I Started A Joke - Bee Gees, The (cover-live by Bill Sharkey)

I Started A Joke (Bee Gees, The, 1968-1969). Live cover performance by Bill Sharkey, Home Studio, Hawaii Kai, HI. 2022-02-18. "Keeping the Oldies Alive"

"I Started A Joke" was the Bee Gee's 7th top 20 hit in the USA landing at the #6 position (the highest position at this point in their career) on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968 (Whitburn, 2013). The song was written by the three Gibb brothers, Barry, Robin & Maurice, although Robin was the primary composer (beegees.fandom.com, 2022). Robin Gibb explained (beegees.com, 2022; Bee Gees Anthology, Hal Leonard [publisher], 1991) that the melody for the song came to him while being hypnotized by the rhythmic sound of the airplane engines on a British Airways Vickers Viscount 4-prop. He said that "The droning, after a while, appeared to take the form of a tune, which mysteriously sounded like a church choir" (p. 188) He continued that when the plane landed, he and brother Barry finished the lyrics in their hotel room. Of the lyrics, Robin once said that "This is a very spiritual song. The listeners have to interpret it themselves – trying to explain it would detract from the song" (Mail On Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009).

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Lyrics:

I started a joke which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see that the joke was on me oh no
I started to cry which started the whole world laughing
Oh If I'd only seen that the joke was on me

I looked at the skies running my hands over my eyes
And I fell out of bed hurting my head from things that I said

'Till I finally died which started the whole world living
Oh if I'd only seen that the joke was on me

I looked at the skies running my hands over my eyes
And I fell out of bed hurting my head from things that I said

'Till I finally died which started the whole world living
Oh if I'd only seen that the joke was on me
Oh no that the joke was on me