Kamenliter 13.09.2014 10:53 |
Something I've always wondered was why Freddie sang a couple of verses in Father To Son differently in some shows in ’73/’74. Even though the song was recorded in August ’73, afterwards in ’73 and in ’74 Freddie changes lines in some shows. I can understand early versions prior to the recorded album version being different (not that we have any to check against) but to be changing the lyrics in live versions back and forth months after the album recording seems strange, especially when the change actually makes the verses sound a bit awkward when the original recorded lines flow smoothly. ALBUM - AUG 73 'and the voice is so clear, time after time I keep calling you, calling you on don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ ‘A word in your ear from Father To Son Funny you don’t hear a single word I say But my letter to you, will stay by your side Through the years til the loneliness is gone Sing if you will but the air you breathe I live to give you’ GOLDERS GREEN SEPT 13 73 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, warning you, on your way the father replies, there’s time on your side, I was a long, long time ago’ *Interesting to note that in Golder’s Green, it’s the only instance of the lyric change in the second line of that one verse (the father replies, there’s time on your side, I was a long, long time ago’) (of the recordings we have, or at least the ones I was able to reference at the moment!) Even that line ‘I was a long, long time ago’ doesn’t even make grammatical sense. (you’d think he’d say ‘IT’ was a long, long time ago, but it pretty clearly sounds like ‘I'). ‘A word in your ear from Father To Son You’ve gotta show me, show me, show me the way I fought with you, I fought on your side it was a long, long time ago Sing if you will but the air you breathe I live to give you’ LIVERPOOL 11-17-73 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, warning you, on your way don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ ‘A word in your ear from Father To Son You’ve gotta show me, show me, show me a way I fought with you, I fought on your side it was a long, long time ago Sing if you will but the air you breathe I live to give you’ GLASGOW 11-23-73 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, calling you on don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ ‘A word in your ear from Father To Son You’ve gotta show me, show me, show me the way I fought with you, I fought on your side it was a long, long time ago Sing if you will but the air you breathe I live to give you’ MANCHESTER 11-26-73 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, warning you, on your way don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ ‘A word in your ear from Father To Son You’ve gotta show me, show me, show me a way I fought with you, I fought on your side it was a long, long time ago Sing if you will but the air you breathe I live to give you’ RAINBOW MARCH 31 74 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, warning you, on your way don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ ‘A word in your ear from Father To Son Funny you don’t hear a single word I say But my letter to you, will stay by your side Through the years til the loneliness is gone Sing if you will but the air you breathe I live to give you’ And then from then on, this end verse remained the same (as per the album version) LAS VEGAS 4-21-74 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, warning you, on your way don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ PORTLAND 4-28-74 'every now and again, time after time I keep calling you, calling you on don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ LIVERPOOL 11-1-74 'and the voice is so clear, time after time I keep calling you, calling you on don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ And then from then on, this verse remained the same (as per the album version) RAINBOW NOVEMBER 74 'and the voice is so clear, time after time I keep calling you, calling you on don’t destroy what you see, your country to be, just keep building on the ground that’s been won’ Might not really mean much, just an observation that I thought was a bit odd. |
fofum 13.09.2014 11:09 |
I think he probably just cocked the words up now and again. No biggy. |
tero! 48531 13.09.2014 13:06 |
The alternate lyrics seem to consistent to be individual mistakes. I would guess the album lyrics were recorded early on, and they came up with a better version after thinking about it for a while. |
Kamenliter 13.09.2014 13:35 |
>The alternate lyrics seem to consistent to be individual mistakes. Yes, those are definitely written lyrics, not Freddie making a mistake on a word or two. >I would guess the album lyrics were recorded early on, and they came up with a better version after thinking about it for a while. That would make sense if the new lyrics were the ones they stuck with, but he changed back and forth a few times from the 'new' lyrics, to a mix of new and the album version and then changed completely over to the same as the album, which they stuck with for the rest of 'Father To Son's' live history. Also, the 'new' lyrics aren't as good as the album version, at least in terms of the flow - they feel awkwardly phrased. |
Mercury 90 13.09.2014 15:28 |
Maybe the final lyrics where done very late, and while the song was created und recorded he always sang the other version, and because of that, he maybe had difficulties remembering the new, the "right" version. Because the old version already settled in his memory. At lest that is a problem I have ;) |
Kamenliter 13.09.2014 15:32 |
>Maybe the final lyrics where done very late, and while the song was created und recorded he always sang the other version, and because of that, he maybe had difficulties remembering the new, the >"right" version. Because the old version already settled in his memory. That is something I was thinking, interesting. Possibly. A question for Brian or Roger one day, maybe! (if they could even remember). |
Mercury 90 13.09.2014 15:42 |
Kamenliter wrote: That is something I was thinking, interesting. Possibly. A question for Brian or Roger one day, maybe! (if they could even remember).I would not bet on that, as Brian thought that they played It's a Hard Life the first time in 2010 at that concert at the albert hall, I don't think he will remember if Freddie maybe changed lyrics in the last moment on a song they haven't played since a loooooong looong time. ;) |
