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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 17:33:35 GMT
As the topic's come up, I thought it'd be worth listing them here.
Confirmed instances of John playing instruments other than bass, in chronological order by release:
- Double-bass on 'Bring Back That Leroy Brown' (only a couple bars). - Almost all guitars on 'Misfire'. That includes the acoustic, the multi-tracked harmonies and the solo. Brian's contribution consisted of the fading out choirs, which were beautiful. - Piano on 'You're My Best Friend'. - Double-bass on ''39'. - Acoustic guitar on 'You and I'. - Acoustic rhythm guitar on 'Who Needs You'. Brian played the solos. - Rhythm guitars on 'Another One Bites the Dust' (the ones doubling the bass and the funky double-stops). - Rhythm guitars on 'Back Chat' (riff and motif). - Synthesiser on 'I Want to Break Free' (though not the solo as that was Frederick Mandel).
Suspected, by album:
- Queen II: He's credited for acoustic guitar, but it doesn't specify where. Loads of people (myself included) have speculated it might be 'Loser in the End'. - Sheer Heart Attack: Similar story. There's an 'acoustic guitar' credit for the album, and 'Misfire' is listed separately, suggesting there's at least one more (probably 'Tenement Funster'). - A Night at the Opera: I've always had the (completely unsupported) theory that there's a celeste on 'Best Friend' doing the bell-like overdubs on top of the piano. Also, there might be double-bass on 'Death On Two Legs'. - News of the World: Acoustic guitar on 'Spread Your Wings'. He's not credited for it, but neither is Brian for the piano on 'All Dead, All Dead' or for backing vocals on A Night at the Opera (besides the lead single). - Jazz: Acoustic guitar on 'In Only Seven Days'. - The Game: Acoustic guitar on 'Need Your Loving Tonight', piano and synthesiser on 'Another One Bites the Dust'. - Flash Gordon: He's credited for guitar and synthesiser besides bass, but it doesn't specify where. Presumably his own compositions plus perhaps the guitar on 'In the Space Capsule'. - Hot Space: Synth on 'Back Chat', rhythm guitar on 'Staying Power' (as he did it live as well), rhythm guitar and clavinet on 'Cool Cat'. - The Works: Rhythm guitars on 'Break Free'. - A Kind of Magic: He's credited for guitar and synthesiser besides bass, but it doesn't specify where. Presumably some of the pieces he co-authored could feature him as well as 'Don't Lose Your Head'. - The Miracle: Synths and rhythm guitar on the pieces he co-wrote, and perhaps also some of the clean rhythm guitars in the middle section of 'Party'. - Innuendo: He's credited for synths but it doesn't specify where. Brian claimed sometimes the five of them (band and producer) would programme keys together, citing 'Days of Our Lives' as an example. - Made in Heaven: He's credited for synths but it doesn't specify where - presumably the songs he wrote or co-wrote. I've also long suspected (though can't prove at all) he may be playing rhythm guitar on 'You Don't Fool Me'.
Notably not:
- The piano on 'Spread Your Wings'. Granted, the video shows him (for a few seconds), but that's reportedly because Frederick was pissed and uncooperative during the video shoot. Backing tracks at the time were usually recorded with three instruments at the time at the very least, and in this case that would've meant it was Frederick on piano, John on bass (he couldn't do both at the same time!) and Roger on drums. Acoustic guitar was an overdub, so it makes sense for John to have played it (even if the credits don't mention him) instead of Brian.
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baronlutenvank
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Post by baronlutenvank on May 14, 2020 18:08:05 GMT
I read that he did electric guitar on the Queen version of Love Kills.
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Lord Fickle
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Post by Lord Fickle on May 14, 2020 19:11:41 GMT
Wow! Great post from the walking Queen Encyclopedia! 🙂 I'd never really thought about JD playing other instruments before.
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georg
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Post by georg on May 14, 2020 19:28:21 GMT
The Deep Cuts Vol. 1 liners credit John with acoustic guitar on Tenement Funster, and "additional guitar" on Love Kills in the Queen Forever liners.
Reading the other Deep Cuts liners, John is officially (finally) credited with acoustic guitar on Spread Your Wings, and Deep Cuts Vol. 3 just has generic credits, with no specifics. Ah well.
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Post by aymeric on May 14, 2020 20:55:35 GMT
What about drums on One Vision? as seen on the promo video?
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 21:01:02 GMT
Great point about 'Love Kills', I'd completely forgotten about that one.
