Doga
I always was impressed with the ''In My Defence'' story. Fred recorded the song in one take and the producers were so impressed they offered him sing the main theme of the musical ''Time''.
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The Real Wizard
[QUOTE] [b]BETA215 wrote:[/b]
Wasn't both San Remo and both Montreux Festival concerts mimed?[/QUOTE]
Ah yes, so then four shows... I forgot there were two nights in San Remo.
When those four shows comprise of ten songs in total (compared to 700 other shows where they played dozens of songs each), they're easy to overlook..
Wasn't both San Remo and both Montreux Festival concerts mimed?[/QUOTE]
Ah yes, so then four shows... I forgot there were two nights in San Remo.
When those four shows comprise of ten songs in total (compared to 700 other shows where they played dozens of songs each), they're easy to overlook..
flash00.
It is common knowledge that Freddie suffered terrible with his voice, Wembley was a great show and yes Freddie was suffering with his voice but it was still very powerful, checkout Leeds 82 Somebody to love, like others have pointed out there is so many shows Freddie's voice was incredible so don't judge a singer off one show.
YAFF
[QUOTE] [b]attaboy_jhb wrote:[/b]
I am a vocal student and after hearing all the praise of Freddie Mercury as a singer I went and
[/QUOTE]
Just stfu you twat
I am a vocal student and after hearing all the praise of Freddie Mercury as a singer I went and
[/QUOTE]
Just stfu you twat
attaboy_jhb
Ok those who are getting mean: no need to get your panties in a knot. Let me clarify AGAIN that I only listened to the wembley concert because that is what seems to come up first on youtube. Don't know why it comes up first if it is the worse performance of his but anyway I will definitely do some more research. Can we be friends now?
I must say I do think the albums and recordings sound AMAZING but then again I don't judge a vocalist by his studio work.
Does anybody know where a decent live performance of "friends will be friends" can be found as I am studying that now and the only "real" live performance I could find was the wembley one and he sings it a tone lower but it still sounds so strained?
I must say I do think the albums and recordings sound AMAZING but then again I don't judge a vocalist by his studio work.
Does anybody know where a decent live performance of "friends will be friends" can be found as I am studying that now and the only "real" live performance I could find was the wembley one and he sings it a tone lower but it still sounds so strained?
ANAGRAMER
Attaboy, as a vocal student, can you let us know what key Bohemian Rhapsody is in?
Typhoon859
As an audio engineer, what makes you think anything was done to the voice in the studio recordings? Before I really even knew anything, it was clear to me there weren't particularly any "tricks". Production was a big part of Queen in terms of the scale they went for but in no way were they overproduced or otherwise dependent on the production. Past having clear separation from the rest of the instruments, having the opportunity to do multiple takes, balancing things with each other, and adding some reverb & EQ so that it best fits the context of the song (the studio equivalent of concert halls for classical music and opera), there's absolutely nothing done with Freddie Mercury's voice. One of the incredible things about the vocals in Queen was how raw they really all were for the most part, unless there was an obvious effect done for a specific purpose. In many ways, it's quite offensive actually to just assume what you're hearing isn't worth judging because automatically your projections are that there's cheating involved, or however you may see it.
Freddie Mercury pushed himself in the studio to the limits and FAR beyond. Very few singers do that and it's not possible to sing like that live non-stop. Queen had thousands of shows and their approach to live performances plus their philosophy wasn't to recreate the studio versions of their songs but rather it was to be able to put on a good show with the appropriate adaptation for more consistency. Freddie still did notes at the limits of the range of a high baritone and as others mentioned, he suffered from vocal nodules. What you're essentially saying is that you judge a singer by when they're impaired or have to make up for something unrelated to their actual abilities and otherwise comprehensiveness for the best/required approach, the latter of which not too many possess. The consistency of belting the same note the same exact way no matter the context is not impressive to me, and I imagine that's the standard by which you judge a singer.
