Robin Gibb and the Bee Gees: More than disco kings [video]

Robin Gibb, who lost his battle with colorectal cancer Sunday at the age of 62, was a founding member of the Bee Gees with his brothers Barry and twin Maurice. In 1994, the brothers Gibb were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame at the Grammy Museum.

Robin Gibb not only co-wrote many of the Bee Gees' best-known songs, he also sang lead vocals for the group in their formative years. The Bee Gees peaked in the disco era with the music but proved a formidable force in the industry, selling more than 120 million records over a career that spanned four decades.

In 1997, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, prompting Times music critic Robert Hilburn to chastise the group's naysayers as "shortsighted."

PHOTOS: Robin Gibb | 1949-2012

"Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb injected an infectious dance floor pulse into their hits of the '70s, but the records had a style, individuality and grace that made them far superior to the standard disco fare of he period," Hilburn said at the time of the induction.

Robin Gibb dead: Bee Gees singer, 62, had battled cancer

This post has been updated. See below for details.

Robin Gibb -- one-third of the Bee Gees, the pop group that stood at the forefront of the disco era with its "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack -- died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, according to a family spokesman. The singer-songwriter was 62.

Although past reports said Gibb was battling liver cancer, for a long time Gibb did not acknowledge that publicly. More recently, a spokesman confirmed that cancer was at the root of Gibb's health problems. He had seemed to be making what he called a "spectacular" recovery from surgery to remove a growth from his colon. Then, in March, he was hospitalized for intestinal surgery.

The Bee Gees –- Robin, Maurice and their older brother, Barry –- had a four-decade pop career that was a roller-coaster ride marked by huge successes, a devastating crash from popularity, and a couple rounds of reinvention. They began in Australia as young followers of the lush sounds of the Beatles in the 1960s, then flourished as champions of disco in the '70s, mixing those beats with their established three-part harmonies. A decade before 1977's “Saturday Night Fever,” which cemented their reputation forever, they had a string of huge hits worldwide, some of which featured Robin’s plaintive vocal style.

PHOTOS: Robin Gibb | 1949-2012

Closely associated with disco, the group later faced a backlash when the sound fell out of favor in the 1980s. But many argue that dismissing the group was a mistake. In 1997, the year the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Times music critic Robert Hilburn wrote:

"Those views are shortsighted. Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb injected an infectious dance floor pulse into their hits of the '70s, but the records had a style, individuality and grace that made them far superior to the standard disco fare of the period."

As a group, the Bee Gees is one of the biggest-selling acts of all time, having sold well more than 120 million records. The group has had 15 top 10 records in the United States, including six consecutive No. 1 singles in the late '70s, and won six Grammy Awards.

Along with success came tragedy. Maurice Gibb, Robin's fraternal twin, died at age 53 of complications due to a twisted small intestine, which an autopsy determined was a congenital condition. (In August 2010, Robin Gibb had surgery for the same kind of blockage.) And Andy Gibb, the family's fourth brother and a solo artist, died of heart failure in 1988 at age 30 after years of struggling with cocaine addiction.

Full obituary: Robin Gibb rose to pop fame as one-third of Bee Gees

For the record: An earlier version of this post said that Gibb had not acknowledged that cancer was the cause of his illness, however, in the last few weeks a spokesman confirmed his ailment.

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PHOTOS: Robin Gibb|1949-2012

PHOTOS: Notable deaths of 2012

Donna Summer dies at 63; diva of disco

-- From Times staff and wire reports

Photo: Brothers Barry, left, Robin and Maurice Gibb of the pop group the Bee Gees in 2001. Credit: Randee St. Nicholas

Dillard & Clark: Celebrating an unsung L.A. country rock classic

Before there was the Eagles, or the Flying Burrito Brothers, or Poco, there was "The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark," the 1968 country rock album created in Los Angeles by former Byrd Gene Clark and banjo player Doug Dillard.

