Question about Mother Love

That is a great question and I've wondered that myself. My guess is that Freddie and Brian were the only ones who contributed to its origin? Though that does fly in the face of the "all songs written by Queen" mantra that began with The Miracle. Because surely Roger and John ended up contributing to the track.

The co-writing agreement they made circa 1988 was one for band unity, to end the arguments over songwriting royalties after Freddie's diagnosis. Clearly this didn't matter much anymore after he died and the band was fracturing, taking a solid couple years to finish the final album without him.

Let's also note that You Don't Fool Me is credited to Mercury/Taylor, and A Winter's Tale is credited to Mercury.

Some nerve and ego he had, especially for a dead guy.

SMH.

Wikipedia lied to me. For shame.

Maybe Brian feels like Mother Love was created differently from the other two pieces then ? He's told the story about how it was just the two of them at the studio.

That's a solid theory. If true, it sounds like it would've settled any potential discontent with Roger, but perhaps not with John.

Who knows if this has anything to do with why John left the band a couple years later. Onto the speculation train we go once again, but we'll never know.

I figured it would be something to do with royalties but I hadn't worked it out that Roger is actually credited slightly more than Brian any way you look at it (just more equal with ML). That's a good point, and I guess it must be why. As Lost Opportunity, You Don't Fool Me and A Winter's Tale and all of those songs are credited to Queen instead of Brian, Freddie/Roger and Freddie respectively. 

The way I've always assumed song contributions on Made In Heaven is (up for discussion):

it's A Beautiful Day - Freddie/John
Made In Heaven - Freddie (Roger's rework??)
Let Me Live - Freddie's original idea? (Roger polished)
Mother Love - mostly Brian but some Freddie
My Life Has Been Saved - John 
I Was Born To Love You - Freddie (Brian rework)
Heaven For Everyone - Roger
Too Much Love Will Kill You - Brian 
You Don't Fool Me - Freddie/Roger (David Richards restructure)
A Winter's Tale - Freddie (all four contributed)
Untitled - David (some Brian/Roger contributions)

I have no idea who was the main one behind Made In Heaven's reworking, but I feel I heard or read it was Roger. 

Also, I find it interesting that Brian's vocals are clearly heard in the quiet bit before the guitar solo and not Roger. Maybe Brian contributed more than seems obvious?

But the thing just doing that list is how much Roger contributed to the songs. Alright it sounds like Brian had a lot of input in the final output but it makes you wonder if a lot of these songs were already chosen by Roger and John before Brian got involved? 

John takes Freddie's death very hard. In those last video clips it was clear that Freddie's illness was bothering him. It's insanely heartbreaking :-(

hindsight is 20/20 isn't it? there's no "Poker Tells" in those videos at all.

IGSM is a is filmed very much with the Noël Cowardesque lyrics in mind.

TATDOOL is a song about reflection.

in both vids, all four band members have managed to capture the essence and mood of the songs perfectly with smiles and straight faces where appropriate. I think they all did an exceptionally good job.

sorry, but you couldn't be more wrong. you're obviously completely unaware of what actors do for a living. in movies, TV programmes and music videos those appearing on camera are [ahem] acting.
every expression, look or gesture will have been scripted by the person behind the camera - the Director.

As mentioned, it was propably a royalty thing. Roger getting full royalties from HFE while Brien only got 1/3 from TMLWKY. The other songs are either credited to Queen or Freddie. Having said that, Mother Love is without a doubt a very special song for Brian. It was the last time Freddie and Brian were in the studio together making new music. Brian has described on many interviews those last sessions when Freddie's is very ill and asks to give him anything to sing, and Brian writes a line on a piece of paper and Freddie sings it... 'til he can't anymore (you know the story). So, I also think Brian wanted the world to know that it was their baby, the last musical collaboration between them. A very special song, indeed.

What about You Don't Fool Me, credited to Queen? There were just some songs that sounded like they would work better as singles in the mid-90s, and some that seemed less likely to. Mother Love didn't have hit potential in 1995/96. You Don't Fool Me did, even if it is the lesser of the two songs.

I might be wrong, but as far as I remember the version of "Mother Love" we hear on the album was practically pretty much finished already in 1991, before Freddie's death. Surely probably without the sound collage in the end, but otherwise, even with Brian's verse.

Considering their many past arguments about songwriting royalties, I'd say this is the most grown-up solution imaginable.

Most people don't realize this, but when singles were released on 45s in the 1970s and '80s, whoever wrote the B-side received as much royalties as whoever wrote the A-side - it was a 50/50 split. Imagine the fights they had about Bohemian Rhapsody alone. This is almost certainly why Brian May got the next two big ones: Best Friend and Somebody to Love. But even combined they were no match for the success of BoRhap. I'm pretty sure Roger ended up in a house before Brian (in 1978, as it took years to pay off the Trident debt), and I have little doubt this complicated things for them considerably.

It's things like this and so much more that we'll never know about that informed their later decisions about songwriting credits. We cannot possibly imagine the depth and layers of their 55+ year old relationship.

I think the backing track was either already done, or at least a basic version of it that Freddie sang to was done at the time. We know the story of Brian's guide vocals to the song, so I won't rehash that.
Personally, I think the gist of the backing track was probably already done at that point, as Brian has made comments that the track was left as it was at the point where Freddie stopped coming in. Again, he may have been referring to the vocals more than the track as a whole, though.

I remember reading somewere (Mr. Scully's glorious site?) that in some Queen Convention around 2000/1, GB said there are lots of versions of Mother Love with Brian and Roger singing lead vocals.