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High Civilization

album by Bee Gees

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ1036306 ↗
Source-derived summary

High Civilization is the nineteenth studio album by British-Australian pop group the Bee Gees, released on 25 March 1991 in the United Kingdom and 14 May 1991 in the United States. It was their third and final album on Warner Bros. Records, following the release of the successful comeback albums E.S.P. (1987) and One (1989), and was self-produced by the group in their Miami studio.

Recorded with a small group of musicians, High Civilization was the first of two Bee Gees albums recorded with Prince's engineer Femi Jiya, whose preference for hard, loud percussion ensured that the drums and beats are loud in the mix, pushing the Bee Gees' vocal harmonies further back. The album favours a dance style with electronic instruments and studio effects, such as programmed drums and synthesisers, and features an eclectic array of material including art rock songs and love ballads. The record features high concept lyrical imagery and themes of romance.

On release, the album reached number 24 on the UK Albums Chart and was also successful in Germany, where it was heavily promoted. However, it did not chart in the United States. The Motown tribute "Secret Love" was issued as the lead single and reached number five on the UK Singles Chart. Music critics commented on the album's dense production and lengthy songs, which some Bee Gees biographers have dismissed.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “High Civilization” as album by Bee Gees. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1991, 1987, 1989—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1991-03-25. The account is most persuasive where High, Civilization and album can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by Bee Gees. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1036306. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1987 and 1989.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “High Civilization”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow High Civilization primary sources, High Civilization archive and High research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “High Civilization”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “High Civilization” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.