| malicedoom 22.07.2011 07:42 |
So I think I remember hearing at the time (1991) that they had originally planned on releasing These Are The Days Of Our LIves as a single earlier in 1991, but held off because of how ill Freddie ended up looking in the finished video (even with all the effort made to make him look otherwise, etc.) Then, after he passed, they ended up releasing the song at that point (Double A-Side with Bohemian Rhapsody, which I still think was such an incredible idea - typical though for these guys...) Has anyone from the band ever confirmed that? Was it really the video that made them hold off the single release? |
| rhyeking 22.07.2011 09:39 |
Looking at the timeline, we find: Queen planned this year to release a 2nd Greatest Hits album in the UK, though when exactly they made that decision I don't know. We can reasonably guess that by the summer they had the chart positions for Innuendo's first three UK singles ("Innuendo," "Slightly Mad" and "Headlong"). The UK "Headlong" single came out in May (January in the US), the video having been shot as far back as November, 1990. Roger, John and Freddie shot their material for the TATDOOL video at the end of May, including May 30th (according one of the clapboard dates for Freddie's close-ups). Brian was in the US doing his radio tour to promote Innuendo. He was there at least into June, which coincides with the 2nd batch of Hollywood Records remasters, Rocks Vol. 2 promo CD and "I Can't Live With You" promo CD (and possibly others). I remember reading that he shot his video footage while in the States Around this time (Summer of 1991), they likely started assembling the track listing for Hits II. It's interesting to note that if the three current singles from Innuendo somehow failed to chart, they had a few extra '80s hit singles to draw from: "Las Palabras" and "Thank God It's Christmas." Brian returned by July, because that was when he was contacted to do the "Driven By You" Ford UK ads. He recorded the various versions of "Driven By You" and "Just One Life" at this point. The US single for TATDOOL was released in September, parallel to to the 3rd batch of HR remasters and Rocks Vol. 3 promo CD. I may be wrong, but I believe the US got the animated video at this point too, meaning that for North American fans, Freddie was still alive for this release. Queen were looking at the October 28th release date for Hits II and gambled that with the success of the first three Innuendo singles, "The Show Must Go On" would chart as well and planned before its release to include it on Hits II. The singe was released two weeks before Hits II, but Hits II was already assembled and ready to go. The TSMGO single cleverly tied into both Innuendo (naturally) and Hits II by having as its B-sides previous single A-sides NOT included on Hits II (no doubling up tracks, except for TSMGO itself). "The Show Must Go On" was intended as the next single by the summer of 1991, which brings us to the original poster's question as to why "Days Of Our Lives" was released in the UK after Freddie's death. Well, since TSMGO was intended as the next single after "Headlong" to promote Hits II as well as Innuendo, rather than using the finished TATDOOL video, they cut together the clip video for TSMGO, which ties into the hits collection by showing bits of the '80s videos. It's possible they'd intended Queen to shoot original material for TSMGO, but maybe Freddie's health precluded it. If so, at that point, they could not change the track listing of Hits II (featuring TSMGO) without causing a massive delay, so they went ahead with the clip video. No one could predict when Freddie would die, so TATDOOL in the UK became a bit more poignant for fans there seeing Freddie on-screen after his death. |
| malicedoom 22.07.2011 10:18 |
I remember, when the TATDOOL video first appeared in the USA, that some felt Hollywood's 'animation' was included to try and hide Freddie's appearance. Not sure there's any truth to that, but that's what a lot of people were saying. |
| rhyeking 22.07.2011 10:53 |
I don't think Freddie's physical appearance directly influenced the release of the video. I think it came down to logistics and planning, given everything that was going on in 1991. |
| john bodega 22.07.2011 11:19 |
The animation-version of that video is fucking awful. |
| Dr Zoidberg 22.07.2011 11:30 |
The TATDOOL video was definitely released as a promotional clip in the US prior to Freddie's death. I have a promo VHS copy in my collection that's dated "9/91", and its the version that has not been officially released - i.e. not the UK all-black & white version and not the version that was released on the U.S. "Classic Queen" VHS, which is itself sort of a hybrid edit between the original Hollywood version and the UK version. I assume its on youtube for anyone who hasn't seen it. Its quite nice but it definitely uses Freddie's footage sparingly and with a fair amount of animation layered on it. |
