Tokyo 2-18-81 soundcheck is not from it's traditionally ascribed date.
Nov 10, 2020 7:53:22 GMT
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Post by Ryan Newton on Nov 10, 2020 7:53:22 GMT
Title says it all, and here is the evidence to show. The soundcheck that has been attributed to the date of 2/18/81, the one where the band is going through Teo Torriatte, as well as Fred playing Somebody to Love and In the Lap of the Gods, is not from that date, nor is it from 1981 at all. Me and Kieran have found a few small bits of evidence that seem fairly solid, so here's hoping we're correct.
This all started when I simply asked, "how do we know that this soundcheck is from 2/18/81?" Of course, nobody actually knew. I think this is a case of where one person passed it along as a particular date and everyone just assumed from there on out that it was correct, but that's not a great way of documenting these things. See Exhibit A, the tape that is now known to be from 3/2/77, which was attributed to 3/3/77 for decades.
The only songs we hear are songs up to the A Day at the Races album, so at the earliest, this soundcheck is from Japan 79 (of course, because it's very unlikely that the band would be soundchecking Teo Torriatte outside of Japan, as they only ever played the song in when touring that country).
My first observation was that Freddie does not sound like his 1981 self, but instead sounds like how he did in 1979. Although 2/18/81 wasn't his strongest of days as a singer, his tone and overall condition between these two periods are vastly different. Although the soundcheck tape runs about a semitone fast, once corrected, it's obvious that this is not a 1981 Freddie singing Teo Torriatte. This is particularly evident on the higher bits, where you can tell that Fred is straining his voice on the soundcheck, much like how he would sound during the actual performances of the song during the 1979 tour. He's not cracking, but there is clearly a lot of effort behind his voice to keep it on-pitch. I think this is the most obvious piece of evidence that can be provided right now, but there are a few other things that also make me think this soundcheck is from 1979.
This higher line (as heard below; 1:27 if the auto-timestamp doesn't work), clearly shows Fred pushing his voice much harder than he would have to if this were 1981. The video below still runs a bit fast, but that shouldn't be an issue.
Compare this to the actual performance on 2/18/81, which has him delivering this line not only with much more ease, but his tone as a whole has much more depth. This is particularly evident considering this is the last song of a 2-hour performance that didn't start off well for him anyway, so you'd be inclined to think he would sound worse. (1:55:20)
The first performance of Teo Torriatte was in Osaka on 4/20/79. When comparing this performance to the soundcheck, I think Freddie sounds better during the actual performance. Of course, this could be down to Freddie conserving his voice the show, which he obviously is doing considering he is opting for lower octaves in many instances, but realistically his tone just sounds better and less nasally in Osaka, so I'm inclined to think it's during a later date when Freddie's voice was wrecked. However, I think that it is entirely reasonable to think that this soundcheck is from a Budokan show, but whoever put this out just got the year wrong. In this case, that would leave the three nights from 4/23 to 4/25 as the most realistic options.
To back this up, Kieran found a small change in the piano melody during the soundcheck just after Freddie sings "It's just as though I hold a flower that touches you." The first documented instance where Brian does this in a performance is actually in Osaka, but during the second verse and an octave higher. 4/25/79 is the first known version where he plays it like in the souncheck. You can hear this below in these two videos.
Here is Osaka for reference.
In contrast, Brian does not play this bit in either of the 1981 performances of Teo Torriatte. Below is what he plays at 2/18/81
Of course, this doesn't instantly mean that the soundcheck is from 4/25/79. Obviously Brian could have played this many times during performances or soundchecks, but he must have practiced this bit before actually trying it on stage, and because Freddie sounds so awful at 4/25/79, I'm inclined to think it is from an earlier date; either 4/23/79 or 4/24/79. Keep in mind that for the first couple songs on 4/23/79, Freddie doesn't sound half bad, and his tone during the performance of Teo Torriatte that night is nearly spot on to what he sounds like during the soundcheck, at least to my ears, so for that reason I think the most likely candidate is 4/23/79. But, this is all just in theory and based off a few observations. From the evidence I've seen and heard, the soundcheck is almost certainly from 1979, but the date isn't 100% nailed down.
