The other thread made me think that this would also be a worthwhile discussion. The vast majority of Queen's pre-1989 catalogue is credited to a single songwriter, however we know that this was because of their rule of thumb that the person who brings the original idea is generally the one who gets the credit.* In fact, like we know from the story of Brian's contribution to 'Seven Seas of Rhye' (the chord progression for the instrumental solo), it was often a much more collaborative process.
*(In this way, Queen's approach was the opposite of the Beatles', for whom all the Lennon or McCartney songs, even those composed completely individually, were 'Lennon-McCartney').
So, what other examples like 'Seven Seas of Rhye' are there, that we know of? i.e. Songs with some contribution from one or more other members than the one/s credited. Excluding writing of guitar melodies (which are almost always Brian's), and arrangement, as arrangement would have so often been a four-way collaboration anyway.
This thread might flop, as I'm not sure if all that much is known on this. Still, worth a try.
I think very probably, especially if we consider the few actual EARLY demos we've heard, most songs by far were significantly influenced by other members than the principal writer. For the most part, I guess each instrumentalist would have some degree of input in their parts, Brian would probably influence instrumental orchestrations rather heavily, Freddie would likely add multiple backing vocal parts that the original idea did not have and the likes. I think the story of A Kind Of Magic (song, not album) is telling - Freddie took a Roger-song and changed it considerably. I don't think this would have been all that unusual, though it was probably rare for a song to change as dramatically as this one.
tomchristie22 wrote:
Excluding writing of guitar melodies (which are almost always Brian's)
Not necessarily.
tomchristie22 wrote:
as arrangement would have so often been a four-way collaboration anyway.
Not necessarily.
Lyrically, some manuscripts contain more than one person's handwriting, which may or may not imply they also lent a(n uncredited) hand:
* Fred & John on 'Calling All Girls.'
* Roger on 'Princes of the Universe.'
Obviously, there are exceptions ... Fred often transcribed Brian's lyrics in his own handwriting because Brian's was hard to read, but it doesn't mean at all that Fred wrote 'Las Palabras' or 'Hammer to Fall'.
Brian's also claimed he helped a bit on 'It's a Hard Life' (he gave Fred some lyrics for that one) and 'Friends Will Be Friends' (he gave Fred the idea of reversing the order at the end).
Musically, quite a few songs from the first album (such as 'Keep Yourself Alive', 'Liar', 'Night Comes Down' and 'Doing All Right') might have arisen from the three founding members (plus John on 'Night') discussing the different details (not necessarily each one in charge of their instrument). Roger was involved in early writing stages of 'Doing All Right' but for some reason the final version (retitled from 'Feeling Alright') only credited Tim and Brian.
Brian and/or Roger have mentioned Fred was quite involved with taking over some of the major pop hits from the 80's (namely 'Ga Ga', 'Magic' and 'Break Free') and Freddie also confirmed he'd basically made his own version of both Roger's songs based on his (Roger's) original idea. In the famous '84 interview, Fred says he routinely lent a hand to Roger's and John's songs (but not Brian's), which might suggest he might have also been involved with other tracks they wrote in those years (such as 'Back Chat', 'Calling All Girls' or even 'Coming Soon').
'Dragon Attack' stemmed from a jam session. It was credited to Brian because he wrote the lyrics and became the de-facto chief arranger and producer, but the basic riff came from the three of them (Brian, John and Roger) basically having a good time.
Another one I can think of is 'Father to Son'. I've got absolutely no way to prove it, but it seems to be more of a joint effort than a track solely written by the doctor, unlike, say, 'Teo Torriatte', where he might've easily written all parts for all instruments (and played everything sans bass and percussion).
I think Brian mentions this in the 'Day of our lives' doco. He says that the person who brought the general idea, chord progression, page of lyrics, melody etc was given the song writing credit and then the band usually created the song as a whole.
liam wrote:
I think Brian mentions this in the 'Day of our lives' doco. He says that the person who brought the general idea, chord progression, page of lyrics, melody etc was given the song writing credit and then the band usually created the song as a whole.
Not really. He said that the person who brought the general idea, etc., was given the credit (and money) for having written the song regardless of whether he was the only author or not.
I know it isn't much, but in Mojo Classic - The Ultimate Collection Edition Volume 1 Issue 1, pag.54, Roger taylor said:
"Mojo- Is there any truth to the story that you never liked Another One Bites tge Dust and the funky direction on the Hot Space album ...
Roger - Well, i actually helped John put Another One Bites the Dust together. But no, that style of music wasn't my kind of thing. (...)"
It's just another little bit of information to add to AOBTD creation in the studio.