Queen Must Dodge The Fate of Hendrix and Bolan

As a big fan of Jimi Hendrix and Marc Bolan, I can't help but feel they might just be rightfully aggrieved at the treatment of their respective archives.

Both artists have had the dregs pillaged and pumped out as new shiny product. I'm not talking about those full songs that crop up from time to time and might turn out to be gems.

Most Queen fans have been vocal in their desire to hear unfinished snippets, fragments, whatever you want to call them, and I'm one of those fans.

Of course I'd love a box set, and that would be exactly the place for this kind of material.

But I'm coming from a different angle today.

I'm hoping Brian , Roger and yes possibly John, will be the ones undergoing the endeavor and in control themselves lest we get more shabby treatment of a class act by future gatekeepers who see it as a big fat cash cow.

The new Queen album is also vital from this viewpoint, of course I'm a fan, I want it, but more importantly I want to see every possible unheard song included that is appropriate for reworking, so as to avoid those endless Hendrix and Bolan type releases, where 1 or 2 new songs are dropped onto endless compilations or reissues of the catalogue.

And yes I know in the download age it's easy to get just new tracks, but there are many collectors who still like something tangible like Cd's, vinyl etc

By the way I'm not talking about any songs with publishing elsewhere like the Dave Clarke material which might be a problem. If they can include them somewhere that's great but who knows...

I'm hoping that once Brian and Roger have everything they have to complete the new album, and its out there, they'll then concentrate on giving Queen a fantastic coda with a box set.

And to avoid the Hendrix, Bolan scenarios it has to be comprehensive. One big BoxSet , Box set one, Box set Two....it doesn't matter as long as Queen are the ones putting it out, and that they themselves exhaust the material they deem fit.

Thoughts?

Thoughts? Yes.

Please read the umpteen hundreds of threads that cover this topic in detail. Absolutely no reason for there to be another going over the same old ground.

[QUOTE] [b]Benn Kempster wrote:[/b]

Thoughts? Yes.

Please read the umpteen hundreds of threads that cover this topic in detail. Absolutely no reason for there to be another going over the same old ground.[/QUOTE] haha before you get on yer high horse buddy I'm located in China, I can't even access all the archives or old pages on this site. Probably 2 pages back at most.

Sometimes I can't even get on Queenzone. Let alone many other sites like Youtube etc even through a proxy. So I'd love to read everything but unfortunately not possible.

At the moment I can access general and serious discussion as I said and go 2 pages back, before the Great Firewall of China sticks it to me once more. So I was pleased to actually talk to fellow fans about it and I get told there's no reason .....jeez

It depends I think. If the stuff isn't album standard, then I think a box of bits and pieces including demos would be great. However, if the stuff is up to par though, I am more than happy for them to get it out there as an official release. I mean most people were happy with Made in Heaven (says Heavenite!...lol!) and if the new album is great, then they will do fine releasing it as such in my book. However, if there is a substanial drop off in standard, then it could well be that Queen are moving down the Hendrix/Bolan path. Having said that, based on Made in HeavenI,I doubt there would be a problem with Brian and Roger in charge. I trust them to make the right call(s) in relation to this matter.

[QUOTE] [b]Heavenite wrote:[/b]

It depends I think. If the stuff isn't album standard, then I think a box of bits and pieces including demos would be great. However, if the stuff is up to par though, I am more than happy for them to get it out there as an official release. I mean most people were happy with Made in Heaven (says Heavenite!...lol!) and if the new album is great, then they will do fine releasing it as such in my book. However, if there is a substanial drop off in standard, then it could well be that Queen are moving down the Hendrix/Bolan path. Having said that, based on Made in HeavenI,I doubt there would be a problem with Brian and Roger in charge. I trust them to make the right call(s) in relation to this matter. [/QUOTE] thanks for the intelligent reply Heavenite ;) yeah it's that drop in standard that's the main thing but I think fragments can survive on some sort of box set in a form that obviously wouldn't have been commercially viable as top shelf product.

The new album would have an inherent quality because I don't think they'd seriously release something that was underpar.

I was wondering more about what happens after, Brian and Roger aren't getting any younger and if its left to the estate in the future, as happened with Hendrix and Bolan it could turn disastrous. So I'm hoping they shake a leg after the new album and get a complete and comprehensive box set out.

Is it 1995?

The problem is we're all experts on this subject - yet, in reality, none of us are.

I'd like to add one important thought to this.

My favourite Beatles album is Abbey Rd - stick with me there is a point here (somewhere).

Over the years I've often pondered why I like that album especially. Oh I know which songs i like, and which little tempo changes and solos etc. And sure, Something, Here Comes The Sun, Sun King, Octopus' Garden, Oh Darling & Come Together are incredible songs....but that's not why this is my favourite beatles album...you know why I love it?
SIDE TWO: all those tiny litttle pieces of tracks spliced and diced into what is a piece of genius - those "side 2" medleys are without doubt the finest sections of contemporary music production/editing I've had the privilege to enjoy.
When this section of the album was crafted Lennon was hooked on Yoko and Heroin (allegedly) and didn't bother turning up for months on end, Ringo was all but left - skiing again, George wasn't speaking to Paul and for all intents and purposes the beatles had split - 18 months before they officially split.
This left Paul and George Martin to sit over miles of snippets of tape to labour with affection and and craft a work of loving genius.

I suppose what I'm saying is - queen as we know it split in 1991 and again in 1995 and then finally in 1997....But that doesn't mean that there's any piece of any track anywhere that can't be used in a similar way - if love and care are applied to the process. So as far as I'm concerned - anything they see fit to include is ok with me - if they want to make 35 minutes of medleys etc - so long as it works, I'm in favour.

