Queen II - the "missing bits"

Personally, I don't believe the band conceived "The Game" as a double album. I think they had an outburst of creativity by being in a new city with a new producer and using new recording techniques, leading to more songs than usual being recorded. They probably wanted "The Game" to be more "focussed" than "Jazz" and took the songs that kinda steered towards a more precise direction to put them on the album. The other songs either reappeared in one way or another (on b-sides or on other albums, like "Flash Gordon", maybe) or just never saw the light of day. And since "Flash Gordon" was released merely 6 months after "The Game", I think it's safe to assume that they re-used some of the music they didn't use on "The Game" on "Flash Gordon".

but - on the flip side, a double is just as conceivable. The stories/rumours of the Game being considered as a double have prevailed for as long as I can remember - certainly before the interweb existed! And (to be fair) these did originate from none other than Roger Taylor.

I think there may be a couple of things you've overlooked in this:
Album release date June 30th, 1980.
> The album contained four singles - something Queen had never done before - three of which were released prior to the album release. This would suggest that there "may" have originally been more material planned for release.
> Roger once suggested forty songs had been presented - and after discounting the "not good enough" stuff there'd still be enough for a double album. Somehow, this ends up a ten-track LP??? - of which two had already been and gone (chart-wise) several months prior. So, in effect, the final release was 7 new tracks + the "Play The Game" single - already four weeks old. Just odd.
> I think the two "Flash" songs from "The Game" sessions - Football Fight and The Kiss - were both Mercury songs - and probably intended for The Game. Why? Well, "Flash OST" was a heavily May-oriented project - as reflected in the writing credits (with those two songs removed): May 8, Taylor 4, Mercury 3, Deacon 2.

Personally, I believe, that a double was the original plan. Perhaps the bulk of the extra tracks that were any good - did not belong to Freddie or Brian? I'd suggest that Roger's writing was developing and the major writing arm(s) of the band (Freddie & Brian) weren't ready to let Roger hold sway.
End result? A single 10-track album with:
> 3 tracks (Beautiful Day, Sandbox, Human Body) being excluded
> 2 tracks (FF and The Kiss) ending up on Flash
> stories that "Soul Brother" rhythm track being done during the game but reworked later for UP
> any number of Roger songs ending up on "Fun In Space" - possibly "Let's Get Crazy" "Future Management" "Good Times Are Now" - which all fit the vibe on The Game...LGC is similar to "Coming Soon". The reggae feel of "Future Management" would certainly not be out of place and "Good Times Are Now" sounds like a Roger-written Queen song. Goes without saying that LGC and FM would be interesting with Freddie's vocals, but GTAN would have to be sung by Roger.

There's certainly enough there to complete the "Roger Taylor" suggested double. All conjecture of course, but no less valid than suggestions to the opposite. And I think I've made a decent case to back up Roger's own statement.

You do have some good points concerning Roger, Brenski. However, I read somewhere that Queen entered the studio in 1979 only to record some songs, not really in order to record an album, but just to see what would come out. And maybe it's me but I can't imagine Queen sitting down and deciding from the get-go to record a double studio album right after they'd released a double live album. I think it is more likely that, at some point during the sessions, they saw how many songs they had and the idea of a double album arose (maybe pushed by Roger, who wanted to make sure there would be lots of his songs on the album!), if it ever arose, and was then rejected. I just find it hard to believe that the band had written some 18 songs (minus the ones that we're sure were recorded during "The Game" sessions and the ones that more or less repeat themselves on the Flash Gordon album) in less than six months for "Flash Gordon", hence my reasoning. But, hey, "The Game" being conceived as a double album is nonetheless a possibility and maybe I'm completely wrong, and I'm ok with that! ;)

[QUOTE] [b]Bike It 80 wrote:[/b]

You do have some good points concerning Roger, Brenski. However, I read somewhere that Queen entered the studio in 1979 only to record some songs, not really in order to record an album, but just to see what would come out. And maybe it's me but I can't imagine Queen sitting down and deciding from the get-go to record a double studio album right after they'd released a double live album. I think it is more likely that, at some point during the sessions, they saw how many songs they had and the idea of a double album arose (maybe pushed by Roger, who wanted to make sure there would be lots of his songs on the album!), if it ever arose, and was then rejected. I just find it hard to believe that the band had written some 18 songs (minus the ones that we're sure were recorded during "The Game" sessions and the ones that more or less repeat themselves on the Flash Gordon album) in less than six months for "Flash Gordon", hence my reasoning. But, hey, "The Game" being conceived as a double album is nonetheless a possibility and maybe I'm completely wrong, and I'm ok with that! ;)[/QUOTE]
well we agree on Roger being the catalyst for the concept of a "Double". When you look at his possible frustrations as a songwriter at that time:
> He'd already had a solo single (in '77)
> His first solo album FIS followed very shortly after Flash
> His second solo album followed in the Works time frame.

I'd say he was definitely the "George Harrison" of the band (at that time) - loads of ideas and needing a vehicle for them...The Double idea eventually died, so his solo projects were born.

When all is said and done, probably a good thing. Had the game been a double, then many of FIS may not have happened - and some really nice tunes may not have materialised as they did. By SF his "style" had changed somewhat.