Queen's Speech
There are often some questions best left until right at the end of an interview, the reasoning being that if you get flung out for asking them, at least you have everything else you want to know.
In the case of Queen, such questions obviously centred around the band's name. A late attempt to cash in on the fag-rock boom? A British answer to the New York Dolls? An all-out drag act?
None of these apparently, as lead vocalist Freddie Mercury explained. "We prefer to think of Queen in the regal sense rather than the queer one. We like to think of our music as rather majestic so it fits. And we are quite dandyish, thought we don't wear make-up or anything like that."
"I suppose," continues Freddie, "That some people will come and see us for the wrong reasons, but the moment they see us onstage they'll realise their mistake."
So far, not a lot of people have seen Queen, for their gigs have been few and far between, mainly because Freddie, Roger Meddows-Taylor (drums, vocals) and the rest of the band, Deacon John (bass guitar) and Brian May (guitar, vocals) have been busy finishing off degree courses.
Playing safe? "Yes, you could call it a kind of insurance," says Freddie. "We were semi-professional for a long time and now that we have degrees behind us should we ever need them, we feel happy being professional."
Queen's first album, entitled simply Queen, was released just a couple of weeks ago. Wasn't three years of being together rather a long time to take getting a first album out?
"The album was completed 14 months ago," explained Freddie, "and the songs on it are nearly three years old. Frankly the delay has just been a question of money -- waiting to get the right deal."
"We're going to Trident in August to start work on our second album," continued Roger. "We have a terrific backlog of songs to catch up on, about two-and-a-half albums worth."
They also have a single out, Keep Yourself Alive, taken from the album. On the LP's sleeve notes there's a line "nobody played synthesiser." Why?
"We put it on as a joke at first," said Freddie, "but it turned out to be quite a good idea, because we even managed to fool John Peel. He said something in a review of our single about there being good use of moog and actually it was just multi-tracked guitar. We don't use any synthesiser at all."
But wasn't it very difficult to simulate the sound of all that multi-tracking onstage?
"No, it seems to fill out quite well," says Freddie, "but Brian has invented a tape loop thing which will enable him to repeat any phrase he wants to and he can set the delay to whatever he wants with a footswitch."
This intriguing gadget may well make its first appearance when Queen hit the road for their first British tour in September - "When the universities restart."
Were they not becoming rather bored with waiting 15 months for their album to come out with only a few gigs in the meantime?
"Ah yes," sighs Freddie heavily, "the waiting game."
"But we have done some session work," adds Roger.
"Have you heard the name Larry Lurex?" continues Freddie mysteriously.
Oh yes, we'd all hooted hugely and speculated about who it might be when the gentleman's single came out a few weeks back.
"Well, that's me," says Freddie. "I was asked to do it and came up with the name as a joke and we ended up using it. It was going to Larry Lurex and The Voles From Venus, but we decided that it might be just a bit too much."
|
 |
|
THE FREDDIE MERCURY TAPES Circus Magazine - 1976
Back in the old days, we were often compared to Led Zeppelin.
If we did something with harmony, it was the Beach Boys. Something
heavy was Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant was always my favorite
singer--and he's said nice things about me, you know. He actually
said he liked "Killer Queen."
We were always a sitting target in the press because we became
popular so quickly. But, you know, we spent two years putting our
act together. It destroys the soul to hear that you're all hype,
that you have no talent, and that your whole career has been
contrived. I was never too keen on the British music press.
They've called us a supermarket hype, and they used to suggest that
we didn't write our own songs. When the _whole point_ of Queen was
to _be original_.
I'm the first to accept fair criticism. But the dishonest
reviews--where people haven't done their homework--I just tear them
up. I do get annoyed when up-and-coming journalists put themselves
above the artist. I don't care what the journalists say, we achieved our own
identity after Queen II. As for the Beach Boys or Led Zeppelin
comparisons: it's the combination of all those influences which
means Queen. We were disliked by the press in the early days
because they couldn't put their finger on us, and that was the case
with Zeppelin as well.
