| dowens 03.08.2011 21:06 |
I grew up with "The Great Pretender" album and always thought those were the original versions of Mercury's solo work. When the boxset was released (the 3 CD set of FM Solo Collection), I discovered "Mr. Bad Guy." I'm amazed at the fresh remixes of these songs found on "The Great Pretender" and wonder how the project came about. There are some amazing performances, in my opinion, on the album and would love to know more about the album....anyone have any insight? The remixes found on that album blow all the HR remixes out of the water. Period. |
| rhyeking 03.08.2011 22:25 |
I like most of the FM remixes from that period. "The Great Pretender," both "Mr. Bad Guy" remixes (all by Brian Malouf), "Living On My Own" Radio Mix (and it's variants) and the Wolf "Love Kills" remixes are exceptional and rival the originals, in my opinion. The others are pretty good, except "Your Kind Of Lover" and "Let's Turn It On," which I'm not a fan of, and most of the rest of the "Living On My Own" mixes are kind of "meh" (the 1992 Album Mix of LOMO is decent, which also appears on GH3). As for what prompted The Freddie Mercury Album & The Great Pretender and all the remix singles, my only guess is that Freddie's death and the tribute concert were the catalysts. He died November 24th, 1991. The first UK re-issue singles were in July of 1992, along with the US release of Barcelona and the UK re-release. "How Can I Go On" singles were released in October of 1992 The Freddie Mercury Album & The Great Pretender both hit the shelves in November 1992, along with a bunch of the remix singles, probably aiming to capitalize on the 1 year anniversary of his death. In the US, Hollywood Records merely added these to their on-going campaign of Queen media blitzing (the album re-issues, Classic Queen, red GH, promo singles, etc.), and got another boost in 1993 with Back To The Light, Five Live and the Radio Mix of "Living On My Own" (the #1 hit). I've said it before and I'll say it again, Hollywood Records did more than its fair share of Queen-related releases in the first half of the '90s. it was a lot more than just a few iffy remixes. It swelled again in '95 and '96 with all the Made In Heaven material. and with imports far easier to find on the shelves compared to today, those were seriously heady times to be getting into Queen. I speak from experience, when it seemed like every month something new and interesting was on the shelf (Queen, solo, live, studio, remix, single, collection, boxed set...). And I'm talking new, not just the re-issued albums. Those were good days. |
| malicedoom 04.08.2011 08:22 |
I love the remixes on The Great Pretender (HR) release. For the actual SONG The Great Pretender... it's hard for me to pick the original or the remix - love 'em both. Same with Love Kills - great re-do on the HR release, but I really like the original as well, so can't choose one over the other. But I prefer the 'Great Pretender' HR version of Living On My Own to the original album version, no question. That's an INCREDIBLE remix. I even far prefer it to the No More Brothers remix that came out (and hit #1) a year later. |
| Thistle 04.08.2011 10:04 |
I wasn't really into Queen when the remixes came out, but always loved Living On My Own, which was number one for Freddie here in the UK for a few weeks in '93 I think. When I got into Queen in 1995 (and when cassettes were still a big deal lol), I bought the FM album straight away, and could remember thinking about LOMO "that's not right"....but the rest of the album just blew me away. I listened to it non-stop, and then, as a completist, bought "The Great Pretender" CD. Some of the mixes were different, and I didn't enjoy it so much. The FM album still ruled! And then I discovered the "Mr. Bad Guy" LP :) |
| Back2TheLight 05.08.2011 03:23 |
The Great Pretender CD was my first 'intro' to Freddie's solo work so to speak, and I always thought it was cool. Foolin Around was cool, still like it. Granted, some of it sounds dated now, but sounded current for the time. From what I understand, alot of the same musicians for Mr Bad Guy were used to remix alot of those tracks, which I also thought was really cool too... |
| Gaabiizz 05.08.2011 13:46 |
Sin dudas hay remixes muy buenos , como los de Living On My Own , Mr Bad Guy , The Great Pretender , My Love Is Dangerous No doubt there are very good remixes, such as Living On My Own, Mr Bad Guy, The Great Pretender, My Love Is Dangerous |
| rhyeking 05.08.2011 16:10 |
The Great Pretender = Excellent Foolin' Around = Excellent Time = Very Good You're Kind Of Lover = Ugh In My Defence = Very Good Mr. Bad Guy (1992 Album Mix) = Excellent Mr. Bad Guy (1992 Great Pretender Mix) = Excellent Let Turn It On = Ugh Living On My Own (1992 Album Mix) = Good Living On My Own (Radio Mix) = Excellent My Love Is Dangerous = Excellent Love Kills (Wolf Mix) = Excellent Love Kills (WoldfEuro Mix) = Excellent Living On My Own (Techno Mix) = Blah Living On My Own (LA Mix) = Blah Living On My Own (Underground Solutions Mix) = Ugh Living On My Own (Club Mix) = Blah Living On My Own (1993 Extended Mix) = Excellent Living On My Own (Dub Mix) = Excellent In my opinion. |
| dowens 06.08.2011 13:58 |
So does the 'Freddie Mercury Album' have different remixes from 'The Great Pretender' album? If they did use some of the same studio musicians for TGP, then no wonder the album sounds so great! Those people were able to give a whole new take on Freddie's tunes! |
