Hello, all!
I love listening to isolated instrumentals and vocals, and "Love of My Life" is one of my favorite Queen tracks at the moment.
So far, I've been able to locate a semi–a cappella version, a vocals-and-bass version (love the clean, un-reverberated sound), and a version without vocal overdubs. I believe all of these are sourced from the same surround sound mix.
Curiously, it seems as though some of the vocals in these isolated versions (starting from the second verse and continuing through the bridge) are not from the vocal track used in the original record.
Some differences I hear:
1. "You've taken my love": "You've" in the isolated versions is flat, while the same word in the original record seems reasonably in tune.
2. "Love of my life, can't you see?": In the original record, Freddie takes a breath after "can't". In the isolated versions, he takes a breath after "life", and subsequently sings "can't you see?" in one breath.
3. “Bring it back, bring it back”: Freddie holds the word “back” longer on the original record.
4. "What it means to me": Freddie holds "me", the last note in the second verse, longer in the original record. In the isolated versions, he has stopped singing by the time the overdubs on "means to me" have faded.
5. "When this has blown over": “Blown” is sharp in the isolated versions. This does not appear to be the case in the original record.
Can you hear these differences, or am I just imagining things?
Freddie usually recorded three tracks of his vocals, all being different takes and maybe sometimes they combined all three takes/tracks to give a more fuller solid sound.
or
When going back to create the surround mix some takes where changed because the original take was either lost, broken/damaged or simply in worse quality than others. So another take was maybe used that almost exactly matches the original. I am sure there are plenty of songs that have this effect on the new masters when comparing them to the originals. Who knows.?