A Band of Three Brothers

First there were three, and then there were two, and at the end there was only one, but along the way the pop group known as the Bee Gees, the three (and almost four) brothers shared with the world their gift for harmony, amazing vocal ranges, and well-honed songwriting skills that took them to the very top of the music scene more than once, despite a few lost years here and there along the way. Perhaps some who read this hadn’t thought of the Bee Gees much recently, but the HBO release last year of a documentary called How Can You Mend a Broken Heart could change that. Like them or not, from an astrological point of view their lives and careers, individually or together, make an almost perfect case for studying not only people with such talent, but also the interactions that sometimes bind families together and at other times break them apart.

Long Ago, Far Away

The careers of Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, the trio that made up the group, began long ago and far away, since, as Maurice once noted, he and his fraternal twin brother Robin first performed together professionally at the age of 5, which might have been stretching it just a bit as their own web site notes their first gig was at a Saturday matinee in a movie theater called The Gaumont some time in 1956, when the twins were 6. Part of each weekend program was set aside for kids to