[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]
Brian once said (I think it was on International Musician... in '82) that they were ALL giving Mack a lot more freedom and would sometimes just leave him alone to mix and then the author of the song would suggest ideas and that was it. On the same interview, Brian confirmed that Freddie, Mack and David did the final mix of 'Under Pressure'.
So it wasn't like Freddie didn't give a fuck and Brian was the workaholic music genius ... they all had their moments, both good and bad.
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Fair play.
Under Pressure is an odd duck since Bowie was involved (and Brian backed off, as he clarified in the Days Of Our Lives documentary), but as for Hot Space and The Works, to me it sounds like a compromise from the other band members. If Mercury wasn't going to be around for the mixing sessions, then perhaps the other guys played along to give the producer his space? Maybe Mercury wanted to have a more hands-on producer since he wanted to spend less time in the studio, and managed to talk the band into it?
Either way, Mack singled Mercury out. This clearly came off as a negative towards Brian, maybe because he didn't like band members acting as producers as it felt like it was cutting in on his ground? But up until that point, Queen had always been co-producers. It seems only Mercury's attitude was changing.
Indeed - there's far more to this than we'll ever know. But that quote from Mack is pretty a revealing one, at the very least giving insight into the fact that Mercury cared much less about his work in the 80s than the previous decade. I don't think anyone can really debate that one.
This is kind of like John Lennon not showing up to sessions for George Harrison's songs as early as 1965. People and attitudes change.
The Real Wizard