A lot of people slammed "Bohemian Rhapsody," but who can you
compare _that_ to? Name one group that's done an operatic single.
You know, were adamant that "Bohemian Rhapsody" would be a hit in
its entirety. We_have_ been forced to make compromises, but
cutting up a song will never be one of of them.
We've always put our necks on the line. We're fussy and
finicky and have very high standards. If a song can't be done
properly, we'd rather it isn't done at all. We're the fussiest
band in the world, and we put so much loving into every album.
We're a very expensive group; we break a lot of rules. It's
_unheard of_ to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear.
And, we have no such thing as a budget anymore. Our manager
freaks when we show him the bill. We're lavish to the bone, but
all our money goes back into the product. We've gone overboard on
every Queen album. But that's Queen. If people said, "The new
album sounds just like _Night At The Opera_," I'd give up. Wouldn't you?
After _Sheer Heart Attack_, we realized we'd established
ourselves. We felt that there were no barriers, no restrictions.
_A Night At The Opera_ featured every sound from a tuba to a comb.
Nothing is out of bounds. Every molecule of _Day At The Races_--
every iota-- is us. No session men. We don't try to reproduce
that onstage. We've been slagged in the press for our flamboyant
stage show. We think a show should be a spectacle. A concert is
not a live rendition of our album. Its a _theatrical event_.
In the very early days, we just wore black onstage. Very
bold, my dear. Then we introduced white, for variety, and it
simply grew and grew. "Stone Cold Crazy" was the first song Queen
ever performed onstage.
I have fun with my clothes onstage; it's not just a concert
you're seeing, it's a fashion show. I dress to kill, but
_tastefully_. My nail polish? I used to use Biba, now I use
Miners. One coat goes on really smooth.
If we're weird onstage, I don't know what you'd call the
Tubes. We're a bit flashy, but the music's not one big noise. I
think we're sophisticated. I like the cabaret-ish from _Cabaret_.
I absolutely adore Liza Minelli, she's a total wow. The way she
delivers her songs--the sheer energy. the way the lights enhance
every movement of the show I think you can see similarities in the
excitement and energy of a Queen show. It's not glamrock, you see;
we're in the showbusiness tradition.
The lavish presentation appeals to me, and I've got to
convince the others. You don't know how I had to fight for "Big
Spender" on the last tour. We rag about everything, even about the
air we breathe. We're the bitchiest band on earth, darling. We're
at each other's _throats_. One night Roger was in a foul mood and
he threw his entire bloody drumset across the stage. The thing
only just missed me--I might have been killed. Yes, we're all very
highly strung. Once, Roger squirted Brian in the face with
hairspray in a tiny, steaming dressing room. They nearly came to
blows. We've all got massive egos, my dear. The others don't like
my interviews. And frankly, I don't care much for theirs. I'm
very emotional; I think I may go mad in several years' time.
People think I'm an ogre, you know. Onstage, I am a devil. But
I'm hardly a social reject. My parents were very strict, actually.
I was born in Zanzibar, September 5, 1946. My father was a civil
servant. I learned to fend for myself in boarding school. All the
bullying--I had the odd schoolmaster chasing me. I was consideredthe arch poof.
I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. That's as much as I'll
divulge. I got my diploma from Ealing College of Art, in graphics
and illustrating. You know, I designed the Queen crest. I simply
combined all the creatures that represent our star signs--and I
don't even believe in astrology.
I think my melodies are superior to my lyrics. "Death On Two
Legs" was the most vicious lyric I ever wrote. It's so vindictive
that Brian felt bad singing it. I don't like to explain what I was
thinking when I wrote a song. I think that's awful, just awful.
When I'm dead, I want to be remembered as a musician of some worthand substance.
Years ago, I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name.
But it's regal, obviously, and sounds splendid. I like to be
surrounded by splendid things. I like to browse around art
galleries, but I'm a hard-working lad and I never have the time.
