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Post by akirafish on Oct 2, 2021 2:19:23 GMT
I think the difference of 70s Freddie and 80s Freddie in songwriting boils down to concentration. Freddie's greater songs features rapid and ofter abrupt changes in key or time signature, probably because his short attention span. Such kind of songs require more skills than the average verse-chorus-verse-chorus type of songs. In 70s his concentration made him pondering on the crafts to make songs good. The kind of goofyness and weirdness (which I love so much) only pulled off when the song is written and produced with care. BoRap being a good example, as Brian repeatedly talked how Freddie had everything worked out before entering the studios. His early friend/band mate Chris Smith mentioned a song called The Cowboy Song starting with a line 'Mama just killed a man' in the 60s, it's possibly when he started thinking about the song.
While in the early-mid 80s, Mark mentioned they would get into the studio around 2 o'clock, and by 4 o'clock Freddie was eager to go out and play. Freddie himself said he would enter into the studio empty-headed, and let Mark give him a theme to jam out some workable tunes. As is shown in Mr. Bad Guy, he still had great ideas, but ideas alone didn't make good songs. Genius as Freddie was, he couldn't get away with laziness.
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Ben
Tatterdemalion
My first Queen show was Ahoy' 1979
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Post by Ben on Oct 3, 2021 18:09:44 GMT
I think Freddie wrote songs suitable for his voice. That’s why his input - like his life style - changed so much in the 1980s.
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jlf
Satyr
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Post by jlf on Oct 3, 2021 18:27:03 GMT
One other thing I didn't take into account.
Although the individual song writers were credited with their songs in the 70s to mid-80s, I think they were somewhat more gelled as a group during their earlier period. So, Freddie would be credited but the others would muck in. Brian has claimed for instance that he wrote the instrumental on Seven Seas of Rhye, etc. They were more often in the studio at the same time as each other. I know there are songs from Roger and Brian that don't have Freddie's input at all, and other examples where other members of the band don't appear, but the whole unit was much more cohesive.
By the 80s, it felt the bands albums were like solo projects within Queen - even though by 1986 they'd all had extra-Queen activities, Hot Space, The Works, and A Kind of Magic feel very much like the band are not as cohesive except on One Vision. Perhaps there was a sense in which they were fighting too much to get their own individual songs pushed through the Queen strainer as it were. If Freddie hadn't made Mr Bad Guy and some of these songs had ended up on Hot Space and the Works, as could have happened, then we'd have a similar amount of input from Freddie on those albums. Sure, the actual quality waned a bit, but there are still some good songs. Ok I'm rambling now but you get the picture.
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Post by The Real Wizard on Mar 16, 2022 3:25:36 GMT
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Post by saintjiub on Mar 16, 2022 3:42:21 GMT
Roger was arguably more prolific in the 80s and 90s ... at least compared to 1976 and earlier. |
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Post by The Real Wizard on Mar 16, 2022 4:42:48 GMT
Roger was arguably more prolific in the 80s and 90s ... at least compared to 1976 and earlier. For sure, in terms of released output. But who knows how many of his tunes were rejected for the first five albums ? I'd bet plenty, considering he was the first one to release solo material.
To be a fly on the wall. |
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pg
Queen Mab
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Post by pg on Mar 16, 2022 8:39:17 GMT
They claimed "we had loads of songs" for The Game and The Miracle as well. We can reasonably assume Freddie didn't sing any of them, though, from the existence of You Don't Fool Me.
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Dimitris
Politician
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Post by Dimitris on Mar 16, 2022 9:25:04 GMT
They claimed "we had loads of songs" for The Game and The Miracle as well. We can reasonably assume Freddie didn't sing any of them, though, from the existence of You Don't Fool Me. They probably have many unreleased demos etc from 1981-82, Qol or FB had posted a picture of unreleased lyrics of a song (1981-82). They claimed that was not materialized. I think that in 1981-82 Queen were about to renew their contract for the next decade, so maybe that specific period was very productive without meaning that had quality or due to arguments many ideas were not came out. |
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Post by The Real Wizard on Mar 20, 2022 22:01:19 GMT
They claimed "we had loads of songs" for The Game and The Miracle as well. We can reasonably assume Freddie didn't sing any of them, though, from the existence of You Don't Fool Me. Not necessarily. Songs just may have not made it past the demo/rehearsal stage and didn't get recorded properly. |
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