New York Mining Disaster 1941 - Recording and Composition

Recording and Composition

On 7 March, the Bee Gees recorded "New York Mining Disaster 1941" in six takes, along with three other songs: "I Can't See Nobody", "Red Chair, Fade Away" and "Turn of the Century". The orchestra and some other parts were added on 13 March. "New York Mining Disaster 1941" was done first, and it may have already been nominated as the first single on the strength of the Polydor demo. However, this version was not released until 2006. The other three songs were released, with later additions.

The song begins in the chord of A minor; as Maurice explained: "There's a lot of weird sounds on this song like the Jew's harp, the string quartet, and of course the special way that Barry plays that guitar chord. Because of his tuning when he plays the minor at the beginning of the song which is different from a conventional A minor, it's a nice mixture when I play my conventional tuning together with Barry's tuning because his open D and mine are different". Barry said "It's Hawaiian tuning, there they play the same way I do. I got a guitar for my ninth birthday and the guy who lived across the road from us just came back from Hawaii and he was the one who taught me that tuning, that's how it started and I never changed".

Robin Gibb took both leading and backing vocals, singing the high harmony while Barry sang the low harmony on the first and second verse:

Maurice Gibb recalled in a June 2001 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."

Robin Gibb recalled to The Mail on Sunday on November 1, 2009: "We recorded this at London's IBC studio because it was dark and emulated a mining shaft. The result was a very lonely sound."