I'm going to try to hijack this thread since it was just sitting here, doing nothing.
Once New Topics can be created (which the website is saying is a problem right now) I'll give it its own thread.
Here goes:
Subject: the Ensueno Instrumental on the FM boxed set is incorrect
Before I go into detail, here are the facts as we know them:
Freddie and Mike Moran wrote and recorded "Exercises In Free Love" as a demo of sorts for Montserrat to impress her and maybe get her to record with them.
Long story short, it worked and they made the Barcelona album.
"Exercises In Free Love" was re-recorded with lyrics and a new backing track, and became "Ensueno".
The Solo Collection comes out years later and features a disc of Instrumentals, including one of "Ensueno."
Now, here's problem:
This "Ensueno (Instrumental)" is actually "Exercises In Free Love" without Freddie's vocal.
"Ensueno," as it appears on Barcelona, has a different backing track than "Free Love". It's very, very similar, but it IS a noticably different recording, right from the first note.
For example, "Free Love" starts with a single hard note before it climbs the scale up through four counts of four. "Ensueno" starts with a florish of notes before climbing.
Mike Moran's performance on both, as I said, is very similar, but he does play it differently. "Ensueno" is played ever so slightly slower, so by the end, "Ensueno" is about 20 seconds longer (in audible time) than "Free Love.
To be certain, I noted the time read-out of each movement of the three tracks (for simplicity, each 'movement' was where the song built to a crescendo and then settled down again):
"Exercises In Free Love"
0:00 - 1:47 1st Movement
1:48 - 2:29 2nd Movement
2:30 - 3:50 3rd Movement
the last few seconds are silence after this.
"Ensueno (Instrumental)"
0:00 - 1:47 1st Movement
1:48 - 2:29 2nd Movement
2:30 - 3:50 3rd Movement
"Ensueno (album version)"
0:00 - 2:00 1st Movement
2:00 - 2:43 2nd Movement
2:44 - 4:15 3rd Movement
If you don't believe me, give each of these a really good listen.