talon
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Post by talon on Jun 6, 2017 12:23:56 GMT -5
I hadn't seen this video that Lilibop just posted on Twitter. Love the song! I was just a casual Queen fan and am loving delving into Queen music and band info in more depth. Thanks so much Talon for all your contributions here! It's a lovely education  You're very welcome! I also love that track...It was written for the musical Time especially with Freddie in mind! Beautiful  And I will say that Adam would do very well with that track.... |
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talon
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Post by talon on Jun 6, 2017 9:44:11 GMT -5
It really does!
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Post by talon on Jun 6, 2017 7:29:03 GMT -5
1. We Will Rock You (May)
2. We Are The Champions (Mercury)
3. Sheer Heart Attack (Taylor)
4. All Dead, All Dead (May)
5. Spread Your Wings (Deacon)
6. Fight From The Inside (Taylor)
7. Get Down, Make Love (Mercury)
8. Sleeping On The Sidewalk (May)
9. Who Needs You (Deacon)
10. It's Late (May)
11. My Melancholy Blues (Mercury)
OK 2 left. First probably next to Who Needs You, the LEAST likely to get played...then tomorrow we got to one of the MOST likely (in my eyes)...
All Dead, All Dead
Written by: Brian May
Brian May - lead vocals, piano, guitars
Freddie Mercury - harmony vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums
- A great duet of sorts between Freddie and Brian
- Brian later admitted he wrote it about his childhood pet cat!
- This was unfortunately never performed live either by Queen or Brian and is a forgotten gem.
QUOTES:
- "That's one of my favorites. That was one of the ones which I thought came off best, and I was really pleased with the sound. It always gives me a surprise when I listen to it because it was meant to really bring tears to your eyes. It almost does it to me." - Brian May - Guitar Magazine – 1983
UNRELEASED VERSION
CONVENTION DEMO
- NOT essential
- Basically an instrumental early take.
PERSONAL NOTES:
- One of the better completely unknown songs the band did. Simple, yet beautiful. It fits Brian's voice perfectly.
Coming up next is what may be my favorite John Deacon song...Spread Your Wings
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talon
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Post by talon on Jun 5, 2017 0:55:27 GMT -5
1. We Will Rock You (May)
2. We Are The Champions (Mercury)
3. Sheer Heart Attack (Taylor)
4. All Dead, All Dead (May)
5. Spread Your Wings (Deacon)
6. Fight From The Inside (Taylor)
7. Get Down, Make Love (Mercury)
8. Sleeping On The Sidewalk (May)
9. Who Needs You (Deacon)
10. It's Late (May)
11. My Melancholy Blues (Mercury)
Another not-so-likely choice. An obscure John Deacon track....
Who Needs You
Written by: John Deacon
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, cowbell
Brian May - acoustic and electric guitars, maracas
John Deacon - acoustic guitar
Roger Taylor - drums
- The second John Deacon number of the album and surprisingly it is the one that reaches back into Queen's past the most. As a complete turnaround from anything they've done it is quite a feat.
- There is no bass guitar on the song, John simply plays the acoustic guitar along side Brian.
- The band never played this live and there are no alternative versions of this track.
PERSONAL NOTES:
- I think it's a fun song. The vocals are sweet and the lyrics are great. Another jewel in John Deacon's crown!
