You And I

Nothing short of scandalous that it never made Deep Cuts and more recently Forever, which was supposed to be on a broad theme of love. '39 / Drowse - really?

Not denying their worth by the way, just pointing out You and I should have been on that album before them.

A fabulous song. My favourite Deaky song, for what it's worth.

"I was just wondering if someone could confirm that Freddie was heavily involved with this track"

Somebody, somewhere probably could, but no one who frequents this site. It's all speculation.

[QUOTE] [b]onedunpark wrote:[/b]

A fabulous song. My favourite Deaky song, for what it's worth.

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For a while at least, Freddie shared that view.

[QUOTE] [b]mooghead wrote:[/b]

Somebody, somewhere probably could, but no one who frequents this site. It's all speculation.[/QUOTE]

No, it's not *all* speculation. Not being able to prove *everything* is not the same as not being to prove *anything*. Life's not black and white, and it's not a greyscale either; there are millions of colours, and not being able to see the FIR or the UV doesn't mean they don't exist.

..............or just seeing what one wants to see.

"No, it's not *all* speculation. Not being able to prove *everything* is not the same as not being to prove *anything*. Life's not black and white, and it's not a greyscale either; there are millions of colours, and not being able to see the FIR or the UV doesn't mean they don't exist. "

That analogy makes no sense in this case.

Yes, it does: there's a big difference between claiming John played bass on 'You're My Best Friend' and claiming John recorded the 'You're My Best Friend' bass line at 15.30 hrs on the 21st of August 1975 while wearing an orange t-shirt and green pants. They're both 'speculation', but the statistical probability of the latter being wrong is far, far larger than the former.

My cats breath smells like cat food

[QUOTE] [b]matt z wrote:[/b]

My cats breath smells like cat food[/QUOTE]

And if your cat is used to eating, say, three ounces of cat food each day, and one day it eats four ounces instead, it doesn't necessarily mean it didn't do it or got help from another cat (or creature), it's simply that it was extra-hungry that day.

Likewise, 'You and I' having, allegedly, more chords than the average Deacon song, doesn't necessarily imply he received help.

I kind of like the song but at the same time It reminds me of American Pie (No,not the film,lol) which also puts me off it. Does anyone else here notice the similarities?

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

[QUOTE] [b]Holly2003 wrote:[/b]

Did John compose anything as complicated before or after You and I? If not, it seems highly likely that another band member -- likely Fred -- gave him some help.[/QUOTE]

Not necessarily. It could've simply been his peak. There are no officially released songs with Roger singing any higher than on 'Survival' before or since, but that doesn't mean he didn't sing there, it just means that was his peak. 'You and I' could be to John what 'Prophet's Song' was to Brian, 'Bo Rhap' to Fred, 'Tenement Funster' to Roger.

[/QUOTE]

No, not necessarily. But that's why I said "highly likely". This isn't Columbo or Elementary and the simplest answer is most likely to be the correct one. JD likely had some help to compose You & I. He probably brought a simple song structure to the band, and either Fred of Brian or both added some elements to give it more depth and make it more interesting. That's a good enough answer for me, until someone comes up with something more likely.

The simplest answer, which agrees with the credits on the liner notes, is that John wrote it.

The fact it's allegedly more elaborate than other songs of his (though not really that much more if you scrutinise them) can more simply be explained by John being inspired or deliberately wanting to write something more intricate, rather than by the track featuring a ghost (co-)writer.

Of course, both possibilities are quite strong anyway, as the case of them contributing to other people's songs without a credit was not too rare.

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

The simplest answer, which agrees with the credits on the liner notes, is that John wrote it.

.[/QUOTE]

Dows that really hold water, given the several (numerous?) other tracks that are credited to a sole writer but we know as being collaborations....equally those tracks credited to the band as a collective but since revealed to have been written by one band member?

Even if that were the case, the simplest answer is what the credits are telling us. Again, it's not like *all* of John's songs were three-chord crap and he suddenly came up with a Rachmaninov piano concerto; the material he wrote on the albums immediately preceding and succeeding 'Races' is consistent with the elements he put on 'You and I'.

The possibility that someone (be it Freddie, Roger, Brian, John's life coach, Mike, the tealady at Wessex, his son's babysitter, etc.) contributed to it is obviously there, but the whole theory, in my opinion, shouldn't be based on the (alleged and quite misleading) assumption that the song was 'too complex' to have been his.

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

The simplest answer, which agrees with the credits on the liner notes, is that John wrote it.

[/QUOTE]

But virtually all the Queen songs from the 1970s were attributed to one person, regardless of various members contributing ideas. The exceptions are Doing All Right, which was written in the late 60's, and isn't an example of co-crediting of two Queen members, and Stone Cold Crazy, which was all Freddie by all accounts (or at least enough so that it ought to have warranted him having the sole writing credit, going by their normal rule) but was bizarrely credited to all of them.

I'd say the only way to get any definitive answer on this is to ask Brian, and it's been a long time since he answered any questions on his site about Queen material.