Uncredited musicians playing on Queen albums

Polyphonic samplers didn't exist in 1977. [i]We Will Rock You [/i]may have used looping, echo, reverb, phasing or even varispeed, but it didn't have sampling as we know it, and as was employed in [i]Days of Our Lives[/i].

WWRY is a tape loop.

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[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]

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.
[/QUOTE] Amazingly Rock IT came round on my ipod shuffle out of 6,000 tunes this monring on the way to work! - this raised a further question;

Does Roger play the bass on this track?  (I don't have the sleeve with me so it could be addressed on there, and so apologies if so) - it certainly doesn't seem like John's style at all. 

Additionally are you saying that Brian plays rhythm guitar just on the ned parts (feasible) or all the way through the song?  It definitely seems like Roger to me on some rhythm parts of the song.

Cheers - good to see another healthy discussion about the music rather than who has the biggest cock in hte band or whatever else fascinates some people!!

It does sound totally John to me. Roger could've played bass and rhythm guitar on several of his own songs, but [i]Rock It [/i]isn't one of them.

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[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]

It does sound totally John to me. Roger could've played bass and rhythm guitar on several of his own songs, but [i]Rock It [/i]isn't one of them.
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Col - I would have expected more of the high notes from John rather than the simpler, far more rhythmic parts on here, but I'm sure you're right - it would just emphasise John's knack for always playing for the song.  In addition, I'm sure it would be credited on the sleeve notes if it were Roger.

In a similar vein, I recall that the percussive intro part to Rain Must Fall is very much based on the John Deacon track from the Biggles soundtrack - although I haven't directly compared the two, I recall them being very similar in places; do we know if any parts of the Rain Must Fall rhythm are actually the same parts taken from the Deacon track, or just that he had ideas based on the earlier song along a similar vein but The Miracle version is completely new takes??

I don't think it's the same, but indeed very similar.

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[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]

Polyphonic samplers didn't exist in 1977. [i]We Will Rock You [/i]may have used looping, echo, reverb, phasing or even varispeed, but it didn't have sampling as we know it, and as was employed in [i]Days of Our Lives[/i].
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Never mind....

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[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]

Roger's the obvious option, probably using a [b]mellower tone[/b] than his usual rough one.
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This is very interesting... are there other clearer instances where any of the band "edit" there voices to sound better for a particular part of a song (or all of it) ??? More interested in Freddie really?

Freddie was marvellous when it came to adapting his voice to different passages. Just think about [i]Bo Rhap[/i] and how he changes during 'gotta leave you all behind and face the truth', starting off very melancholic and ending up more angry than anything; by the time he's on 'Mamma' he's already in the aggressive state: besides being a phenomenal singer, he was a very good actor!

That particular topic deserves a lot of research. I've still got very little knowledge about it, but I hope to improve soon(er or later).

Judging by John's ability to play guitar choirs (as he did on [i]Misfire[/i]), he could've theoretically added some later on (e.g. [i]Spread Your Wings, Who Needs You, In Only Seven Days[/i]... at least one of them).

Also, some people have suggested Roger played rhythm since earlier on (e.g. [i]Tenement Funster[/i]) rather than [i]Drowse[/i]. It could easily be true, and could easily be false.

Brian says in that documentary about ANATO that Mike Stone is the real unsung hero of the album - I know he's not uncredited in a strict sense, nor a musician who played - except for that line in GOFLB, I guess - on the albums, but a more in-depth view of his work with the band would be really welcomed and a delight to read (or watch). It's slightly off-topic but still in some way related to the core of the thread - very important people behind Queen's sound whose work are not as well known as some of us would wish it to be, perhaps.  

Do you guys know of any good sources documenting his work with Queen and perhaps even other bands in more depth? What's in the documentary about ANATO sounds too vague. It's great as an introduction about how the album was conceived and recorded, but it doesn't tell or show that much, in fact.

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[b]Penetration_Guru wrote: [/b]

I have to confirm whether I was joking?????

Idiots..

On the horns, Sebastian - what are the chances that they're performed on a synth to Mardin's arrangement?[/QUOTE]
And here's me thinking it was the Muscle Shoals horn section...Thought I'd better check, looked on the vinyl notes and no mention.Mmm...





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