Next in my little series of recordings of the piano parts of early Queen songs comes The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke.
Again, as with so much of the early stuff, there's one main piano throughout, and a second that provides at least the overdub at "jolly fellow". I'm almost certain this second piano also doubles the main one in the intro too, so that's what I did on my recording (which annoyingly sounds slightly phased at that point).
There's also the harpischord as well, of course. It's a not a very forgiving instrument to play with it being so sharp and clear, so kudos to Fred for his precise playing on this.
This one was quite fun to do and, as ever, I found one or two little surprises in the keyboard parts that I wasn't really aware of until I'd studied them forensically. And the timing at the start's a bit of a bugger too. I'm not convinced that Queen played it strictly in time.
In the Bbm harpsichord solo section, I really can't hear what the piano's doing there. In fact I'm not even certain there is piano. But I feel Fred must have played something there, so I played the most likely thing. The next section in D is also impossible to discern exactly, though for the most part I know I'm basically there.
Anyway, enjoy (hopefully).
I really liked it, very interesting and, as you said, a few surprises. It would've been quite an experience to have been there as Fred was coming up with those different bits.
Bohardy, now that you say that you can't hear the piano at some part (I don't know which part is), hear this remaster made by C_Matt. I'm sure you'll hear more clearly the whole song.
And if you like it, check the fanmixes forum. There you'll find he remastered: A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races, Hot Space, The Game, The Works, A Kind Of Magic and he is remastering Queen II.
I hope you enjoy it. This MP3 contains Ogre Battle, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke and Nevermore.
:-)
BETA215 wrote:
Bohardy, now that you say that you can't hear the piano at some part (I don't know which part is), hear this remaster made by C_Matt. I'm sure you'll hear more clearly the whole song.
:-)
Damn, I forgot to check C_Matt's version before I did this. But having had a listen now, it hasn't helped, other than basically confirming that there is no piano in the Bbm section as I suspected. Still, for the purposes of this recording I think it sounds better having something there.
MrFunster wrote:
Magnificient piano by bohardy, im looking forward to march of the black queen
Thanks Funster. You'll find TMOTBQ here however: link
And thanks for the other comments folks.
Incredible!
As others said, please do more! Early Queen records are full of known and unknown gems.
This make me regret even more not to have any formal music education (and being incapable of playing an instrument... even three chords on a guitar is too much for me). I admire those who can do this kind of thing.
Im looking forward to hear My fairy king some day, it would be awesome if you could try this one too, tonight i will listen to the march ofvthe black queen.....
Thanks again for the comments folks.
Funster - I was thinking about doing My Fairy Queen or The Millionaire Waltz next, but in all honesty, they're not that interesting (for me), especially the former. I don't think there are any overdubs on either (though there may possibly be on MFQ), and the piano parts are pretty much just chordal throughout, with no licks, arpeggios, or single note lines to make them interesting.
Seaside Rendezvous has a bit more going on, with three piano parts I think, so I may give that one a go. But the piano on the mix is pretty clear throughout, so hearing it isolated wouldn't be as much of a surprise as it is for the other songs I've done.
What about 'Leroy Brown' then? It's not a long song but the piano's quite interesting and it changes a lot. Plus, Fred's dueting with himself (on grand piano and jangle).
Bohardy wrote:
Seaside Rendezvous has a bit more going on, with three piano parts I think, so I may give that one a go. But the piano on the mix is pretty clear throughout, so hearing it isolated wouldn't be as much of a surprise as it is for the other songs I've done.
I fucking love the intro of Lap Of The Gods that you did. So much. I've listened to it so much. Would you be willing to do a WAV of just that into, or something around that theme I could incorporate into an original idea? A big ask, but I think your stuff is amazing.
dysan wrote:
I fucking love the intro of Lap Of The Gods that you did. So much. I've listened to it so much. Would you be willing to do a WAV of just that into, or something around that theme I could incorporate into an original idea? A big ask, but I think your stuff is amazing.
Whoa, cheers Dysan. I'll try to upload the WAV of the intro somewhere later today. Might try and dust off BBTLB or SR too.