Freddie's Final Vocal Confirmed (?)

Martin Packer wrote:

Obviously Mother Love would probably have been missing the final verse - but could you imagine Freddie hearing Brian's vocal? (I doubt this happened.)

According to what Justin already posted, there was a Brian May vocal on ML as early as May 1991. Now, was it just a guide for Freddie or was it indeed the final verse? Good point...

Excellent thread with some fascinating information. We need more threads like this.

My God Craig - you're alive :)

When interviewed on Virgin Superstars on 04.04.04, Brian claimed Mother Love had been 'in the last few weeks of his [Freddie's] life.'

Now we know that's technically correct, only that Brian was using Freddie's 'the bigger the better' motto: Freddie's life lasted just under 2359 and a half weeks, and he recorded 'Mother Love' around Week No 2331, that is, during the last 1.19% of his life. So, technically, it *was* 'the last few weeks', only that loads of fans thought he meant 'the last two/three weeks' rather than 'the last 28-30 weeks.'

^ I 99.9% agree with that, Seb :)

'splains alot! Sadly bursts my romantic bubble about A Winters Tale being the last recording made up to the time he left the studio.

justinshirleysmith wrote:

I can find no evidence of any work on Mother Love after the 22nd May 1991... until 13th October 1993 when work recommenced at Metropolis Studios London.

That day Brian was performing in America as a solo artist: http://www.queenconcerts.com/detail/live/906/brian-may-live-13-10-1993-modjeska-theater-milwaukee-wisconsin-usa.html

Which means that whatever was done, was by John and Roger.

Well spotted.

Finally! An excellent thread with a contribution from someone who actually has some accurate information. Thank you Justin! This one thread makes coming here worthwhile...hopefully this wont be the last.

Supersonic_Man89 wrote:

Peter Freestone always says it was a month before his death? Although saying that Peter could be getting confused...on a radio documentary entitled 'The Last Days of Freddie Mercury', he said he completed FOUR complete tracks in 1991...surely he means three?

I found this to be an interesting post for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I note that Phoebe says that Freddie completed four tracks. Who are we to correct him in this respect? I have heard that You Don't Fool Me was pretty much a Dave Richards construction as well. If so, does that mean there are two completed tracks from this period still to come maybe next year?

Secondly I note that Peter Freestone also says that Freddie continued to record right up until the last month before his death. If this is so, then he stopped in October when he also says that Freddie could no longer sing.

Maybe this apparent discrepancy can be explained by some of the other things that the other band members have said. I know nothing of dates and reels, but we have heard that Freddie near the end told the others to write lots of lines and he would sing anything and everything.

So maybe the month of May was the time the band stopped doing COMPLETED tracks and stepped up the pace in terms of the writing process with Freddie singing any lines that the others (and maybe also he) were able to come up with.

So maybe Freddie actually went flat out doing this period right up until he could no longer sing in October, precisely as Phoebe says. And when he reached the point that he could no longer sing, maybe it was at that point at which he decided it was time to stop taking his meds (as I've heard he did) let go and move on from this life. I mean with no quality of life to speak of and having now lost the ability to sing, well he may have seen there as beiing little point left in going on.

Just some more "worms out of the can" for any of you who might be interested to mull over. :-)

justinshirleysmith wrote:

Dear Mr Wizard

I was horrified to see you thought my message here should be a reason to discredit Peter Freestone in any way. Peter is a wonderful man and gives so much to us all. He is always a great person to be around, very kind to me in those days too and an important part of Freddie's life.

Why do you need to vilify anyone here? Is that an important feature of QZ?

You can pick holes in anything anyone ever says. Sebastian already found a flaw in my original message. Life is not black and white. Any study of any piece of history can tell you that. I can only tell you what I found in the archived studio documents we have, plus what I remember. I'm sure Peter knows many things I don't - after all, he was much closer to Freddie.

We are still researching other documents from 1991. I'll let you know if I find more info on this subject.