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talon
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Post by talon on Jun 3, 2017 22:54:02 GMT -5
...But, but, but..... this song suits Adam to a tee! It's vocally where his voice can shine brilliantly, and story telling Adam could perform this sitting back in a lounge chair, just telling us how he feels. In fact, I think that when it comes to this melancholy side, Adam shares every bit with Freddie, and could probably beautifully perform this. With simple facial expressions, and lyrical accents as he is capable of giving, he could bring the house down with a laid back performance with just piano, a few delicately thrown in cymbals, and otherwise just voice. Brian and Roger both get a break, somewhere in the middle. My dream would be, Adam performs this, saying that looking through all the songs that Freddie penned, asked himself what spoke to him the most, and he happened to have found this gem and just wants to perform it, bring it to life in honor of Freddie. And then sing it just as gently and pensive as it sounds in the original (no guitars from Brian, pls). It would be a quiet, but absolutely stunning moment. Even a rock concert cannot go from only high to high, there need to be quieter moments. This could be one of them. I know, it is just a dream, and probably not realistic. But it could be wonderful. I don't disagree that he would do a great job with it... AND just so you know - not sure if you listened to the BBC version - but the kind of guitar Brian added was very sparse, kind of wandering background...just nice accents. BUT I just wouldn't get my hopes up. It's the same thing I said about You Take My Breath Away. With Queen you might get Freddie's power ballads..but the soft solo vocal/piano bits is almost too cover"y" if that makes sense. With something like Somebody To Love - Brian's guitar, Roger's drums and backing vocals were just as important as Freddie's lead vocal and piano so it's still a Queen effort. THIS is something entirely different. Just so you know I wouldn't be *AGAINST* seeing Adam sing it, it just strikes me as unlikely especially when there are other more obvious choices. |
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Post by talon on Jun 3, 2017 15:34:42 GMT -5
1. We Will Rock You (May)
2. We Are The Champions (Mercury)
3. Sheer Heart Attack (Taylor)4. All Dead, All Dead (May) 5. Spread Your Wings (Deacon) 6. Fight From The Inside (Taylor)
7. Get Down, Make Love (Mercury)
8. Sleeping On The Sidewalk (May)9. Who Needs You (Deacon) 10. It's Late (May)11. My Melancholy Blues (Mercury) Next up....and I think I'll save the most likely one left til the end....so instead we'll go for a less likely choice: My Melancholy Blues Now I'm thinking this won't be played as it's sooo Freddie. It's mostly Freddie on piano and vocals...some nice tasteful bass and drums but mostly it's just such a Freddie track, I doubt they'd tackle it... My Melancholy BluesWritten by: Freddie Mercury Musicians: Freddie Mercury - lead vocals, piano John Deacon - bass guitar Roger Taylor - drums - A Queen song without guitar! Freddie tickling the ivories and singing a song that would be suitable for someone like a Norah Jones or a Billy Joel. - The song was played live only through 1978, and I doubt would ever be performed again unless covered by someone. It's a very Freddie song. ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSION: BBC SESSION 6 VERSION- ESSENTIAL listening. - Released on the 2011 Island Deluxe Remaster of News Of The World as a bonus track. - This version has Brian May playing a bit of guitar over the top of it and Freddie gives a very loose performance which comes across very well. My favorite version. OFFICIALLY RELEASED LIVE VERSION: - Live at Houston in 1977, this was released on iTunes as a bonus video from the 2011 Island Deluxe Remaster of News Of The WorldPERSONAL NOTES: - A very laid back song. Good for wine, candles, and maybe a bath |
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Post by talon on Jun 2, 2017 14:54:05 GMT -5
With all the excitement here about Think, I sat down to give it a listen.
I want an acapella version of it. His vocals are awesome. The backing vocals are rich and work well with him.
The one big negative I have is the instrumentation - specifically in the very beginning and during the sparse sections. It's just so clinical, lifeless - like High School Musical/Glee. And quite frankly like WAY too much music today.
it got better when it got more busy because there was a lot more going on. The "Freedom" parts worked best due to Adam and the backing vocalists coming to the forefront.
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Post by talon on Jun 2, 2017 3:28:12 GMT -5
1. We Will Rock You (May)
2. We Are The Champions (Mercury)
3. Sheer Heart Attack (Taylor)
4. All Dead, All Dead (May)
5. Spread Your Wings (Deacon)
6. Fight From The Inside (Taylor)
7. Get Down, Make Love (Mercury)
8. Sleeping On The Sidewalk (May)
9. Who Needs You (Deacon)
10. It's Late (May)
11. My Melancholy Blues (Mercury)
Ok I wasn't going to profile WWRY/WATC, and the others I have done so so far so we move on to a..less likely choice:
Sleeping On The Sidewalk
Written by: Brian May
Musicians:
Brian May - lead and backing vocals, guitar
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums
- Recorded in one take when Freddie was elsewhere.
- The band decided to do something completely live with little overdubs and just as a rock band.
- The band played this live exactly twice during the Freddie era supposedly (like '39, live it was with Freddie on vocals, though no bootleg recordings have surfaced so there can be no confirmation). Brian played it live a few times during his 1998 solo tour and Brian and Roger played it with Taylor Hawkins in 2010.
