So it was decided! We accosted the pilot, forced him to land in the nearest village and there in a small pub, we finished the lyrics. The droning, after a while, appeared to take the form of a tune, which mysteriously sounded like a church choir. It was one of those old four engine 'prop' jobs, that seemed to drone the passenger into a sort of hypnotic trance, only with this it was different.

'The melody to this one was heard aboard a British Airways Vickers Viscount about a hundred miles from Essen. Prior to performing the song onstage, Barry Gibb has remarked that one interpretation of the song is regarding the devil.Īccording to Robin Gibb, the melancholic melody of the song was inspired by the sounds on board an aeroplane: Another interpretation is that the song is sung from the point of view of the devil. 'I Started a Joke' is supposedly about someone who has done or said something horribly wrong, which results in feelings of social alienation. The song is mainly written and sung by Robin Gibb. That song will always have new meaning to me now. I knew that song and its lyrics were perfect for that moment. I put the phone on his chest and that was the first time I broke down. When he passed away we went out, they took the equipment away and we came back in, I picked up my phone and found 'I Started a Joke' on YouTube and played it. Robin Gibb's son played 'I Started a Joke' on his phone just after his father died from kidney failure on May 20, 2012. 'I Started a Joke' was written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, and produced by them with Robert Stigwood Colin Petersen and Vince Melouney (as the Bee Gees). The song's B-side was 'Kilburn Towers', except in France, ' Swan Song' was used. This is Vince Melouney's last single with the Bee Gees to feature his guitar work as he left the band in early December after this song was released as a single. Curiously, it was not released as a single in the UK, where buyers who could not afford the album had to content themselves with a Polydor version by Heath Hampstead. ' I Started a Joke' is a song by the English rock band Bee Gees from their 1968 album Idea, which was released as a single in December of that year, following the release of the album in September.

Bee gees discography