I'm sure this has been asked and answered a million times already, but does anyone know for sure what happened to the original, handwritten lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody?
Jim Hutton indicates in his book that Freddie gave them to him but, at the end of the book, it's unclear if he even knows where they are at that point.
Anyone know?
--Frank
From the book, I gathered that the lyrics given to Jim were stored in the garage, and Jim was not allowed to return to collect them, once Mary took over the estate.
I got to know Jim back in '92 and we were friends until he sadly passed away last year.
I often worked in and around London and Jim always extended his hospitality should I be in the Chiswick area, where he lived at the time after leaving Garden Lodge . Anyway, once during a conversation that we were having the topic of the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody did indeed come up. Jim told me that they had been given to him by Freddie some years before and were indeed in a chest that was stored in the garage at Garden Lodge. As already mentioned, Jim had attempted to retain both the chest, its contents and other personal belongings from Mary but all to no avail. He did however manage to retain many items before being, in essence, evicted.
One of those such items that I was privilaged to see (and hold) was the very first (white label test) pressing of Bohemian Rhapsody complete with Freddie's doodles on the label. As a huge Queen fan I gotta say that I nearly pissed myself when he showed me this - remember this was the very first pressing of this iconic piece of art, the composers own copy complete with hand written title (in full by the way) and as already mentioned doodles/notes to himself regarding changes as to the mix - forget about your blue or purple vinyls here folks!
I have no idea what happened to this and many of the other items that Jim had when he passed away. Yes, he had many a gold disc and certainly a majority of the lyrics to the Barcelona tracks - I saw them! He was however a good friend and in my eyes a real gentleman. I personally always thought it was wrong the way he was treated after Freddie died, although I do know he bore no bitterness towards Mary or Garden Lodge.
Should any of you know what happened to this and/or any of his other items that belonged to Freddie I'd be interested to hear from you.
"I personally always thought it was wrong the way he was treated after Freddie died, although I do know he bore no bitterness towards Mary or Garden Lodge. "
I could not agree with this more.
R.I.P. (both of them)
Do you happen to remember any of the doodles regarding the mix etc?
That would be fantastic to hear the original pressing and comparing it to the final mix.
I recall that the 'doodles' were really just indicating things like "vocals - high", "guitars - low" that kind of thing. Sorry I can't be more specific.
Hi Louis,
From memory, didn't Jim go back to live in Ireland? Did he still have family there? I would guess that they (or whoever dealt with his funeral etc) would know what happend to his belongings.
They may not have had a clue about the importance of some of the stuff and, god forbid, chucked it out!!!
On the other hand, matbe someone is holding onto it
malicedoom wrote: joesilvey wrote: FASCINATING!
now i need to buy Jim's book...
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I highly recommend it. It's a great read.
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Jim Hutton's book was interesting as was Peter Freestone's book.