Barry Gibb (b. 1946)
Filed under the name Barry · February 16, 2026
Barry Gibb is the last surviving Bee Gee, co-writer of some of the most enduring disco-era hits ever recorded, which means he's spent years now carrying an entire group's legacy essentially alone, still writing and performing under the weight of songs he originally made with his brothers. That's a particular kind of grief mixed with responsibility that I find genuinely moving, having built my own bakery with people I love, and knowing how much of any shared creative work is actually about who you built it with, not just what got built. Disco gets dismissed sometimes as lightweight, but those songs have had a staying power that's outlasted plenty of music considered more serious at the time, which tells you the craftsmanship underneath the glitter was real all along. I think about that a lot with my own bakery's simpler recipes — the ones that look easy are usually the hardest to get exactly right, and the ones that last are rarely accidents. Gibb built something that lasted, and now he's the one left to carry it forward.