Dillard, who died on Thursday at age 75 (read Randy Lewis' wonderful obit here), was best known for his work with the Dillards, the bluegrass band he co-founded, but to devotees of the budding Los Angeles country music scene that put the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Poco, and the Eagles, among others, on the map, Dillard will be forever linked to "The Fantastic Expedition," an unsung gem that continues to draw fans 44 years after its release.

In addition to featuring a wonderful portrait of the pair on the cover (courtesy photographer Guy Webster), the album and its nine songs -- eight originals and a Flatt & Scruggs song -- are one of the bigger bangs of Los Angeles country rock. Along with the Byrds and Dillards affiliations, core players on the album include Bernie Leadon, who would go on to co-found the Eagles, and Chris Hillman, also a former Byrd. The album was produced by Larry Marks, whose work with everyone from Phil Ochs to the Flying Burrito Brothers and Emitt Rhodes remains some of the most vital of the era.

Donna Summer ruled majestically, if uneasily

Donna Summer's controversial international hit "Love to Love You Baby" was, according to her, recorded as something of a joke. It wasn't supposed to be the singer's calling card on the world stage. It wasn't meant to be one of disco's canonical tracks. And it wasn't supposed to set the mold for her public persona.

Summer and her siblings were raised in a deeply religious family, but she displayed her independent streak when, in 1967 at the age of 18, she took off for Germany as a member of the touring cast of the musical "Hair." There she modeled, sang, and performed -- and got married, had a daughter and became a divorcee. In 1975, she released the steamy "Love to Love You Baby" with producer Giorgio Moroder, helping ignite the disco craze and setting the stage for the battle between her gospel roots and her new public image.

The tension between her conservative upbringing and the unbridled sexuality of the disco era echoed the faith vs. secularity conflicts of artists such as Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye. Like them, she straddled the tensions to create a sound and style all her own.

PHOTOS: Donna Summer | 1948-2012

Though she grew up in the church, hers wasn't a conventional gospel voice; it was a bit more naturally polished, a bit more pop. What she took from her gospel training was the ability to invest a lyric with precise soulfulness, burrowing right in for the emotional truth, whether she was singing show tunes, pop standards, New Wave or her own disco classics.

In her music, she forged a home. In her image, she was often uncomfortable, sometimes making it clear that the genre she'd helped define was her albatross.

When people say Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco, it's not just BPMs, drugs in the backroom and sexual hedonism they're talking about. The dance music culture of the late 1960s through the late '70s, with disco as one of its most powerful and influential manifestations, is the revolutionary music-based culture that neither rock 'n' roll nor hip-hop is, or can ever be.

VIDEOS: Classic Donna Summer

Disco was rooted in the cutting-edge sounds and aesthetics of black America and gay America (keeping in mind that the two are not mutually exclusive). But it was also refuge and mecca for all races, genders, sexual orientations and classes. All you had to do was show up. You didn't have to plead your case, didn't have to hide or be ashamed of any aspect of your being because its core identity was fluid and permeable. Flaming queens, working-class straight men, suburbanites and devout club kids all called the music and culture theirs.

Donna Summer ruled majestically, if uneasily, over it all.

Her work with the production team of Moroder and Pete Bellotte includes the "Four Seasons of Love" EP (1976), the concept double-album "Once Upon a Time" (1977), the Grammy and Academy Award-winning pop classic "Last Dance" (1978), the concert double-album "Live and More" (1978) and the Grammy-nominated "Bad Girls" album (1979), which is arguably her masterpiece.

Though she did fantastic work after breaking with the Svengali-like Moroder (including teaming up with Quincy Jones and working with one-time powerhouse British producers Stock, Aiken and Waterman), her best work was without a doubt with Moroder and Bellotte. She was their muse. They created sweepingly orchestrated tracks that run circles around 90% of what's being made now, and she brought a dazzling humanity -- sensuality, playfulness, soulfulness -- to the grooves, from the hypnotic repetition of "I Feel Love" to the swirling romanticism of "Heaven Knows," and dozens beyond.

PHOTOS: Celebrities react to Donna Summer's death on Twitter

A gifted songwriter (she wrote or co-wrote a lot of her material), she was known as the consummate professional, with her only real publicized battles concerning label interference after she signed to Geffen following her break with Casablanca Records, where she recorded her most famous and influential music. Still, a famous bit of diva lore trailed her after she went toe-to-toe with Barbra Streisand on the camp classic "No More Tears." The competitive recording session quickly became the stuff of legend after Summer reportedly strained so hard to keep up with Streisand on one note that she fell off the stool she was sitting on, while Streisand chirped merrily on. But make no mistake, her own voice was one of the most glorious and powerful in pop.

Controversy dogged her already faltering post-disco career after word spread that, following a concert in 1983, she told gay fans that AIDS was divine retribution for a sinful lifestyle. She steadfastly denied saying it, even suing New York magazine in 1991 when they reprinted the allegation. (The case was settled out of court.)

She's not referenced much now outside of conversations about disco (many of which take place in the bloodless realm of academia), but while she was that genre's undisputed queen, she was also -- for a while -- the queen of pop. Her legacy undoubtedly suffers from the fact that disco never received its due, was always shortchanged in terms of mainstream critical respect, and Summer herself often seemed conflicted about her own relationship to the music, its culture and what it represented.

If you want to really hear her at her best, and at the peak of disco's creativity, put on the 17 minute-plus "MacArthur Park Suite," from the "Live and More" CD. In the middle of it, and with the most exquisite ache, she sings the passage: "There will be another song for me / And I will sing it / There will be another dream for me /Someone will bring it / I will drink the wine while it is warm / And never let you catch me looking at the sun / And after all the loves of my life / After all the loves of my life, you'll still be the one…"

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Donna Summer: The sonic seduction lives on in today's beats

Donna Summer dead: Her voice soared through disco and beyond

-- Ernest Hardy

Photo: Donna Summer performs at the Universal Amphitheatre on July 28, 1983. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Donna Summer: The sonic seduction lives on in today's beats

If you drop a needle on the original version of “Love to Love You Baby” just as you're beginning this appreciation of Donna Summer, the so-called Queen of Disco who died Thursday at age 63, you would probably be finished reading long before the song ended. It has to be that long -- there's a world of impact there.

The epic 17-minute jam introduced Summer to America with some of the most memorable moans in pop music history, and over the following decade the Boston-born diva went on to become one of the most popular vocalists in the world. Her influence on pop music -- especially during the birth of electronic dance music -- goes far beyond those moans, and even they helped tilt American culture.

Summer and her early producer-collaborator Giorgio Moroder's not-so-subtle message of sexual freedom was a sonic seduction, and when a shortened version of the song was released, it climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. That such a brashly sexual work could reach a national audience during “American Top 40” with Casey Kasem on Sunday mornings says a lot about America in the 1970s. In hindsight, its success arguably marks as important a cultural shift as Elvis shaking his hips on Ed Sullivan's show. If Presley suggested male sexuality through visual cues, Summer confirmed it through a series of faked orgasms --  the BBC once tallied it at 23.

PHOTOS: Donna Summer | 1948-2012

The message of the song's lyrics may have been simple -- this feels good, and I love it -- but its saucy sense of freedom expanded the notion of what was acceptable on the airwaves in the mid-'70s; hearing it even today, it's shocking to learn that the single was so successful. But it makes sense given the times.

Donna Summer dead at 63; Rush Limbaugh reacts

Donna Summer and Rush Limbaugh. A duo that could have been?

Limbaugh, it turns out, was a big fan of the "Queen of Disco."

Summer, who died Thursday at age 63, is being celebrated from all sectors of the entertainment industry on Twitter, Facebook, TV. Limbaugh's tribute came on his radio show.

