The Miracle and beyond

Hello everyone.
It's been quite a long time I have an idea coming to my mind, and I would like to share it with you and possibly hear your thoughts.
From 1989 the band decided to credit all compositions to Queen instead of credit the songs individually to Roger, Brian, John or Freddie.
This decision was officially taken because there was a lot of fighting amoung the 4 and they decided to do in order to build a more relaxed enviroment.
In my opinion the fighting was much harder than what they ever admitted and this decision was crucial for the band to go on.
They possibly didn't stand each other after the Magic Tour (possible even earlier after The Works), all the solo projects didn't go well and Jim Beach did a fantastic job in order to keep the band united.
In my personal opinion this decision was bad, because in a way all that fighting because of the fact that all compositions used to have a "father", who wanted the song to be in a certain way, it brought the creativity to an higher level. Let's think about the song IWTBF, John and Brian fighted a lot for the decision of John not to give Brian the space for a guitar solo. Maybe (my personal opinion) if IWTBF was included in The Miracle instead of Kind of Magic, John would had been more flexible and had let Brian play the solo.
So I think the process of making songs all together is far different if the credit will be individual or Queen.
And I think as result the individual were all four less motivated, less partecipating to the creative process.
In fact, it seems (official biography) that John was very little present during Innuendo sessions, so was Roger, and this is cleary bad.
So this new process, despite kept the band united, and this is great, on the other hand made the four members less committed.
And finally, if you hear The Miracle and Innuendo, despite they have some great songs, compared to other albums (A Kind of Magic or The Works) they are less various in terms of sound and style.

I wanted to share this idea with you and would love to read your comments.

I'd think that even though the songs were credited to all of them, the main author still was the boss of the song, so to speak. Also I don't quite see how Innuendo and The Miracle were less varied than those two albums you mentioned. Especially Innuendo is every bit as varied as any other Queen album, in my opinion.

I agree with Biggus. for years I did not know who wrote I Want It All or The Miracle but I always felt that I Want It All was Brian and The Miracle was Freddie. I don't think I want It All would have been different if it they had decided to put the individual writer's name in the album sleeve.(And I feel the same for the rest of the album)

There are different perspectives regarding this, but an overall idea seems to be that the process itself didn't change much, only the fact that they'd all receive equal credit (and publishing royalties) for every song ('Mother Love' being an exception, of course).

It was certainly a wise financial move for John Deacon. In terms of publishing royalties, this is what he got for each album:

Queen: 0%
Queen II: 0%
Sheer Heart Attack: 9.62%
A Night at the Opera: 8.33%
A Day at the Races: 10.00%
News of the World: 18.18%
Jazz: 15.38%
The Game: 20.00%
Flash Gordon: 11.11%
Hot Space: 14.77%
The Works: 11.11%
A Kind of Magic: 25%
The Miracle: 25%
Innuendo: 25%
Made in Heaven: 13.63%

If we compare what he got, money-wise, with what he contributed songwriting-wise, then this is his balance on the albums he actually got more credit than due:

Sheer Heart Attack: +1.92%
Hot Space: +1.14%
A Kind of Magic: +2.78%
The Miracle: +15%
Innuendo: +23.61%

That, of course, doesn't change he's an amazing bassist and a great songwriter, producer, etc., but the point is, on 'Innuendo' and 'The Miracle' in particular, he earned a lot of money for songwriting co-credits on a lot of tracks he had no (creative) input on.

Freddie, on the other hand, robbed himself loads of royalties, but for tragic reasons he wouldn't be spending a lot of money in the future anyway.

I think the main reason for the co-crediting was that it bypassed any arguments about who would be credited with what so they could focus on producing the best albums that Freddie was able to sing. Simple as that.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

There are different perspectives regarding this, but an overall idea seems to be that the process itself didn't change much, only the fact that they'd all receive equal credit (and publishing royalties) for every song ('Mother Love' being an exception, of course).

