MIH bonus tracks: The Taylor & Deacon versions?

I always wondered if Freddie had actually helped in the process of the album making, more than just vocals?

Rick wrote: I bet that was the moment when John had second thoughts about his position in the band. Brian's bloody ego again. A shame really. Especially when Brian didn't even mention John's name during the MIH part in the Days of Our Lives Documentary.

That's why I hope John will do an exclusive, thorough interview with the BBC at some point. He probably never will, but still. He always seemed the most honest band member. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well, to be fair, Brian might well have mentioned John, but the filmmakers may not have included it. There was probably hours and hours of footage. Myself, I think the documentary ought to have been 3 parts, not just 2, given the ending (in my opinion) seemed a bit rushed. Heck, a 4-parter would have been ideal, one part per decade (it IS their 40th Anniversary, after all) and cover their solo careers as well.

If there's a DVD/BR release, I hope they include extended interviews and such.

> I always wondered if Freddie had actually helped in the process of the album making, more than just vocals?

Just some synths and, of course, being a major writer of all those songs.

I wonder if he selected any of the songs to be revisited, like his Mr. Bad Guy tracks or "Heaven For Everyone." Did he say to them, "I'm probably not going to get a full album out at this stage, so if you need, redo some solo tracks"?

Also, I wonder if it they considered having Brian and Roger sing a song or two themselves to round out the album. It's not like they weren't both doing solo stuff at the time. Don't get me wrong, I love Made In Heaven as it is, but given how the album came about, the possibilities were many.

MIH is kid of the dark horse as far as Queen records are concerned, in which we really don't know much about, and sadly probably never will. There's gotta be at least another couple of Freddie's vocal tracks somewhere that were never used. Will they ever be heard? Nah probably not...but even David Richards confirmed that they recorded four or five songs AFTER Innuendo...As much as Freddie wanted to record, and the amount of time they spent in the studio...there's no way only 2 or 3 songs were the only result...if they just put some instrumentals and remixes, it would truly be a shame. Demos such as 'Let Me Live' and things like that would be cool. But just some of the edits and remixes? Would be an absolute disgrace to this great seamless product.

The demo 'Another Little Piece Of My Heart' would be the best inclusion ever. :D

Rhyeking: According to what was written in FC Mags at the time, the initial idea was using the (apparently four) post-Innuendo recordings plus material sung by Brian and Roger and the original Too Much Love Will Kill You to complete the album.

At some point they may have realised it had far more commercial value if they had Freddie singing lead on all the tracks, and that's how the recycling process began. The whole thing about revisiting Mr Bad Guy tracks was suggested by a fan via letter to the FC mag, but I can't assure if that's what drove them to do that or if they were already doing it.

As far as the unfinished tracks that Roger and John worked on are concerned they will (if they still excist) largely be without guitar or at least much, so I highly doubt they will ever be included as bonus tracks unless they were old takes with the full band.
One has to assume Roger and John ended up being in agreement with Brian or I doubt the album would have ever been released.
It would be nice to hear what state they ended up in before Brian got to work but I doubt even Roger and John envisaged putting it out without Brian adding his parts.

It's pretty clear that, like the IABD demo that appeared on The Game deluxe, if there was full 'early' versions of material they would be attached to the albums that produced them. Much tidier and convenient as an archival project especially when MIH is far from a bona fide Queen album. I think we'll be given remixes and 'original' versions such as The Cross HFE and Freddie tracks.

I always assumed the songs I Was Born To Love You and Made In Heaven were held off from The Freddie Mercury Album / The Great Pretender releases because they had always planned on remixing and including them on the final Queen album.

Has this ever been 'confirmed' by anyone?

Sebastian wrote: Rhyeking: According to what was written in FC Mags at the time, the initial idea was using the (apparently four) post-Innuendo recordings plus material sung by Brian and Roger and the original Too Much Love Will Kill You to complete the album.

At some point they may have realised it had far more commercial value if they had Freddie singing lead on all the tracks, and that's how the recycling process began. The whole thing about revisiting Mr Bad Guy tracks was suggested by a fan via letter to the FC mag, but I can't assure if that's what drove them to do that or if they were already doing it.
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Very interesting.

That there were four post-Innuendo tracks seems to be a recurring fact when Queen and their personnel (David Richards, etc) discuss Freddie's final recordings. Yet, what we're presented seems to only include three. Here I note only Freddie's recorded material.

It's A Beautiful Day (recorded April 1980)
Made In Heaven (recorded May or June 1984)
Let Me Live (recorded between August 1983 and January 1984)
Mother Love (recorded 1991)
My Life Has Been Saved (recorded 1988)
I Was Born To Love You (recorded May 25th, 1984)
Heaven For Everyone (recorded between June and September 1987)
Too Much Love Will Kill You (recorded 1988)
You Don't Fool Me (recorded 1991)
A Winter's Tale (recorded 1991)

(Sorry if that seems redundant, but I like to step back and look at the big picture, in case I notice something I overlooked before).

Lately, I've begun wondering if, perhaps, the vocal "scraps" that David Richards built into "You Don't Fool Me" were possibly intended for two or more other songs. I'm not basing this theory on anything other than a hunch, but given that Brian has said there was really no song there until Richards put it together, it's possible he took pieces from several incomplete songs in order to make this complete one. It might account for the missing "fourth" song. I could be entirely wrong, too.

Lately, I've begun wondering if, perhaps, the vocal "scraps" that David Richards built into "You Don't Fool Me" were possibly intended for two or more other songs
====================

Or the middle part of mother love.

It also could be possible that there were five or six songs, and the famous foursome didn't include YDFM (which was initially not even a song, probably) or AWT (which may have been begun in 1990).

Now, maybe the other two (or even three!) tracks were deemed unusable, or at least it was far easier and better to rescue, recycle, revisit, etc. than to try to You Don't Fool Me those ones. (hey, I coined a new verb!). Speaking of which, You Don't Fool Me, ironically, fooled a lot of people into believing it was from HS sessions, or that it was a full song back in '91.

That it sounds like a full, complete song in it's finished state is a testimony to David Richards, by all accounts. It would be a lot of of detail work, taking the "scraps" and editing, mixing and moving them around in order to get something like a finished vocal for the other three guys to record the backing for. By their own admission, Richards had done the hard work of making something out of nothing and they just followed his blueprint, recording their parts.

All this is by way of saying that DR might have taken partial verses from two, three or four (!) incomplete song sources and cleverly cut them together: Half a line from this recording, a full verse from that recording, some scat (edited together to fit the meter) from this other demo, etc., etc, repeat the "chorus" a few times....voila! New Queen song!

Maybe...just maybe...

Yes, it's very likely that it happens as you describe it. Have you noticed that the recurring progression is (functionally) the same as Living On My Own's? I doubt it was accidental... whom should we credit for the chord progression: the person who wrote it (although that particular progression is so clichéd it's been used in literally hundreds of songs) or the person who sampled it?

When I reform my web (again!) I'll add more details on that era.