| gandorb 10.04.2020 14:08 |
Each album from Queen seems fairly distinct to me. However, there was often at least one song from the previous album that in retrospect seemed to hint at the direction that the band was going to take on the next album. Please indicate what it was about the song that made you select it as moving towards the sound of the next album For me, My Fairy King from Queen 1 was a harbinger for Queen II. It's multi-layered vocals, flight of fancy, reference to royalty, and dramatic shifts of tone would have fit perfectly on Queen II. What is a good example of this phenomenon that you would like to contribute? I am interested in seeing a variety of opinions, SO PLEASE LIMIT YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO ONE OR TWO EXAMPLES AT FIRST.. |
| Sebastian 10.04.2020 16:52 |
One or two examples per album, or in general? I'll list one or two per album (not counting the OST), feel free to ignore everything from my third example onwards: Queen: 'My Fairy King', as you said; also 'Great King Rat'. II: 'Nevermore' (piano ballad) and 'Father to Son'. Heart: 'Lap of the Gods' (operatic influences) and 'Leroy Brown'. Opera: 'Best Friend' (poppier) and 'Love of My Life'. Races: 'Teo Torriatte' (anthemic) and 'Tie Your Mother Down'. News: 'Spread Your Wings' (anthemic, piano driven) and 'Fight from the Inside'. Jazz: 'Fun It' (minimalist) and 'Fat Bottomed Girls' (anthemic and simpler). The Game: 'Rock It' (loops and synths) and 'Another One Bites the Dust'. Hot Space: 'Action This Day' (arpeggiator, session musicians), 'Put Out the Fire'. The Works: 'I Want to Break Free' and 'Machines'. A Kind of Magic: 'One Vision' (joint credit) and 'Don't Lose Your Head'. The Miracle: 'Was It All Worth It' and 'I Want It All'. Innuendo: 'Bijou' (seriously!) and perhaps 'Don't Try So Hard'. |
| emrabt 10.04.2020 17:14 |
And Made in Heaven had "Let me live" |
| NickiP 11.04.2020 06:40 |
I’m interested is Sebastian’s assessment. From Need of the World onwards each of his suggestions includes a Roger track. I recall an interview somewhere where Brian says that Roger was always a bit ahead of the others in style etc. Deb’s assessment would seem to agree with that. Care to expand? |
| NickiP 11.04.2020 06:41 |
Ps sorry for name typo - on phone and can’t edit... |
| matt z 11.04.2020 07:13 |
What were "BIJOU/Don't Try So Hard" precursors to? And I'll toss in one. "DON'T TRY SUICIDE": stylistic theft of a current hit: Walking on the Moon. Something they'd continue for years to come. |
| stevelondon20 11.04.2020 08:23 |
matt z wrote: What were "BIJOU/Don't Try So Hard" precursors to? And I'll toss in one. "DON'T TRY SUICIDE": stylistic theft of a current hit: Walking on the Moon. Something they'd continue for years to come.Blimey, they are very similar! |
| Sebastian 11.04.2020 13:01 |
NickiP wrote: I’m interested is Sebastian’s assessment. From Need of the World onwards each of his suggestions includes a Roger track.Interesting observation. It wasn't deliberate, but it makes sense as you say. The reasons why I picked those were: - 'Fight from the Inside': Harmonically similar (though not identical) to 'Fun It' and 'More of That Jazz', plus the arrangement was somewhat minimalist yet interesting with that nice interplay amongst both guitars. Albums from 'Jazz' onwards would rely less on having big guitar choirs and more on Brian (or Brian + someone else) recording a couple of rhythm/lead tracks and still creating a nice big sound with them. - 'Fun It': Spare arrangement, loop-based, e-drums. It's almost like a 'The Game' track before 'The Game' even existed. The Roger/Frederick duet also foreshadows 'Coming Soon' and 'Action This Day'. - 'Rock It': Again loop-based (preceding the drum computers they'd use from 'Hot Space' onwards), plus the synth's a lot more prominent than on 'Coming Soon', and the vocal sounds to me (and I could be ridiculously wrong here) like it's recorded and equalised similarly to what would take place later on ('Hot Space', 'The Works', 'Magic'). - 'Action This Day': One of the first tracks with arpeggiator (which would be used a lot for 'The Works'), and there's a guest musician (again, something Queen would often feature from there onwards), and the combination of drum machines with human drums is also something they'd do a lot way until the end ('Headlong', 'Mother Love'). - 'Machines': Brian's idea of combining the human element with the computers and sequencers is something they all did later on, perhaps in a more subtle way, but it was still there. Even 'The Show Must Go On' combines digital drums (MIDI-generated) with Roger's playing. - 'Don't Lose Your Head': Continuing the aforementioned machines vs humans trend (not just on drums but also bass), plus having guest musicians and a lot of synths but still a bit of a rock feel. It preceded the likes of 'Ride the Wild Wind', for instance. matt z wrote: What were "BIJOU/Don't Try So Hard" precursors to?When I think of the three vocals Frederick did post-'Innuendo' (i.e. 'You Don't Fool Me', 'A Winter's Tale' and part of 'Mother Love'), 'Bijou' and 'Don't Try So Hard' are the most similar performances to those in my opinion, in terms of colour, breathing and even EQ. Also, the way synths are used on both songs ('Bijou' and 'Don't Try So Hard') is similar to the general 'Made in Heaven' vibe. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the same presets made an appearance. |