If you want to look into completely unproduced vocals of his without the intent of anything but a demonstration (as you seem to be looking for), here is one example of effectively two takes (one for his part and the other intended to later be reproduced by Montserrat Caballe), all done in one go and not fleshed out any further than simply hitting the notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivXLj8ntwUU
Keep in mind this is the unfinished (demo) version of the song. This should give you some idea. Freddie Mercury isn't a one trick pony. That's just but one example. What makes him great is that if you actually listen through the discography, his musicianship and adaptive singing techniques are unrivaled. He really conforms to the style of the song rather than force his style onto it. He had a certain kind of approach live but for the kind of vocals he lays down and style he has, the studio is where it's at and that says no less about him. If you get fixated on there being edits, well FYI, The Show Must Go On was one take. To this day, I can't find or think of a singer that can do that.
In terms of Friends Will be Friends, that's a music video dude... He doesn't pretend that it's anything else and that's why it's obvious he is "lip syncing". You really did look at the worst though, damn... It in fact always in bothered me that searching Freddie Mercury on YouTube, you don't get the good stuff; you've illustrated my concern quite well.
Freddie Mercury pushed himself in the studio to the limits and FAR beyond. Very few singers do that and it's not possible to sing like that live non-stop. Queen had thousands of shows and their approach to live performances plus their philosophy wasn't to recreate the studio versions of their songs but rather it was to be able to put on a good show with the appropriate adaptation for more consistency. Freddie still did notes at the limits of the range of a high baritone and as others mentioned, he suffered from vocal nodules. What you're essentially saying is that you judge a singer by when they're impaired or have to make up for something unrelated to their actual abilities and otherwise comprehensiveness for the best/required approach, the latter of which not too many possess. The consistency of belting the same note the same exact way no matter the context is not impressive to me, and I imagine that's the standard by which you judge a singer.
If you want to look into completely unproduced vocals of his without the intent of anything but a demonstration (as you seem to be looking for), here is one example of effectively two takes (one for his part and the other intended to later be reproduced by Montserrat Caballe), all done in one go and not fleshed out any further than simply hitting the notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivXLj8ntwUU
Keep in mind this is the unfinished (demo) version of the song. This should give you some idea. Freddie Mercury isn't a one trick pony. That's just but one example. What makes him great is that if you actually listen through the discography, his musicianship and adaptive singing techniques are unrivaled. He really conforms to the style of the song rather than force his style onto it. He had a certain kind of approach live but for the kind of vocals he lays down and style he has, the studio is where it's at and that says no less about him. If you get fixated on there being edits, well FYI, The Show Must Go On was one take. To this day, I can't find or think of a singer that can do that.
In terms of Friends Will be Friends, that's a music video dude... He doesn't pretend that it's anything else and that's why it's obvious he is "lip syncing". You really did look at the worst though, damn... It in fact always in bothered me that searching Freddie Mercury on YouTube, you don't get the good stuff; you've illustrated my concern quite well.
Costa86
Freddie Mercury, a lip syncing artist? You've demolished your credibility with that question. Freddie and Queen were known for their live shows - of course he wasn't a lip syncing artist.
It annoys me that you post this and then fail to even reply to the responses.
[QUOTE] [b]attaboy_jhb wrote:[/b]
I am a vocal student and after hearing all the praise of Freddie Mercury as a singer I went and studied some of his songs out of interest even though queen is not really my type of band. That is when I discovered this forum and wanted to add that I finished watching the wembley 86 concert and as a live performance, I don't think he sounds that good. His voice sounds so strained. On recordings I do think he sounds good but I only evaluate a singer by his live singing and so should anybody else really as studios do a lot of amazing things - even in those days.
Also, one of the songs I was studying was "friends will be friends" and all the live videos have queen playing to a backing track??? Is this common knowledge that Freddie was a lip synching artist?[/QUOTE]
It annoys me that you post this and then fail to even reply to the responses.
