Song #440: "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb

Date: Mar 4, 1978
Weeks: 2

I was going to make a comment like, "Well, I've been doing this blog long enough to have learned, without resorting to the Internet, that Andy Gibb is one of the Bee Gees, and this must be a solo effort." Then I fact-checked just to be sure and discovered that I'm only half right. The Bee Gees are 3 brothers all named Gibb, but Andy is their youngest brother. He was not in the Bee Gees, although he obviously occasionally performed with them. Just to be sure, I checked to see if there were any other Gibb siblings I should watch out for. Apparently there was a sister, Lesley Gibb, who performed onstage with the Bee Gees sometimes, but doesn't appear to have a solo career or to have even officially contributed to any albums.

This song is a very odd mix of 70s sounds. The chorus is pretty ordinary late-70s disco-style soft pop. The verse is in the style of the gentle early-70s barely-awake pop music. Then there's a kind of cool instrumental bridge of electric guitars and synthesizers, that reminds me of some of Queen's lighter songs (specifically "The Miracle" is the one that comes to mind). The bridge is really enjoyable and good. The verse is overly quiet, gentle, and not any good.

The chorus is... weird. It feels like it keeps going off-tempo. I listened carefully and realized it's not actually off-tempo, it just feels like it is in a way that would make dancing to the song really challenging. I suppose it's to the song's credit that it's musically challenging, but I don't think it works in the song's favor here.

Then the last half of the song is given over to a wimpy little lounge-singer-eqsue, mostly instrumental light guitar riff. The only lyric here is "la la la." I wish they'd taken that bridge that reminded me of Queen and used that as the basis for this instrumental portion instead. Actually, if I'm getting any wishes, I wish I was listening to Queen instead.

The lyrics are pretty bad, too, approaching the territory of "this women is awful for making me feel like I love her"-style lyrics. We've got gems like "She'll leave me crying in the end... but I can't leave her." And my favorite, calling the woman "Heaven's angel, Devil's daughter." She's the perfect woman, but I can't have her so she's an awful temptress. Forget Queen, I need to compare this song to the villian's song from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

My verdict: Don't like it. It's bad on several levels. That bride is about 20 seconds, and it's not good enough to make up for the rest of the song.