Queen find more Freddie Mercury demos than originally thought

Heavenite wrote:

My thoughts exactly brENsKI! It's like they want to make each new "discovery" seems like the last one.

Some bands/acts have like a gazillion 'farewell' tours. If it's profitable enough, Queen may end up having a gazillion posthumous 'last scraps' albums.

Heavenite wrote:

And it works! I mean Made in Heaven went quadruple platinum in the UK. Maybe that's what Brian means when he says it was the best Queen album.

It's probably a major factor indeed. He's a businessman after all, so he's not just making music for the sake of it... and he's entitled to.

The problem about many fans is that they see things quite B/W or greyscale at best: if you're not a deluded stepford who blindly worships everything they do, then you're a bitter cynic who's got an agenda to demonise Dr May and who's never gonna be happy with anything.

Anyway, the thing is, that's their job: they're entertainers. Their task is to come up with successful records and tours. How do you measure success in a capitalist world? By the money you make. How do you make money in this case? By selling loads of records (either physically or on-line) and loads of tickets (plus memorabilia, etc,).

That's why a major part of their job is to publicly say/imply/claim/suggest things that will help those records and tours sell. 'Truth' is not a factor, and it shouldn't be: it's their job to ensure whatever comes out of their mouths (or Twitter account, Soapbox, etc.) will excite the fans and maximise their chance of selling well.

So, there needn't be any truth in 'this is the last one' or 'he was Freddie's favourite' or 'we're gonna play this song on stage for the very first time ever'. It's just something they say to prompt their clients to make. Fortunately for them, loads of their clients are either too ignorant, or too naive, or too stupid, to notice.

I think they will want some musical surprises for the movie, something we haven't heard yet, being played in a studio scene and/or a scene at Garden Lodge. Then the finished song(s), completed by Brian and Roger, could be released with the movie soundtrack. Sounds like fun to me. Something to look forward to (in my imagination).

Look for yourself ass on one night!

LOOK!

Sebastian wrote:

That's why a major part of their job is to publicly say/imply/claim/suggest things that will help those records and tours sell. 'Truth' is not a factor, and it shouldn't be: it's their job to ensure whatever comes out of their mouths (or Twitter account, Soapbox, etc.) will excite the fans and maximise their chance of selling well.

That's it Sebastian. They're entertainers. And the excitement and the build up are a very big part in that. The truth hardly matters in that respect. Maybe they will tell us all about any plans they had one day (if we are right!), just like they did about how they lied to protect Freddie towards the end.

Donna13 wrote:

I think they will want some musical surprises for the movie, something we haven't heard yet, being played in a studio scene and/or a scene at Garden Lodge. Then the finished song(s), completed by Brian and Roger, could be released with the movie soundtrack. Sounds like fun to me. Something to look forward to (in my imagination).

Now that really would be cool Donna! Although unfortunately I am thinking that the album would have the actor doing at least a big part of the vocal. Beyond that, I am also thinking any Freddie in the soundtrack is probably going to be mostly stuff the fans know already, since the general public will be want to recognise the songs when they go to the movie,

Can I just point something out to those pointing their fingers at the Queen archive?

When Brian says that they found stuff, you do realise it's totally possible, right? I mean, when I go through my own personal recordings from the years, I might find something that surprises me. Something that I did, that I forgot! Recordings of people I'd forgotten about. Or something else I didn't even know I had kept! And remember, I'm a lot closer to my personal archive which, as it happens, is sitting no more than a metre away on a shelf right now. It's pretty minimal! lol

My point is, Brian will have something similar in his home (more organised, I'm sure!). But more likely, he's been as cut off from the Queen archive as any rock star is from their works. My overall point here, is this - just because they lived it, recorded it, heard it, saw it - this means nothing in the grand scheme of things. And the reason I say that is because I've experienced the wonder at going back and finding things I never knew I had. So, with a little less cynicism in the air, maybe you'll see the point I'm trying to make. Either that, or Dude 1366 was right and you'll likely disregard what I'm trying to say and resume the Brian bashing. :P

Adam Baboolal wrote:

My overall point here, is this - just because they lived it, recorded it, heard it, saw it - this means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Moreover, there's the (actually rather big) possibility of the existence of stuff that Brian didn't live, record, hear or saw. There were Queen songs that had no input from Roger (e.g., One Year of Love, where the drums were programmed by John on a Linn computer), songs that had no input from John (e.g., Sheer Heart Attack), songs that had no input from Freddie (e.g., Good Company) and songs that had no input from Brian (e.g., Cool Cat).

Just like Brian wasn't on the original HfE or the original IWBtLY, there could be a song that Fred recorded on his own (but for a Queen project), or just with Roger, or just with John, or just with Roger and John, and which Brian didn't know about.

Adam Baboolal wrote:

resume the Brian bashing. :P

This is not Brian bashing, at all.

Brenski, there are way too many Brian bashers to mention them all by name. Everyone has done it at some point, as not every venture he enters into is received with aplomb by everyone. Even I've done it, amongst the support I've also expressed. Dude is right - quite often Brian is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. Some of us do it some of the time, some do it all of the time - but not all of us all of the time lol. I can see why you've responded the way you did though :)

understand what you're saying fella. i responded to Dudes post because it followed immediately after my post. in absence of him actually quoting anyone, it was all i had to go on

Adam Baboolal wrote:

Can I just point something out to those pointing their fingers at the Queen archive?