[QUOTE] [b]attaboy_jhb wrote:[/b]
I am a vocal student and after hearing all the praise of Freddie Mercury as a singer I went and studied some of his songs out of interest even though queen is not really my type of band. That is when I discovered this forum and wanted to add that I finished watching the wembley 86 concert and as a live performance, I don't think he sounds that good. His voice sounds so strained. On recordings I do think he sounds good but I only evaluate a singer by his live singing and so should anybody else really as studios do a lot of amazing things - even in those days.
Also, one of the songs I was studying was "friends will be friends" and all the live videos have queen playing to a backing track??? Is this common knowledge that Freddie was a lip synching artist?[/QUOTE]
inu-liger
[QUOTE] [b]attaboy_jhb wrote:[/b]Also, one of the songs I was studying was "friends will be friends" and all the live videos have queen playing to a backing track??? Is this common knowledge that Freddie was a lip synching artist?[/QUOTE]
One of the most obvious examples of not doing your research properly. You get an F for effort.
For someone who's supposed to be a vocal lesson student, you fail pretty hard. No wonder you're getting torn to shreds here.
One of the most obvious examples of not doing your research properly. You get an F for effort.
For someone who's supposed to be a vocal lesson student, you fail pretty hard. No wonder you're getting torn to shreds here.
Nitroboy
[QUOTE]
[b]attaboy_jhb wrote: [/b] Ok those who are getting mean: no need to get your panties in a knot. Let me clarify AGAIN that I only listened to the wembley concert because that is what seems to come up first on youtube. Don't know why it comes up first if it is the worse performance of his but anyway I will definitely do some more research. Can we be friends now?
I must say I do think the albums and recordings sound AMAZING but then again I don't judge a vocalist by his studio work.
Does anybody know where a decent live performance of "friends will be friends" can be found as I am studying that now and the only "real" live performance I could find was the wembley one and he sings it a tone lower but it still sounds so strained?
[/QUOTE]
Excuse me, but what the hell makes you just automatically denounce the studio work? Yes there are tools these days, but there weren't in the 70's or 80's - there were harmonizers and vocoding effects, but nothing like auto-tune was available.
As for the Wembley concert; Freddie was sick during that, if you want a short glimpse of his true power, listen to the Live Aid concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE_9_Ejybhc
[b]attaboy_jhb wrote: [/b] Ok those who are getting mean: no need to get your panties in a knot. Let me clarify AGAIN that I only listened to the wembley concert because that is what seems to come up first on youtube. Don't know why it comes up first if it is the worse performance of his but anyway I will definitely do some more research. Can we be friends now?
I must say I do think the albums and recordings sound AMAZING but then again I don't judge a vocalist by his studio work.
Does anybody know where a decent live performance of "friends will be friends" can be found as I am studying that now and the only "real" live performance I could find was the wembley one and he sings it a tone lower but it still sounds so strained?
[/QUOTE]
Excuse me, but what the hell makes you just automatically denounce the studio work? Yes there are tools these days, but there weren't in the 70's or 80's - there were harmonizers and vocoding effects, but nothing like auto-tune was available.
As for the Wembley concert; Freddie was sick during that, if you want a short glimpse of his true power, listen to the Live Aid concert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE_9_Ejybhc
cmsdrums
As a drummer, I so looked forward to seeing John Bonham, based on his reputation. Imagine my horror when I saw a video of him once dropping a stick, proving once and for all that the bloke was clearly a shit drummer.
Zamidoo
To the OP - I know what you mean about some of the songs at Wembley, and you're probably right - if Freddie Mercury were judged as a singer based on Wembley alone, I doubt he'd make the 'greatest ever' list based only on vocal production (although probably would still make it, albeit possibly further down, on delivery and stage presence alone!), but as others have pointed out, that performance was during a long, exhausting tour. As other have also pointed out, he had problems with vocal nodules that were particularly bad at Wembley for whatever reason.
If you listen to many, many other live recordings you'll find a very different story. You also have to remember that a lot of the most well-known Queen hits that Freddie penned himself (as opposed to those written by the other members of Queen, e.g.. 'Radio Gaga' or 'We will rock you' to name two, for example) had fiendishly difficult vocal lines which were very difficult to reproduce live. The fact that he managed to sing some of those songs live at all, during a long tour, is a testament in itself to his singing ability.
