| Vocal harmony 13.12.2014 08:22 |
I've always believed that Freddie had planned the Mr Bad Guy album as a major step to becoming a solo artist and leaving the band. IMO the fact the album didn't sell well forced Freddie to reconsider his options and return to the band. Last night I was watching a bit of Days Of Our Lives on BBC TV and two snippets of interviews I hadn't notched before jumped out. The first was Roger Taylor who said in 85 they had a meeting to decide whether or not they were all still in the band. The other was with Freddie at the time of Bad Guy who said when you've been in a successful band it's nice to break away, he then looks at the camera and says by that I mean permanently! From what was said it sounds like he had left the band. |
| musicland munich 13.12.2014 08:39 |
Nah, I don't think so...if he was looking for opportunitys he would have sign with "Geffen"..they want him for "any" price . |
| The King Of Rhye 13.12.2014 08:41 |
hmm.......perhaps...........didnt they pretty much say that Live Aid convinced them all to keep going as a band? |
| MercurialFreddie 13.12.2014 12:08 |
Brian said in the Days Of Our Lives documentary that after finishing The Works album there was a feeling that maybe that was "it", that they achieve what they could and it was time to ebb away from the music scene. Personally I think that from the psychological point of view, they needed a break from Queen, they were in the same band for 14 years and maybe working together, being together and playing together bored them, they needed a break. I base my assumption on the fact that every member of Queen has drifted into "solo projects" around that time. |
| tero! 48531 13.12.2014 13:34 |
Vocal harmony wrote: The other was with Freddie at the time of Bad Guy who said when you've been in a successful band it's nice to break away, he then looks at the camera and says by that I mean permanently! From what was said it sounds like he had left the band.Sure... He also said that he was going to be a strip artist, that Queen would be buying the hungarian parliament building if only there were enough rooms, and that he was in fact Kim Basinger. Maybe you shouldn't take his every word literally. |
| miraclesteinway 13.12.2014 13:57 |
I think that Mr Bad Guy took so long to record that actually it wasn't, at least initially, conceived as a break away from Queen. However, perhaps by the time it was released, it was. Who knows? The sad fact of Mr Bad Guy, as a record, is that it isn't really that good. In its favour it has some AMAZING vocals on it (and some less than amazing vocals on it), and the title track Mr Bad Guy is actually, in my own opinion, a masterpiece. I'm so glad he used an orchestra on that. Freddie really suited that orchestral, almost filmic sound, and I think if there was more of that on the album, it would have been a better piece of work. The actual songs themselves weren't bad - Made In Heaven is excellent (although I personally feel he picked a key that was too high and doesn't work well for his voice on that number), and I was born to love you sounded far better with the Queen input of '95, so the song itself is good. My love is dangerous is a strange one for me, perhaps if he'd knocked it down a couple of keys, taken off the reverb and made it darker it could have been a good single. Love me like there's no tomorrow isn't that great, Let's turn it on sounds cliched to my ear (although his voice gymnastics are to be envied), and Man Made Paradise is, well, actually perhaps if that had the Mr Bad Guy orchestral treatment it would have actually been a great number. I think Foolin' Around and Your Kind of Lover are strong tracks that could have been good singles, but the mix wasn't so great. Hey, those are my personal views on the LP - I've actually enjoyed listening to the LP on many occasions as a snap shot of Freddie at that time, and some songs have grown on me. I have a soft spot for it even if it's not my favourite. One thing I do like about the album is the way that Freddie seems to let rip in a way that wasn't quite happening on the Queen albums of the time - he really throws everything in to the album, experimenting with different styles, different ways of singing (the choir at the end of Paradise - is it Paradise that has that?), and he deserves to be applauded for the range of ideas on it, even if they didn't all come off. To me it shows Freddie up as a great creative artist, with a load of wonderful ideas that perhaps nobody else could think of, but in some ways he was a bit haywire at that time, and having the other members of Queen was, perhaps, a better way for him to channel his creativity. I don't know. I'm just rambling now. I'll shut up. |
| MercurialFreddie 13.12.2014 14:32 |