| JS21 13.04.2020 09:42 |
Can we include 'Get down make love' from NOTW as a harbinger for expicit lyrical content in later songs, specifically hotspace Freddie songs, body language, staying power etc. even 'Don't stop me now' in Jazz? I can't think of any songs in that vein in previous albums. I might be wrong. |
| MyHumanZoo 13.04.2020 16:06 |
Fascinating breakdown and I think very accurate! Now if we could have the reverse.....are there songs from each album that are the last of a style/format/technique that they did? |
| JS21 13.04.2020 16:23 |
@MyHumanzoo - songs that immediately come to my mind are those ragtime songs they did like 'seaside rendezvous, lazing on a sunday afternoon'. Queen music was evolving so may have sounded out of place, in their later albums. |
| fras444 13.04.2020 23:44 |
Apologies for hijacking this topic but..... Sebastian.... Your last reply... You sought of touched on a very interesting subject that I am very intrigued with.. The combined songwriting pre Miracle... With what was the emerging duo power house of Freddie and John during the last throws of the 80s that kind of preceded the Freddie Roger combination of the 70s and the early 80s/ A Kind Magic (which was a sort of a combined approach) ... although it was a very strict 'Roger got the full credits' affair as apposed to the shared 'Freddie and John' credits that we got. It seems that the Brian and Roger combination was sort of a thing that was just starting that could have happened or have been something more but. The timeline of Queen+John+Freddie ended before anything could have come from the two, which has grown since the passing of Freddie and John's step back from everything QUEEN... Although no new music has ever been made as such...Some could say, MIH and Only the Good die young...?? Cosmos Rock??? Was an example of a closer working relationship between Brian and Roger What are your thoughts on the subject of co-writing within Queen the evolution and the possible direction post Magic? Was the Freddie John combination a working possibility for the future... Was Roger and Brian leaning towards a more combined approach. I do feel that there is a very interesting story and behind the scenes of joining forces for sharing and combining song writing ideas within Queen. Brian and John was possibly the only duo to have never crossed paths in regards to song writing although it seems that Brian held John in high regards with regards to not taking over bass duties on his songs and the bass laid on Brian's tracks was always top notch and John was also shared the odd opportunity to lay down the odd guitar part on his songs... I have read that John played some guitar on Someday one day. But.. Brian and Freddie..... The two most forefront members of the band... only truly cross paths twice/trice....??? Both ballads, Is This the World We Created...? Borjou and Mother love. I find the lack of co-writing between the two interesting although they maybe more behind the scenes that we don't truly know... Did Brian have more of an input in the earlier years with Freddie's songs than what we know? Queen I and the handful of songs that went on to Queen II, That very embryonic period is often mentioned as the only true time that we had the band actually sharing and combining ideas as such. His comment on the song Liar and asking Freddie if he would get some credit and that response "The songwriter gets full credit..." then Brian coming out in the late 2000s with the comment regarding credits he feels he should get regarding the guitar part in Boh Rhap and I remember he mentioned another song that he feels that he had a big helping hand/un-credited... Seven seas of rhy maybe?? |
| Sebastian 14.04.2020 01:32 |
Yes, I mean, there's a bit of a grey area there, but as you said, 'Seven Seas of Rhye' had a lot of input from Brian, and 'Save Me' was also admittedly co-written between Brian and Frederick (Brian admitted so in a contemporary interview). There's also 'Hangman', which dates from around 1970, and 'Stone Cold Crazy' (where Brian took the riff Frederick had composed and changed it completely), so there were some collaborations long before 'The Miracle'. |
| Invisible Woman 14.04.2020 16:45 |
To me, Who Wants To Live Forever and Bijou are somehow related and I often listen the one after the other. Bijou is like a sequel to Who Wants To Live Forever. |