I agree with what others have said about checking out live performances from around 1980-81 if you want to hear him at his peak. Remember, he was also around 40 years old in the Wembley shows and had been singing with Queen for over 15 years - that's a lot of rock singing. Even at Wembley, though, it was only the top of his voice that was a bit under-par. The middle and lower registers were fine.
Re. people 'getting their pants (or knickers or whatever) in a knot', well, you're going to get that on a site full of Queen fans! I don't think that your post is wrong exactly, but you should really check out more live recordings to get a better idea of the whole picture... re. the lip-synching, though, that is just an erroneous assumption. Freddie really didn't lip-synch. As an example, there is a recording which Freddie sang live on television in the early 1980s despite having lost his voice the night before after a lot of shouting. They could have mimed, but chose not to. And his singing is pretty awful (although not the overall performance)! If there were just some backing tracks at Wembley, that isn't really the same thing.
If you listen to many, many other live recordings you'll find a very different story. You also have to remember that a lot of the most well-known Queen hits that Freddie penned himself (as opposed to those written by the other members of Queen, e.g.. 'Radio Gaga' or 'We will rock you' to name two, for example) had fiendishly difficult vocal lines which were very difficult to reproduce live. The fact that he managed to sing some of those songs live at all, during a long tour, is a testament in itself to his singing ability.
I agree with what others have said about checking out live performances from around 1980-81 if you want to hear him at his peak. Remember, he was also around 40 years old in the Wembley shows and had been singing with Queen for over 15 years - that's a lot of rock singing. Even at Wembley, though, it was only the top of his voice that was a bit under-par. The middle and lower registers were fine.
Re. people 'getting their pants (or knickers or whatever) in a knot', well, you're going to get that on a site full of Queen fans! I don't think that your post is wrong exactly, but you should really check out more live recordings to get a better idea of the whole picture... re. the lip-synching, though, that is just an erroneous assumption. Freddie really didn't lip-synch. As an example, there is a recording which Freddie sang live on television in the early 1980s despite having lost his voice the night before after a lot of shouting. They could have mimed, but chose not to. And his singing is pretty awful (although not the overall performance)! If there were just some backing tracks at Wembley, that isn't really the same thing.
Nitroboy
Wembley wasn't at the end of the tour, it was right in the middle of it.
The reason why Freddie sounds [i]odd[/i] at Wembley is because he was ill, nothing else, a week later he sounds [b]beastly[/b] in Vienna:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bglu4mAhvOQ
The television performance Zamidoo is talking about is from '82 on USA's Saturday Night Live, the songs performed were [i]Under Pressure[/i] and [i]Crazy Little Thing Called Love[/i]
The reason why Freddie sounds [i]odd[/i] at Wembley is because he was ill, nothing else, a week later he sounds [b]beastly[/b] in Vienna:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bglu4mAhvOQ
The television performance Zamidoo is talking about is from '82 on USA's Saturday Night Live, the songs performed were [i]Under Pressure[/i] and [i]Crazy Little Thing Called Love[/i]
Zamidoo
Ok - have edited it - got carried away!
LilKing22
I long ago accepted that Freddie in the studio and Freddie live were two different beasts. I do not find one to be more enjoyable than the other, but the vocals ARE different. I think the best Freddie ever sounded was at Live Aid in '85. Wembley is not good. But there are other shows from the tour that are much better, such as Budapest from the same tour, done a couple weeks after Wembley. There's a big difference. I think the thing to remember is that although he had unbelievable tenor range, he was naturally a baritone. Certain things he did in the studio would blow out his voice if he attempted them live over the course of a 20 song set. That is one reason why Live Aid is so strong, because it was a brief set. Also notice how a song like "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" which has a very low key is sandwiched between higher songs to give him a bit of a breather from the really high stuff. No matter what live recording you listen to, Freddie always gave everything and on the off nights he still brought incredible energy and fought through whatever difficulties he was having with tremendous passion and power.
- Ryan
- Ryan