This is something I've been meaning to ask/say for ages, and today the day has come when I achieve that momentous goal.
I know Sebastian's fond of quoting Brian as saying that the only times on Queen records where he used an electric guitar other than the Red Special are on CLTCL (Rog's Telecaster) and Long Away (his Burns 12-String), but this is patently untrue.
For a start we have the Parker-Fly he used on Mother Love and the electric 12-string on Under Pressure. But to add to that we now possibly have "Ben's guitar".
The guitar on Man On The Prowl is quite obviously not the Red Special, and sounds like a Telecaster, which would be the obvious choice given that Bri was forced to use one for CLTCL, and MOTP clearly harks back to that song. Now I think I'm right in saying that by 1983 Bri owned his own Tele, but the sleeve-notes for The Works have a thanks to "Ben's guitar". Possibly Bri borrowed this guitar for MOTP. And possibly not.
So obviously the questions are: who was Ben, what was his guitar, and why is it being thanked?
Any thoughts/insight/ideas/money to give me?
Sounds like the name of a guitar shop - maybe he needed some technical service during the sessions in L.A. ? Don't think it's another guitar. But maybe others can shed some light on this... ?
I suppose it's a possibility, but I really doubt that's the case.
Besides, the 'guitar' is in lower-case, which wouldn't be the case if it was part of a proper name.
You do have a point about the other-guitar thing. Brian said he never used in other than CLTCL and Long Away, but Brian also said Master Stroke was done at Wessex, the harmonies in the highest "very very frightening me" are Roger, Freddie and himself, Bo Rhap's backing track was done in one take (from beginning to end), there's no version of Freddie singing Silver Salmon, there are 180 voices in Bo Rhap, 18 guitars in Millionaire Waltz, Fred didn't use Steinway pianos, they didn't put overdubs in Live Killers, and the most famous of all: he said for years and years (before and after Freddie died) that Queen was only Queen with the four of them. So I think he might have lied about the guitar thing too :)
Anyway, I've never been in England (and when I was in the States I didn't go to any music shop) but it seems there are many stores with people's names, like Jacques Samuels (where they rented the white Bechstein). Still it could also be referred to something used by John (or maybe Roger) as rhythm in some track.
As for Man On The Prowl, Brian said he could imitate a Telecaster with the Red Special. Maybe that time they did let him do it. Highly unlikely though
deleted user 07.11.2004 20:02
I think there's some possibility in the notion that Bri made his fireplace sound like a Tele.
Seb, just out of interest, could you give me the exact quote where Bri claims that Boh Rhap's backing-track was recorded in one go ?
"before and after Freddie died) that Queen was only Queen with the four of them. So I think he might have lied about the guitar thing too :)"
Oh thats lame, very very weak
I agree with the candy-floss theory, but I think there's absolutely no way that that's the RS imitating a Tele on MOTP.
I know this isn't exactly the same, as Bri was using a limited setup, but on the Starlicks video he talks about approximating a Tele sound with the RS and then proceeds to use this Tele sound for CLTCL, and it's entirely different to the guitar sound on MOTP.
And Phil, regarding the Bo Rhap backing-track, I think Seb's talking about Brian's comments in the section about it on the GVHI DVD. I can't remember exact quotes, but he certainly gives the impression there that F, J and R played the whole backing live in one take.