Hi all!
Thread on reddit regarding the piano that was used to record BR was also used to record Hey Jude.
One thing that has popped up is people saying the piano in BR is out of tune with one person with perfect pitch claiming it's 'horribly' out of tune and very noticeable at the end. Is this correct? Can someone confirm this?
I wouldn't be able to tell, sounds in tune to me though... Either way, it doesn't make much difference since the rest of the band are obviously tuned to the piano, otherwise it'd be glaring.
Too many people claim to have perfect pitch these days. In 20 years playing in bands I've heard of many who say they have perfect pitch but yet to meet anyone who actually does. They are usually pretentious tossers.
It's not what I'd describe as out of tune, but there is a kind of honky-tonk quality to the thing, and you only get that if some of the strings are an acceptably tiny bit out of whack.
While I guess it's possible that someone out there with good enough pitch might find it annoying, I'd hate to be stuck in a conversation at dinner with that person.
Bad Seed wrote:
Too many people claim to have perfect pitch these days. In 20 years playing in bands I've heard of many who say they have perfect pitch but yet to meet anyone who actually does. They are usually pretentious tossers.
Luton Town and QPR could claim that through the 80s...their piches were perfect...in all weathers
First of all.
The first person who can compose such a track as BR, well then they might, just might, be able to tell stories of piano out of tune.
I've been listening QUEEN since 1973 and there is NOT comparison to Freddie, Brian, Roger and John.
If Freddie would still be alive he'd probably make a track totally out of tune just to tease all you "perfect pitch heads" and still it would sound so great. Not saying that the piano on BR is actually out of tune.
Please stop talking that bullshit and just enjoy QUEEN as we all have done all these years.
I think that Freddie is somewhere laughing his guts out reading those stories.
So let's make an end to the ridiculous claims.
Technically, every piano is out of tune. That's what we call temperament. It's a tuning system that tempers the natural intervals by raising or lowering the pitch of the strings.
It is indeed out of tune although not too much. It's not the Hey Jude piano, BTW. Freddie (and occasionally Brian) recorded with the Hey Jude piano several times, but Bo Rhap was not one of them.
Most (but not all) of those recorded at Trident:
* Doing All Right (Brian played it).
* Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke.
* Father to Son (Brian played it).
* Funny How Love Is.
* Jesus.
* March of the Black Queen.
* Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll.
* My Fairy King.
* Nevermore.
* Now I'm Here (Brian played it).
* Seven Seas of Rhye (début album version).
Notably NOT:
* Seven Seas of Rhye (Queen II version).