When Brian says that they found stuff, you do realise it's totally possible, right? I mean, when I go through my own personal recordings from the years, I might find something that surprises me. Something that I did, that I forgot! Recordings of people I'd forgotten about. Or something else I didn't even know I had kept! And remember, I'm a lot closer to my personal archive which, as it happens, is sitting no more than a metre away on a shelf right now. It's pretty minimal! lol

My point is, Brian will have something similar in his home (more organised, I'm sure!). But more likely, he's been as cut off from the Queen archive as any rock star is from their works. My overall point here, is this - just because they lived it, recorded it, heard it, saw it - this means nothing in the grand scheme of things. And the reason I say that is because I've experienced the wonder at going back and finding things I never knew I had. So, with a little less cynicism in the air, maybe you'll see the point I'm trying to make. Either that, or Dude 1366 was right and you'll likely disregard what I'm trying to say and resume the Brian bashing. :P

Hi Adam
I am not a Brian basher! Far from it. In fact, my posts were saying what they were doing (if they are doing it!) is pretty much in the fans' interest. Having said that, it sounds like you definitely know about these things and have a point! However,I think these facts might (or might not) also be relevant:

(1) Freddie knew his days were numbered for a long time and seems to have focussed heavily on making music during his last years for his fans.
(2) Queen went straight back to Montreaux to start writing and recording once Innuendo was released. So far we have received only three new tracks, one of which is supposed to be sort of a Dave Richards reworking.
(3) We were also told that Freddie told the others to write all the lines they could when his time was running out so he could sing them and they could do something with it later.
(4) Straight after Freddie's death, I remember reports in the Australian media (where I live) saying that Queen had between 3 and 8 albums left in the can. However later the band were to say that there was nothing more to come.
(5) The songs on the Freddie Mercury Album were largely made up of tracks from Mr Bad Guy plus his solo singles. However, some of what I would consider the best tracks on Mr Bad Guy were "missing" on the Freddie Mercury Album.
((6) In 1995 we were told that in fact there was enough material and Made in Heaven materialised. Interestingly some of the "best tracks" from Mr Bad Guy that were not included on the Freddie Mercury Album did get a suitable Queen treatment in line with the atmosphere of the then new album. The suggestion might therefore be that they had been originally left off The Freddie Mercury Album precisely for this purpose.
(7) Then we were told once again that there was nothing more to come.
(8) Years later, with news of a Freddie Mercury movie in the offing, Roger and Brian suddenly talk about going into the studio to see if they can make another album from what's left of the band's work with Freddie. They then give up with Roger saying that he doesn't want to be part of a bottom-scraping exercise.
(8) Movie still coming and some sort of album is definitely back on the agenda. Brian is saying that there really is quite a lot of stuff that has only recently been uncovered, but he's unsure if there is enough for an album.

Now these things might all be just coincidences rather than something that was well planned (I mean I doubt they could have known about Jacko's death beforehand, unless they referred Conrad Murray to him...lol!). But like I said, the way I see it, I don't really care if its been planned or if it is indeed accidental. I'm just glad that we have one more Queen album still to come (hopefully more!) and then a movie about Freddie's life to boot. It's pretty awesome actually!
PS By the way, I agree with Sebastian. There is no Brian bashing going on here. Just a bit of speculation. I actually just received a copy of Brian's book Bang! Hope we also see him back in the studio doing another studio album of his own one day. And I already have Back to the Light, Another World. Furia and his Starfleet Project.

has anyone mentioned the "david richards tape" from a few years back? Grand Dame and Affairs I believe the tracks were called?

good.

Between 3 and 8 album left in the can??? Only the media could come up with those numbers. As regards BM and RT saying that they've found some Freddie recordings, we don't know if they are whole finished songs, run through of songs that they were working on with a guide vocal that maybe is usable if the song is recorded properly or even scrapped out takes that can be fashioned into something new.

They could have said nothing about the stuff that's been found, they may have known about but assumed that it had been dumped or lost long ago. They may have forgotten about a lot of it.

e-man wrote:

has anyone mentioned the "david richards tape" from a few years back? Grand Dame and Affairs I believe the tracks were called?

yes. YOU....just here ^^^

Vocal harmony wrote:

Between 3 and 8 album left in the can??? Only the media could come up with those numbers. As regards BM and RT saying that they've found some Freddie recordings, we don't know if they are whole finished songs, run through of songs that they were working on with a guide vocal that maybe is usable if the song is recorded properly or even scrapped out takes that can be fashioned into something new.

They could have said nothing about the stuff that's been found, they may have known about but assumed that it had been dumped or lost long ago. They may have forgotten about a lot of it.

Yes, they could have said nothing. There are are no certainties here. But then there would have been no publicity for the apparently forthcoming album, whatever form it takes. My impression is that everyone had pretty much switched off to the possiblity of something new before Brian and Roger came out and stated they were going to try and see if there was enough material to make another album.

At the time I assumed the point about there being 3 and 8 albums still in the can would have come from the record company, as it was reported in the mainstream Australian media at the time of Freddie's passing. It took a while before it became clear to me that the band itself was actually saying something quite different. So maybe it was someone in the media or someone from the local branch of the record company that knew nothing at all really.