I Started A Joke (2:43)

“I Started a Joke” is a 1968 song by the English rock band Bee Gees from their album Idea, which was released in September of that year. 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.

Songs for the Idea album were completed on June 25 (except for the song “I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You” which was recorded on July 12 during the Odessa sessions). A few songs were given a little more work, the highlight being the last new song, “I Started A Joke”, one of the Bee Gees’ classics with its enigmatic and thought-provoking lyrics. It must have been newly composed, since Robin did not even include it on his demos of two weeks earlier.[1] Covered by O’Hara’s Playboys on the Fontana label and also Heath Hampstead

The song is mainly written and sung by Robin Gibb. “I Started a Joke” is supposedly about someone who has done or said something horribly wrong, which results in feelings of social alienation. Another interpretation is that the song is sung from the point of view of the devil. Prior to performing the song onstage, Barry Gibb has remarked that one interpretation of the song is regarding the devil.

According to Robin Gibb, the melancholic melody of the song was inspired by the sounds on board an aeroplane: