You don't fool me origin

Who knows who to believe?

Your OWN ears! No way was the backing track (as it appears on the album) put down in one take.

I accept that Freddie liked to cut things quickly, but John Lennon did too, and what we find with the Beatles is that Lennon's job may have been over in a take or two - but the rest of the band would work around that.

Infact, it is common practice for bands to cut safety (or alternative) takes - Queen examples range from "Keep Yourself Alive" to different versions of "The Invisible Man".

And whilst, the main track may be intack, Freddie often had to return later to correct or overdub mistakes.

But this is where we are becoming too pedantic. I think the memories of these guys are "fairly" sound, and it returns us to the broad-brush strokes thing.

Perhaps the big picture is that the first take was fairly sound, and in the main stays, but later it was returned to and re-crafted.

That is what Queen are famous for - so I refuse to accept that they ignored to do this in their most famous OTT track!

But the truth of the matter is that Borhap did not start off life as one song. It is actually a three act play of three "little" songs stitched together.

Now while one section may be "mostly live" that may not be true for others.

Here is what you can do. Listen to BoRhap from the 5.1 DVDA, but as each track as a seperate "mono" track.

Listen to the operatic section - and you will hear very clearly Roger play kettle drums. These drums fade/merge into the heavy drumroll at the start of the rock section. Now, this effect could only be achieved "electronically" - thus disguising the "stitches" between the opera and rock bit, AFTER they had been completed.

At the very least (without the Opera section) which kept growing, we have TWO seperate sections, and it seems fairly obvious that they were cut at seperate occassions, again negating the fact that it could have been completed in one take.

As an aside, didn't Brian and Freddie both say that "News Of The World" was an antidote to the previous two albums "Night At The Opera", and "Day At The Races" in that "News" was much more back to basics "WITHOUT the perpetual overdubs... (and) Sleeping on the sidewalk was the first time a track had gone out as a one-take piece?"

Great post, John !
However, there's some things in there which I hope I can clear up.

<Your OWN ears! No way was the backing track (as it appears on the album) put down in one take.>

Agreed. It's obvious that the song was recorded in sections, as confirmed in various interviews (e.g. John on Magic Years 1).

<And whilst, the main track may be intack, Freddie often had to return later to correct or overdub mistakes.>
<Perhaps the big picture is that the first take was fairly sound, and in the main stays, but later it was returned to and re-crafted.
That is what Queen are famous for - so I refuse to accept that they ignored to do this in their most famous OTT track!>
<As an aside, didn't Brian and Freddie both say that "News Of The World" was an antidote to the previous two albums "Night At The Opera", and "Day At The Races" in that "News" was much more back to basics "WITHOUT the perpetual overdubs... (and) Sleeping on the sidewalk was the first time a track had gone out as a one-take piece?" >

First of all, one shouldn't confuse overdubs with patching up backing tracks. Overdubs come on top of the finished backing track.

I think that the story about BohRhap's backing track being a one-take is essentially true. The backing track in question, however, isn't the entire song, but the first/ballad section.
The thing is that most of Queen's backing tracks in the 1970s were recorded in one take. It was common practice for them, Boh Rhap wouldn't be an exception. Please note it's not a FIRST take, it's a one take which could have been anything between take 2 and take 54. They simply would play the whole thing (or a particular segment of a song) over and over again in its entirety until it would be perfect. They didn't start "dropping in" and thus saving enormous amounts of time recording the backing tracks until they started working with Mack in 1979.
Before, the lion's share of backing tracks was essentially a "live" recorded one-take, consisting of drums, bass, piano and/or guitar.
They would record an awful lot of stuff on top of that, but the original backing track usually wasn't tempered with.

The thing about Sleeping On The Sidewalk wasn't the fact that it was a one-track piece, but that they used the very first take recorded ! Again, it's only the backing track, not the entire song. The vocals were recorded separately.
Furthermore the backing track of SOTS didn't end up on the album as it was recorded, but there was an awful lot of editing after the event. It's thus an exception in several ways.

To conclude:
Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded in sections and the backing tracks of the individual sections (of the ballad and the rock section at least. The opera one is something different probably)were one-takes (not first takes), as it used to be Queen's usual procedure in those days.

The thing is that, according to what Brian showed (backing track) in the documetary, it looks like it was done just at once from the beginning to the end. For example, at the end of the opera section the piano plays the Bb chord and then goes to play the hard rock part, and it doesn`t change the take. Now, that can also be theoretically achieved with a very good mixing job, to create that "one take" (not neccesarily the first) feeling.

