Well, not quite.
But they did release a song – and album – with the name ‘Trafalgar’ in 1971.
On first discovering the record, I hoped it might be a concept album, telling the story of the Royal Navy from the mid-Georgian era through to the late. Career wise, it’s probably best for the Bee Gee’s that it didn’t.
This is pre-‘Jive Talking’ Bee Gees, so there are no wah-wah guitars or falsetto screeches (although the latter might have been useful for recreating the sound Nelson made when the sniper’s bullet hit his shoulder). The song is more like a discarded Beatles number, complete with Ringo-style drum-rolls. It’s a straight forward lyric about lacking direction (I think), amidst the crowds and smoke of the city etc.
The best thing about ‘Trafalgar’ is the artwork on the album gatefold, in which the band recreate Arthur William Devis’ famous 1807 painting, The Death of Nelson.
Researching Nelson has led me down many rabbit holes, but never did I think I’d see his death recreated by the brothers Gibb.
‘Trafalgar’, the album, didn’t chart in the UK. Although it ends with its own track about Waterloo, when it came to making hit songs containing extended metaphors of the Napoleonic War, Abba would show the Bee Gees how it was done three years later with their own take on the matter.
Later this week, I’ll be giving the Divine Comedy’s track, ‘Trafalgar’, a review, too.
Nelson The Sailor 