| malicedoom 22.07.2011 11:37 |
Yeah, I know the version you mean - I also have that Hollywood Records 'promo' VHS tape. It's basically a '3rd version' of the clip like you said. And I agree with the other poster - I don't care for either of the versions that include the animation. |
| rhyeking 22.07.2011 13:01 |
Aren't the three TATDOOL videos the following: September 1991: Animated (US) December 2nd, 1991: Black & White (UK) November 29, 1994: Classic Queen Animated Version (US) ? I'm sure the first two were completed at the same time, one for each market. The Classic Queen one I always assumed was a re-edit. For the record, I think both (B&W and Animated) are brilliant. The original animated version fits the artwork of the album (a skewed, dramatic reality for the characters) and the visual style of the earlier Innuendo videos. The Black & White does the same in an elegant and restrained way. Both complement each other, the other videos and the album itself. |
| Dr Zoidberg 23.07.2011 20:12 |
I just checked the label on the promo VHS case, and under the Hollywood Records logo is the date 9-10-91, which does give the first (and still officially unreleased version) something of a specific date. And the Classic Queen VHS was released in 1992, not 1994 - at least in North America. And I like all three versions a lot, but for me, the Classic Queen re-edit works the least well. The black & white UK performance version is beautifully shot and very elegant, in addition to its obvious value as a document of Freddie's last performance on film - but I think the first US version is also beautiful to look at. The animation is really nice, very stylized, very professionally done, and for my money, its 'storyline' works a lot better and makes more sense than in the CLassic Queen version, where the animation is kind of cut in here and there around the live action footage of the band without much regard for the narrative. But to each their own. I won't complain about having all three to enjoy. |
| rhyeking 23.07.2011 22:21 |
Yes, I meant to type 1992, not 1994. Either way, the CQ re-edit was the last to come out and, in my opinion, is the weakest, though it's not terrible. It was the only one I owned for the longest time and I didn't even know about the B&W version until Flix III. I didn't know about the original Animated version until I found it on the internet later. When I saw it I was like, "Wow! That works SO much better that the CQ one!" |
| dysan 24.07.2011 07:56 |
It's worth pointing out that a GH2 was announced in the Fan Club magazine in 1989 - they even had a competition to choose the tracklist. As they only sent me one issue, I never found out. |
| rhyeking 24.07.2011 09:34 |
Choose the track listing or guess the track listing? 1989, huh? I guess that makes sense. Though they wouldn't have been able to anticipate the chart positions of the Innuendo tracks, they already knew the songs that were hits from Hot Space to The Miracle. As I mentioned before, I find it interesting that "Las Palabras D Amor" and "Thank God It's Christmas" could easily have appeared on it, making for a slightly different collection. |
| AlexRocks 24.07.2011 09:59 |
Actually there is a forth and maybe fifth "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" short promotional film. One has clips of the black and white footage ever so often turning to a gold shade and showing clips from past short promotional films. The other is the version of where it fades out showing Roger playing drums or Freddie walking off the stage...I can't remember which is which there... |
| dysan 24.07.2011 12:18 |
More info regardng the '89 GH2 release from the FC pdfs shared here: According to the Summer 89 FC mag it was planned for a november release, and meaning the Miracle Video EP would never have come out (they say those videos would appear on the mooted 89 Greatest Flix 2 instead) - strangely, that was released in Nov '89 instead. I am missing the Autumn '89 magazine which I guess would say what happened to the GH2 release - the only new release aside from the Beeb album mentioned in the Winter issue is the Alternate Miracle, which was planned for a Feb 1990 release. I wonder how far that got? Acetate? Would've been a super release: Side 1 I Want It All (Single Version) Hang On In There Breakthru (12") Stealin' Side 2 The Invisible Man (12") Hijack My Heart Scandal (12") My Life Has Been Saved |