Thank you for the comments regarding 'Spread Your Wings' and 'Tenement Funster'.
As for 'One Vision', I suspect it's a similar case to the 'Spread Your Wings' piano in that he mimed it for a few bars in the video but that was all. He's also seen miming double-bass on 'Who Wants to Live Forever', banjo on 'A Kind of Magic' and backing vocals here and there but he didn't actually record any of that.
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Post by Billblackman on May 14, 2020 22:05:51 GMT
John played rythm guitar on Back Chat, Dr. May himself said it. I'm not sure if he plays the solo though.
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Post by Deleted on May 14, 2020 23:42:50 GMT
John played rythm guitar on Back Chat, Dr. May himself said it. Yes, that's why it's on the list. I'm not sure if he plays the solo though. He doesn't.
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Post by The Real Wizard on May 15, 2020 0:40:46 GMT
Also, there might be double-bass on 'Death On Two Legs'. 100% there is - it's heard on the Rock Band stems.
Poorly played it may be, but in the final mix it's still perfect.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 3:04:08 GMT
I could have sworn I’ve read that John played acoustic guitar on She Makes Me, it’s listed on Wikipedia, that he does - but Wiki is of course very hit or miss. It does also sound like John’s attack on the instrument. Now I must search where I did actually read that he did... en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheer_Heart_Attack
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 3:06:13 GMT
Great point about 'Love Kills', I'd completely forgotten about that one. Wow! I never knew that. Thanks! That’s one of the most simplistic yet impactful solos too. I love it!
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 4:33:53 GMT
Also, there might be double-bass on 'Death On Two Legs'. 100% there is - it's heard on the Rock Band stems.
Poorly played it may be, but in the final mix it's still perfect.
I'm more like 80% sure, as you can get a somewhat similar sound by playing electric bass with bow: On something like ''39' the difference would be quite noticeable, but for the 'Two Legs' intro I've got some suspicions (ca. 20%). You're still most likely right, though.
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Rick
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Post by Rick on May 15, 2020 12:40:07 GMT
Didn't John play rhythm guitar on If You Can't Beat Them as well?
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2020 13:37:12 GMT
The album's got no credits (or at least my copy didn't). I used to assume he had because it was his song, but at the end of the day that proves absolutely nothing. Both lead and rhythm sound like Brian to my (obviously fallible) ears.
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Dimitris
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Post by Dimitris on May 16, 2020 5:00:43 GMT
Maybe he played rhythm guitar on Funny how love is, who played bass on Loser in the end? The bass sound and playing is very similar to Roger's Also did he play piano for Only 7 days in Jazz album?
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Post by angusscrimm on May 16, 2020 16:35:59 GMT
When was the Queen version of Love Kills (the one we hear on "Forever") actually worked on? Because I had no idea, until pointed out here, that John is credited.
I know it was an unused Queen track from The Works era, but Freddie eventually did the well known solo version.
I thought that the "Forever" ballad version was simply the well known Freddie version reworked by Brian and Roger. So, it actually contains some of the unused original stuff with John on it?
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baronlutenvank
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Post by baronlutenvank on May 16, 2020 17:21:04 GMT
Around 1983-1984 perhaps?
I'm listening to it right now, and I'm trying to discern which guitar part is John's. We can rule out the acoustic as the liner notes credits Deacy as "Additional Electric Guitar"
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Post by angusscrimm on May 16, 2020 20:03:39 GMT
This is what I'm trying to figure out - are we saying that this IS the version Queen were going to release as part of The Works, OR it's a reworking from Freddie's solo version with SOME of the elements from the Works era?
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Post by angusscrimm on May 16, 2020 20:05:11 GMT
And yeah, I've been trying to figure out John's part also lol
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NathanH
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Post by NathanH on May 16, 2020 20:47:37 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2020 23:17:30 GMT
Maybe he played rhythm guitar on Funny how love is, who played bass on Loser in the end? The bass sound and playing is very similar to Roger's Also did he play piano for Only 7 days in Jazz album? Most (not all) backing tracks in those days were done with at least three instruments simultaneously, so they were John on bass, Roger on drums, Brian on either guitar or piano, or Frederick on piano. 'Loser in the End' was John on bass, thus, as Roger couldn't play bass and drums at the same time; 'In Only Seven Days' was Frederick on piano, as John couldn't simultaneously play bass and piano. Quite a few years ago the backing track for 'Funny How Love Is' was played at a convention, and it included the four of them: John on bass, Roger on drums, Frederick on piano and Brian on acoustic guitar. So there. Regarding 'Love Kills': Frederick could've had John playing (uncredited) rhythm guitar on his solo version. I always assumed that was the origin of his 'additional electric guitar'.
