It will be Record Store Day here in the UK in a couple of weeks, and so for this post I'm going back to 2021, and an album that was released as part of that year's Record Store Day. 'Hail Satin' was an album by the DeeGees, a side project of the rock band Foo Fighters. It consists of five cover versions of songs originally written and recorded by members of the Gibb family (four from the Bee Gees and one Andy Gibb solo record) and five songs from the Foo Fighters' 2021 album 'Medicine At Midnight' on the flip of the vinyl, recorded live at Studio 606. The name DeeGees is a play on both the Bee Gees and Dave Grohl's initials, and the album title is also a play on satin (a common fabric of the disco era) and the phrase "hail Satan". Foo Fighters had already performed Andy Gibb's 'Shadow Dancing' during Linda Perry's Rock 'n' Relief livestream, and they also played 'You Should Be Dancing' on Jo Whiley's Sofa Session show on BBC Radio 2, so covering Bee Gees songs wasn't unprecedented. Dave Grohl said that while recording 'You Should Be Dancing' he had never, ever in his life sung like that, but it was the easiest song he had ever sung in his entire life, and that he should have been singing like that for the last 25 years. The covers are played straight and with reverence, and Grohl tackles the vocals in the style of the Gibbs, while drummer Taylor Hawkins provides the lead vocals on 'Shadow Dancing'. The end result is a dancey romp showing off the dynamic potential of this unique blend of alt-rock and disco sensibilities. Original copies are extremely hard to come by, and go for around £150 when they are offered for sale, so here is an easier way to hear this intriguing set of Bee Gees covers.
Track listing
01 You Should Be Dancing
02 Night Fever
03 Tragedy
04 Shadow Dancing
05 More Than A Woman
06 Making A Fire
07 Shame Shame
08 Waiting On A War
09 No Son Of Mine
10 Cloudspotter
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