Mr Bad Guy, Freddies escape route?

[QUOTE] [b]Apocalipsis_Darko wrote:[/b]

Live Aid and a reunion after that in Berlin without Paul Prenter was the key for Queen continued as a band. That story Peter Freestone told me.[/QUOTE]

Now THAT is a monumental piece of information.

His solo album tanked, he realized he needed the band after all, so maybe they called the shots. That would make perfect sense.

Paul Freestone told me, the reunion was without Paul Prenter, because Paul Prenter was who wanted to promotedFreddie alone and left Queen.
But without Prenter, who always know was a very bad influence, Freddie saw the things clear, as Peter Freestone told me. Also Mike Moran told Freddie wanted to compained Queen with his solo career (you know he wanted to do a second solo record with Mike Moran, but Barcelona opportunity appeared and the second solo record was declined).

[QUOTE] [b]The King Of Rhye wrote:[/b]

I always understood that he signed a one-record deal to do Mr Bad Guy........if he was seriously thinking of leaving, wouldnt he have signed a longer deal?[/QUOTE]

The CBS deal must have been for at least 2 albums, in the Great Pretender doc. Jim Beach states that when they discussed the Barcelona plans with Walter Yetnikoff, he paid them to go away :)

(0:53:14 on the Blu-Ray)

Yes, I can "confirm" that Freddie had a "Mr. Bad Guy II" in mind.
A local known(german) guitar player gave an interview about that.

[QUOTE] [b]miraclesteinway wrote: [/b] It could be that Freddie wanted a solo album and wrote specifically for that, or it could be that the songs that ended up on Mr Bad Guy were ones that didn't fit in with Queen at the time. Or both, you know. It's well known that Queen were getting pretty tired of being Queen by 1985.[/QUOTE] I think both. Out there exists a Man Made Paradise demo with the rest of Queen. Also There Must Be More To Life Than This was earlier recorded as a Queen track with Deacon on the guitar. And in "The Solo Collection", you can hear "18. She Blows Hot & Cold (Alternative Version Feat. Brian May).wtf", but it's a jam with Bri. That demonstrates that some songs started growing in Queen, or at least have another person than Freddie in them.

I remember Mack said something about Freddie wanted to leave the band, if Im not mistaken he said that in the DOOL video.

Wow the vocal on Blows Hot and Cold is spectacular in places! It's better with Brian playing, this could have been on Queen forever, if Roger had added drums. I bet John played bass....

Mr Bad Guy was never a good enough album for it to be Freddie's escape route. It is highly accomplished of course, and it has some nice songs on it. Your Kind of Lover is a decent track although to my ear the '92 remix works better and would have worked better in 1985. Foolin' Around is also a nice track, but it's not particularly of its time. Made In Heaven is potentially a beautiful song, but for me the vocal sound is a little fractured, the tuning is suspect in places and the arrangement sucks. I prefer the Queen version because it feels more supported. The same with I Was Born To Love You, although the vocal on Born to Love You is much better. Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow is kitsch to the point of being almost painful, and if it wasn't that Freddie manages to sing it so well, it would be a terrible listen. In places the Mr Bad Guy LP is like genius gone mad. That said, the title track is an out and out masterpiece, and had he put more stuff like that on it, it might not have sold any more but it would have been more highly regarded amongst fans.

All that criticism aside, which I know is in places harsh (I'm sorry Freddie, I do love you!), perhaps the whole point of the album was to be kind of kitsch and camp, since it's well known that Freddie was always a little self-depricating at times, and viewed in that light I love the over the top nature of the LP. For a musical experience however, it's not a patch on anything he did with Queen, and is not even close to Barcelona which is a very different kind of masterpiece.

When I listen to Mr Bad Guy, the album I mean, I hear a work that has taken a very long time to complete, because it has dragged on and on, and was hurried up at the last minute perhaps because of record company pressure. I get the impression that by the time it was released even, Freddie was already back on track with Queen and probably having heard the album, realised that Queen was better than he was under the circumstances. It's like he needed the grounding influence of the other band members to hone his talents, and they needed him for out and out creativity.

Maybe it was Freddie's escape route - it definitely sounds like it. But I'm throwing in my two pennies in regards to the people who say 'oh Mr. Bad Guy's a crap album, blah blah'. Well, I'd say they're about 80% wrong, in my opinion. It has some amazing tracks on it, which again, show that it's very much a Freddie record, on which he spread his proverbial wings. My only problems are Foolin' Around and Love Is Dangerous. The former has grown on me slightly over the years, but I personally believe that if you replace Foolin' with New York (the Freddie solo track, not the Highlander one), and Dangerous with Love Making Love, it would've been perfect.