QUOTES:
- "That was the quickest song I EVER wrote in my life. I just wrote it down. It’s funny because it’s one of the ones I’m quite pleased with as well. It’s not trying too hard, it’s not highly subtle, but I think it leaves me with quite a good feeling. It was sort of a one-take thing, as well. Although, I messed around with the take a lot and chopped it about and rearranged it, it was basically the first take, which we used. So, it has that kind of sloppy feel that I think works with the song, which we never would have DREAMED with the previous albums. We always used to work on the backing tracks until they were a million percent perfect, and if they weren’t, we would splice together two which were. We’d go to great lengths, but for this album, we wanted to get that spontaneity back in." - Brian May - BBC Radio 1 – 1983
- "We were fully aware that the tape was rolling – stories get a little modified over thee years, I guess.” – Brian May – Soapbox – 2008 on a legend that the band wasn’t aware that the tape was even rolling during the take that was used.
UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES:
BRIAN MAY LIVE IN 1998
-AUDIO only but a good performance!
QUEEN + TAYLOR HAWKINS & THE COATTAIL RIDERS
- Not great quality unfortunately and not complete but all I could find.
PERSONAL NOTES:
- Although I love Queen FOR their slick production and beefed up...well everything...it was nice to see them completely stripped back and just a straight out rock and roll band warts and all.
- I do have one negative thing here. As previously mentioned I always thought the first era of the band goes to Jazz and 1979 before the synths come in. The band divided up the eras to say that this was the beginning of the second era. The reason why is that they changed up their sound as previously discussed. While changing up their sound was laudable since they didn't have any further to go in the direction they had gone, it did lead to separation. As noted previously in Fight From The Inside and now here, the band does things much more on an individual basis. I mean FFTI was practically a Roger solo song. This song doesn't have Freddie. The backing vocals are less group oriented and more with whoever is the writer of the song (or Freddie in John's case). It's not catastrophic but something is definitely lost and the band's journey towards being fractured definitely does start here.
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talon
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Post by talon on May 31, 2017 22:40:30 GMT -5
Talon, THANK YOU! I can certainly hear Adam taking this song on as it's sung in his register (if that's even the correct term). Can't even tell you enough how much I've enjoyed your posts. Looking forward to this coming tour and reading your take on things. Fair and balanced - LOL - but true. I love that Adam gets the opportunity to experiment with Queen's catalog - personally, in most cases I've loved Adam's spin on things. Of course, he's not Freddie (haha), but he does a damn fine job performing and commanding our attention. A true frontman for a band like Queen. Really, you know it took courage to take it all on. :D Thanks! I agree - it's a nice dramatic rock song, so Adam should be able to interpret it nicely! -"Only played live through 1979. It is a very difficult track to pull off live." Not if you're a "voice in a billion!"  Actually...yes, even if  Having sung the song before, I would actually liken it to Don't Stop Me Now in that pretty much the whole song sits on the top of the register, something even Adam has said he said made DSMN one of the songs that was a difficult track to pull off. NOTE - not impossible - Adam can pull it off - it's just not an easy track! |
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Post by talon on May 31, 2017 2:33:25 GMT -5
Hasn't Roger said something like that before, that if they had new music ideas they were excited about they would record but there simply were none as of now?...what he said doesn't sound too new to me... Having heard all the RT interviews, I would say that this one sounds a bit different. Before it was kind of like "Oh we probably will eventually, when we get around to it" This was more of "Everyone is asking about it now, I guess maybe we should think a bit harder on this....and let's see if we can't get an idea going". Either way it won't be an album - the QPR Cosmos Rocks really stung B&R I think and as Brian feels that Queen as an album band might be best left to the Freddie era...BUT just as Roger is no longer doing solo albums either, but releasing bits and pieces as they come along - I could see them doing a single or what not just to dip their toes in the water.... |
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And I will say that Adam would do very well with that track....
Having sung the song before, I would actually liken it to Don't Stop Me Now in that pretty much the whole song sits on the top of the register, something even Adam has said he said made DSMN one of the songs that was a difficult track to pull off.