I think the album being rushed is right on, and remember freddie was on tour with queen and in between albums with the works and then magic. In the late eighties with barcelona, which was brilliant IMO, freddie had a lot more time to finish that album, and make it into something special. He also had someone to push him to his limits in mike moran. All the freddie brilliance is there in that album simply because he had the time and supporting cast.
Angeline · Member since
I think it's hard listening to the album now to judge how it would have come across at the time. It seems very dated and 'of it's time', although perhaps this could be seen as reflection on the quality itself - however, I always thought some of the stuff had huge potential if it wasn't so synthy and disco-ish. The basic songwriting quality is there, and some of the songs could have been huge hits for Queen (like Mr. Bad Guy, LMLTNT) which is what I always think about some of the popier side of 'Barcelona'.
Also I take a huge amount of guilty enjoyment in 'Your Kind of Lover'. How upbeat is that song?!
Micrówave · Member since
I think Freddie's downfall was letting his friends and good times take precident over his life. This was quite true in the studio making this record. We hear stories of how difficult Freddie was in the studio making Queen albums. I doubt that was the case here. Perhaps too much "boogie-ing down with the bass man".
I'm sure CBS wasn't very happy with how the record was being made either, so in turn a lackluster promotional campaign was launched.
Winter Land Man · Member since
I like Mr. Bad Guy better than all of Queen's albums from the 1970's... no joke.
louvox · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]MmP wrote: [/b]
Of course, the results in terms of music are not Freddie's best. But I wonder why it failed even with Freddie's putting effort on it. He was a great composer, it's rare not to see even one good hit. When you have Freddie's talent at least one good song has to come out of it and eventually become a hit but I don't really see it there.
There are great songs Mr Bad Guy, Made In Heaven, I Was Born To Love You, Man Made Paradise.
But no hit song at all, really strange to me. And even more strange is that great songs have came up from people mixes! We all know the 3 or 4 from Living on My Own that are great but: Fooling Around and My Love Is Dangerous remixes are just miles better than the originals!. I don't know what Freddie tried to do with this album but rarely s seemed to struggle. He seems to have something but did not quite got there enough a perfect probe of this: Let's Turn It On (which seems more like a good project of song, with great idea but not there at all).
By the wat My Love Is Dangerous Jeff Lord-Alge remix it's just marvellous, even more if you comparte it with the original track, which seems a demo actually...
[/QUOTE]
It flopped because the album SUCKED!! Who the hell wanted to hear an outdated disco/techno/dance offering that sound flat, uninspired & badly recorded. Freddie is a great song writer and musician, but it seems that all he was interested in was appeasing his inner circle of friends instead of creating something special. One would think he would have learned his lesson after the fiasco that was Hot Space.
john bodega · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]louvox wrote:[/b]
Who the hell wanted to hear an outdated disco/techno/dance offering that sound flat, inspired & badly recorded.
[/QUOTE]
Well 1 out of 3 ain't bad...
Angeline · Member since
I was amused by that post you referenced. Almost oxymoronic. Which 1 out of 3 is it -'flat', 'INSPIRED', or 'badly recorded'?
Simon Brown · Member since
Why did it flop?
Because the production was absolute shit. That was
Mack, right? He should be ashamed of himself. Sounds like it was all
played on a Fisher Price musical toy.
Freddie even said that his next solo album he'd let Mack to all the music and he'd just come and sing it, so he obviously didn't care about the backing, he was just looking for a vocal showcase. Fair enough, but there's competent session musicians, and then there's thin underproduced crap like this.
Oh, and the drummer should be shot. Must be some of the most emotionless limp-dicked drumming ever commited to record.
And why go to the effort of getting a real bassoon and various other wind instrument, but leaving the strings as all synth on Mr Bad Guy?
Wimpy white disco I heard it refered to once, and I totally agree.
There were some good songs on there, as shown by their reworking on Made In Heaven. Thank god Barcelona redeemed Fred's solo(ish) status.
john bodega · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Simon Brown wrote:[/b]
Oh, and the drummer should be shot. Must be some of the most emotionless limp-dicked drumming ever commited to record.
[/QUOTE]
No way, that award goes to "Face Dances" by The Who. Kenney Jones is a totally competent drummer but if there's one guy that doesn't sound like he 'gets' The Who, it was him. Case in point; Zak Starkey shows up and the music is fun to listen to again.
Simon Brown · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Zebonka12 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Simon Brown wrote:[/b]
Oh, and the drummer should be shot. Must be some of the most emotionless limp-dicked drumming ever commited to record.
[/QUOTE]
No way, that award goes to "Face Dances" by The Who. Kenney Jones is a totally competent drummer but if there's one guy that doesn't sound like he 'gets' The Who, it was him. Case in point; Zak Starkey shows up and the music is fun to listen to again.
[/QUOTE]
I think Roger Daltrey might agree with you.
john bodega · Member since
He's a smart fellow!
Yara · Member since
One thing is saying that Mr. Bad Guy sucks. It's ok. Claiming that Freddie couldn't go much far on his own is a different story. And as a claim it's quite unfair. It's nice to accept such version of the facts because then we can accept Brian and Roger's failures much easier - not even Queen fans know much about their solo work, let alone non-Queen fans. But things are not that simple.
