Continuity question about Freddie's last days.

Hi all,

Glad to be back after about ten years no activity on here.

Just a curious question about Freddie's last day of recordings.

If "Mother Love" is recorded between 13-16 May, why on earth did all the people close to Freddie tell it was the last thing he did, (Brian sang the last verse because Freddie wasnt able to do it), even Freddie hasnt YET recorded "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" because that happened on 30th May.

This makes me so wonder. And why did they tell Freddie was working till 2 weeks before his death while others say he retired in June?

Please can someone explain to me this time frame?
Thanks in advance.

You're thinking of the These Are The Days Of Our Lives VIDEO, not the recording of the song.

I've not heard about him working two weeks before he died. According to Jim Hutton's book he was in Montreux few weeks before he died. Maybe he did some work there at that time but they never used the material. Who knows.

"These Are the Days of Our Lives" is on Innuendo, which was recorded during 1989 and 1990. The 1991 video is not a live registration.

I don't know where the "Working two weeks before he died" thing actually came from, but it's misinformation that is out there so it came from somewhere. Maybe someone lied to the press two weeks before Freddie died and said "he's fine, he's in the Studio right now."

Basically
After recording Innuendo was completed, They all waited around for days where Freddie felt well enough and they would go back into the studio, and recorded what ended up on Made in Heaven.
He stopped working on recordings in May, presumably as he was no longer able to sing consistently, It's possible he tried after that but they were unusable.

At the same time they were also doing the videos for Headlong (November - December 1990) I'm going slightly Mad,(February 91) and These are the days of our lives (May).

According to Hutton, Mercury's health had deteriorated so much by this time that he was hardly able to walk without support and spent most of the time in Montreux lying down on the bed in his apartment. I think the idea of him recording songs at that stage is a heroic, but totally unrealistic one.

I don't think he was able to recording song at that time.

[QUOTE] [b]HoekieWoutstra wrote:[/b]

If "Mother Love" is recorded between 13-16 May, why on earth did all the people close to Freddie tell it was the last thing he did
[/QUOTE]

Because he didn't do anything (recording-wise) after that, thus fitting the agreed definition of 'last'.

[QUOTE] [b]HoekieWoutstra wrote:[/b]

(Brian sang the last verse because Freddie wasnt able to do it)
[/QUOTE]

Brian sang the last verse because Frederick never got around to do it. Apparently, he wasn't feeling too well and he left the studio. When David asked him about that last verse, Frederick replied 'Maggie can do it!'

Keep in mind that, at the time, he did not know he'd die on the 24th of November... for all he knew, he could barely survive the Spring... so in his mind every single day could've been his last.

[QUOTE] [b]HoekieWoutstra wrote:[/b]

Freddie hasnt YET recorded "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" because that happened on 30th May.
[/QUOTE]

'Days of Our Lives' was recorded in 1990 and released in February 1991, long before May. What Frederick recorded at the end of the month was the video... but no actual singing was done for that. He mimed to the record whilst being filmed, with some crew members holding big signs with the lyrics so he knew what was next. That's how those things work.

[QUOTE] [b]HoekieWoutstra wrote:[/b]

This makes me so wonder. And why did they tell Freddie was working till 2 weeks before his death
[/QUOTE]

Because most of what anybody says about anybody is false. Reasons vary: memory slips, figures of speech, hyperbole, lies, sensationalism... Fans and press alike are prone to extracting literal meaning from non-literal utterances. Examples:

- 'He kept working 'til the end': It meant, as far as the evidence tells us, he kept working until he couldn't do it anymore, but people love reading it as 'up until October/November he was still singing'.

- 'That song was done when he had a few weeks to live': People love taking it as he had two or three weeks left, when in reality he had nearly 28 weeks left. 28 weeks is still 'a few' considering that's barely enough time to enjoy with your friends and relatives. Frederick's entire life lasted 2,359 weeks, which is not a lot either (in 1946, average life expectancy at birth was about 3,780 weeks, and Frederick only lived 62% of that).

- 'He flew to Montreux in October/November': People (and I made that same mistake as well) tend to assume that meant he recorded, and that wasn't necessarily the case.

[QUOTE] [b]HoekieWoutstra wrote:[/b]

others say he retired in June?

[/QUOTE]

Because when June began he wasn't doing any more work, and wouldn't for the rest of his life, thus fitting the agreed definition of the verb 'to retire'.

Ah dear, ...Frederick.

There are numerous threads on "Freddie's last recordings" "a timeline of Freddie's", "when was mother love recorded", "what was Freddie's" last recording etc.

If you're already posting, you're a member. May do well to search for like terms around that sort of thing.

I'm on mobile till my laptop is fixed so, cannot assist with the link. However Sebastian pretty much summed up the recording dates and rightly stated that what ur referring to was his final VIDEO recording (that has been released; which opens up talk of dubious video footage afterward)

Gotta keep in mind what Sebastianerick said. HYPERBOLE, conjecture, fan fiction, lies, approximations, exaggerations.

In some small article when Freddie passed they even created a notion that Freddie had filmed some sort of PSA for HIV/AIDS awareness to support the cause. However, it's likely a newspaper b.s. creation as no one has fessed up to it; it has never been released, and was likely a creation of the "reporter" used to pique more sales/profess a "scoop"/insider info.

Seeing that that was 27.83 years ago; the story is likely a fabrication.

Who's Frederick?

[QUOTE] [b]user1 wrote:[/b]

Who's Frederick?[/QUOTE]

Queen's co-founding member, lead singer, most prolific writer/arranger, keyboardist and frequent producer. He also designed their logo, chose their name and was involved with a couple of album covers.

The video shots of These Are The Days Of Our Lives were done on the 26th of june 1991. There are 11 versions available and all of them were made by DoRo and sent to Queen Productions.

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

[QUOTE] [b]user1 wrote:[/b]

Who's Frederick?[/QUOTE]

Queen's co-founding member, lead singer, most prolific writer/arranger, keyboardist and frequent producer. He also designed their logo, chose their name and was involved with a couple of album covers.[/QUOTE]

That's Freddie.

[QUOTE] [b]dave76 wrote:[/b]

The video shots of These Are The Days Of Our Lives were done on the 26th of june 1991. There are 11 versions available and all of them were made by DoRo and sent to Queen Productions.[/QUOTE]

Nope. May 30th. I believe Brian wasn't there at the initial video shoot and his parts were filmed later.

According to Rudi It was filmed in 3 chunks, with most of Freddies close ups and stuff being done first, then Roger John and Freddie, then later Brian on his own, as he was doing the Radio tour.