This was true not just in a musical sense, but in terms of his personality. Maurice is frequently described as the glue that held the Bee Gees together. I don’t think anyone could play a few notes as magically as Maurice could.” Robin remarked: “He could play a few chords on a keyboard and inspire a whole song. Like many pop and rock musicians of his generation, he was completely self-taught and relied on intuition and a natural gift for melody and song construction.
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His favored instrument for much of the ‘60s and ‘70s was bass, but he also played lead and rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards, mellotron, synthesizers, and percussion. Although Barry had been the first to pick up a guitar, Maurice developed quickly as a musician, excelling at pretty much everything he turned his hand to. The Bee Gees were exceptionally young when they debuted as recording artists in Australia in 1963 Maurice and Robin had not yet turned fourteen. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of that.” “I love to sing lead, but I love to put my energy into harmony and arranging the music to the melodies that I write with my brothers,” he said in 1997. If there was ever any private resentment about this, he certainly never let it show. While Maurice did take the lead on a number of tracks over the years, he typically assumed the role of harmonist, his versatile voice blending effortlessly with his brothers’. Robin (Maurice’s twin) was a shy and somewhat awkward presence on stage but possessed a breathtakingly beautiful vibrato that touched hearts. Barry, the eldest, was regarded as the charismatic frontman - especially in the late ‘70s when his trademark falsetto dominated their records. Barry and Robin, each with their own distinct vocal style, competed for the spotlight (particularly in the early days). It just so happened that the Bee Gees had two of them. The lead singer of a band often attracts the most attention. But the casual listener could be forgiven for overlooking these qualities. This came as no surprise to devoted Bee Gees fans, who knew only too well that his talents as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, and one of the best harmony singers in the business made him an integral part of the group’s sound. Although the two performed together sporadically in the years that followed (until Robin’s own untimely death in 2012), the loss of Maurice left a void that could never be filled.
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His brothers, Barry and Robin - with whom he’d shared an extraordinary career over four decades - were unsure whether they could carry on without him.
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When Maurice Gibb passed away suddenly in January 2003, the future of the Bee Gees was plunged into doubt.