| "New York Mining Disaster 1941" | ||||||||
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| Single by The Bee Gees | ||||||||
| from the album Bee Gees' 1st | ||||||||
| B-side | "I Can't See Nobody" (US, CA) "Close Another Door" (UK) |
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| Released | April 1967 (UK) May 1967 (US) June 1967 (AUS) |
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| Format | vinyl record | |||||||
| Recorded | March 13, 16, 1967 IBC Studios, London |
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| Genre | Acoustic rock, blues rock | |||||||
| Length | 2:09 | |||||||
| Label | Polydor (UK/CA) Atco (US/MEX) Spin (AUS/NZ) |
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| Writer(s) | Barry & Robin Gibb | |||||||
| Producer | Robert Stigwood | |||||||
| The Bee Gees singles chronology | ||||||||
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"New York Mining Disaster 1941" was the first song to be released by the Bee Gees in the United States (released 1967), and their first song to hit the charts in the US[1] or UK. At the time, rumours circulated that the Bee Gees were the Beatles recording under a pseudonym (the Bee Gees' name was supposedly code for "Beatles Group"), in part because the record referenced NEMS Enterprises (Brian Epstein's management agency, which had just been joined by Bee Gees' manager Robert Stigwood).
Vince Melouney not shown in this picture sleeve because Colin Petersen was joined to the group first and Vince was added while recording their second single "To Love Somebody".
The demo of this song was they recorded on Polydor Studio without Vince Melouney and they returned to the IBC Studios in London with Vince as a lead guitar to continue this song.
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The song recounts the story of a miner trapped in a cave-in. He is sharing a photo of his wife with a colleague ("Mr. Jones") while they hopelessly wait to be rescued. According to the liner notes for their box-set Tales from the Brothers Gibb (1990), this song was inspired by the 1966 Aberfan mining disaster in Wales.
The song's lyrics do not contain the song's title.[1] However, some copies were pressed with the title "New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones?)", and the bracketed subtitle does appear in the lyrics of the song. In the second and third verses, the lyrical lines get slower and slower, as to indicate that life is about to expire for the miners.
In the movie Cucumber Castle - the movie that the Bee Gees starred in minus Robin Gibb - Maurice's character begins to sing this song while playing the banjo, only to end abruptly when a pie is thrown at his face.
Maurice Gibb recalled in an interview with Mojo magazine: "The opening chord doesn't sound like a conventional A minor. Barry was using the open D tuning he'd been taught when he was nine, and I was playing it in conventional tuning. It gives an unusual blend. People went crazy trying to figure out why they couldn't copy it." [2]
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| South Africa | 2 |
| New Zealand | 3 |
| Netherlands | 4 |
| Germany | 10 |
| Australia | 11 |
| United Kingdom | 12 |
| United States | 14 |
| France | 31 |
| Canada | 34 |
Ashton, Gardner and Dyke recordered a version of this song for their self-titled debut album from 1969.
The Sorrows recorded this song in early 1969 as part of a demo album that was prepared before the release of their second album Old Songs New Songs; however, the song remained unreleased until it was included in a two-CD reissue of that album by Wooden Hill in 2009.
David Essex recorded another version of this song for his 1993 covers album Cover Shot. British anarchist band Chumbawamba recorded an minimalist version for their 2000 album, WYSIWYG, and The Levellers covered the song as a B-side to their single Bozos. It has also been performed by folksinger Martin Carthy. In 2008 singer songwriter Trevor Tanner released a version entitled Mr. Jones on his album Eaten By The Sea.
Veruca Salt recorded a song called "New York Mining Disaster 1996" for their 1996 EP Blow It Out Your Ass It's Veruca Salt but this song is not a cover and has no resemblance to the original Bee Gees song.