Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Misunderstood Lyrics: Stayin' Alive By The Bee Gees

Providing a help for those who imagine they recognise the lyrics to this 1977 disco hit by The Bee Gees but really have no clue. Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees Well, you can say by the way I use my walk, I'm a woman's man, no time to talk, Music loud and women warm, Been kicked around since I was born. Now it's all right, it's OK, And you may attend the former way, We can try to understand, The New York Times are paying for, man.

Whether you're a brother, Or whether you're a mother, You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Feel the city breaking, And everybody shaking, Stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive, Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive. Well now I get love and I get high, And if I can't get it, I actually try. The repo man don't own my shoes I'm a dancin' man and I simply can't lose. You acknowledge it's all right, it's OK, We go to see another day, We can try to understand, The New York Times are paying for, man. Whether you're a brother, Or whether you're a mother, You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Feel the city breaking, And everybody shaking, Stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive, Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive. Life going nowhere, Somebody help me, Somebody help me care (I'm staying alive). Life going nowhere, Somebody help me, Somebody help me care.

  • Upon release, "Stayin' Alive" climbed the charts, hitting the figure one point on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of February 4, 1978, and staying there for 4 weeks. In the process, it became the band's most recognizable song.
  • "Stayin' Alive" was exploited in a report to take medical professionals to allow the right amount of chest compressions per second while performing CPR. The strain has exactly 103 beats per minute, and 100 chest compressions per second are recommended for CPR. The work found that medical professionals who think about "Stayin' Alive" are often more potential to do CPR correctly.
  • The Bee Gees deliberately set the pace at 103 BPM because it's the fair standard-tempo walking pace. The song plays over the opening credits of the 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever while John Travolta struts through the streets of New York City.
  • The call was not originally supposed to be released as a single, but fans called radio stations and RSO Records immediately after seeing trailers for Saturday Night Fever, in which the aforementioned introductory scene was played. The one was finally released in mid-December, a month later the album.
  • RSO Records wanted the call to be titled, "Saturday Night", but the Bee Gees refused a style change, stating that they wanted to be different, and the album already had a call with the word, "Night" in the title (Night Fever). The set also declared that there had been too many songs with, "Saturday" in the title.
  • The Bee Gees recorded this in a French studio called the Chateau D'Herouville. Later, the group learned that many x-rated adult films were shooting in those studios.
  • Due to the end of drummer Dennis Byron's mother in the centre of the song's sessions, the group first looked for a replacement. The deficit of drummers in the sphere of France where the song was recorded prompted the group to use a drum machine, yet it did not offer satisfactory results. After hearing to the drum track of the already-recorded "Night Fever", the group (and producer Albhy Galuten) selected two bars from the song, re-recorded them to a separate track, and proceeded with sessions for "Stayin' Alive". This accounts for the unchanging rhythm throughout the song.
  • As a joke, the group listed the drummer as Bernard Lupe (a spoof on session drummer Bernard Purdie). Mr. Lupe became a highly sought-after drummer-until it was ascertained that he did not exist.
  • As for the content of the song, Robin Gibb was quoted as saying, "Stayin' Alive" is about survival in the big city-any big city-but especially New York."
  • Over the years, the brothers have had mixed feelings about the song. On one hand, they allow it brought them tremendous fame; on the other, it finally led to their being unfairly stereotyped as a disco act, despite a long career before and after.
  • The strain is rumored to make one of the most restrictive licensing terms of any strain in new times. One of the particular terms of any agreement to use the call is that it cannot be used for anything involved with disco.
  • For this reason, the music video for the call has a totally different concept to the film Saturday Night Fever. The picture depicts the group singing the strain on an abandoned subway terminal set at MGM Studios, directly next to the one where the boys were filming Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the time. This set featured buildings, a rail station, and other elements.
  • "Stayin' Alive" won a Grammy for Best Placement For Voices.
  • The band Supple recorded a much slower and somewhat more intelligible version for the 1997 movie Hurricane Streets. Listening to it, you can recognize how cool the actual lyrics are.
  • Steven Spielberg is provision to add the history behind the calling of The Bee Gees to the big screen.
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