Hi,
So I have been listening a lot to the debut album and was wondering if Freddie really was able to have composed Great King Rat/Liar/etc. on guitar (or was it piano maybe?) I know he wrote most of his songs from Queen II on in piano. But Peter Freestone has said that freddie had "little knowledge" of guitar, and would normally demonstrate riffs vocally. Barry Mitchell also said he had "no idea" Freddie could even play an instrument when he was with the band. Also the GKR outtakes feature freddie humming the solo, which means that, while he composed the song, would he have done it on guitar. With Liar, I always thought it was Brian who wrote the riffs (they seem more in his style), and maybe he should have been given co-writer's credit on that song, (like Is this the world), because fred wrote the lyrics to Liar, but not neccesarily most of the music (unless it was on piano).
Any thoughts/answers? I know fred wrote ogre battle on guitar, but I thought he only had the initial riff (not the palindromic riff), on acoustic. I
I suppose we don't have much way of knowing... I think Freddie could've composed the main riffs/structural parts on guitar, since a lot of them are just chords. He was a pretty capable guitarist. I'd say he just composed the framework on the guitar
Topic starter:
You are apparently confusing the difference between composing and arranging. Freddie could have composed a line (say, the solo you mention) on any instrument, from piano to mouth harp, and, as long as he could write it down properly (or someone else could), Brian could have arranged said part for guitar (which in this case would mean he figured out a fingering for it).