PHOTOS: Donna Summer | 1948 - 2012

“It really is sad,” Limbaugh said of the five-time Grammy winner.  “We grew up with Donna Summer.  I met Donna Summer one time and her husband on an airplane.  She and her husband, after the flight took off, came up to me and introduced themselves, and we had a nice conversation.  They were nice as they could be.”

Limbaugh said he played her records often in his early days as a disc jockey and when he was producing Kansas City Royals games.

But even in death Limbaugh chose to see division rather than unison. 

Donna Summer dead: Her voice soared through disco and beyond

Donna Summer died Thursday after a battle with cancer. The 63-year-old Summer was known for her soaring voice and sensual purrs that made her a queen of disco when the genre was in its heyday in the 1970s. And it was a title she held well beyond those years.

A statement from her family called Summer "a woman of many gifts, the greatest being her faith."

"While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy," according to the statement released by Universal Music, her record label. "Words truly can't express how much we appreciate your prayers and love for our family at this sensitive time."

PHOTOS: Donna Summer | 1948 - 2012

Summer had been living in Englewood, Fla., with her husband, Bruce Sudano.

She was a five-time Grammy winner. Although best remembered for her songs decades ago, Summer continued to tour and record, including a stint last year as a guest judge on the Bravo reality show "Platinum Hit."

Born LaDonna Andrea Gaines in suburban Boston on New Year’s Eve, 1948, Summer was one of seven siblings in a church-attending family who encouraged studies and singing in equal measure. 

An early fan of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, Summer sang in a Boston rock band called Crow in the late 1960s, and left home for New York City at age 18 to find work on Broadway, which she did quickly by landing a role in a touring version of the hot Broadway show “Hair.”

She spent the next three years living and touring in Europe. There she met and married the singer Helmut Sommer, whose last name she adapted as her stage name.

While in Europe she also met Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder, whose early dance tracks were making an impact across Europe. Moroder and Summer started working together, resulting in their first hit, the seductive 17-minute-long dance floor epic “Love to Love You Baby.” On it, Summer moans in ecstasy throughout, seeming to climax with the music. A shortened version of it was released by then-hot label Casablanca in 1975, and peaked on the Billboard singles chart at No. 2.

That was the first of a string of songs that not only helped bring disco to the mainstream, but predicted the rise of both techno and house music. Among those were “I Feel Love,” “Bad Girls,” “She Works Hard for the Money” and “On the Radio.”

But unlike some other stars of disco who faded as the music became less popular, she was able to grow beyond it and later segued to a pop-rock sound. She had one of her biggest hits in the 1980s with "She Works Hard for the Money," which became an anthem for women's rights.

Soon after, Summer became a born-again Christian and faced controversy when she was accused of making anti-gay comments in relation to the AIDS epidemic. Summer denied making the comments but was the target of a boycott.

Still, even as disco went out of fashion she remained a fixture in dance clubs, endlessly sampled and remixed into contemporary dance hits.

Her last album, "Crayons," was released in 2008 and marked her first full studio album in 17 years. She also performed on "American Idol" that year with its top female contestants.

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VIDEO: Classic Donna Summer

PHOTOS: Donna Summer | 1948 - 2012

PHOTOS: Celebrities react to her death on Twitter

-- Randall Roberts (the Associated Press contributed to this report)

Photo: Donna Summer in 1979. Credit: Larry Bessell / Los Angeles Times

Chuck Brown dies: King of D.C. go-go music, influential sample source

When the funk music known as "go-go" comes up in casual conversation — and that's not nearly often enough — it's inevitably accompanied by the mention of one man's name: Chuck Brown. The Washington, D.C. funk band leader and composer, whose biggest hit was the 1978 song "Bustin' Loose," died Wednesday at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore at age 75. He was the king of an East Coast subgenre that rose alongside New York funk and hip-hop in the 1970s and '80s.