Sermon over

I very much agree brENsKi. It's all about quality. And while I love Abbey Road, you don't need to look to The Beatles for examples of those sorts of medleys. I mean Sheer Heart Attack and also A Night of the Opera are quite similar too I think. Stuff like Dear Friends, Stone Cold Crazy, Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon and Seaside Rendezvous are virtually medley bits too and create a similar effect. And even NOTW and Jazz have elements of this too I think. Another artist who did quite a bit of this at his peak was Todd Rundgren on his albums A Wizard A True Star and Todd. And they're his best albums IMO. So I reckon it's a great idea!

Hi mark s
I take your point about the stuff left over falling into the hands of persons who simply don't have the time or love and care that the remaining members of Queen would put into this project. Having said that, apart from the MJ tracks, while I am speculating, I suspect that the work on any remaining Queen tracks was largely already completed years ago (no evidence!). We have heard rumours over the years of somwhere between 3 and 8 albums being left in the can, and those rumours suggested this stuff was already complete.

This will be the second posthumous album that comes out, so I'll be very interested to see what's on it. We have already been told by Brian that there are 3 tracks that have never been heard before. Interestingly that was the number on Made in Heaven too! And don't forget about the track "Feelings Feelings" that "magically" appeared on the complete album reissue a couple of years ago. So I tend to think that anything new and decent might be getting rationed over a few albums, so maybe there's at least one more after this one too).

Queen have lied their arses off ever since Freddie became ill, and both Made In Heaven and this next album (?MIH2) were said not to exist before they were announced. So I don't believe a word they say when it comes to what's left. Anyway, once this album and any other remaining albums are finished and out there, then I'm confident we'll see that Box Set you're hoping for, and that it will have been prepared by the remaining members of Queen and nobody else. And that's even if Brian and/or Roger are sadly no longer with us. Assuming we're still here! Sometimes it feels like shooting fish in a barrel really/

Brenski, I think that's a terrific post, very intelligent. I'd agree wholeheartedly but with the caveat that Abbey Road was a natural "near end" for the Beatles time wise. This project for what's left of Queen could contain songs 35 to 40 years old. Not really relevant or much of a natural end IMHO.

Gordon Lightfoot was interviewed on CBC. He said he destroyed everything unfinished so that no one could exploit it after he's gone. Not a bad idea.

^ ha, that's amazing.

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]

The problem is we're all experts on this subject - yet, in reality, none of us are.

I'd like to add one important thought to this.

My favourite Beatles album is Abbey Rd - stick with me there is a point here (somewhere).

Over the years I've often pondered why I like that album especially. Oh I know which songs i like, and which little tempo changes and solos etc. And sure, Something, Here Comes The Sun, Sun King, Octopus' Garden, Oh Darling & Come Together are incredible songs....but that's not why this is my favourite beatles album...you know why I love it?
SIDE TWO: all those tiny litttle pieces of tracks spliced and diced into what is a piece of genius - those "side 2" medleys are without doubt the finest sections of contemporary music production/editing I've had the privilege to enjoy.
When this section of the album was crafted Lennon was hooked on Yoko and Heroin (allegedly) and didn't bother turning up for months on end, Ringo was all but left - skiing again, George wasn't speaking to Paul and for all intents and purposes the beatles had split - 18 months before they officially split.
This left Paul and George Martin to sit over miles of snippets of tape to labour with affection and and craft a work of loving genius.

I suppose what I'm saying is - queen as we know it split in 1991 and again in 1995 and then finally in 1997....But that doesn't mean that there's any piece of any track anywhere that can't be used in a similar way - if love and care are applied to the process. So as far as I'm concerned - anything they see fit to include is ok with me - if they want to make 35 minutes of medleys etc - so long as it works, I'm in favour.

Sermon over[/QUOTE] hi brENsKi I actually emailed Brian's site about that very idea a few years ago so I agree absolutely that that would be a great way to use some the material that can't be fashioned into full songs.

On The Beatles website quote from Paul "And we hit upon the idea of medleying them all, which gave the second side of Abbey Road a kind of sort of operatic kind of structure which was quite nice because it got rid of all these songs in a good way."
PAUL

Now if there's another band in the world that can pull something like that off its Queen.

@brENsKi: I think you have some really good points. I also like the medleys on Abbey Road, listened to it A LOT 4 years ago. Before that I had only heard the hits, but that album got me into buying almost every Beatles-album (at least the "new" ones). It's a shame the Beatles aren't on Spotify (that means I don't play their music at the moment, and that moment has lastet for about 4 years now...).

Queen will never give you everything you want because the record company stopped them
the last time delux versions of the albums came out a few years back.
Jackie Gunn at the fan club promised us fans box sets years ago which never happened,
just more lies and to be honest Queen fans are treated badly by the record companies and the band.
When you see Beatles fans getting new product all the time or Marc Bolan having box sets released you say to yourself.
"Why do us Queen fans wait and wait and wait and when we do we just get reissues or something we know on cd.
Freddie said on his last radio one interview back in 1989, that there was loads of songs Queen had worked on
but just left by the way side, 5 years later in 1994 Brian denied all of this and said there was nothing left to use,
now he says they have just found new tracks to work on, yeah right!
A bit more respect to the fans please!

I think BM was telling the truth at the time. If they had been aware of more songs being available I'm sure they would have been used in the Made in Heaven Sessions. It would have made the whole process easier on everyone working on the album.

They were an active recording band for 20 years. During that time stuff will have been forgotten about, or not stored where someone may think it is and so regarded as lost.

A friend of mine used to own a UK based studio. He was working on a remix of someones album and had requested some master tapes from the bands record company. What turned up was two tape boxes containing an albums worth of unreleased songs by another band that the record company didn't know they had!

So thirty years down the line if BM and RT claim to have found some long lost bits, then yes it's quite possible.