You forgot There Must Be More To Life Than This which is a great ballad and still by many is regarded as superior to the new mix. Back in the 1985, orchestra/strings would be a better choice than synths on a few Bad Guy tracks incl. TMBMTLTT. |
| Vocal harmony 14.12.2014 08:58 |
tero! 48531 wrote:I think it was obvious when Freddie was joking or being flippant.Vocal harmony wrote: The other was with Freddie at the time of Bad Guy who said when you've been in a successful band it's nice to break away, he then looks at the camera and says by that I mean permanently! From what was said it sounds like he had left the band.Sure... He also said that he was going to be a strip artist, that Queen would be buying the hungarian parliament building if only there were enough rooms and that he was in fact Kim Basinger. Maybe you shouldn't take his every word literally. In the interview he came across as being serious. If your view is adopted then you would be in a position to believe anything he says, just in case. . . |
| miraclesteinway 14.12.2014 09:25 |
It could be that Freddie wanted a solo album and wrote specifically for that, or it could be that the songs that ended up on Mr Bad Guy were ones that didn't fit in with Queen at the time. Or both, you know. It's well known that Queen were getting pretty tired of being Queen by 1985. |
| pittrek 14.12.2014 09:34 |
Vocal harmony wrote: I've always believed that Freddie had planned the Mr Bad Guy album as a major step to becoming a solo artist and leaving the band. IMO the fact the album didn't sell well forced Freddie to reconsider his options and return to the band. Last night I was watching a bit of Days Of Our Lives on BBC TV and two snippets of interviews I hadn't notched before jumped out. The first was Roger Taylor who said in 85 they had a meeting to decide whether or not they were all still in the band. The other was with Freddie at the time of Bad Guy who said when you've been in a successful band it's nice to break away, he then looks at the camera and says by that I mean permanently! From what was said it sounds like he had left the band.I haven't seen the documentary since 2011 but didn't Roger say they had the meetings after the Hot Space tour and not in 1985? And I always thought Freddie was joking when he implied he would leave, at least that's the feeling I got from the interviews I've seen. |
| Chief Mouse 14.12.2014 09:57 |
pittrek wrote:Vocal harmony wrote: I've always believed that Freddie had planned the Mr Bad Guy album as a major step to becoming a solo artist and leaving the band. IMO the fact the album didn't sell well forced Freddie to reconsider his options and return to the band. Last night I was watching a bit of Days Of Our Lives on BBC TV and two snippets of interviews I hadn't notched before jumped out. The first was Roger Taylor who said in 85 they had a meeting to decide whether or not they were all still in the band. The other was with Freddie at the time of Bad Guy who said when you've been in a successful band it's nice to break away, he then looks at the camera and says by that I mean permanently! From what was said it sounds like he had left the band.And I always thought Freddie was joking when he implied he would leave, at least that's the feeling I got from the interviews I've seen. Yes. In 1987 he also said "Now I'm going to opera, forget rock & roll." |
| winterspelt 14.12.2014 12:03 |
Yeah, I always had the feeling that he wanted to leave the band. Jim Beach and Roger are clear about Freddie considering to leave the band. |
| Rick 15.12.2014 04:23 |
Live Aid must have been the turning point then? |
| Vocal harmony 15.12.2014 06:06 |
Rick wrote: Live Aid must have been the turning point then?In the past Jim Beach and Bob Geldof have both said Freddie had to be talked into doing Live Aid. I think it was a turning point, but had Mr Bad Guy sold well, maybe Queen at Live Aid wouldn't have happened. |
| Rick 15.12.2014 06:57 |
Vocal harmony wrote:Well, thank God it flopped ;)Rick wrote: Live Aid must have been the turning point then?In the past Jim Beach and Bob Geldof have both said Freddie had to be talked into doing Live Aid. I think it was a turning point, but had Mr Bad Guy sold well, maybe Queen at Live Aid wouldn't have happened. |
| Vocal harmony 15.12.2014 07:19 |
^^^^ agreed, the 80's wasn't my favourite Queen period, although there were some moments, and Freddie As a band member was better than Freddie the solo artist. |
| malicedoom 23.01.2015 07:28 |
And nobody ever proved that Freddie wasn't Kim Basinger. Sorry. It needed to be said. |
| Sebastian 23.01.2015 08:58 |
Also, Fred said 'I dress to kill,' which is uncontestable proof he admitted having at least attempted to murder someone... in fact, he did confess having committed an assassination: 'Mama, just killed a man.' |
| pottich 23.01.2015 09:39 |
There's an interview with Mary Turner where Fred crearly says he doesn't have plans to leave the band because of his solo album. He didn't want to play his solo album live either. |
