My apologies if this topic has been done before but I'm after some expert opinion.
Who sings lead vocals on the studio version of SHA?
I've always belived (and still do) that Freddie sings lead with RMT backing him almost like a duet. Obviously FM sung it live it's just the studio version on NOTW. I'm talking about.
Apparently it used to be on the official Queen website that the author sung the track.
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I remember reading a breakdown of who sang what line (Freddie or Roger) and I was like woah wtf
It is hard to hear but i think Freddie singing it all, altough it might sound if he and Roger switch verses from time to time.
Freddie, it is clearer when you hear the demo. The album version has been sped up.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4bXK7Ekf8
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh4bXK7Ekf8
Very genious of Freddie to sing this garage - punk rock song, with rock n roll vocals style. Pure genious!
Please spell genius correctly in the future, for your own good. :)
The choruses are all Roger (lead and harmonies), as are both '-ticulate' utterances. 'Hey hey hey hey' seems to be both of them.
The rest is all Frederick.
The rest is all Frederick.
Thank you confirmed what I thought.
Do we know how much it was sped up by? 20%?
i've tried to isolate the vocals more.
Penetration_Guru wrote:
Do we know how much it was sped up by? 20%?
Just by a semitone - I think that's the prevailing theory at the moment anyway.
Excellent isolated-vocal part edition, madmega so we can appreciate some more who´s who.
Speeding it up 8.33% would make it sound a semitone higher, so that seems to be the correct figure indeed.
Regarding the song being sped up, this was discussed back in 2014.
As I said at the time:
"Undoubtedly it was played in D and sped up a smidgen under a semitone.
As has been said, Rog is unlikely to have written it in Eb, and it has always been played live in D, which seems pretty conclusive on its own. Add to this the fact that this is exactly the kind of song where a slight speeding up of the original recording might improve the feel of the song, and that in the chorus you can clearly hear the open strings of the G5 chord rather than the fretted strings of an Ab5, and I'd say the evidence is overwhelming.
Whether Fred sang against the original version or the sped-up version is another question, though I'd imagine it's the former, given that he sounds almost unrecognisable on this song (although this is mostly due to his delivery rather than any tape manipulation).
Hopefully someone can be bothered with slowing the whole song down a semitone and posting the result here".
As I said at the time:
"Undoubtedly it was played in D and sped up a smidgen under a semitone.
As has been said, Rog is unlikely to have written it in Eb, and it has always been played live in D, which seems pretty conclusive on its own. Add to this the fact that this is exactly the kind of song where a slight speeding up of the original recording might improve the feel of the song, and that in the chorus you can clearly hear the open strings of the G5 chord rather than the fretted strings of an Ab5, and I'd say the evidence is overwhelming.
Whether Fred sang against the original version or the sped-up version is another question, though I'd imagine it's the former, given that he sounds almost unrecognisable on this song (although this is mostly due to his delivery rather than any tape manipulation).
Hopefully someone can be bothered with slowing the whole song down a semitone and posting the result here".
The shared rough mix was original speed.
Although, as I've seen previously, leaked stuff might not follow the instructions on the tape box - EG Freddie sung it sped up and then the shared version is the original tempo, therefore Freddie is 'slowed down'. Check almost every version officially released of Bowie's own version of All The Young Dudes featuring his voice incorrectly slooowed doooown.
But I doubt it. Just playing Devils advocate.
Although, as I've seen previously, leaked stuff might not follow the instructions on the tape box - EG Freddie sung it sped up and then the shared version is the original tempo, therefore Freddie is 'slowed down'. Check almost every version officially released of Bowie's own version of All The Young Dudes featuring his voice incorrectly slooowed doooown.
But I doubt it. Just playing Devils advocate.