the melancholy behind You Dont fool Me.

Apart from the great guitar solo and the "semi-oriental" bass hook there is something in Freddie's performance that is unique.
It takes me to a strange mood.
He sounds like having a cold and with his spirits not exactly "up".
But that adds a depth to his singing i can't actually expalin.

Its like his singing from a strange place that lovey-dovey stuff are not a part of his life anymore, but he sings it becouse he knows that is a part of others people.
Like singing for someting he celabrated a lot in his life but now he sings it just for us as a wise man who have done all that but holds no hard feelings that he cant no longer participate.
Like "The show must go on " in practice in a way.

Mmmm, very interesting viewpoint.

wtf?

Excuse me... what??

Hmm. No. I don't see that. The song was not even a song until David Richards brainchilded (if that's even a word) it together and it gave Queen a song.

I suspect the pitch / timing of the original Freddie fragment were mucked with. Might give it the edge the OP detected.

as it's established fact that all of the pitching, effects and phasing done on this track were done AFTER his death, then it's completely safe to say that the OP is imagining this "melancholy"

Do you mean to suggest that there are feelings of RESIGNATION in the song?



It's all speculation but I wouldn't dare to guess who the subject (if any) is. .... could be a slight possibility that the song is just themed as a blues number.


I don't think much was changed in the studio. The phrasing he uses is timed and deliberate. I don't believe it's "faked" with studio trickery. It's likely that the reason "there was no song to speak of" until Dave Richards worked at it was because he was present at the recordings while others were not.

Interesting observation OP, but you must admit the Show Must Go On comparison doesn't exactly work? ;) For me, Fool Me is quite an intimate track and despite of all the attempts to make it a Queen song it doesn't sound very Queen to me. Maybe that's what makes it stand out. It makes me think, along with Mother Love, about a slightly different direction they could have taken had they had the time to record more new songs for their last album... As bad as it may sound. A stripped down, sombre version of Queen.

Yes. Resignation sums it up quite fairly.

You all know the story of the song, so i guess there would a hint of melancholy in there.
I thought it was one of the stand out songs of MIH, with a great bass riff and excellent guitar work by Dr May with the solo, he doesn't do too many bad ones. It seems Roger was one of the more creative songwriters of this period in Queen.

The tone of resignation is there, for sure, but I think you're reading too much into it.