alternate Hot Space

Where the fuck did Freddie go off key at during Cool Cat?

Gregsynth wrote: Where the fuck did Freddie go off key at during Cool Cat?
I have always wondered this myself. No mistakes according to my ears.

Yeah, same here. "Cool Cat" sounds perfect. Those high notes Freddie hits are awesome.

You can't deny, the man had a lot of soul!

The leaked version with Bowie is pitched too high, so maybe that's what he's thinking of. At least MY copy is pitched too high. I spent a few minutes correcting it with some audio software, using the album version as a guide, and it sounds much better played correctly.

Does anyone else sing the Bowie parts when listening to the album version? I catch myself doing it.

I think a lot of people are mistaking the scratchier sounding high notes for off-key singing.

Gregsynth wrote: Where the fuck did Freddie go off key at during Cool Cat?

thank you my man!....his vocals on cool cat is one of my favorite vocals he's ever done.  Perfect to my ears.

rhyeking wrote:

At what point does it stop being Hot Space?
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The moment you remove Body Language from the tracklist.
I would say the same applies to Staying Power as well.

Would A Night at the Opera be called that without Bohemian Rhapsody?

You can argue some songs are genius or terrible but the album's concept and entire idea is based on these songs' styles/moods.

Remove them and you might as well be listening to The Works!

"At what point does it stop being Hot Space?"

It was more a rhetorical question, implying exactly what you said. Change anything about it and it's not what it was or what they meant it to be, for better or worse.

But Wiley made a great point:

If you take the dance/funk stuff off Hot Space, it's not Hot Space anymore!

Exactly !!!  That's the point of our deletions.  That's why so many of us removed the so called 'funk'

Queen - Hot Space.  Same cover art, but entirely black & white version, with band name in red

Dancer (with Brian's part's a bit louder in the mix & because it introduces the funnk theme 'hot space')
Staying Power (arrangement = Live at the Bowl, sorry Mr Mardin)
Back Chat (perfect as originally released)
Body Language (original album version showcasing new sounds)
Action This Day (mix/arrangement = Live at the Bowl)

Under Pressure
Calling All Girls
I Go CRazy
Life is Real
Put Out the Fire
Cool Cat (very much agreed re: similarity w/"Melancholy Blues")

great thread! got me listening to HS again. come to this town honey is a showdown!

People want to delete the funk songs?......IMO the funk songs work better than the rockers.  Put out the fire is pretty weak for a rock song.......staying power is easily better.

There's plenty of funk on Hot Space without Body Language.  The other funky songs varied in quality (Back Chat and Cool Cat were the strongest, I think), but none were nearly as bad and career-killing as Body Language.  It sealed the deal for a fair portion of their US fans from the 70s.

All it proved was that some "fans" have no sense of humour. I can just picture these people, upon listening to Hot Space, raving, "But...but...what IS this? I don't get it! I JUST...DON'T...GET IT!"

"Bicycle Race" and the various forays into pop-funk which preceeded Hot Space were more than sufficient clues that the band not only was heading in this direction, but was not taking itself entirely seriously all the time.

I use "Bicycle Race" as a prime example, because it is easily the silliest Queen song ever to be a hit. "Body Language" is at least about the time-honoured subject of sex.

Queen was never a band that was worried about taking itself too seriously. These were not four guys who proclaimed: "We make serious music! Respect our work and be awed by our noble pursuit!"

No. They were four guys having fun. They embraced the campiness Freddie brought to the band. They cringed at times, but that didn't stop them. Roger hated dressing up in medieval ruffles for "It's A Hard Life," but was the first to say "let's dress up as women!" for "I Want To Break Free."

It's convienent now to rewrite history, to focus on Queen's achievements and their Rock trademarks, but a big part of who they were and their public image was much less sophisticated than that. Look at Freddie in the "Killer Queen" BBC performance. He's just a leather jacket and mirrored shades away from the "Body Language" video.

You're entitled to not like the song, but there is no such thing as This Isn't Queen if it's something they recorded and released. "Body Language" is as Queen as "Tie Your Mother Down" or "Liar".

Laugh with "Body Language," and you might find you can like it.

Body Language wasn't very 'Queen', but it was totally Fred. And it succeeded brilliantly at what it was, though I completely get that  most Queen people don't really dig 'what it was'.   That outrageous video still stands 28 years later, delightfully filthy even by today's standards.  Hedonism Inc. I'm glad it's part of the history, particularly in light of losing Fred.

7Innuendo7 wrote: Queen - Hot Space.  Same cover art, but entirely black & white version, with band name in red

Dancer (with Brian's part's a bit louder in the mix & because it introduces the funnk theme 'hot space')
Staying Power (arrangement = Live at the Bowl, sorry Mr Mardin)
Back Chat (perfect as originally released)
Body Language (original album version showcasing new sounds)
Action This Day (mix/arrangement = Live at the Bowl)

Under Pressure
Calling All Girls
I Go CRazy
Life is Real
Put Out the Fire
Cool Cat (very much agreed re: similarity w/"Melancholy Blues")

great thread! got me listening to HS again. come to this town honey is a showdown! ----------------------------------------

That proposed cover art would have been awesome. I can totally picture it. Someone should do some photoshop on that.
Track list makes sense.

It would still be Hot Space but I guess it would work better as an album this way.
Once again, ending the album with Cool Cat would have been awesome.