QueenZone discussion #1413160

cmsdrums wrote: A Day At The Races is the first album where he was totally in control - power, smoothness, tone, control; all there. Barcelona too is incredible

Gregsynth wrote: Hot Space, Barcelona, and Innuendo are amazing vocal albums!

flash00. wrote: The Game , Hot Space, Mr Bad Guy album Barcelona and Innuendo album, pure power!

gerry wrote: "Queen2" 1974 to "The Works 1984" Freddie had a good voice then the voice got a little raspy with constant smoking and clubbing, then when the "Barcelona" album came out he recovered some energy in his voice but as a lot of people have already said 70s Freddie was the real deal. i love the falsetto on the revisited "In the lap of the gods" song its pure Mercury magic for me!

miraclesteinway wrote: The second one is a falsetto one, but you're right, when he was on form in the studio, he had outstanding range. The vocal performance on Show Must Go On, with the D5 in a couple of places, All God's People is a great performance too, but I haven't tried to work out the highest notes in it (but they are spectacular), there is some beautiful singing on The Golden Boy, Ensueno gives us a rare opportunity to hear Freddie in baritone mode and it's again a lovely performance simply because it isn't trying to be spectacular. Thinking back, there are so many wonderful things - for high notes, Let's Turn It On is a masterclass in technique even though it's far from my favourite song, Somebody To Love is one of the most beautiful vocal performances ever, period, then there are some live things I love like the Earl's Court '77 vocal improv, and the little bit in Milton Keynes '82 where he pulls off an Aretha Franklin impression. Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon is also pretty hot stuff too. I'll have written down the entire back catalogue before I finish this post..... There are some performances of his which are less good - I think Made In Heaven sounds a little strained, and Too Much Love Will Kill You doesn't sit well in his voice really, the G in the chorus is just on his break and you can hear a little fatigue there. There are a couple of others that don't work so well, but not many. Given that all of his recordings were done before the words 'Auto Tune' had entered our vocabulary, I think all of his performances are pretty spectacular. These days a glitch here and there is corrected, producers leave virtually no flaws in takes, and we're not really used to hearing real singing anymore. Freddie was really working at a time when the take was the take, and perhaps later on there was a bit more stop start and cutting, but nothing like today. Oh there's also that wonderful performance of 'The Kiss' in both the early and the album versions, the backing vocals are almost tearjerking actually! When you listen to that and realise that there was no studio trickery other than multi tracking and a little reverb, it makes you stand back and realise exactly what an artist and musician Freddie was. I'm still bowled over by some of the things he could do, and I must have heard the whole released catalogue 100 times through, like the rest of us on this forum.

miraclesteinway wrote: Montserrat was the first to encourage him to sing in his baritone register - it's not that he didn't use it before (don't try suicide, flick of the wrist), but he really used it effectively on ensueño and the golden boy, and what a lovely baritone register he had actually.

miraclesteinway wrote: Oscar I've no idea about that, I suspect that the differences in sound might have been to do with a little help from Montserrat, and learning different voice placement techniques. To me it sounds more like voice placement changes. Also, it sounds like a voice on the mend rather than a voice on the decline - it sounds like a voice being repaired from all the years of touring, smoking, drinking, straining, and it sounds like he did a little re-training for Innuendo.

raucousmonster wrote: I'm amazed at how many people love the vocals on Innuendo as you can clearly hear the illness beginning to take its toll on his vocals. His range and power were superb of course but for me his tone was a little thin in the later songs and not as satisfying as on everything he did prior to that album. I enjoyed the dirt of his power singing in the 80's and I loved the purity of his 70's voice. But on Innuendo it's too clean and too thin for me and lessens my enjoyment as a result.

Viper wrote: The Show Must Go On is simply a bliss!

tomchristie22 wrote: In answer to the original question... I'll always most love his tone on Queen II through A Night at the Opera - so tender and expressive. Still, his vocal performances on things like Who Wants to Live Forever, One Vision, and all of Innuendo, are stellar in entirely different ways. There's something so utterly transcendent about Freddie's delivery 'On with the show', it almost sounds effortless the way he glides into it. Very beautiful.

raucousmonster wrote: I'm amazed at how many people love the vocals on Innuendo as you can clearly hear the illness beginning to take its toll on his vocals. His range and power were superb of course but for me his tone was a little thin in the later songs and not as satisfying as on everything he did prior to that album. I enjoyed the dirt of his power singing in the 80's and I loved the purity of his 70's voice. But on Innuendo it's too clean and too thin for me and lessens my enjoyment as a result.

tomchristie22 wrote:

raucousmonster wrote: I'm amazed at how many people love the vocals on Innuendo as you can clearly hear the illness beginning to take its toll on his vocals. His range and power were superb of course but for me his tone was a little thin in the later songs and not as satisfying as on everything he did prior to that album. I enjoyed the dirt of his power singing in the 80's and I loved the purity of his 70's voice. But on Innuendo it's too clean and too thin for me and lessens my enjoyment as a result.

I think it's pretty widely agreed upon that the thin tone was a result of his using his head voice much more, not really a result of the fact he was dying - at least, not so directly.

joerijoerijoeri wrote: Live at the Rainbow. He suddenly gets all the notes right.

joerijoerijoeri wrote: Live at the Rainbow. He suddenly gets all the notes right.

Oscar J wrote: The Game was his last really great vocal album IMO. Sure, he hit strong notes on Hot Space, but his youthful crystal clear tone, that certain feel his intonation and phrasing had in the 70's were suddenly gone.

Chief Mouse wrote: To me he sounds thin in The Hitman, Headlong and These Are The Days Of Our Lives.

k-m wrote: Tbh, without getting too deep to some of the (remarkable) posts above: The Game Barcelona The Miracle Having had thoughts about INNUENDO though, easily no 3 contender.

Gregsynth wrote: Technique: Innuendo. While his illness affected his power and tone (he sounds really thin throughout the album - even a bit nasally), his technique was at its most developed. Freddie's mix voice was really balanced. Some really awesome singing on the album. His head voice was also in top form.

dudeofqueen wrote: Barcelona - the sheer fact that someone as respected as Montserrat allowed this to be released proves, definitively, that Freddie's voice was one of the finest ever captured.

BETA215 wrote: P.S.: You can hear the Don't Try So Hard demo. There you'll se how he managed to control that delicacy in a more rawer way. Even if it's a bit raw, it's so tremendous that somebody could do that, and be called a human being.