I bought a house in London which I'd only seen in photographs. I
know that's absurd, but I had no time to go house-hunting. And I
needed a place to move my furniture and clothes. I want to lead
the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter.
I'm not into business at all. I'm hopeless with money; I
simply spend what I've got. I guess I've always lived the
glamorous life of a star. It's nothing new--I used to spend down
to the last dine. Now I've got money. I always knew I was a star.
And now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me.
David Richards Interview Rolling stones magazine 1995
Q: Was A Winters Tale the last song Freddie wrote for Made In Heaven?
DR: A Winters Tale was the last song he wrote, the lost song he sang for MIH was Mother Love, which Brian wrote for him.
Q: Did Brian write the song after ideas by Freddie?
DR: As far as I can remember, Brian came to the studios one day, wrote down some chords and Freddie started to sing the song. Brian handed Freddie a little piece of paper with some lines on it, where the idea or inspiration came from, I can't tell.
Q: What sort of feelings do you have about the release of MIH?
DR: We fulfilled Freddie's last wish. He wanted to make music till the last second, he wanted to sing. It was a difficult situation for all of us, but especially for Freddie, but he really wanted this project to be finished, even though he knew that the album would be released after his death.
Q: When did you realize how ill Freddie actually was?
DR: I knew that he was very ill, amazingly his voice became better and better though. "My voice is still here" he used to say, "So I'll keep on singing till the end" I personally didn't know that he had AIDS, I speculated he had cancer. I think everyone involved pushed aside the fact that it was really that serious. Everyone still had that glimpse of hope that at the end maybe a miracle would happen...
Q: Did you already notice his illness during the Innuendo sessions?
DR: I noticed that something was wrong, but I didn't know what.
Q: How much more difficult did his physical condition make the MIH sessions?
DR: We spent more time on the singing parts, cause Freddie needed a lot of rest during the recording. on the other side, Freddie wanted to be as precise as possible, because he knew there won't be anymore live tours for him, he wanted it to be perfect.
Q: Were the songs just more like demos when Freddie recorded the vocals? Or what's the reason that the rest of the band recorded the instrumental parts of the tracks last year?
DR: We always took 2 or 3 different approaches in recording songs. Sometimes a single band member had an idea for a song and had a demo of it with only some chords and some lyrics. Then the whole band came together and arranged the song, brought new ideas to the song and gave it the Queen-Sound. A simple idea evolved to a song. Innuendo on the other side evolved out of an improvisation in the Casino hall in Montreux. Freddie was upstairs in the studio and heard them playing that song and he just said: "ohhh I love it" and he ran downstairs and began to sing to it. Naturally a lot of work was put into Innuendo afterwards, but the idea came from that spontaneous jam in the hall.
Q: Again, did the band just record rough versions of the songs, so Freddie could still sing on those songs?
DR: No, they recorded the tracks live. The songs weren't rough versions, they were planned as finished versions, the spontaneity of the recording should be kept. We edited the songs later, we cut some parts out, but basically, it was recorded live, including the vocals. I remember that we had some problems because you could also hear the drums over Freddie's microphone. I've arranged the band in the studio like they would play a gig in a big hall, to create that "live feeling", even though no audience was there.
Q: How long did you work with Freddie on this album?
DR: Let's say it took us about 4 weeks for recording, in this period the songs were written and recorded. After Freddie's death no one wanted to continue on MIH, they needed some time for themselves. In the years after Freddie's death they came together again and said: "Let's do some work, Freddie wanted that we add the missing parts to the puzzle". I think this work took them again 3 or 4 months.
Q: What was changed on the songs at this time? Just final touches?
DR: Yes. Some songs remained in the original way, others, like the 2 songs from Freddie's solo work, received a queen-arrangement which transformed them from a solo product into a queen product. This kind of work takes a lot of time. But as I said, the other 4 or 5 songs that were recorded in 1991 in Montreux remained like they were recorded, there were some additional guitars, but that would have been done anyway.