| Thistle 06.08.2011 20:53 |
Well, on the FM album, TGP is the original single version from '87, and Love Kills is different. TGP also has a different LOMO Mix on there too. Can't remember exactly off the top of my head, but there's definite differences between both albums. I'll check it out later. |
| Thistle 08.08.2011 14:02 |
OK, so what I can make out, the comparisons between the FM album and TGP are: 1. FM Album is an 11 track LP, TGP has 12 tracks. 2. Both open with TGP. The FM album uses the original version, TGP uses the Malouf mix from "Night In The City". 3. Tracks 2-9 on both CDs are the same mixes in the same running order (Foolin Around; Time; Your Kind Of Lover; Excercises In Free Love; In My Defence; Mr. Bad Guy; Let's Turn It On; Living On My Own) 4. Track 10 on FM is Love Kills; track 10 on TGP is My Love Is Dangerous - this is the rock mix, not from "Mr. Bad Guy". 5. Track 11 on FM is Barcelona, which is omitted on TGP. Track 11 on TGP is Love Kills, wich is the Wolf mix. 6. The additional track on TGP (track 12) is a techno version of Living On My Own. So not overly different with tonnes of different mixes as I first though lol |
| rhyeking 08.08.2011 15:55 |
Thistleboy 1980 wrote: OK, so what I can make out, the comparisons between the FM album and TGP are: 1. FM Album is an 11 track LP, TGP has 12 tracks. 2. Both open with TGP. The FM album uses the original version, TGP uses the Malouf mix from "Night In The City". 3. Tracks 2-9 on both CDs are the same mixes in the same running order (Foolin Around; Time; Your Kind Of Lover; Excercises In Free Love; In My Defence; Mr. Bad Guy; Let's Turn It On; Living On My Own) 4. Track 10 on FM is Love Kills; track 10 on TGP is My Love Is Dangerous - this is the rock mix, not from "Mr. Bad Guy". 5. Track 11 on FM is Barcelona, which is omitted on TGP. Track 11 on TGP is Love Kills, wich is the Wolf mix. 6. The additional track on TGP (track 12) is a techno version of Living On My Own. So not overly different with tonnes of different mixes as I first though lol +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++== A few additional differences: Brian Malouf did two mixes of "Mr Bad Guy." The FM album features a rock mix with a lot of the orchestra retained. The Great Pretender features a slightly different straight-up rock mix, with almost no orchestra and a definitive ending (no fade out). Also, most pressings of The Great Pretender feature the 1992 Album Mix (same as on The FM Album and Greatest Hits 3). However, there was one 1993 pressing where they swapped the Album Mix for the Radio Mix. It does not state anywhere on the sleeve or booklet that the switch was made (they simply reprinted the original sleeve and booklet as is). So there are four different pressings of The Great Pretender: 1st Pressing (1992): 01. The Great Pretender (1992 Malouf Mix) 02. Foolin' Around (1992 Brown Mix) 03. Time (1992 Rodgers Mix) 04. Your Kind Of Lover (1992 Brown Mix) 05. Exercises In Free Love 06. In My Defence (1992 Nevison Mix) 07. Mr Bad Guy (1992 Malouf "Rock" Mix) 08. Let's Turn It On (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) 09. Living On My Own (1992 Album Mix) 10. My Love Is Dangerous (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) 11. Love Kills (1992 Wolf Mix) 2nd Pressing (1993): 01. The Great Pretender (1992 Malouf Mix) 02. Foolin' Around (1992 Brown Mix) 03. Time (1992 Rodgers Mix) 04. Your Kind Of Lover (1992 Brown Mix) 05. Exercises In Free Love 06. In My Defence (1992 Nevison Mix) 07. Mr Bad Guy (1992 Malouf "Rock" Mix) 08. Let's Turn It On (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) **09. Living On My Own (1993 Radio Mix) [Unlisted as such]** 10. My Love Is Dangerous (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) 11. Love Kills (1992 Wolf Mix) 3rd Pressing (199?): 01. The Great Pretender (1992 Malouf Mix) 02. Foolin' Around (1992 Brown Mix) 03. Time (1992 Rodgers Mix) 04. Your Kind Of Lover (1992 Brown Mix) 05. Exercises In Free Love 06. In My Defence (1992 Nevison Mix) 07. Mr Bad Guy (1992 Malouf "Rock" Mix) 08. Let's Turn It On (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) **09. Living On My Own (1992 Album Mix) [Restored]** 10. My Love Is Dangerous (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) 11. Love Kills (1992 Wolf Mix) **12. Living On My Own (Techno Mix) [Unlisted]** 4th Pressing (199?) 01. The Great Pretender (1992 Malouf Mix) 02. Foolin' Around (1992 Brown Mix) 03. Time (1992 Rodgers Mix) 04. Your Kind Of Lover (1992 Brown Mix) 05. Exercises In Free Love 06. In My Defence (1992 Nevison Mix) 07. Mr Bad Guy (1992 Malouf "Rock" Mix) 08. Let's Turn It On (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) 09. Living On My Own (1992 Album Mix) 10. My Love Is Dangerous (1992 Lord-Alge Mix) 11. Love Kills (1992 Wolf Mix) **12. Living On My Own (Techno Mix) [Listed]** I own a store-bought copy of the 2nd Pressing and didn't know there was a difference until I got the FM Boxed Set, which contains the 1st Pressing's trackl isting. I did, however, already own the 1993 Canadian CD single, which called the version I had on my copy of The Great Pretender the "Radio Mix". Annoyingly, the single mistakenly calls the 1992 Album Mix the "LA Mix" (which it's not). Not owning The FM Album until years after I got the boxed set, it took a while for me to realize the wrong mixes were listed on some releases. The FM boxed set did a lot to clear some of that up. |