| The King Of Rhye 23.01.2015 10:04 |
I always understood that he signed a one-record deal to do Mr Bad Guy........if he was seriously thinking of leaving, wouldnt he have signed a longer deal? |
| Vocal harmony 23.01.2015 10:27 |
He signed the deal because the advance was huge. Much bigger than other companies were offering for longer deals. The amount of money was also bigger than Queen were getting at the time |
| luthorn 23.01.2015 12:38 |
Sebastian wrote: Also, Fred said 'I dress to kill,' which is uncontestable proof he admitted having at least attempted to murder someone... in fact, he did confess having committed an assassination: 'Mama, just killed a man.'Freddie's involvement in the professional assassin scene should be explored in greater detail. After all, he had all predispositions: the killer look, supreme intelligence, an independent business with multiple global engagement opportunities, right personality to meet and get close to people, etc. Perhaps BoRhap was in fact an ad for his services that MI6 or other intelligence agency picked up on and then helped launch Queen into global scene just so Freddie can do his dirty deeds. Well, if gun did not kill, Freddie also spread a killer virus. |
| The Real Wizard 23.01.2015 12:39 |
pittrek wrote: I haven't seen the documentary since 2011 but didn't Roger say they had the meetings after the Hot Space tour and not in 1985?Correct. Things were far, far worse in the Queen camp in 1982-85 than any of us can realize. Without a doubt, Mr Bad Guy was Freddie's attempt at running for the exits. Had it been successful, and had it not been for Live Aid, they almost certainly would have split after the Japanese 1985 dates. |
| tero! 48531 23.01.2015 13:41 |
In that case, Freddie's favourite singer would have been free to tour with Queen almost 20 years earlier than he did... Wouldn't that have been an amazing break for all of us? |
| The Real Wizard 23.01.2015 17:16 |
Actually, Paul Rodgers was in The Firm at the time. |
| LucasDiego 23.01.2015 19:20 |
I like the album, but it's a fact the mix of the album is so dated, the album looks like made in 80 or 81, not 85, and the music changes everyday. |
| soxtalon 24.01.2015 06:49 |
I don't think there's a black and white answer to this. I do not believe that this was a planned escape route of sorts...just part of the puzzle. Obviously during the 1982-1985 era things had deteriorated within the band for various reasons. The band was obviously tired of each other and their grueling schedule and need a break. I don't think they made any grandiose plans - it was more of a drift off and do their own things and see how things go. Any number of different things could have changed and the band might have ceased to exist. Strange Frontier takes off and maybe Roger decides that he likes having more than 2-3 songs - Mr. Bad Guy sets the world alight and Freddie spurring a Freddie tour and maybe Freddie likes being in complete control forcing Brian to tour solo or create a new band...any ton of things. But as things happened they drifted away, had some time apart, and as things would have it (thank god) decided to drift back together - and perhaps indeed Geldof/Live Aid was a contributing factor.... |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 24.01.2015 18:08 |
Live Aid and a reunion after that in Berlin without Paul Prenter was the key for Queen continued as a band. That story Peter Freestone told me. |
| master marathon runner 25.01.2015 09:28 |
freddie,Wembley '86 : " there have been some rumours lately, about a certain band called Queen, and those rumours are that we're going to split up, whaddya think ? - they talk from here ! (Freddie points at his arse) . I'll tell you, we'll be together 'til we fucking well die" blah blah blah. - A radical shift from the year previous. If you believe that they were . |
| cmsdrums 25.01.2015 12:15 |
The fact that '86 saw then far more together was probably down to a couple of things: The aforementioned 'clear the air' meeting after Live Aid in Berlin The fact that Freddie knew by then his health was not right, and so his earlier desire to possibly leave the band had waned |
| The Real Wizard 25.01.2015 14:56 |
Apocalipsis_Darko wrote: Live Aid and a reunion after that in Berlin without Paul Prenter was the key for Queen continued as a band. That story Peter Freestone told me.Now THAT is a monumental piece of information. His solo album tanked, he realized he needed the band after all, so maybe they called the shots. That would make perfect sense. |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 25.01.2015 17:43 |