Regards
Justin

I note that Justin is keen to defend the veracity of what Phoebe says and points out that life is not as "black and white" as we might think it is. So could it be that Mother Love was indeed the last properly recorded track that Queen completed while Freddie was still alive, but that was not the last incomplete or piecemeal recording that Freddie made.

Maybe there is more music from this period, but in a more fragmented or undeveloped form than Winters Tale, Mother Love and the other one or possibly two completed tracks that Phoebe refers to.

Laslty, could this be where those rumours of enough material for between as little as 3 and and as many as 8 albums have come from? Not sure, but I wonder how much of this sort of material exists, assuming it actually does since the remaining band members have said so.

It would probably be tough to do something with this stuff, but Freddie has been gone for 22 years now, so there has been plenty of time to try and do something worthwhile with it, if it is indeed possible.

A good example I think of what might be possible is the incomplete demo New York off Freddie's 10CD collection. Just getting Brian and Roger to do their own verses and Brian to do a suitable guitar break in the middle, and I reckon you would have one helluva song!

I remember that I read an interview with Brian in a German magazine years agoin which he stated/ was quoted that "other tracks" had been recorded for MIH in 1991 but also that they did not wind up on the album because "they were not good".

Which basically leads us back to Roger Taylor's comments of about a year ago when he saId that work on the album was to be halted as he didn't want to be involved in a "bottom scraping exercise".

Yet here we are a year later and Roger is saying tthat there are some good tracks that aren't demos that are set for release next year, once Brian and himself have worked on them a bit more.

And if there were four tracks completed in 1991 as Phoebe suggests, then one would think that the other one or two might be at least OK, if Mother Love and Winters Tale are anything to go by.

Heavenite wrote:

Supersonic_Man89 wrote:

Peter Freestone always says it was a month before his death? Although saying that Peter could be getting confused...on a radio documentary entitled 'The Last Days of Freddie Mercury', he said he completed FOUR complete tracks in 1991...surely he means three?

I found this to be an interesting post for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I note that Phoebe says that Freddie completed four tracks. Who are we to correct him in this respect? I have heard that You Don't Fool Me was pretty much a Dave Richards construction as well. If so, does that mean there are two completed tracks from this period still to come maybe next year?

Secondly I note that Peter Freestone also says that Freddie continued to record right up until the last month before his death. If this is so, then he stopped in October when he also says that Freddie could no longer sing.

Maybe this apparent discrepancy can be explained by some of the other things that the other band members have said. I know nothing of dates and reels, but we have heard that Freddie near the end told the others to write lots of lines and he would sing anything and everything.

So maybe the month of May was the time the band stopped doing COMPLETED tracks and stepped up the pace in terms of the writing process with Freddie singing any lines that the others (and maybe also he) were able to come up with.

So maybe Freddie actually went flat out doing this period right up until he could no longer sing in October, precisely as Phoebe says. And when he reached the point that he could no longer sing, maybe it was at that point at which he decided it was time to stop taking his meds (as I've heard he did) let go and move on from this life. I mean with no quality of life to speak of and having now lost the ability to sing, well he may have seen there as beiing little point left in going on.

Just some more "worms out of the can" for any of you who might be interested to mull over. :-)

That is all just wishful thinking. There is so much wishful thinking on these boards from people who don't want to move on and desperately want to hear Freddie's voice again.

Like I said in another thread, it's a ridiculous idea that he/they would have been frantically recording up until October, for 10 months, and basically not coming up with anything. Impossible. It's also ridiculous that they would have done more "proper" songs, but would have decided not to release them on MIH.

= there exists no more material worthy of releasing.

Even if there exists another as bare and sketchy demo from 91 as 'Gazelle' or 'Yellow Breeze' from the Freddie box set, or 'My secret Fantasy', what does it matter? They consist only of the title line and a little doodling, nothing more, and could only be released in an anthology for the die-hard completists. It makes no difference to me if something like 'Gazelle' had never been released.

I believe what Sebastian said, that Freddie recorded material in 91 on two occasions, in January and May. There was no singing in the fall, no more songs, no "write me anything and I'll sing it".

Some people desperately want to believe it, even if the overwhelming amount of evidence suggests otherwise.