In WWRY from 6 BBC session we can hear quite strange woman voice after the slow part of song. Many sources say it is from book Siddhartha written by Hermann Hesse. It sounds something like that : "..believed he created God and Brahma. The Buddha rejected Brahmism and mocked at its rituals. As for Brahma, the Buddha didn't deny his existance, but regarded him as a deluded spirit, who imagined he had created the universe." So lets check it, Siddhartha can be downloaded freely here : link .I was searching for the all phrase and for key words such as buddha, universe and found nothing. I don't think there is such a big difference in translation. Anybody can solve this ? :)
I agree, the woman does not read from the novel Siddharta. Someone brought that up at some point and other fans just repeated it. We already had a thread about the issue and nobody was able to spot the text in Hesse's novel. If it is true that the reading was accidentally left on the tape from a previous broadcast, it also does not matter if Brian likes the novel or not because it was coincidental.
Greg suggests that it's from an adaptation. In which case it should be easy to confirm - can anybody who has read this meisterwork confirm that the quote is consistent with the gist of the book?
No, the quote has nothing to do with the novel. In the novel the Buddha is described as a wise man who is quiet, self -content, polite and tolerant. He does not "mock" or "reject" Brahmanism. However, the historical Buddha did deny the existence of Brahman, therefore I believe that the text on the tape is from an essay on Buddhism and has nothing to do with Hesse.
Admittedly, I am somewhat late to this party. That said, I have heard the spoken portion so many times that I feel confident enough that what is actually said is:
'Hichara believed he could create a god in Brachma. The Budha rejected Brahmism and mocked at it's rituals. As for Brachma, the Budha did'nt deny his existence but regared him as a deluded spirit who imagined he had created the universe'.
PS. A copy of the Tommy Vance session would be greatly appreciated (without 'Sleeping on the sidewalk').
imho this is Brian's finest hour, YV is right no-one's really identified the source of the spoken word piece, it adds a surreal element of mystery, and funny how Brian remarks that the lyrics reflect a life cycle. Freddie's vocal ad libs bring the song to life just as much -- while John's bass lines mesh so perfectly with Roger's thunderous drums. Griffin, and ya can't stop rockin'
It wasnt 'added' at all by the BBC. It was already on the tape that Queen were recording onto. It wasnt uncommon for the BBC to re-use "one pass" tapes. (tapes that had been recorded over only once). Im not sure if it was on the 2" multitrack or on the 2trk master.
Two problems I have with it. The abnormally long gap in which the portion sits - a deliberate move perhaps?
If the band was playing live onto 4 track tape at the BBC in 1977 there wouldn't have been free space for it to leak though
I've long thought that the 1977 session was recorded at Wessex and the tape finished off at the BBC (as per almost all other BBC sessions.
The opening traditional WWRY was recorded during the News of The World sessions there are some obvious cues to this. They then recorded the fast version at Maida Vale the tape wasn't quite at the start and some Radio 4 stuff was already on it. The band liked the Radio 4 stuff going into the fast version so as to mix things correctly using Lap Of The Gods revisited ending and WWRY from the NOTW session they created the (in my opinion) ultimate version of WE WILL ROCK YOU.................