Barcelona re-release - What the @#8! did they do????

Pim Derks wrote: Let's wait for the new Queen-album, "Mr. Bad Guy" to be released. Freddie would've wanted it that way.

Actually Brian's guitar and Roger's drumming would help the songs from the album :-)

cmsdrums wrote: Very good point about the 'Freddie-less' instrumental album - on a previous thread I compared it to one of those 'royal philharmonic plays the music of...' albums. Basically it's a bit pointless.

Do the sleeve notes say if Mike Moran's original piano parts have been retained on the new version, or have they re-recorded those for no reason at all?

Mike Moran's contribution - it is not clear from the liner notes which recordings are new and which are not new. Apparently all old non-vocal tracks were removed and replaced except for John Deacon's bass on How Can I Go On - or not?

Look for yourself:

Original Barcelona liner notes:

All keyboards: Mike Moran
Bass guitar on 'How Can I Go On'
by John Deacon
Assisted on 'Barcelona' by:
Homi Kanga, Violin; Laurie Lewis, Violin;
Deborah Ann Johnston, Cello;
Barry Castle, Horn; Frank Ricoffi, Percussion.
Assisted on 'The Golden Boy' by:
Backing vocals:
Madeline Bell, Debbie Bishop,
Lance Ellington, Mirian Stockley,
Peter Straker, Mark Williamson,
Carol Woods

New liner notes:

All Piano and Hammond Organ by Mike Moran.
except Piano on 'How Can I Go On' by Stuart
Morley. Bass guitar on 'How Can I Go On' by
John Deacon. Drums on 'The Golden Boy' and
'How Can I Go On' by Rufus Taylor.
Koto by Naoko Kikuchi
All backing vocals by Freddie Mercury except
assisted on 'The Golden Boy' by Madeline
Bell, Debbie Bishop, Lance Ellington, Miriam
Stockley, Peter Straker, Mark Williamson, Carol
Woods.

I expect Mr Bad guy will be released by Island records next (they'll want to capitalise on re-releases as expected), but in what form?

Whilst I'll be over the moon for a deluxe set with remastered album, I'll also be mighty pissed at the fact they'd remastered that but not Barcelona...

@ Ozz - the Barcelona album was recorded over approx 18 months, so time was perhaps not an issue. There can be many reasons why Freddie chose not to use a full orchestra. He may have wanted the full control at any time, he may have not been able to write the proper sheet music for an orchestra, he may not have wanted so many musicians involved - we do not know. The only thing that truly annoys me is that we are told that Freddie made a second rate album because he did not have the means to do it better. This means that it took Jim Beach and the musical director of the WWRY musical(!) to "lift what was already an outstanding record into a whole new stratosphere" (quoted Rhys Thomas from the Barcelona 2012 booklet). No disrespect to Mr. Morley but he is only a paid session musician standing on the shoulder of a giant.

I think the reasons why Freddie chose not to use and orchestra have been commented by both Mike Moran and David Richards a number of times.

pittrek wrote:
How can somebody have it already ? Amazon is not fair :-(

promos were sold on ebay over a week ago...

brians wig wrote:
I expect Mr Bad guy will be released by Island records next (they'll want to capitalise on re-releases as expected), but in what form?
..

wasn't Mr bad Guy on CBS? which makes it part of SONY not Island...unless the rights for it moved?

If my memory serves me well: Freddie signed on with CBS for a multi-album deal, but bought himself out of it just before Barcelona was released.

edit

The album is already on Spotify (using Spotify Open in Finland). Sure, some parts do come across a bit dodgy in terms of the overall mix, but I think this re-release will introduce the album to people who may have never heard it. A simple remaster of the original recording would not have had the same marketing value.

The songs are still great, the new orchestration does not really add that much, but it cannot take anything away from the original compositions.

All the vocals on this new Barcelona are a lot drier than in the original version (for example, La Japonaise has no noticable reverb on any of the vocals), and sometimes the orchestra really does drown out the vocals. It's too bad, because the orchestra sounds wonderful in most places, and it really could've made the album a whole lot better. At least we have a cappella versions of La Japonaise and The Golden Boy in the Freddie box from 2000 so we can make our own remixes of them with the new orchestrations from the instrumental versions...

pittrek wrote:

Pim Derks wrote: Let's wait for the new Queen-album, "Mr. Bad Guy" to be released. Freddie would've wanted it that way.

Actually Brian's guitar and Roger's drumming would help the songs from the album :-)

Well, concerning Mr. Bad Guy... in the original album sleeve notes, Freddie has dedicated his first special thanks to Brian, Roger and John "for not interfering." But of course you already knew that, and we know what has happened since. :-P

What I sometimes like to do, is compile a playlist of an "enhanced" Mr. Bad Guy from the tracks on Made In Heaven and The Great Pretender, though what's still left unmodernized are "Man Made Paradise", "There Must Be More To Life Than This" and "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow". With the Michael Jackson duets and a couple of workable demos, Brian and Roger might have another MIH on their hands... But I'm kinda hoping not.

Does anyone have the 3 CD + DVD?

A question: is the DVD the "The Great Pretender" documentary or not?

The press release says: "‘Barcelona- The Special Edition’ album release is accompanied by a brand new TV/DVD documentary ‘The Great Pretender’ (Eagle Rock) focusing on Freddie’s solo career and life outside Queen produced and directed by Rhys Thomas. The documentary features never-before-seen footage of Freddie, including hilarious and emotional interviews re-discovered in the Queen archives for the first time recently. ‘The Great Pretender’ is released on DVD & Blu-ray on September 24. Pre-order here on Amazon.co.uk."

But then the press release has this track list:

1.Ku Club Ibiza Performance – Barcelona
2. La Nit Barcelona Performance
  - Barcelona (5m46s) 
 - How Can I Go On (3m58s) 
 - The Golden Boy (5m58s)
3. Barcelona – Classic Video 4m25s
4. Barcelona – The Special Edition EPK
5. Barcelona – 2012 edit by Rhys Thomas 4m49s

Can anyone confirm the DVD content?

The Great Pretender is a separate DVD/Bluray which will be released at the end of this month. The DVD in the Barcelona box has the tracklist as per the press-release.

I just can't understand why people seem to get so upset at the Queen versions of Freddie's solo stuff on MIH. You never know, Freddie could have given them free range on whatever before he died. He was adamant about getting the last recorded material out there and knew there wasn't enough for a complete album. It would be great to get an in-depth interview about the process of making MIH.

I'd rather here more Queen versions of Freddie's songs rather that the "flavor of the month" artist performing with Brian and Roger.

I'm looking forward to this new version of Barcelona.

I just can't understand why people seem to get so upset at the Queen versions of Freddie's solo stuff on MIH. You never know, Freddie could have given them free range on whatever before he died. He was adamant about getting the last recorded material out there and knew there wasn't enough for a complete album. It would be great to get an in-depth interview about the process of making MIH.

I'd rather here more Queen versions of Freddie's songs rather that the "flavor of the month" artist performing with Brian and Roger.

I'm looking forward to this new version of Barcelona.