| Marcelo_argentina 30.08.2009 10:57 |
Why do you think Bri an Rog stopped singing in the 80's Queen Albums?...after The game with Rock it and Sail away sweet sister...no songs were sung by them anymore...I guess Roger channeled his desires to sing in his own solo albums, but what about Brian?..no complete songs were sung by any of them afert 1980...what was the reason?...anything to say folks? |
| Queen On Ice 30.08.2009 14:54 |
Can't say why as such, but I do think it's a shame - a real shame. Brian in particular for me was a great alternative to Fred on the songs Bri did sing on, and I always wished there were more than 9 of them. Yeah, Roger has a good voice too, but with 4 solo albums and 3 with The Cross on top of the Queen songs he sang there is no shortage of Roger vocals 'out there'. Maybe it was considered a commercially sound decision to have the - by now - glbally infamous Freddie front the albums in complete form. We may never know the full truth. |
| ITSM 31.08.2009 18:56 |
I think it's because Hot Space was such a flop, and therefor played it safe with Freddie the years after...? But Roger sings some lines in Ride The Wild Wind - which I think makes the song really good, and the same with Brian in I Want It All. Also... when they found out that Freddie had AIDS, they probably wanted him to sing as much as he could before he died - they gave him that, sort of... |
| rhyeking 31.08.2009 20:28 |
Roger sings lead on "Hijack My Heart" Brian sings lead on "Lost Opportunity" Roger sings the call (to Freddie's response) and the chorus on "Action This Day" Brian sings the intro and middle eight on "Who Wants To Live Forever" Brian sing the middle eight on "I Want It All" Freddie and Roger share lead on "Dog With A Bone" ...just to name a few. There was probably no real decision to have Freddie sing the lead on all the album tracks because as sampled above, Brian and Roger got their vocals in as well. An album is recorded in bits and pieces, songs evolve and the finished product is not known until its, well, finished. "Hijack My Heart," for instance, could easily have appeared on The Miracle album, but didn't for one reason or another. Queen recorded a bunch of songs and then compiled the album. That Roger recorded a full lead vocal is evidence that the band had no agenda or whatever to make the album "Freddie-only." Same with "Lost Opportunity." It's a released Queen song with Brian doing all the singing. Stylistically it doesn't fit with the rest of Innuendo, so that's probably why it did get on the album, but no one knew that in the band until the album was done. My thought is that with Brian and Roger's solo projects, the two didn't feel the need so much to sing lead on Queen albums, so they let Freddie do the heavy lifting in the vocal department. Roger had sung lead on Fun In Space, Strange Frontier, Shove It, MB&DTK and Blue Rock before Freddie died, so he was singing plenty in the '80s. |
| Queen On Ice 01.09.2009 09:59 |
The problem with that list is that most of those songs were not included on albums - so you have to kinda be an Uber-fan to know they even exist ( I don't even have some of them after 26 years of collecting) and while Rog and Bri contributed the odd few lines here and there, including of course the only vocal shared by all three - Let Me Live - The OP is still correct in that there are no ALBUM tracks with Bri or Rog FULLY vocalising. Not since 1980. |
| rhyeking 01.09.2009 14:23 |
Similar to what I said, that's drawing a conclusion as to the intent of the band based on incomplete facts and a loopsided view of Queen releases. That Brian and Roger did not sing lead on songs appearing on the albums between Hot Space and Innuendo DOES NOT mean there was an agenda to make those albums Freddie-only. In the making of the albums, Brian and Roger are known to have sung lead on at least a track each, possibly more ("Dog With A Bone," for example). When the time came to decide which songs went on the album and which didn't, those songs were left off. It was at THIS point that a conscious decision is made, not when they walk into the studio for the first time. "Lost Opportunity" was recorded for Innuendo, but didn't fit the style of the album. "Hijack My Heart" was recorded for The Miracle, but didn't make it on, likely because they had at least 15 tracks and only needed 10, so something had to go. And I would not call the vocals I cited simply *singing a line or two, here and there.* They're much more significant than that, especially considering WWTLF had Brian's *replacing* Freddie's in those portions (listen to the original version on Highlander, where Freddie sings the entire song). I stand by my conclusion that there is no evidence that Queen chose to favour Freddie singing everything, with Brian and Roger just doing back-up work. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Just because some fans don't have the non-album tracks doesn't make them irrelevant. The original question was asked about the big picture of Queen in the '80s. In order to answer it properly, you have to look at the whole big picture, including non-album tracks, especially when they're evidence of counter-argument. |
| Queen On Ice 01.09.2009 14:46 |
I certainly did not try to say there was any king of 'agenda'. I merely pointed out that some of those songs were not known by many fans, and still aren't I don't see what's wrong with my saying that as it is true. You are right to say that the whole pictuire needs to be looked at however. Also, significant or not, I was also correct in saying that Bri and Rog only sang a few lines here and there - it is simple fact. They did not sing full vocals on any Queen album in the 80s after The Game - they sang a few lines here or there. That is true no matter how 'important' you want to see those lines as being. I was not being contrary to your post Rhyeking. I was merely pointing out a few facts - it does not negate what you were saying as such. :) |