Featuring remarkable Afro-Cuban polyrhythms via pounding congas and rototoms, punctuated bursts of brass and Brown shouting out call-and-response phrases alongside grooves that extended many songs to over eight minutes long — and, more importantly, almost two or three times that in a live setting — Brown's music was for partying. Though it flirted with mainstream success in the '80s, the music has remained a regional phenomenon, a uniquely American strain of dance music.

But that doesn't mean its influence hasn't spread. The rhythms he built were some of the earliest tracks sampled by electronic dance music producers, especially when rave culture was being born in England. Coldcut's influential 1987 jam "Say Kids What Time Is It?" is built on the back of a Chuck Brown rhythm from "Bustin' Loose" — as is the Farm's breakout rave-pop anthem "All Together Now" from 1990.

Donald 'Duck' Dunn: Honoring a Stax master -- and 'Time Is Tight'

Who was Donald "Duck" Dunn? Among many other things, he was the creator of one of the great basslines of the last half century, the propellent run that pushes "Time Is Tight," Booker T & the M.G.'s classic 1969 instrumental, into the stratosphere.

Dunn, who died Sunday in Tokyo at age 70, may often have been overshadowed by bandmates organist Booker T. Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper, but remove the bassline from "Time Is Tight" and dozens of other soul classics that he played on in the 1960s, when Memphis, Tenn.,  was the hub of rhythm & blues and Stax was its shining light, and much of the momentum that pushes those songs vanishes.

Dunn understood how to remain as the rudder, guiding songs while adding just enough flair to create waves. You can hear it on Otis Redding's version of "Respect," where, unlike on Aretha Franklin's better-known version, Dunn's bass roams around down below, creating a turbulent bottom-end swirl. His funky bassline on "Hip Hug-Her" arrives with a fuzzy distortion whose presence echoed through funk jams in the decade following its arrival in 1967; it and other Dunn lines foretold the more groove-oriented R&B of the early 1970s as practiced by Curtis Mayfield, Sly & the Family Stone and Funkadelic.

Celso Chavez, founding member of Possum Dixon, dies at 44

This post has been updated. See note at the bottom for details.

Celso Chavez, the guitarist in local '90s alt-rock band Possum Dixon, died Wednesday night after complications from a staph infection led to pneumonia, former bandmate Rob Zabrecky has confirmed to Pop & Hiss. He was 44. 

"He had been doing a lot of harm to his body for a really long time," Zabrecky said. "It finally took its unfortunate toll."

Possum Dixon, which played some of its earliest shows at the long-since departed Bebop Records and Fine Art in Reseda, had moderate success in the post-Nirvana alt-rock era. The quartet, along with the likes of Beck and Weezer, was one of a number of local rock acts that jumped to a major label in the early '90s.

Possum Dixon put a pop spin on late '70s punk and new-wave influences and garnered radio play for frenzied singles such as "Watch the Girl Destroy Me." The band was known for its hectic live shows.

A 1994 review in The Times wrote that Zabrecky, Chavez and guitarist Robert O'Sullivan "were all from the bowling-pin school of rock stagecraft, repeatedly flopping to the floor and rolling about while attempting to extract something more or less (usually less) coherent from their instruments."

In an interview with The Times in 1993, Chavez said the band approached its live shows as "a big celebration, chaos, just having to release a lot of tension." 

Possum Dixon signed to Interscope and released its self-titled debut for the label in 1993. Prior to inking with Interscope, the band released numerous singles for the tiny Pronto Records label, which had also issued music from acts such as Spindle and Sugar Plastic. Possum Dixon ultimately recorded three albums for Interscope, culminating in the Ric Ocasek-produced "New Sheets" in 1998.

Song topics, especially early, were heavily focused on dead-end jobs, girls and illicit substances. Zabrecky said he and Chavez regularly over-indulged.