"These Are The Days Of Our Lives" video shooting date

I was just watching the "Days Of Our Lives" documentary and (no irony intended) the segment about the Innuendo album and Freddie getting sicker reveals the clapboard date for his performance in "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" as "30th May '91."

Whether this was his only day on set or one of several I cannot say, however I know that Brian was in the States and Canada promoting Innuendo by this point and shot his footage after. 

I thought it was worth pointing out, particularly having the date of the 22nd of May noted by some as the possible last day Freddie recorded material for what would become the Made In Heaven album. That Freddie was up and around shooting a video a week later seems to me to now put this 22nd date into doubt. 

Thoughts?

According to various sources he carried on reccording till around late September early October

There are too many contradictory answers.  I'd kind of hoped that the documentary would spell it out a bit more succinctly.

Well, it doesn't exactly answer when he stopped recording, but gives us an exact, specific date for when he was still working. Other footage from that video shoot shows him fairly active and engaged in the process (standing around with Roger, watching video playback of his performance and commenting on it), so it might be fair to say he was still healthy enough to work, despite being very sick.

I'm guessing he worked, at the most, until around October.

If he was working until September/October of 1991, and Mother Love was his supposed 'last vocal', and was recorded in May of 1991, then where is everything else he was working on and/or what exactly was he working on?

Didn't Jim Beach in that recent interview say Fred was working/recording up to 4 months before his death? That would mean he stopped working in July of 91.

I feel inclined to believe Jim's word over anything else I've read about this. Given the evidence Rhye's pointed out, it seems very reasonable to say that Fred's health allowed him to continue working, out of the public eye, just for another couple of months after the TATDOOL shoort.

Even that is believable as well, but there are so many contradicting points of view. Brian is saying the last time he worked with him was Mother Love. Ok, I can buy that. That being said, it's believed that Freddie's vocal for Mother Love was recorded in May of 91. So June and July 1991 produced what? That's two months time, and even for someone that had almost no energy, certainly something was done in the studio, yes? Forgive me, I'm just thinking out loud...

Well, here are a few more dates to keep in mind:

Late-May had Brian in North America promoting the Innuendo album for a few weeks, probably into June. He was back by mid-June, because that's when the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather asked him to do "Driven By You." The ads ran in July.

Between March and July, The Cross recorded Blue Rock, which I imagine occurred simultaneous to the Made In Heaven Freddie sessions. If Freddie was that ill, it's likely that he wasn't in the studio every day, so Roger had time to work with The Cross and Brian had time to record the two TV versions of "Driven By You," then the album version and two versions of "Just One Life" in the summer.

The Cross was on the road in September and October (mostly October).

@bambams-paradise But Mother Love was unfinished - at least by Freddie. :-( I doubt he'd sing the first two verses and then go and sing something ELSE. So maybe "worked" means "doing something other than singing" (very possible) or maybe he didn't come back at all to do ANYTHING. Personally I think the latter. :-(

Martin

Martin Packer wrote: @bambams-paradise But Mother Love was unfinished - at least by Freddie. :-( I doubt he'd sing the first two verses and then go and sing something ELSE. So maybe "worked" means "doing something other than singing" (very possible) or maybe he didn't come back at all to do ANYTHING. Personally I think the latter. :-(

Martin
That is quite possible, certainly. I guess I personally have a hard time trying to figure out exactly what is what here. Roger said in the new documentary that the sicker he got, the more drive he had to record as much as possible. I believe that to be true. I just have a hard time believing that Mother Love and A Winter's Tale was all that was all that was recorded and produced in that time frame, being that Queen was comprised of four extremely prolific writers, who loved to make music. Freddie wanted to sing as much as possible, given that he knew he didn't have much time left, and within the constraints of his disease, it made his physical limitations difficult. But not impossible. Jim Beach is also saying that Freddie worked until 4 months before he died...well, ok, that to me seems realistic. Does anybody else see where I'm coming from, or am I just completely out of my box?

Zebonka12 wrote: There are too many contradictory answers.  I'd kind of hoped that the documentary would spell it out a bit more succinctly.
My thoughts exactly...

I thought that the BM shot in the video was a sperate take. After he came back from the USA.

When you watch the video , BM isn't seen on the band shot at 1.10 min. But he is always blended with FM when he playes a solo.

Where does the suggestion, or even better the evidence, come from that Mother Love was recorded in May? I know there's been tremendous debate about whether ML or AWT was the last thing Fred recorded, but where does the recording date (for either) of May come from?

Interesting read. Didn't someone post a week or so ago that Jim Hutton's book had said AWT was November/December 1990? I believe peeps here came to the conclusion it would fall near the end of Innuendo's production and manufacturing time.

With that said, surely that rules out anything to do with AWT. Also, why is everyone disregarding Brian's account of Mother Love? He said it in 1995 and now in 2011 - Freddie was too tired to do any more and said he'd come back, but never did.

Adam.

TATTOOL was shot on 30th May 1991. Brian's footage is from a later date due to the fact that at the time of the F/R/J shooting, he was in the US promoting Innuendo (that's where the famous "Innuendo" US Tour radio shows come from).

A Winter's Tale was the last ever song Freddie wrote.

Mother Love was the last ever song Freddie provided vocals to (what Brian says in the documentary might explain why he sings the last verse).

However, I was not present at the TATTOOL shooting, neither with Freddie while he wrote AWT nor at the studio when he recorded Mother Love, so don't ask me to proove anything. I just state all this from learning from the past. Having been a Queen fan for over two decades, I have a lot of useless information in my memory. :-)