| catqueen 01.09.2009 15:40 |
It is actually a bit strange, when you think that their most ornamented songs are on the earlier albums. You'd imagine that the more complex songs would have required so much extra effort that Brian and Roger would have focused on those, rather tehn also recording vocals. Maybe as they did more tours and became more famous it was, as mentioned before, more comercially viable to have the 'famous' one singing. Also, maybe when they were worth more, their managers took more control? Rather then letting them risk as much, their managers would have wanted sound business decisions about that kind of thing, rather then what they 'wanted' to do, when they were just themselves. Were there any huge hits with Brian and Roger doing lead vocals? Freddie's voice was so recognisable, that a lot of casual fans wouldn't recognise a song as Queen if he wasn't singing. I get the impression that Queen Productions is a pretty powerful force in comparison to Brian and Roger's opinion, so maybe that was starting then. Plus, Brian's voice is a bit weak for a lot of their songs, and apparantly Roger's voice is an acquired taste (I've always loved both, but I have endured many complaints by people being forced to listen to them in my car!), so maybe they recorded them and QP or whoever overrulled them. This is a completely uninformed opinion though, just my ideas. |
| doxonrox 01.09.2009 21:06 |
rhyeking wrote: Similar to what I said, that's drawing a conclusion as to the intent of the band based on incomplete facts and a loopsided view of Queen releases. That Brian and Roger did not sing lead on songs appearing on the albums between Hot Space and Innuendo DOES NOT mean there was an agenda to make those albums Freddie-only. I actually heard an interview/call-in show with Brian and Roger (I think it was on the Innuendo promotional radio tour) where a caller asked them this very question. I remember Brian saying something like that Freddie had the voice, and he was the voice of Queen, so they decided that Freddie would sing Queen songs from then on. That's heavily paraphrased, but it's basically what he said. I'm guessing that it makes sense given the fact that no hit ever had Rog or Brian singing the bulk of the lead. When things changed in the industry to where every album produced multiple singles, they thought it best to have the voice of Queen singing the songs. Could "Fun It" or "Rock It (Prime Jive)' have been singles if Freddie sang them? I doubt it, but maybe the band didn't want to disclude songs from consideration due to having a lesser known voice on lead. |
| mike hunt 02.09.2009 04:10 |
catqueen wrote: It is actually a bit strange, when you think that their most ornamented songs are on the earlier albums. You'd imagine that the more complex songs would have required so much extra effort that Brian and Roger would have focused on those, rather tehn also recording vocals. Maybe as they did more tours and became more famous it was, as mentioned before, more comercially viable to have the 'famous' one singing. Also, maybe when they were worth more, their managers took more control? Rather then letting them risk as much, their managers would have wanted sound business decisions about that kind of thing, rather then what they 'wanted' to do, when they were just themselves. Were there any huge hits with Brian and Roger doing lead vocals? Freddie's voice was so recognisable, that a lot of casual fans wouldn't recognise a song as Queen if he wasn't singing. I get the impression that Queen Productions is a pretty powerful force in comparison to Brian and Roger's opinion, so maybe that was starting then. Plus, Brian's voice is a bit weak for a lot of their songs, and apparantly Roger's voice is an acquired taste (I've always loved both, but I have endured many complaints by people being forced to listen to them in my car!), so maybe they recorded them and QP or whoever overrulled them. This is a completely uninformed opinion though, just my ideas. I think vocally brian and roger are an aquired taste, Team Queen knew that. Brian and roger wanted more hits, it worked. roger's first top 40 hit radio ga ga with freddie on vocals. Magic, rogers second top 40 hit with freddie on vocals. isn't this common sense?....was drowse ever a hit?...how about more of that jazz?....the same for brian. |
| Angeline 02.09.2009 07:15 |
I agree with Mike and doxonrox - considering the royalties made from a hit single, and the fact that no song with Bri or Rog would be likely to be a single, never mind a hit, they decided not to exclude some songs from the singles competition so to speak. |
| rhyeking 02.09.2009 11:15 |
The only single A-side issued I can think that featured a non-Freddie lead vocal was "Long Away" in the US. It failed to chart, so maybe that had something to do with the keeping the identifiable Freddie vocals for singles, for sheer recognizability. |
| Micrówave 02.09.2009 11:35 |
If I had a Freddie Mercury in my band, he'd sing all the tunes. If they were smart, they would have had Freddie sing the B-sides, unreleased tracks, etc. They may have made the album. Wouldn't that be sweet to find a Freddie version of Hijack My Heart? |
| mike hunt 03.09.2009 01:26 |
believe me, roger still wouldn't have a top 40 hit if he kept singing his own songs. They did the right thing. Now roger has a few hits to his name, songs that will live on and on and on. |