"Sail Away Sweet Sister" Recording dates

The liner notes for the Bonus EP say, with regard to SASS, "Although the tape from which this recording comes is dated February 7th 1980, it is possible this item dates back to the previous year."

And speaking of quality control, when I ripped the NOTW remaster to my computer 'Sleeping on the Sidewalk' ended up labelled 'Sleep on the Sidewalk'.  Not sure if that info is embedded on the CD or comes from some online database somewhere, but somebody made a mistake.

The inner notes on any of the album will only be as accurate as the person who first wrote the notes in the studio, given that this is one of the last things you think about when recording it's no surprise to me that come the time of printing the cover when someone goes back to see what they can print many of the notes will be either lost or inaccurate and relying on the band to remember when they started work on a track will never work.I suspect these dates originally come from scribbled notes made by Mack.

GratefulFan wrote: The liner notes for the Bonus EP say, with regard to SASS, "Although the tape from which this recording comes is dated February 7th 1980, it is possible this item dates back to the previous year."

And speaking of quality control, when I ripped the NOTW remaster to my computer 'Sleeping on the Sidewalk' ended up labelled 'Sleep on the Sidewalk'.  Not sure if that info is embedded on the CD or comes from some online database somewhere, but somebody made a mistake.

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I agree - It seems bloody stupid to put in the notes that they're not sure when it comes from then, and then to name the track, and put the CD Text to match, as definitively from Feb 80!!!

With the CD text, there's also inconsistencies between both the GH remasters in that some tracks feature the band name and track title, and others just the track title.  Bloody annoying.

My understanding is that The Game was released in June 1980?  If so, I very much doubt that this early version of SASS was from Feb 80.  Common sense tells you that the fact that it is so different, and is clearly not that familiar yet to the band, it would have been recorded a lot earlier, in order to give time for the natural developments to occur for the track to become the final version we are all familiar with.  I'd like to know what else was on the tape that was labelled Feb 80, as this would really help to determine a better timeframe to the recording sessions.

Well, you can hear Freddie screaming 'I know it completely now!" (or something like that) from behind the piano. Which indicates that this was one of the first times they played it.

Good point. So it must be from June/July 1979. Feb 1980 could be the mixing/mastering/pressing date.

I've been slowly buying up the 2011 reissues (I knew I would, even having grabbed the torrents) and I think it turns out those discussing the bonus music haven't actually read the sleevenotes (hence probably not bought them). I'm guilty of it too - and my shopping list is actually based on getting the CDs that I need to see the note for certain songs - they all seem to throw up more questions. I've notice several things. The Hero Revisited was discussed on here - the sleevenotes say it is simply a new mix of the track featuring the double tracked vocal and a couple of seconds  edited out of the final thing. So in essense, it is no different to these other 'new' mixes (acappellas and 'guitar / vocal' mixes) The notes for Feelings Feelings seem to actually refer to Silver Salmon. The Kiss /FF demo appears to be the same track split over two CD tracks, which is a shame.

Would be nice to start a thread featuring the actual notes included about each tune so we have a decent discussion like this thread about those problematic bonus tunes.

From Greg and Gary's sleeve notes on the CD booklet:

"Although the tape from which this recording comes is dated February 7th 1980, it is possible this item dates back to the previous year"

From Greg and Gary's notes regarding The Game at QOL :

"The majority of Queen's eighth studio album, was recorded between February and May 1980. The tracks, Save Me, Coming Soon, Sail Away Sweet Sister and Crazy Little Thing Called Love (the first single from the album, released a full seven months ahead of The Game) were instead recorded in June and July of 1979"

Honestly, I really don't like picking holes in people's work for the sake of it, but really, can they not even make sure their own work cross checks for consistency?!!!?

To make the statement in the booklet and say it is only "possible" that this item dates back to the previous year is incredulous if they themselves accept in their online note (presumably written around the same time) that Sail Away Sweet Sister WAS recorded in June/July 79 (which is backed up by the original sleeve notes).  If the song was finished by July 79, how can a much earlier, completely different working version be newly recorded in Feb 80?!

I'm now waiting for them to find a stereo mastering tape for Greatest Hits II, and then try telling us that It's A Hard Life is from 1991 cos that's the date of the tape box.

Yes, I recently picked up the US edition of the 2011 remaster and upon reading that, I was going to post on that sleeve note.

I think, in the end, the only reasonable conclusion to draw is that the date noted on the recording of February 1980 is wrong, that the track was recorded and completed between June and July of 1979. Ultimately, I trust the original liner notes from the 1980 release of The Game, which are clear, specific and two of the four noted tracks from 1979 ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Save Me") can be absolutely verified as 1979 recordings.

Unless new information comes to light, it's the explanation which best accounts for the facts.

Original liner notes were sloppy, but they were a hell of a lot better than the new ones. How can it be guaranteed? Simple: the original liner notes were NOT written by GT&GB.