tero! 48531 13.09.2014 15:47 |
Kamenliter wrote: That would make sense if the new lyrics were the ones they stuck with, but he changed back and forth a few times from the 'new' lyrics, to a mix of new and the album version and then changed completely over to the same as the album, which they stuck with for the rest of 'Father To Son's' live history.It's entirely possible the lyrics of the song WERE changed back and forth, and that's why Freddie had troubles singing it the same way from show to show. It was recorded one way, then they experimented with another set of lyrics for months, before going back to the first version after finalising the album. |
tomchristie22 13.09.2014 18:50 |
tero! 48531 wrote:This seems most likely - Freddie wouldn't have just pulled such a specific and recurring variation from nowhere.Kamenliter wrote: That would make sense if the new lyrics were the ones they stuck with, but he changed back and forth a few times from the 'new' lyrics, to a mix of new and the album version and then changed completely over to the same as the album, which they stuck with for the rest of 'Father To Son's' live history.It's entirely possible the lyrics of the song WERE changed back and forth, and that's why Freddie had troubles singing it the same way from show to show. It was recorded one way, then they experimented with another set of lyrics for months, before going back to the first version after finalising the album. There's other interesting lyric variations in their early shows, like those on Son and Daughter and Modern Times Rock and Roll. However, these weren't things that changed back and forth - Freddie just seemed to devise his own version and stick with it. In both cases, I think Freddie's lyrical variations are weaker than the original versions. I don't know why he did it for Son and Daughter, but it makes sense in Modern Times Rock and Roll, as his new phrases make it much less demanding to sing, with much more space to breathe in between lines. Some parts also just make the phrasing much more suited to Freddie than Roger - it's hard to imagine Freddie delivering it in the rhythmic, rapid fire way Roger does for much of the album version. Son and Daughter (studio): 'What'll you do for loving When it's only just begun' Son and Daughter (Rainbow March 74) 'What'll you do for loving If it's the one and the only game, yeah' Son and Daughter (studio): 'What'll you think of heaven If it's back from where you came?' Son and Daughter (Rainbow March 74): 'What'll you do for heaven...' ------------------------------------------------------- Modern Times Rock and Roll (Studio): 'The old bop's getting tired, need a rest, well you know what I mean' (Rainbow March 74): 'The old bop's getting tired, don't you know, well you know what I mean' (Studio): 'You don't know, it could happen...' (Live): 'And I know it could happen...' (Studio): 'With the temperature down, and the jukebox blowing no fuse And my musical life is feeling like a long Sunday school cruise. And I know only one thing every single body could use.' (Live): 'Jukebox blowing, jukebox blowing no fuse And my temperature life is just like a Sunday school cruise. And I know everybody in this world could use.' (Studio): 'You know everybody in this bum sucking world's gonna know who you are.' (Live): 'You know everybody in this bum sucking world should go far.' |
kohuept 14.09.2014 10:22 |
It makes sense that he could have been singing an earlier version of the lyrics. Look at '39. He consistently sang the lyrics the way they are in the liner notes but not those that appear in the recorded song. Maybe he recorded several takes with the "original" lyrics then Brian decided to take lead and sing the "new" lyrics. When performed live, Freddie sang the lyrics he recorded. With Father to Son, he may have sang several takes of each set of lyrics and, depending on the night, sang whichever one (or a combination) came to mind. Speculation is fun! |
Kamenliter 14.09.2014 18:22 |
>>In both cases, I think Freddie's lyrical variations are weaker than the original versions. I don't know why he did it for Son and Daughter, but it makes sense in Modern Times Rock and Roll, as >his new phrases make it much less demanding to sing, with much more space to breathe in between lines. Yes, agreed. With Modern Times, the changes in some lines again don't even make much grammatical sense, but I suppose for a song like that it's not as important. >>With Father to Son, he may have sang several takes of each set of lyrics and, depending on the night, sang whichever one (or a combination) came to mind. It must be something like that, would love to know for sure! It's similar with Black Sabbath (and I'm sure many bands). Sabbath released their first album in January 1970, but even in June of that year, Ozzy was singing the title track live with completely different verses at points. More often early versions of the song were the demos, before the album recordings had been made. But as for changing the lyrics in live versions, I guess it's just artists being artists and playing around with different ideas, even though they had already 'set in stone' so to speak, a version of the song with the album recording. |
tomchristie22 15.09.2014 01:06 |
kohuept wrote: Look at '39. He consistently sang the lyrics the way they are in the liner notes but not those that appear in the recorded song.Huh! I didn't know that at all, I figured it was another case of Freddie just doing his own thing. I would say '39 is an example where the live lyrics are actually an improvement - 'A single ship came from the blue' and 'To a new home we'll away'... 'Blue and misty morn' doesn't flow as well but it's a cool image. |
Holly2003 15.09.2014 01:37 |
It's also possible that this is an example of the multiverse and that Queen produced so much energy at these shows that they bent the laws of time and space, with two different realities meeting for a short moment in time. So for a few seconds we saw Fred from a different reality sing a version of the song that was the correct version in that universe, but which seems odd to us. I imagine our Fred was singing our version of the song to an audience from a different reality and for them it must've seemed very odd too. |
Holly2003 15.09.2014 09:55 |
I've just posted my idea of the alt.nerd.obsessive newsgroup where it might be more embraced then here ... |
Oscar J 16.09.2014 05:59 |
Interesting theory, and the most probable so far. I mean, Freddie flubbing lyrics? That's unheard of. |