Freddie didn't have the time to develop a solo career. He got ill and got aware of his illness about the mid-80's and from then on his health condition declined quite fast. Even so, Barcelona was way more successful as a project and as a way of projecting him as an artist than the solo stuff by Brian and Roger - Barcelona gradually became a very well-known project among Queen fans and non-Queen fans alike. Some people remember Freddie mainly from Live Aid and Barcelona.
Barcelona is genuinely creative and inventive. It was something original and explored a much more different soundscape than Roger and Brian's solo albums.
I realized the extent of Freddie's creativity when I got the Freddie box set. He was such a promising solo artist. He left a lot of interesting material and even his songs from Mr. Bad Guy had a lot of potential - set to proper arrangements, I think some songs are definitely good. The amount of demos he left shows how versatile an artist he was.
So I can fully agree with the argument that Mr. Bad Guy was a flop. But I can't by no means agree with the conclusion some are tempted to draw from it: Freddie without Queen couldn't go much far either. That's not true - he could. Barcelona proved it. And he barely had the time to develop a solo career.
mike hunt · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Yara wrote: [/b]
One thing is saying that Mr. Bad Guy sucks. It's ok. Claiming that Freddie couldn't go much far on his own is a different story. And as a claim it's quite unfair. It's nice to accept such version of the facts because then we can accept Brian and Roger's failures much easier - not even Queen fans know much about their solo work, let alone non-Queen fans. But things are not that simple.
Freddie didn't have the time to develop a solo career. He got ill and got aware of his illness about the mid-80's and from then on his health condition declined quite fast. Even so, Barcelona was way more successful as a project and as a way of projecting him as an artist than the solo stuff by Brian and Roger - Barcelona gradually became a very well-known project among Queen fans and non-Queen fans alike. Some people remember Freddie mainly from Live Aid and Barcelona.
Barcelona is genuinely creative and inventive. It was something original and explored a much more different soundscape than Roger and Brian's solo albums.
I realized the extent of Freddie's creativity when I got the Freddie box set. He was such a promising solo artist. He left a lot of interesting material and even his songs from Mr. Bad Guy had a lot of potential - set to proper arrangements, I think some songs are definitely good. The amount of demos he left shows how versatile an artist he was.
So I can fully agree with the argument that Mr. Bad Guy was a flop. But I can't by no means agree with the conclusion some are tempted to draw from it: Freddie without Queen couldn't go much far either. That's not true - he could. Barcelona proved it. And he barely had the time to develop a solo career. [/QUOTE]
the people who point to Mr. Guy as proof that freddie wasn't good without Queen are Jelous brian and roger fans. You have to understand that it must be fustrating being a roger or brian fanatic being that freddie gets most of the credit. Let's face it without freddie they would have been Just another boring rock blues band. Freddie brought originality. Listen to the cosmos rock, is that original?....Also, barcelona is in fact one of the creative and original albums I own. Name one other album that sounds like it?
mike hunt · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Yara wrote: [/b]
One thing is saying that Mr. Bad Guy sucks. It's ok. Claiming that Freddie couldn't go much far on his own is a different story. And as a claim it's quite unfair. It's nice to accept such version of the facts because then we can accept Brian and Roger's failures much easier - not even Queen fans know much about their solo work, let alone non-Queen fans. But things are not that simple.
Freddie didn't have the time to develop a solo career. He got ill and got aware of his illness about the mid-80's and from then on his health condition declined quite fast. Even so, Barcelona was way more successful as a project and as a way of projecting him as an artist than the solo stuff by Brian and Roger - Barcelona gradually became a very well-known project among Queen fans and non-Queen fans alike. Some people remember Freddie mainly from Live Aid and Barcelona.
Barcelona is genuinely creative and inventive. It was something original and explored a much more different soundscape than Roger and Brian's solo albums.
I realized the extent of Freddie's creativity when I got the Freddie box set. He was such a promising solo artist. He left a lot of interesting material and even his songs from Mr. Bad Guy had a lot of potential - set to proper arrangements, I think some songs are definitely good. The amount of demos he left shows how versatile an artist he was.
So I can fully agree with the argument that Mr. Bad Guy was a flop. But I can't by no means agree with the conclusion some are tempted to draw from it: Freddie without Queen couldn't go much far either. That's not true - he could. Barcelona proved it. And he barely had the time to develop a solo career.
[/QUOTE]
the people who point to Mr. Guy as proof that freddie wasn't good without Queen are Jealous brian and roger fans. You have to understand that it must be fustrating being a roger or brian fanatic being that freddie gets most of the credit. Let's face it without freddie they would have been Just another boring rock blues band. Freddie brought originality. Listen to the cosmos rock, is that original?....Also, barcelona is in fact one of the creative and original albums I own. Name one other album that sounds like it?
john bodega · Member since
I think Mr. Bad Guy stands as a solid reminder that *at that time*, Freddie would've been no good without Queen. Earlier than that, or later (if he hadn't had AIDS), who knows what he would have been capable of. [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]The record shows that his first solo album wasn't very good, for whatever reason. It had interesting ideas, but so did TCR. It's not Brian/Roger fan jealousy to say that Freddie didn't do so well on his own because on his first album that was true. And on his second album there was a lot more collaborating going on.[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]I think, at least in the 80's, that Freddie benefited more from creating with others than he did by himself. [/QUOTE]