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2020 2:21:01 GMT
Maybe he played rhythm guitar on Funny how love is, who played bass on Loser in the end? The bass sound and playing is very similar to Roger's Also did he play piano for Only 7 days in Jazz album? Most (not all) backing tracks in those days were done with at least three instruments simultaneously, so they were John on bass, Roger on drums, Brian on either guitar or piano, or Frederick on piano. 'Loser in the End' was John on bass, thus, as Roger couldn't play bass and drums at the same time; 'In Only Seven Days' was Frederick on piano, as John couldn't simultaneously play bass and piano. Quite a few years ago the backing track for 'Funny How Love Is' was played at a convention, and it included the four of them: John on bass, Roger on drums, Frederick on piano and Brian on acoustic guitar. So there. Regarding 'Love Kills': Frederick could've had John playing (uncredited) rhythm guitar on his solo version. I always assumed that was the origin of his 'additional electric guitar'.
I do wonder how "Fight from the Inside" and ''Sheer Heart Attack'' were attacked being Roger plays the drums, bass, and rhythm guitars on both. It seems super counter productive to have John and Brian play their instruments to Roger's drums to just erase them and have Roger play the same parts over again.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 17, 2020 3:33:41 GMT
They've both got Brian on lead guitar, so they could've been done with guitar and drums and then Roger overdubbed bass and rhythm guitar.
Roger could've, alternatively, recorded each instrument to a metronome and then synchronised them all (or have Michael do it).
Another exception to the 'at least three' rule was 'Love of My Life' as the backing track is just Frederick on piano.
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cmi
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Post by cmi on May 17, 2020 16:01:58 GMT
John credited playing electric guitar on ballad version from 2014, but most probably he's not there. It's just a credit taken from 1983 Queen version, which is actually a solo version in the end.
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Rick
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Post by Rick on May 18, 2020 16:47:18 GMT
The acoustic guitar on Don't Try Suicide could be played by John as well, I think. It's basically mimicking the bass.
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Post by Mr Badger on May 18, 2020 19:24:55 GMT
This thread reminds me that I think John never got all the recognition he deserved as a musician. Of course it was very easy to got lost with all the attention on Freddie, Brian and to a lesser extent Roger. John was recognized as being the “business brains” and writer of good pop songs, but never really for his playing abilities which is unfortunate. In think he was one of the best. I also could never understand why they didn’t full credit each other for the instruments played on various songs over the years. Not sure if that was by design or they just didn’t care? Given the egos I would think they did care.
And regarding other “instruments” that John played, who can forget the one note on the triangle in live versions of Killer Queen (up to 1978 anyways)😂
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Post by Deleted on May 18, 2020 20:57:41 GMT
Who knows how those liner notes were compiled, and who was in charge of them... not to mention that some of the albums haven't got any credits, so anyone could've played anything, at least theoretically speaking.
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Bohardy
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Post by Bohardy on May 19, 2020 7:50:52 GMT
Surely John's guitar part is the trademark single-note clean funky licks that start in the left channel here: youtu.be/_DoDqThVNek?t=115 ?
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jlf
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Post by jlf on Jun 3, 2020 21:05:24 GMT
I always thought the additional overdub on Best Friend was the electric piano being played pianissimo with the volume turned up. It doesn't produce that kind of growl unless you hit it quite hard. I don't know though, it could be a celeste, it does have that kind of tone. Ugh I hate celestas, they're never regulated and it always feels like you have to punch them to get the tone to be equal on them.
Regarding Love Kills, didn't Brian make the claim that the record released in 1984 was mostly Queen with some additional overdubbing, and that Georgio Moroder had little to nothing to do with the writing or recording?
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NathanH
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Post by NathanH on Jun 3, 2020 21:11:39 GMT
Regarding Love Kills, didn't Brian make the claim that the record released in 1984 was mostly Queen with some additional overdubbing, and that Georgio Moroder had little to nothing to do with the writing or recording? I've heard that before I think I might've read somewhere Moroder got credited because Queen using Metropolis in Radio Ga Ga. I think it was one of the conditions he said.
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