Feelings

100% and 0% aren't the only options, yes.... but the presence of absence of timbales on a kit isn't even close to 99% either. BTW, responsible historians and scientists DO care about terminology. Instead of saying 'the giganotosaurus was the largest carnivore dinosaur ever', they say things like 'the giganotosaurus was the largest carnivore dinosaur THAT WE KNOW OF.' It's not making a conclusive decision based on limited knowledge, but it's not burning all the books and starting from scratch.

There are, IIRC, 56 tracks officially released by Queen between 1973 and 1976 (not counting B-Sides and the like). Out of those 56, there are 55 on which Brian does NOT play harp, yet there is one where he does. By that same logic, there *could* be 'x' amount of pre-77 songs where Roger did not play timbales, and one where he did.

I firmly believe SS is from 1977, but I firmly disagree with timbales being concrete evidence of that, just as I firmly disagree with the way you whine and bring the 'historians should start from scratch then' nonsense.

I'd prefer the term "discussion" to "whine" ... but to each their own !

With that mentality, languages wouldn't exist, dictionaries would be burnt and grammar books would be erased and we'd have to start from scratch.

Ha, touche.

Ooga booga. Me on forum.

Just curious, Seb, why do you "firmly believe" Silver Salmon is from 1977? Based on what?
You already said the timbales are not concrete proof but I'm sure this belief of yours is at least partially based on the presence of this instrument, making it more likely for the song to be from an era in which Roger widely used it.

I like this 'methodological' (is that a word?) approach of yours but, the way I see it, you'll never say something like this is 100% certain unless you get a recorded interview of Freddie in '77 saying "We just got off the studio and played an old Tim song called Silver Salmon. By the way, I love Roger's new timbales! (which he most definately used in this 1977 recording we just did 10 minutes ago)".

:)

I'm not 100% sure of that, and most likely never will. I think, for this case, this is in the 70%-80% range. Reasons to believe that:

* Its drum sound (i.e. hi-hats, snare, kick, etc., not just the timbales) is the same as Feelings.

* Its bass sound is the same as Feelings.

* Its guitar sound is the same as Feelings.

* Its vocal sound is the same as Feelings.

* Its room sound is the same as Feelings.

* Feelings is officially dated 1977.

Absolutely none of those would count as concrete evidence. To be fair, nothing would - even on your example of a Freddie interview, he was human and could make mistakes or forget things (e.g. as early as 1976, he briefly forgot which album was Love of My Life on), so even that wouldn't be a 100% error-proof evidence.

Timbales alone don't prove anything IMO, for the reasons already explained. Timbales + several other things, don't prove it either, but they're close enough in my book. If (when?) something more reliable shows up (e.g. dated tape boxes) I'll be more than happy to confirm my theory (if right) or stand corrected (if wrong) but, for the moment, I think the most logical conclusion (NOT because of the timbales) is 1977.

And all of this supposition is based on a poor quality sound file of Silver Salmon I suppose?

Yes.

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]
And all of this supposition is based on a poor quality sound file of Silver Salmon I suppose? [/QUOTE]
It's not that bad, but of course these things are subjective. It's audible enough that everything is clearly heard.

My favorite Queen debate is back!