Life in a Tin Can

Life in a Tin Can
Studio album by Bee Gees
Released 19 January 1973 (United States)
1 March 1973 (United Kingdom)
Recorded September 1972
The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California
Genre Pop rock, acoustic rock, folk rock, country rock
Length 32:11
Label RSO
Producer Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb
Bee Gees chronology
To Whom It May Concern
(1972)
Life in a Tin Can
(1973)
Mr. Natural
(1974)
Singles from Life in a Tin Can
  1. "Saw a New Morning"
    Released: March 1973
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link
Rolling Stone(not rated) link

Life in a Tin Can is the Bee Gees' eleventh studio album (ninth worldwide), released in January 1973. The Bee Gees moved their base of operations from England to Los Angeles to record Life in a Tin Can. However, it was unable to prevent a commercial decline with the album criticised for a lack of innovation. Despite its low sales and poor chart performance, Life in a Tin Can was awarded "Album of the Year" by Record World magazine. It was the first Bee Gees album to bear the RSO label in the US.

The lead track, "Saw a New Morning", contains melodic ideas that the group later revisited on the track "Edge of the Universe". Four of the eight songs were written by all three brothers with the other four being Barry Gibb compositions. The album reached No. 10 on the Italian charts and sold 175,000 copies worldwide. "Saw a New Morning" was a No. 1 hit in Hong Kong. No recording dates are available for the sessions on this album. At the time of the sessions, Robin Gibb had to leave the sessions suddenly when his son Spencer was born a month early. That date was 21 September. Atlantic Records' log dates the whole album as 22 September. Robin returned to Los Angeles a week or so later to continue on into the next album.[1] The musicians who participated on Life in a Tin Can were Jim Keltner, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Tommy Morgan, Jerome Richardson, Rick Grech, Jane Getz and Johnny Pate.[1] This was the first album since Bee Gees' 1st not to have a solo lead vocal by Maurice Gibb.

When asked by Billboard why they moved from London to Los Angeles, Maurice says: "We don't want to talk about it yet. But we're going to attempt a concept album that's a major departure from our usual Bee Gees trademarks. And if that doesn't work out, we'll do something else".[2]

Track listing

Side one
No. TitleLead vocals Length
1. "Saw a New Morning"  Barry and Robin 4:24
2. "I Don't Wanna Be The One" (Barry Gibb)Robin and Barry 4:05
3. "South Dakota Morning" (Barry Gibb)Barry 2:25
4. "Living in Chicago"  Barry and Robin 5:39
Side two
No. TitleLead vocals Length
1. "While I Play" (Barry Gibb)Barry 4:29
2. "My Life Has Been a Song"  Robin and Barry 4:21
3. "Come Home Johnny Bridie" (Barry Gibb)Barry 3:50
4. "Method to My Madness"  Barry and Robin 3:10

Chart performance

Album
Chart (1973) Peak
position
Australia Kent Music Report Albums Chart[3] 19
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[4] 54
Italian Albums Chart 10
US Billboard 200[5] 69
Singles
Billboard charts (North America)
Year Song Chart Rank
1973 "Saw a New Morning" Billboard Hot 100 94

Personnel

Bee Gees
Guest musicians
Production

References

  1. 1 2 Brennan, Joseph. "Gibb Songs: 1972". Retrieved 13 January 2014.
  2. Freedland, Nat (August 25, 1973). "Bee Gees Aim for Peak Stellar Performance in All Areas". Billboard: 18. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  3. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (doc). Australian Chart Book, St Ives, N.S.W. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  4. "Canadian Albums". RPM Canada. Retrieved 2014-11-09.
  5. "Billboard Top LP's & Tape". Billboard: 58. March 10, 1973. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
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