It was certainly a wise financial move for John Deacon. In terms of publishing royalties, this is what he got for each album:

Queen: 0%
Queen II: 0%
Sheer Heart Attack: 9.62%
A Night at the Opera: 8.33%
A Day at the Races: 10.00%
News of the World: 18.18%
Jazz: 15.38%
The Game: 20.00%
Flash Gordon: 11.11%
Hot Space: 14.77%
The Works: 11.11%
A Kind of Magic: 25%
The Miracle: 25%
Innuendo: 25%
Made in Heaven: 13.63%

If we compare what he got, money-wise, with what he contributed songwriting-wise, then this is his balance on the albums he actually got more credit than due:

Sheer Heart Attack: +1.92%
Hot Space: +1.14%
A Kind of Magic: +2.78%
The Miracle: +15%
Innuendo: +23.61%

That, of course, doesn't change he's an amazing bassist and a great songwriter, producer, etc., but the point is, on 'Innuendo' and 'The Miracle' in particular, he earned a lot of money for songwriting co-credits on a lot of tracks he had no (creative) input on.

Freddie, on the other hand, robbed himself loads of royalties, but for tragic reasons he wouldn't be spending a lot of money in the future anyway.[/QUOTE]

Don't forget that AOBTD's sales probably made up for that.

Agreed!

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

Don't forget that AOBTD's sales probably made up for that.
[/QUOTE]

Not really, as Brian, Freddie and Roger didn't receive any publishing royalties for that one. It's a completely separate case.

John's more than entitled to all publishing royalties for the three big hits he wrote, as he ... well, wrote them.

The point is, he didn't contribute to the songwriting of One Vision, I Want It All, Breakthru', Innuendo, These Are the Days of Our Lives, A Winter's Tale and Let Me Live and still got a quarter of their royalties. On 'The Show Must Go On' he was involved indeed, but Brian did a lot more, yet the four of them got the same money.

At that point money was no longer an issue. They were rich as fck!

I've never been rich so I can't speak from first hand experience, but it seems to me that loads of rich people still argue, moan and even commit felonies because they still want more.

[QUOTE] [b]Sebastian wrote:[/b]

There are different perspectives regarding this, but an overall idea seems to be that the process itself didn't change much, only the fact that they'd all receive equal credit (and publishing royalties) for every song ('Mother Love' being an exception, of course).

It was certainly a wise financial move for John Deacon. In terms of publishing royalties, this is what he got for each album:

Queen: 0%
Queen II: 0%
Sheer Heart Attack: 9.62%
A Night at the Opera: 8.33%
A Day at the Races: 10.00%
News of the World: 18.18%
Jazz: 15.38%
The Game: 20.00%
Flash Gordon: 11.11%
Hot Space: 14.77%
The Works: 11.11%
A Kind of Magic: 25%
The Miracle: 25%
Innuendo: 25%
Made in Heaven: 13.63%

If we compare what he got, money-wise, with what he contributed songwriting-wise, then this is his balance on the albums he actually got more credit than due:

Sheer Heart Attack: +1.92%
Hot Space: +1.14%
A Kind of Magic: +2.78%
The Miracle: +15%
Innuendo: +23.61%
[/QUOTE]

Out of sheer interest, how did you get to these percentages? Wouldnt John get any royalties on Queen1 and 2 just for playing on the record?

^ He is talking about getting money like a writer than a performer.

Obviously, he got money as he played bass in the tracks. But the money apart of that, given to the writers, was 0% in Queen and 25% in Innuendo.

Exactly. Performing royalties differ from publishing ones.

For 'Bo Rhap,' they all got money as performers, but only Freddie('s estate) in terms of authorship.

For 'One Vision,' on the other hand, it was 25% each on both, regardless of who did 'more' and who did 'less.'

As to AOBTD, out of curiousity: wouldn't Brian have raked in handsomely (since Dragon Attack was the B side), much like Roger cashed regarding BoRhap?

Not really, considering it sold 2 million copies in the States (where 'Don't Try Suicide' was the B-Side) vs less than a tenth of it in Britain (where 'Dragon Attack' was the B-Side but the single didn't sell enough to be silver).