Q: How did Freddie deal with the whole situation?
DR: He enjoyed it, he was glad that he was able to sing, that he still was able to sing. He was really happy.
Q: Was modern technology elementary to finish the album? or would it have been possible to complete the album also 10 years ago?
DR: Absolutely! Technology offers us the possibility to arrange songs new, but in this case we didn't arrange the songs new, so the recordings could have been done just as well ten years back with an analog recording machine. In fact "Too Much Love" was recorded on an analog recording machine. Brian wrote the song at a time when we were still using those machines, Freddie recorded it, cause he liked the song very much, but the track was never used, so " Too Much Love.." ended up on Brian's solo album. It's interesting to compare that one analog song to all the other digital MIH songs. The clearness in the analog recording is remarkable. It always takes us some time till we see where new technology takes us. We follow every technological revolution without knowing where it's heading.
Q. What does the band think about analog/digital recording?
DR: Roger called me yesterday, because I did an edit of "Too Much Love..." for a release in the USA. He asked: "what did you do with that remix? it sounds AMAZING!" I told him it was maybe because it was an analog recorded song that gave that amazing impression.
Q: Now it's very interesting that at the same time a Beatles anthology is coming out, where also a dead person is singing... now where did they probably find those songs?
DR: Probably in Paul's closet...
Q: There will be no doubt be a discussion about whether or not those kinda recordings should be released...
DR: I can't say anything about those Beatles recordings, but I could imagine that people are very curious to hear what those mysterious songs are all about. It's a bit different with MIH, because Freddie really wanted this album released.
Q: Will technology allow us in the near future to sample voices and use them even if the singer is already dead?
DR: No, that is impossible. you have to know what a sample is. A sample is a recording of something that was already done, it's nothing synthetic. It's a recording that you can access within seconds by pressing a button. You can edit it, make 1 word out of 2.But if you didn't record the voice before, you can't do anything at all. You can't recreate Freddie's voice synthetically. You have to have the voice first, and then you can maybe repeat a line for a few times, but that doesn't make a song. You need more than that.
Q: That means that it will still be impossible, in maybe 30 years, to record a voice for some hours and then use samples of it and put it together for a song?
DR: If you have hours of recordings of that voice, it would be theoretically possible. Under the circumstances that complete words exist. but you won't be able, even in 30 years, to create something out of nothing.
Q: Would you have a bad feeling about MIH, if Freddie didn't want it to be finished?
DR: Yes. if he wouldn't have wanted this album so badly and wouldn't have recorded so many songs.The only possibility would have been to search in the vaults for unreleased material, but that was not the case. The whole thing was very emotional experience. The fact that Freddie wanted this album finished gave us strength.
Q: Does a member of the group own, or has owned a house around Montreux?
DR: They stayed in hotels usually, but as Freddie was very often in Montreux in his last year, he got himself an apartment.he loved it because it was a silent and peaceful place. Montreux is a very inspiring place, especially for musicians. In the past 100 years a lot of musicians were here. When you listen to the nights in Montreux very carefully, it seems as if music is in the air.
Q: Did the media even realize that you and the rest of the band are working on this album?
DR: Well I don't think so, no. It's a very discreet place, that's why people keep coming to Montreux. We have our peace and the people in Montreux are used to celebrities because of the famous Montreux Jazz Festival. When people saw how Mr. Mercury went out with his dog, they didn't go crazy about it, he had his peace here.
Q: If you think of Freddie the showman and hits like "the show must go on", do you think Freddie would enjoy it that MIH gets so much attention?
DR: Absolutely! "The bigger the better" was his credo. Life was connected to success for him, that's what he lived for. It had to be a Number 1. And if this album would be the biggest seller of all times: Freddie would be the one who enjoys it the most!
Email Me!
Links to Other Sites
My Links |