Paul Freestone told me, the reunion was without Paul Prenter, because Paul Prenter was who wanted to promotedFreddie alone and left Queen. But without Prenter, who always know was a very bad influence, Freddie saw the things clear, as Peter Freestone told me. Also Mike Moran told Freddie wanted to compained Queen with his solo career (you know he wanted to do a second solo record with Mike Moran, but Barcelona opportunity appeared and the second solo record was declined). |
| katman 25.01.2015 18:07 |
The King Of Rhye wrote: I always understood that he signed a one-record deal to do Mr Bad Guy........if he was seriously thinking of leaving, wouldnt he have signed a longer deal?The CBS deal must have been for at least 2 albums, in the Great Pretender doc. Jim Beach states that when they discussed the Barcelona plans with Walter Yetnikoff, he paid them to go away :) (0:53:14 on the Blu-Ray) |
| musicland munich 25.01.2015 22:24 |
Yes, I can "confirm" that Freddie had a "Mr. Bad Guy II" in mind. A local known(german) guitar player gave an interview about that. |
| BETA215 25.01.2015 23:09 |
miraclesteinway wrote: It could be that Freddie wanted a solo album and wrote specifically for that, or it could be that the songs that ended up on Mr Bad Guy were ones that didn't fit in with Queen at the time. Or both, you know. It's well known that Queen were getting pretty tired of being Queen by 1985. I think both. Out there exists a Man Made Paradise demo with the rest of Queen. Also There Must Be More To Life Than This was earlier recorded as a Queen track with Deacon on the guitar. And in "The Solo Collection", you can hear "18. She Blows Hot & Cold (Alternative Version Feat. Brian May).wtf", but it's a jam with Bri. That demonstrates that some songs started growing in Queen, or at least have another person than Freddie in them. |
| winterspelt 25.01.2015 23:16 |
I remember Mack said something about Freddie wanted to leave the band, if Im not mistaken he said that in the DOOL video. |
| miraclesteinway 26.01.2015 04:03 |
Wow the vocal on Blows Hot and Cold is spectacular in places! It's better with Brian playing, this could have been on Queen forever, if Roger had added drums. I bet John played bass.... Mr Bad Guy was never a good enough album for it to be Freddie's escape route. It is highly accomplished of course, and it has some nice songs on it. Your Kind of Lover is a decent track although to my ear the '92 remix works better and would have worked better in 1985. Foolin' Around is also a nice track, but it's not particularly of its time. Made In Heaven is potentially a beautiful song, but for me the vocal sound is a little fractured, the tuning is suspect in places and the arrangement sucks. I prefer the Queen version because it feels more supported. The same with I Was Born To Love You, although the vocal on Born to Love You is much better. Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow is kitsch to the point of being almost painful, and if it wasn't that Freddie manages to sing it so well, it would be a terrible listen. In places the Mr Bad Guy LP is like genius gone mad. That said, the title track is an out and out masterpiece, and had he put more stuff like that on it, it might not have sold any more but it would have been more highly regarded amongst fans. All that criticism aside, which I know is in places harsh (I'm sorry Freddie, I do love you!), perhaps the whole point of the album was to be kind of kitsch and camp, since it's well known that Freddie was always a little self-depricating at times, and viewed in that light I love the over the top nature of the LP. For a musical experience however, it's not a patch on anything he did with Queen, and is not even close to Barcelona which is a very different kind of masterpiece. When I listen to Mr Bad Guy, the album I mean, I hear a work that has taken a very long time to complete, because it has dragged on and on, and was hurried up at the last minute perhaps because of record company pressure. I get the impression that by the time it was released even, Freddie was already back on track with Queen and probably having heard the album, realised that Queen was better than he was under the circumstances. It's like he needed the grounding influence of the other band members to hone his talents, and they needed him for out and out creativity. |
| br5946 29.01.2015 05:07 |
Maybe it was Freddie's escape route - it definitely sounds like it. But I'm throwing in my two pennies in regards to the people who say 'oh Mr. Bad Guy's a crap album, blah blah'. Well, I'd say they're about 80% wrong, in my opinion. It has some amazing tracks on it, which again, show that it's very much a Freddie record, on which he spread his proverbial wings. My only problems are Foolin' Around and Love Is Dangerous. The former has grown on me slightly over the years, but I personally believe that if you replace Foolin' with New York (the Freddie solo track, not the Highlander one), and Dangerous with Love Making Love, it would've been perfect. |