What would be the best and worst versions of It's A Hard Life (live)

What would be the best and worst versions of It's A Hard Life (live) from 1984- 1985

it's an extremely subjective topic.
because a best live performance isn't as simple as "hitting all the notes" - the whole rendition of the song? it'll be about emotion, about a good performance, about the notes and about being on form with the audience.

for me, i always felt this song sounded unnatural live - sounded forced, a struggle and like it didn't belong in the set. almost like they did it BECAUSE it was a current(ish) single...there never seemed to be much band enjoyment in the song live

^ agreed. Although I love the song, I never fealt it was ever performed too well on a live basis. In some shows, Freddie sounded great (until the "i did it for love" part, where he just couldn't hit the note, so screeched instead) but the band were off, and vice versa. There was never a complete, great rendition, IMO - at times, they even forgot the lyrics. If you want a good live rendition, then the Tom Chaplain (from Keane) one from the Prince's Trust show a couple of years ago is the one, but there's not really one from 1984-85 AFAIC. Plenty of shit ones, most notably at Rio '85.

(Sorry Fred :p)

All of them - according to BM, it was never played live..... ;-)

All of them - according to BM, it was never played live..... ;-)

[Brian Mode]

What?! Was it played live?

[/Brian Mode]

I like the Rio and Japan versions. =P

Carlsberg '84

Well. I just listened to the Sun City 19 april 1984 concert. I think the intro was pretty awful and the rest of the song was just okay. So thats my vote for the worst version. I dont know with the the best...

Brussels is pretty good.

Thistleboy1980 wrote:

^ agreed. Although I love the song, I never fealt it was ever performed too well on a live basis. In some shows, Freddie sounded great (until the "i did it for love" part, where he just couldn't hit the note, so screeched instead) but the band were off, and vice versa. There was never a complete, great rendition, IMO - at times, they even forgot the lyrics. If you want a good live rendition, then the Tom Chaplain (from Keane) one from the Prince's Trust show a couple of years ago is the one, but there's not really one from 1984-85 AFAIC. Plenty of shit ones, most notably at Rio '85.

(Sorry Fred :p)

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I thought it sounded good here. Freddie nails the intro and nails the last Bb4 (I did it for looooooooove).

The versions from 5/8 and 5/9 from Japan are also good and the first two Birmingham versions are also nice.

My vote goes to Tokyo 09.05.1985. Freddie's last note of the song is simply stunning!

Hey, that Brussels one is actually quite good. It's been such a long time since I listened to any of the boots tbh, I forget which ones are good and which ones are shit lol. Actually, I threw all of my CDRs out in a complete moment of madness last year, so now can't refer back: unless I download some of the back from QZ :)

Even though Mercury doesn't hit the high notes at the beginning and end of the song, my favourite version is Osaka 5-15-85.

It just seems to mean something to him on that night, and he pours his heart out during that second verse.