I have no idea for sure, but if I were to guess very early on they considered most available Queen and non-Queen material since there simply weren't enough songs (only 6 are "new") after Innuendo's release, let alone complete ones (you can argue It's A Beautiful Day, Mother Love and You Don't Fool Me were anything but complete).
Perhaps it's been mentioned in this thread, but do we know when the vocal takes of TMLWKY and A Winter's Tale were recorded? TMLWKY's demo from The Miracle era is quite rough compared to the excellent album version. AWT is from the Innuendo era, but it's polished as well. What exactly did Freddie record in 1991 other than Mother Love? According to Sebastian, perhaps we only know for sure that AWT was revisited by Freddie after Innuendo's release.
EDIT: I'm reading there's a TMLWKY rough mix that features the same vocal performance, and this was complete by 1989. Is this freely available? It's not the 2 minutes demo. Perhaps it's the one shared by Wilki Amieva in the second page? (broken link)
Also, Sebastian, it's probably worth adding what Jim Hutton wrote in "Mercury & me":
"One of the first things Freddie liked to do when he arrived in Montreux was look at the swans on the lake. He referred to them as ‘my’ swans and as soon as he’d seen them he felt he could quickly settle back into the Swiss way of life.
That day, after strolling over to see his swans, Freddie sat at the water’s edge and was inspired to write a song called ‘A Winter’s Tale’. It was a Christmas song about Switzerland and life in the mountains. It was never heard. Freddie recorded the song, I’m certain of that, but the tape has never seen the light of day."
The closest date he mentions is:
"In February [1990] Queen was honoured with an award for their outstanding contribution to British music by the British Phonographic Industry in a ceremony at the Dominion Theatre."
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Golden Salmon wrote:
I have no idea for sure, but if I were to guess very early on they considered most available Queen and non-Queen material since there simply weren't enough songs (only 6 are "new") after Innuendo's release, let alone complete ones
They'd thought of making an EP, but it snowballed into an album later on.
Golden Salmon wrote:
EDIT: I'm reading there's a TMLWKY rough mix that features the same vocal performance, and this was complete by 1989. Is this freely available?
It was shared here some time ago. The 1989 version has a different mix and mastering but it's the exact same recording as the 1995 one. Same guitar, same digital piano, same synths, same drums, same bass, same vocals. Not just the same song or a similar arrangement, but the exact same recording. The 'Made in Heaven' release is mixed and mastered differently, but it contains no instrumentation added after Frederick died.
I'm 100% sure that the whole 'The Miracle' Capitol Records advance cassette has the same mixes of all songs but two. Scandal has unique slightly shorter mix with louder intro.
'Yes, you're loving on and out again' line wasn't used. BTW, this line is absent in the lyrics sheet on 'The Miracle' album, but was restored for final mix.
I Want It All is the alternate mix which was later used on 1991 US CD reissue, but unfortunately the outro was faded out earlier there than on the advance cassette.
TMLWKY from MIH is the same mix as on this 1989 advance cassette and, as I understand, the same as on 'The Miracle' U-matic master. Actually this track sounds different to all other MIH tracks, especially the drums sound which is equal to acoustic drums sound on 'The Miracle' album. I mean any processing of them as well.
'Yes, you're loving on and out again' line wasn't used. BTW, this line is absent in the lyrics sheet on 'The Miracle' album, but was restored for final mix.
I Want It All is the alternate mix which was later used on 1991 US CD reissue, but unfortunately the outro was faded out earlier there than on the advance cassette.
TMLWKY from MIH is the same mix as on this 1989 advance cassette and, as I understand, the same as on 'The Miracle' U-matic master. Actually this track sounds different to all other MIH tracks, especially the drums sound which is equal to acoustic drums sound on 'The Miracle' album. I mean any processing of them as well.
Golden Salmon wrote:
Perhaps it's been mentioned in this thread, but do we know when the vocal takes of TMLWKY and A Winter's Tale were recorded?
TMLWKY is from The Miracle sessions in 1988.
AWT was recorded on May 10, 1991.
IanR wrote:
The evidence suggests that some MBG tracks were in the running as early as 1992, given that 'The Freddie Mercury Album' had a number of rather startling omissions ('Born To Love You' being chief among them). The only reason I can fathom is that certain songs on MBG were vetoed by Jim Beach or the band, with half an eye on the 'final' Queen album. Another possibility is that Fred himself may have given his bandmates carte blanche to re-work his solo output, and identified particular songs he thought could be given the 'Queen' treatment.
Whatever the case, the following songs were left off 'The Freddie Mercury Album / Great Pretender' compilations:
Made In Heaven
I Was Born To Love You
Man Made Paradise
There Must Be More To Life Than This
Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow
The first two appeared in re-worked form on MIH, while of course 'Paradise' and TMBMTLTT started life under the Queen banner. What's the betting that at least some of these three remaining tracks were considered and then discarded for the Made In Heaven project?
Excellent discussion point.
The things we'll probably never know. But you're definitely on the scent by highlighting these five tracks.
cmi wrote:
I'm 100% sure that the whole 'The Miracle' Capitol Records advance cassette has the same mixes of all songs but two. Scandal has unique slightly shorter mix with louder intro.
'Yes, you're loving on and out again' line wasn't used. BTW, this line is absent in the lyrics sheet on 'The Miracle' album, but was restored for final mix.
Great observation - I never noticed that.
The Real Wizard wrote:
AWT was recorded on May 10, 1991.
To be exact, 10th of May was when the final vocal was compiled (presumably from existing takes which long predated this session). The actual recording process (Frederick's bit at least - both synthesisers and vocals) may have very well been in winter.
As for 'Too Much Love', back in Summer 1988 there were news about Brian writing material with Frank and Elizabeth. Odds are, this was the one (complete) number that came out of those creative sessions.
Could somebody please share the 1989 mix of TMLWKY?
Besides the request, I think it would be cool if CMI included it in his The Miracle (Expanded Collection). It would represent perfectly how the song could have sounded in that album.
Besides the request, I think it would be cool if CMI included it in his The Miracle (Expanded Collection). It would represent perfectly how the song could have sounded in that album.
I'd kill for an in-depth documentary about this period of the band. Starting from the FM Tribute up to and including TSMGO with Elton.
BETA215 wrote:
Could somebody please share the 1989 mix of TMLWKY?
Besides the request, I think it would be cool if CMI included it in his The Miracle (Expanded Collection). It would represent perfectly how the song could have sounded in that album.
As I wrote earlier I'm sure that TMLWKY on 1989 'The Miracle' Capitol advance cassette is the same mix as on 1995 MIH CD so I don't see the reason to feature tape cassette source instead of official MIH CD source.
cmi wrote:
BETA215 wrote:
Could somebody please share the 1989 mix of TMLWKY?
Besides the request, I think it would be cool if CMI included it in his The Miracle (Expanded Collection). It would represent perfectly how the song could have sounded in that album.
As I wrote earlier I'm sure that TMLWKY on 1989 'The Miracle' Capitol advance cassette is the same mix as on 1995 MIH CD so I don't see the reason to feature tape cassette source instead of official MIH CD source.
It is.
Bumped considering the 'Too Much Love' discussion going on elsewhere.
'The Complete Illustrated Lyrics' has handwritten lyrics for 'Let Me Live' (just Freddie's verse), which date back to 1981 and the Hot Space sessions.
That's true too!