"Radio Ga Ga"'s Lyrics rewritten by American Record Label?

I wonder if Queen Productions et al realize what piece of band history they let us in on with including the telex in the book. Even if the song was not worth the fight, as we're saying here, and if the context had changed, it's still the lead single of a Queen album. And we know Brian had some issues with Capitol circa Hot Space. I just can't imagine they got this telex and said, "OK then, let's re-record the lead vocals for this."

This is interesting actually. In the end youre only as good as your last hit. The Game was 1980 and the Works was 1984, thats the hugest lifetime in music terms waitinf for a hit single. And on the recent Queen documentary it said that Freddies advance for his solo album was larger than Queens for the Works. Queen had obviously fallen quite far.
But on the other side though Record Companies are always always interfering in bands art. Its nothing new at all. Maybe Queen read the teletex and figured it was a good idea

[QUOTE]

[b]Daniel Nester wrote: [/b] I wonder if Queen Productions et al realize what piece of band history they let us in on with including the telex in the book. Even if the song was not worth the fight, as we're saying here, and if the context had changed, it's still the lead single of a Queen album. And we know Brian had some issues with Capitol circa Hot Space. I just can't imagine they got this telex and said, "OK then, let's re-record the lead vocals for this."[/QUOTE]
Yeah, I'm just wondering what their initial reaction was to that telex! Couldn't have been a pleasant one to start off with.

And here's an issue I have with that telex...the record company insists it's not professional lyrics by any means, right? HOWEVER, professional or not, they did not list name(s) of who made the lyrical changes, so I think that using those lyrics right off the bat could have led to a compromising situation down the line as far as royalty demands and litigation go. Hence my concern about the unethical quality of the telex.

Inu-liger, it's signed Jim Mazza, who's a big muckety-muck record label guy. So maybe he should get co-songwriting credit? :)

Just so I understand the sequence of events here...
By October 26th, 1983, "Radio Ga Ga" was close to completed, since it was a single at the end of January.
Jim Beach likely sent a copy of the forthcoming single's tracks to the Capital Records. Someone in Jim Mazza's office transcribed the lyrics for him, he made changes, telexed the changes back and Jim Beach noted a mistake ("my" instead of "the"), noted the line "And just don't care", and made a note to put this telex into the "Band Meeting File" (pencilled in at the bottom).
Presumably there was a band meeting and Mazza changes were discussed.
The thing is, what were the original lyrics sent to Mazza? Were they the same as the ones we know now? Were they different (more cynical) and Queen used Mazza's changes, adjusting them somewhat?
There's not really much else to go on.
If in the band meeting Roger felt Mazza had a point and was willing to change the lyric to something more optimistic, then that's his right. Maybe, after some consideration, Roger liked some of the new lyrics, once tidied up. If that was the case, he's still the songwriter, since it was his artistic decision to accept a change to what was probably still a work-in-progress.
What key here is that Roger had the right to refuse any changes. Capitol might have not liked the lyrics, but they had obligations set out in their contract with Queen. If they refused to release the single, they might have faced legal action or perhaps were required to release a different track as a single. It's hard to say without knowing the particulars.
And without Roger commenting on the impact that telex had on the song, we don't really know anything other than Mazza made a suggestion.

We don't know what the "original" lyrics were, or if they were transcribed. But you have to read the cover letter, most of which I've transcribed. It seems that they are trying to change the meaning/intent/effect of the song. Whether that's one line, whole versus, we don't know. What we do know is that what is in the telex contains, save for one line and a couple words here and there, the exact lyrics to the finished song.

What was different before? We'll never know probably. The way I'm interpreting it, however, there's a lot going on. The band effectively rubber-stamped any and all suggestions -- not "professional" and "only ideas" at that -- from the head of their record company.

I don't think anyone can comment on the legalities or the ethics of this with real confidence or certainty. What is certain is the lyrics in the telex--and if you want, I'll go ahead and scan it from the book, since it's sometimes frustrating when people comment on stuff they don't get to listen to or buy or read. But if you have the book, there it is, right in the telex, the lyrics to Radio Ga Ga.

I, too, have The Complete Illustrated Lyrics, but a scan might help others understand what we're talking about.

I'm just hesitant to drawn too many conclusions from this single telex. Yes, they included it in the book, but by itself it's not conclusive of much without other evidence. There are key questions left unanswered, which I raised in my previous post.

Basically, we have one piece of the story, that's all I'm saying.

With all the usual Wikipedia caveats, it may be worth noting that the wiki article says "Taylor originally conceived of it as "Radio caca" (from something his toddler son once said),[9] which doubled as a criticism of radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played.[2] "Radio Ga Ga" in one of the original cassette boxes is called 'radio ca ca'.[10]" It goes on the explain his son's remark was in the context of listening to a "bad song" on the radio in Los Angeles. We all know the 'radio ca ca' story, but I've always assumed it was a rhythmic inspiration only and that it evolved into the core of the current song early on, but this new information throws all that up in the air. I recall a Roger interview where he playfully talked about the original lyrics being 'Radio Ca Ca' and then something like "and as far as I know they were never changed". He went on to suggest that if people listened to certain parts of the song they'd find that Fred never changed the words to Ga Ga. If true, I just thought it was an inside joke of sorts as the sounds are so similar nobody would really know. But I guess it's possible it was a minor but satisfying rebellion against the polite but pointed pressure from the record company.

Part of what is fascinating about this is the fact that it would seem to be a significant part of the history of a song whose origin and development has been discussed fairly extensively by band members, yet they elected not to share this rather salient bit of information despite multiple opportunities. It does beg the question why now and why in such a back door and low key manner? It's just interesting.

The album version does indeed say 'radio ca ca, radio goo goo, radio ga ga' throughout, it's easy to pick up on in the regular song, and blatantly obvious with the isolated vocals from the multitracks.

I think it's stunning that some people (notably Sebastian) are actually defending this. That just goes to show that some people here will applaud anything Queen has ever done, regardless of what it is.

[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]
The album version does indeed say 'radio ca ca, radio goo goo, radio ga ga' throughout, it's easy to pick up on in the regular song, and blatantly obvious with the isolated vocals from the multitracks.[/QUOTE]

That's just not true. The 'c' and 'g' sounds are so close, especially at the start of a word, that you will hear whatever you expect to hear.

FTR, thomasquinn 32989, I'm not defending them. I'm explaining why I think this case and Bo Rhap's length were different and not the same 'rules' or 'principles' apply. There's a big difference.

[QUOTE] [b]thomasquinn 32989 wrote:[/b]
[QUOTE] [b]tomchristie22 wrote:[/b]
The album version does indeed say 'radio ca ca, radio goo goo, radio ga ga' throughout, it's easy to pick up on in the regular song, and blatantly obvious with the isolated vocals from the multitracks.[/QUOTE]
That's just not true. The 'c' and 'g' sounds are so close, especially at the start of a word, that you will hear whatever you expect to hear. [/QUOTE]

The phonetic 'k' sound is obvious to my ear, simply based on the amount of aspiration in its pronunciation, which would be notably absent in the 'g' of gaga. But you do make a point.

There's much to be said for the power of suggestion. Before Roger said they sang Ca-Ca and never changed it, I heard "Ga Ga," because that's the name of the song. It probably didn't occur to me that they were singing "Ca-Ca".

Now that I know, I certainly sort of hear it better.

They are singing 'Ca Ca' in the first line of the chorus.