The way Freddie times his singing on some of the 1979 ones is similar to what he does in the soundcheck as well. It's not something that is super obvious, and timestamping it in videos wouldn't make it very obvious either, but just his cadence in the way he sings is a noticeably different in 1981. If anyone else wants to help accurately date this soundcheck, feel free to add anything to this thread.
This all started when I simply asked, "how do we know that this soundcheck is from 2/18/81?" Of course, nobody actually knew. I think this is a case of where one person passed it along as a particular date and everyone just assumed from there on out that it was correct, but that's not a great way of documenting these things. See Exhibit A, the tape that is now known to be from 3/2/77, which was attributed to 3/3/77 for decades.
The only songs we hear are songs up to the A Day at the Races album, so at the earliest, this soundcheck is from Japan 79 (of course, because it's very unlikely that the band would be soundchecking Teo Torriatte outside of Japan, as they only ever played the song in when touring that country).
My first observation was that Freddie does not sound like his 1981 self, but instead sounds like how he did in 1979. Although 2/18/81 wasn't his strongest of days as a singer, his tone and overall condition between these two periods are vastly different. Although the soundcheck tape runs about a semitone fast, once corrected, it's obvious that this is not a 1981 Freddie singing Teo Torriatte. This is particularly evident on the higher bits, where you can tell that Fred is straining his voice on the soundcheck, much like how he would sound during the actual performances of the song during the 1979 tour. He's not cracking, but there is clearly a lot of effort behind his voice to keep it on-pitch. I think this is the most obvious piece of evidence that can be provided right now, but there are a few other things that also make me think this soundcheck is from 1979.
This higher line (as heard below; 1:27 if the auto-timestamp doesn't work), clearly shows Fred pushing his voice much harder than he would have to if this were 1981. The video below still runs a bit fast, but that shouldn't be an issue.
Compare this to the actual performance on 2/18/81, which has him delivering this line not only with much more ease, but his tone as a whole has much more depth. This is particularly evident considering this is the last song of a 2-hour performance that didn't start off well for him anyway, so you'd be inclined to think he would sound worse. (1:55:20)
The first performance of Teo Torriatte was in Osaka on 4/20/79. When comparing this performance to the soundcheck, I think Freddie sounds better during the actual performance. Of course, this could be down to Freddie conserving his voice the show, which he obviously is doing considering he is opting for lower octaves in many instances, but realistically his tone just sounds better and less nasally in Osaka, so I'm inclined to think it's during a later date when Freddie's voice was wrecked. However, I think that it is entirely reasonable to think that this soundcheck is from a Budokan show, but whoever put this out just got the year wrong. In this case, that would leave the three nights from 4/23 to 4/25 as the most realistic options.
To back this up, Kieran found a small change in the piano melody during the soundcheck just after Freddie sings "It's just as though I hold a flower that touches you." The first documented instance where Brian does this in a performance is actually in Osaka, but during the second verse and an octave higher. 4/25/79 is the first known version where he plays it like in the souncheck. You can hear this below in these two videos.
Here is Osaka for reference.
In contrast, Brian does not play this bit in either of the 1981 performances of Teo Torriatte. Below is what he plays at 2/18/81
Of course, this doesn't instantly mean that the soundcheck is from 4/25/79. Obviously Brian could have played this many times during performances or soundchecks, but he must have practiced this bit before actually trying it on stage, and because Freddie sounds so awful at 4/25/79, I'm inclined to think it is from an earlier date; either 4/23/79 or 4/24/79. Keep in mind that for the first couple songs on 4/23/79, Freddie doesn't sound half bad, and his tone during the performance of Teo Torriatte that night is nearly spot on to what he sounds like during the soundcheck, at least to my ears, so for that reason I think the most likely candidate is 4/23/79. But, this is all just in theory and based off a few observations. From the evidence I've seen and heard, the soundcheck is almost certainly from 1979, but the date isn't 100% nailed down.
The way Freddie times his singing on some of the 1979 ones is similar to what he does in the soundcheck as well. It's not something that is super obvious, and timestamping it in videos wouldn't make it very obvious either, but just his cadence in the way he sings is a noticeably different in 1981. If anyone else wants to help accurately date this soundcheck, feel free to add anything to this thread.
