Best Hammer To Fall?

For me its on knebworth show,they made it extended and Brian solo is great and band playing on that last section of the song is magnificient.

Sheffield

Live Aid is probably the definitive version (at least vocally), but some excellent versions such as Stuttgart 1984, Tokyo 1985 (any of them), Vienna 1986 (1st Night), and Barcelona 1986 deserve some love!

Agreed that Live Aid is vocally, but I was always bemused by Brian putting those little 'twiddly' bits into the main riff through the first verse!

Budapest is good but Brian rather strangely doesn't play that elongated second solo and just plays the chords with Spike; that solo is great on Wembley!

Budapest also sounds extremely dull because of the way it was recorded.
As Greg pointed out: Stuttgart, Live Aid or 1st Vienna '86.

Agree - Live Aid. Not just the voice, but also for sheer rocking power.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! Hammer to fall!

[QUOTE]

[b]Nitroboy wrote: [/b] Budapest also sounds extremely dull because of the way it was recorded. 

What do you mean by that? [/QUOTE]

I've got a soft spot for the Birmingham 9-2-84 version.

Soft spot, heavy song ... oxymoron, I know.

The 2nd guitar solo from Wembley's 2nd night is just perfect! Too bad that version missed de 1st part of the 1st guitar solo.

One of those Q+PR gigs. Best way to present the song and it's depth was the way they did it that tour. I imagine Brian was thinking about its portrayal with the young audience and thinking "let's do this in a sing along style"...


Like others have said about preferring Brian's "fragile" treatment of TMLWKY ...HTF was better with the slow beginning

Live Aid. No doubt

See..everyone has his opinions..thats great.
Greg my friend I love knebworth Hammer To Fall by how its mastery played..raw and heavy and extended.. Freddies voice isnt like Live Aid or Stutgart but only one thung my friend Greg that I must tell you is that if Freddie doesnt sing so well in that song it doesnt mean its crappy song and not on the list of very best.. I know you rate live queen songs by how Freddie sings not how the band played..
Now lets not make this post offence to you or anyonehere..
You are great and good person Greg with lots og bootlegs I listen..so youre cool dude to me... cheers

[QUOTE]

[b]Mr.Mouth wrote: [/b] See..everyone has his opinions..thats great.
Greg my friend I love knebworth Hammer To Fall by how its mastery played..raw and heavy and extended.. Freddies voice isnt like Live Aid or Stutgart but only one thung my friend Greg that I must tell you is that if Freddie doesnt sing so well in that song it doesnt mean its crappy song and not on the list of very best.. I know you rate live queen songs by how Freddie sings not how the band played..
Now lets not make this post offence to you or anyonehere..
You are great and good person Greg with lots og bootlegs I listen..so youre cool dude to me... cheers[/QUOTE]

He doesn't sound bad on Knebworth's version at all! I just named a few versions off the top of my head that I've seen ranked highly!

The thing is, Roger and John pretty much always played perfectly, especially by that point in the band's career. It's only Freddie and Brian's performances (and Roger's vocals in a small way) that really impacted if a performance was great or not.

EDIT: Of course, Roger and John still had exceptional nights too

[QUOTE]

[b]Oscar J wrote: [/b] [QUOTE]

[b]Nitroboy wrote: [/b] Budapest also sounds extremely dull because of the way it was recorded. 

What do you mean by that? [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]

The guitar sounds absolutely dead to me