Born on the Isle Of Man before moving to Manchester and then ultimately Australia when the family emigrated in 1958, the Gibb brothers were singing together from an early age.
By the early 60s the three boys, elder brother Barry and twins Maruice and Robin, were performing on tv and working regularly around the resorts in Queensland and it was at this time they adopted the name Bee Gees. The name came about as the two men who discovered them, DJ Bill Gates and racetrack promoter Bill Goode who had seen them perform at the Speedway Circuit in Brisbane, named them after the initials that both Bill's shared 'B' and 'G'.
Although they scored some minor hits in Australia, by 1966 the brothers decided to return to the UK to try their luck there in the booming music scene evolving there and lucky they were as they sent their demo to Beatles manager Brian Epstein who got a friend of his, Robert Stigwood, to take them on and it led to a 5-year contract with Polydor.
'New York Mining Disaster 1941' was their second single release in the UK and their first in the US and was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching number 12 in the UK and number 14 in the US. The song is about a man talking to another man (Mr Jones) about a photograph of his wife while they wait, hopelessly, for rescue in an air pocket in a collapsed mine.
The song was influenced by the Aberfan disaster in Wales about 6 months earlier where the pile of mining waste, known as a slag heap, that was on top of a hill above the town of Aberfan (specifically the primary school) collapsed down the hill when it became unstable after several days of heavy rain. 144 people were killed in the disaster, 116 of them being children from the school.
It has a strange melody to the song which is partly why it ended up stuck in my head this week. The narrative of the songs 'story' is really aided by this melody as you can sense the despair that the miner is feeling but trying to mask. Though The Bee Gees get mocked, to a degree, nowadays as people remember the 'falsetto' era of 'Saturday Night Fever' they often overlook the really amazing stuff they wrote and recorded early on in their career and that is the other reason this song got stuck in my head as it is a truly brilliant song.
I hope you all enjoy it and it gives you a different take on The Bee Gees!!
The Bee Gees - New York Mining Disaster 1941
In the event of something happening to me,
there is something I would like you all to see.
It's just a photograph of someone that I new.
Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the outside?
Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones.
I keep straining my ears to hear a sound.
Maybe someone is digging underground,
or have they given up and all gone home to bed,
thinking those who once existed must be dead.
Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the outside?
Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones.
In the event of something happening to me,
there is something I would like you all to see.
It's just a photograph of someone that I knew.
Hvae you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?
Do you know what it's like on the outside?
Don't go talking too loud, you'll cause a landslide, Mr. Jones.
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