Uncredited musicians playing on Queen albums

Sweet Insanity wrote:

Who plays the damn harmonica, clarinet, cello, and violin on It's A Hard Life???

There's no harmonica, clarinet, cello or violin on It's a Hard Life.

Hi Sebastian, having listened to Rock it this morning, I'm interested to hear who you think the voices that at aren't Queen come from.  To me, I think it's a case of being used to Freddie being in the mix which is odd for BV's that changes what I'm used to hearing.

I think Roy Thomas Baker Sings the "6 7 8 9 oclock" part of good old fashioned lover boy... but i think he is credited... xD

Rock It: I've got no idea. It could be anybody: producers, engineers, or just a band member breathing differently or having a cold.

Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy: It's Mike Stone, and it's not the counting, but 'hey boy...'. Roy Thomas Baker didn't take part on that album. '...o'clock' is by Freddie.

Sebastian wrote:

Rock It: I've got no idea. It could be anybody: producers, engineers, or just a band member breathing differently or having a cold.

Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy: It's Mike Stone, and it's not the counting, but 'hey boy...'. Roy Thomas Baker didn't take part on that album. '...o'clock' is by Freddie.

Yeah! your right! thanks for the correction... I remember I read that somewhere a couple of years ago...

ThomasQuinn wrote:

 



cmsdrums wrote:



Interesting that David Richards programmed the congas on .Days Of Our Lives;  as a Roger composition I'd always assumed that they may have retained his original loops from his demo version (presuming that he did them on that).

Do we know, or think, that Josh Macrae may have played anything like percussion, or programmed stuff on Made In Heaven??

Congas are notoriously difficult to record (as are many percussion instruments), so its unlikely that any percussion on his demo would've been of sufficient audio quality to use in the final mix.

I'm sure that congas can't be that difficult to record, (I've done it once myself an an album!), especially for quality engineers, producers and musicians working in the top recording studios as recently as the 90's - even on 'demos'.  Having said that, I am sure that parts on TATDOOL are samples that are looped as opposed to played 'live' all the way through.

@ Sebastian (thanks for the good pieces of info).

As for the end of Rock It, what are you refering to? Leads or backing vocals? Which part, the very end?

Well, if you mean the very end, I would say it still sounds like Roger to me. If you refer to the last "we want some prime jive", about a minute before the end of the track, I would guess it is just the band, but there could be someone else I could not hear.

Cheers,

Ogre-

Years ago, I used to have 'The Game' DTS tracks, and I thoroughly examined backing vocals for every song. On all the pieces, I was positive that only the band were included, except for Rock It ('we want some prime jive') and maybe the last chorus in Dragon Attack.

Mmmm, then I know the part you are talking about. It is possible, but I would instinctly think the other way. I have these DTS files here somewhere and I could share them when found. I cannot find them right now, because I am coincidently in the middle of a massive backup. My computer is turning itself off from time to time, so I figured it is time to backup :/

Cheers,

Ogre-

Hey, I have just found the DTS files for Rock It and you may be right. On the front right channel, at 3min8s, a difficult to define voice appears. Maybe that is the one you are talking about. I would tend to think it is Brian, but this certainly is not an easy one. It could well be somebody else, member of the band or not. BTW, you've got PM :)

Cheers,

Ogre-

Thank you. Now:

- Front left: 'We want some prime jive' has two voices in falsetto. They're probably coming from the same person, but it's hard to say for sure who's responsible: Roger's the obvious option, probably using a mellower tone than his usual rough one. Mack's synth is easily noticeable here too.

- Front right: A nice low voice that is definitely neither May nor Taylor. It's definitely Mercury, single-tracked.

- Surround left: Now, the high voice is definitely Roger, which makes me doubt a little about the one in front left, because this one is definitely very 'Rod Stewart-esque', and the other isn't. But then again, any singer can perform differently depending on what they want. There's more than one person singing the low part, one of them is definitely Freddie, the other one's neither May nor Taylor, but can easily be Freddie double-tracking himself. Btw, it's rather obvious here that the rhythm guitar is played by May. Roger's tradition of playing most of the instruments in his own songs seems to have disappeared once he started working on solo and Cross albums.

- Surround right: Freddie, double-tracked. Now, May could be there too, but I doubt it.

At the end of the day, it looks I was wrong: no outside voices.

I played lead guitar on Hammer to Fall and wasn't credited.

I told Brian it would be ok so long as he bought me a beer and he did!

cms drums wrote:

I'm sure that congas can't be that difficult to record, (I've done it once myself an an album!),

I was thinking the same thing about all of Brian's guitar solos.

cmsdrums wrote:

ThomasQuinn wrote:

 







cmsdrums wrote:







Interesting that David Richards programmed the congas on .Days Of Our Lives;  as a Roger composition I'd always assumed that they may have retained his original loops from his demo version (presuming that he did them on that).

Do we know, or think, that Josh Macrae may have played anything like percussion, or programmed stuff on Made In Heaven??

Congas are notoriously difficult to record (as are many percussion instruments), so its unlikely that any percussion on his demo would've been of sufficient audio quality to use in the final mix.

I'm sure that congas can't be that difficult to record, (I've done it once myself an an album!), especially for quality engineers, producers and musicians working in the top recording studios as recently as the 90's - even on 'demos'.  Having said that, I am sure that parts on TATDOOL are samples that are looped as opposed to played 'live' all the way through.

Congas produce a broadband tone (meaning one containing a many different frequencie), and thus require careful miking. A single condensator microphone, however, will invariably give a thin sound. At least two would be needed, with careful placement. It could be done, but it would be highly *unlikely* on a demo.

cmsdrums wrote:
I am sure that parts on TATDOOL are samples that are looped as opposed to played 'live' all the way through.

Interesting, I have the same theory about WWRY....