But yes that contradicts the "extension" theory that Roy said about the song (about the opera section growing). So, perhaps Brian said it was a live backing track just to avoid further explanations about how did it grow.

Philipp Nothaft: Thanks Philipp, that clears thing up.

I think we all agree regrarding the main points.
Even in the Bible, the gospels agree Jesus was crucified, but some witers say he wore a red cloak, while another says he wore purple cloak.

Now if you chose to believe the Bible, you could argue that they all roughly tally in that he wore a cloak and was crucified. (This may be a bad example coming from a non-believer).

But, the essential truth remains, that roughly, Bo Rhap is an edit job, and could not be played live - either in the stadium or the studio, and whilst some bits of the skeleton remain, other bits have been cosmetically fleshed over.

I find it all fascinating, and wish I knew more, but I don't think we can guarantee to know exactly from where each note stems from.

Good post though!

Thanks to you as well, John. I'm still in awe over your Batman-quote on another thread.

<The thing is that, according to what Brian showed (backing track) in the documetary, it looks like it was done just at once from the beginning to the end. For example, at the end of the opera section the piano plays the Bb chord and then goes to play the hard rock part, and it doesn`t change the take.>

But even among the quotes on your website there are bits of Brian and John saying that it was recorded in sections.

<Now, that can also be theoretically achieved with a very good mixing job, to create that "one take" (not neccesarily the first) feeling.>

Not only theoretically, Seb. See the following article, it clears up so much: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/oct95/queen.html

<But yes that contradicts the "extension" theory that Roy said about the song (about the opera section growing). So, perhaps Brian said it was a live backing track just to avoid further explanations about how did it grow.>

It's both true at the same time. The thing is that the opera section wasn't actually part of the backing track. They simply left a 30 seconds piece of blank space on the tape. There's no reason to doubt Roy's words, as Brian doesn't really explicitely contradict it.
There were just two backing tracks: The ballad part up to the opera section and the entire part after the opera section. It's as simple as that.

You know, I can't wait to see the docu in September now. Heeheee!

Peace,
Adam.

Yes

So I was strolling around in the comments section of this song on youtube while I was listening to the greatest Brian May solo ever put on a Queen track and immediately stumble onto this bunch of retards:
[QUOTE]
LeToplache007
1 year ago
This song is underrated, but I think the reason is that the song didn't have that Freddie's perfection to finish the song how it could have because of his illnes. Rest in piece, legend!
477 likes

replies to the comment:

Daniël's Tech & Music Channel
1 year ago
It also should be noted that this basically wasn't a song Queen had imagined. The song was basically pieced together by the band manager David Richards, from pieces of left over recordings. He basically created the framework of the song, then the rest of the band finished it up. It's pretty amazing that this song was made from left overs and is still so good.

73likes




Veronica Bell
9 months ago
I think because it sounds like a remix....still a good beat...but not Freddie..you can hear the vocal remix if you listen closely...not totally Freddie! Bought and borrowed Freddie!

9likes


floit 1980
8 months ago
This is Brian May version. I'd like to hear John Deacon's. It's nonsense that this song is was built from pieces. Freddie Mercury is singing it, you can't create that from pieces. Maybe one day technology will make that possible and we'll have new songs by Freddie Mercury, Lennon,... However, these songs won't be great because they won't be written by them. That's why geniuses like Mercury were unique. The melody/structure was already done by Freddie.

26likes


luisalonsoecheverria
7 months ago
This song dates all the way back to the Hot Space era.

5


Kamil Rudziewicz
4 months ago
Do you feel the pain and sadness in his voice?

16likes



DGM
3 months ago
It sounds like a demo that was edited and remixed. If they had more more time, they would have written more lyrics and recorded cleaner vocals with better instrumentation. But as things stand, it sounds all right, and I like the melody.

4


Nicey Warner
1 week ago
@floit 1980 Freddy recorded this song for his own album "Mr. Bad guy" it didn't make the cut. Their manager pieced together the song. The remaining members added their instruments on the track to make it a "Queen" song


[/QUOTE]

^ And then a retard came and pasted them into a 15 year old topic on a Queen forum. Great job, dickless.

On YDFM, I always thought Freddie's voice was slowed down. But not enough to make a short track long.

On TMLWKY, I suspect the emotions were in Brian's head BEFORE he met Anita. Other songs of his suggest to me his marriage was in trouble from way longer. For example, Save Me. Though I wouldn't take the lyrics too seriously. (And actually I don't want to speculate about his private life, except in so far as it influences his art.)

Youtube comment sections are the 10th circle of hell.

One of the few really bad shitty Queen tracks