatles (did it? I mean, it used harmonies and all, but it sounded more like… more like… THE BEE GEES) (B-side sounded like the Four Tops to my youthful ears, now it sounds more like, um, the Bee Gees in soul mode), so I decided that the song title “Massachusetts” was a way of saying Thank You and of solidifying a market. Problem is that “Massachusetts” rather blows in comparison to “New York Mining Disaster” - in comparison to anything the Bee Gees had hitherto released in the U.S., for that matter.
Bruce on July 17th, 2006
I wrote this song in memory of Maurice Gibb:
When the Bee Gees Were Three
words and music by Dr. BLT (c)2006
http://www.drblt.net/music/beegees.mp3
Bruce
aka Dr. BLT
The World’s First Blog ‘n’ Roll Artist
http://www.drblt.net
FT's Doctor Mod on August 1st, 2006
This recording gave me a strange epiphany of sorts at an early age, even if I didn’t know what to do with it. Hearing “Massachusetts” made me realize that what one finds “exotic” is a matter of where one is, both geographically and psychologically. I really couldn’t figure out why anyone was romanticizing Massachusetts–I still can’t, other than to say that it must have been “one place [they] have been/seen” only in passing. Was it the name that sounded intriguing to these Anglo-Aussies? But then Americans probably could wax romantically on English (or Australian) place names (Salford? A town called Alice?) because [i]they[/i] were not [i]there[/i]. Oh well, the English have traditionally exoticized the Italians, and vice-versa. How else do we account for operas with titles like [i]I Puritani[/i] or [i]Emilia di Liverpool[/i]?
But what always perplexed me was the fact that the lights DIDN’T go out in Massachusetts–they went out in NEW YORK. And what does a power outage have to do with the separated lovers in this song anyway?
But hey–the song’s (kind of) pretty, isn’t it?
otherdeb on August 8th, 2006
This song always felt a little creepy to me. Still does. Can;t put my finget on why, though.
irasema on June 11th, 2007
hi my name is irasema and my dad is a person who like you so much and me to
\
love you gies
Leoni on August 2nd, 2008
Makes me feel homesick for Massachusetts and I’ve never freakin been there!!!!!
George on August 2nd, 2008
This is a beautiful song. It makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
wichita lineman on August 3rd, 2008
Putting myself in the mindset of Robin, on lead and aged 17 when he sang this, who had been hurried between the isle of Man, Manchester, Australia, and then on a weeks-long boat trip back to Southampton… well, I can imagine both San Francisco and Massachussets sounded pretty exotic. They even even pulled off the same wistful, homesick trick with the grotty north London suburb of Kilburn on their third album.
This has that no.1 inevitability about it; the portentous arrangement, the lack of danger their previous 45s had, the almost audible stamp of BBC approval (I do like it, by the way). Then again Words, which I’m not so fond of, had the same in spades and sounds like it should’ve been no.1 for 8 weeks all over the world but only came remotely close in Gibb-crazy Germany.