Not in the Freddie days.
He was very prominent on songs like Action this day and Under Pressure but not solo.
Post-Freddie he's sung much more: Days of Our Lives, Say it's not true, Under Pressure, the bridge in Hammer to Fall with QPR.
There's a recording of Brian and Roger playing live with a Taylor Hawkins side project where Roger sings Tenement Funster and Brian does Long Away.
Wiley wrote:
There's a recording of Brian and Roger playing live with a Taylor Hawkins side project where Roger sings Tenement Funster and Brian does Long Away.
Cool! It's a shame that the youtube sources are terrible. Is there any decent quality recording of this?
Wiley wrote:
Not in the Freddie days.
He was very prominent on songs like Action this day and Under Pressure but not solo.
Post-Freddie he's sung much more: Days of Our Lives, Say it's not true, Under Pressure, the bridge in Hammer to Fall with QPR.
There's a recording of Brian and Roger playing live with a Taylor Hawkins side project where Roger sings Tenement Funster and Brian does Long Away.
Oh okay, nice to know. Anybody know if the lines from "Keep Yourself Alive" were ever sung? "Do you think you're better everyday? No, I just think I'm two steps closer to my grave."
The King Of Rhye wrote:
Also, I have a vague memory of hearing some Q+PR bootlegs where he sung a few more songs than usual, I think because Paul had a cold or something?
bill_lbk wrote:
Sorry about the quality of Taylor Hawkins YT clips, I was very close to the front and the poor iPhone was a bit overloaded....
Still much better than nothing :-) Thank you!
The King Of Rhye wrote:
Also, I have a vague memory of hearing some Q+PR bootlegs where he sung a few more songs than usual, I think because Paul had a cold or something?
I know next to nothing about the PR era (every time I see the guy or hear the unfamiliar voice I just tune out), but it would have been cool that the guy got sick right after the first couple songs at some gig and Brian and Roger just resorted to singing themselves rather than pull out, even at the risk of screwing up the lyrics and whatnot.
cmsdrums wrote:
I recall talk of a 70s gig where Freddie’s voice was so shot that Roger covered a few vocals, and apparently sang most of Don’t Stop Me Now?
Japan 79. Roger drives the bus on that tour, as Freddie had about a quarter of his voice on most nights. It's surprising they didn't drop the song in favour of something easier to sing.
And then they dropped It's Late for the fall tour when he was back to top form. Weird, that.
tenenementdrowse wrote:
Would you say Roger was more vocally efficient or better than Brian?
Far far better than Brian - even when drumming at the same time. There are many established lead vocalists who’d kill to deliver a vocal as good as Roger’s vocal on I’m in Love With My Car. His vocals live and on record with The Cross we’re also a high point - always consistent and never (to my knowledge) lost his voice on those tours.
Brian is essentially a backing vocalist that sings the odd lead track, though the secret is that the tracks he sang (Sail Away Sweet Sister, All Dead All Dead bring two great examples) always really suited his voice. Once he started releasing his own albums where he was singing every track, his limitations became clear.
During last year’s tour (and also sometimes in 2015/16) Roger sang “A Kind of Magic“. Here is a nice video of it from my show in Wembley (not my video). I really enjoyed that live! link