Queen
East Rutherford, NJ, USA
Brendan Byrne Arena
August 9, 1982
This is an interesting US 1982 show - the famous night when Brian May destroyed his Birch spare guitar at the end of his solo spot. I've had this for years thinking it was just another copy, but it's actually an alternate source ! And this particular one is valuable, as there aren't too many recordings of the band doing Life Is Real.
Judging by Mercury's echoes in Now I'm Here, this taper was on the other side of the stage from the taper of the original source. The sound is very good, and the mix is less muddy, with the lead vocal being clearer. This is well worth a listen.
There is a lot of frustration and aggression in the band at this point in their career, and it shows. Following the failure of the Hot Space album, their off stage excess peaked on this tour. With the benefit of hindsight, recordings like this reveal it making its way on stage as well. The tempos of many of the songs are much too fast, and Freddie even gets ahead of John Deacon in the intro of Get Down Make Love - a rare blip in his otherwise impeccable sense of time. Roger Taylor's normally rock solid voice is hoarse in spots, and the normally well mannered Brian May lets his spare guitar have it when the moment is right.
This is probably the earliest example of Queen dialing it in for much of the night (there are similar nights on The Works tour). They were never bad (far from it), but this is about as close to a collectively bad night as they ever had. Yet they still manage to keep it all together. They were too professional and committed to their craft to be anything less.
Thanks to Rob Schoorl for doing the tape transfer.
AUD > Cassette (x) > CDR (0) > WAV (GoldWave speed correction) > FLAC level 8
More info: link
1) Flash (tape)
2) Rock It
3) We Will Rock You (fast)
4) Action This Day
5) Play The Game
6) Somebody To Love [cut]
7) Now I'm Here
8) Dragon Attack
9) Now I'm Here (reprise)
10) Save Me
11) Calling All Girls
12) Get Down Make Love [cut]
13) guitar solo
14) Body Language
15) Under Pressure
16) Life Is Real
17) Fat Bottomed Girls
18) Crazy Little Thing Called Love
19) Bohemian Rhapsody
20) Tie Your Mother Down [cut]
21) We Are The Champions [cut] link
Enjoy, keep it lossless, and don't bootleg this !
The best source so far, very listenable, makes the old one to be the alternate.
But not complete, and completeness is a great value here (as well as some dubious human values).
brians wig wrote:
So.
Two (mono?) sources, from either side of the stage?
Stereo mix, anyone, or is the other mix not good enough?
Ahh, a matrix !
Great idea, but man, would that ever be a challenge with two analog sources playing at different speeds. It has to be so perfectly executed, otherwise you get phasing.
I tried a couple little bits, the parts where stereo sound would be most useful. Use headphones.