it's from a blog by freddie's personal assistant and talks about fred's songwriting process. I found it interesting that Brian was responsible for the harmonies always thought that was Freddie's department. Or perhaps this occured in his 80s songwriting only.
Anyway, it seems quite a bit different than what I've seen about the 70s songwriting process (at least for Freddie) particularly with songs like Bo Rhap where he controlled the majority of parts the others played. Makes me wonder a bit about the songwriting process within Queen (i.e. did the writer come up with just the melody and chords and each member arrange their respective part - I know John Lennon's songs with the Beatles were done this way), or did the creator generally compose the whole thing (i.e. the guitar solos, riffs, fills etc.). I had assumed the latter for Queen generally, but this quote seems to suggest otherwise for the majority of the time (at least in the 80s).
ANAGRAMER · Member since
There seemed to be a degree of collaboration right at the beginning (Brian's comments on ssor in Days of Our Lives doc)
liam · Member since
I assume he is talking about guitar harmonies?
Brian wouldn't have done vocal harmonies by himself on Freddie's tracks.
Sebastian · Member since
He didn't say Brian worked out the harmonies, he said Fred would work the harmonies out with Brian, which is completely different.
The Real Wizard · Member since
>>Brian would work out the harmonies and they would be added<<
It doesn't say "with Freddie" ... it certainly isn't even implied.
Honestly - I wouldn't be surprised if Mercury got lazier in his arrangement by the 80s. His mind was in the gay clubs, not on what he came to call "disposable" music by then. It'd make complete sense if Brian May had to step up his game to make up for Mercury's lack of contributions. Most of Mercury's songwriting on Hot Space through AKOM wasn't great, and his knack for arrangement probably went with it. He got his mojo back by The Miracle, thankfully.
tarkintheproud · Member since
"Once all the main singing had been set down, Brian would work out the harmonies and they would be added." is Phoebe's exact quote from the blog, Seems to imply only Brian working out the harmonies, and based on the way it's worded, the sense I'm getting is its vocal harmonies and not guitar harmonies that Phoebe's talking about. Interesting he didn't mention Roger actually, come to think of it.
There's a few other quotes on there that support the Real Wizard's observations, he talks about (in other posts), how he had never seen Freddie write an entire song outside of the studio. Seems like he definately sped up his process big time in the 80s (much to the detriment of the group imo).
Sebastian · Member since
It certainly may have happened like that on a number of occasions (e.g. Slightly Mad).
