TALON'S TAKE:
Ok last for tonight will be my look at the first song on the album...
Keep Yourself AliveWritten by: Brian May
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, tambourine, backing vocals
- This is the very first thing Queen recorded. Written by Brian May, it was also released as the first single from the band. It did not chart.
- The band played the track live in full until 1981. It was not played during the 1982 tour. It was resurrected as part of a medley in 1984 through 1985. It was not played in 1986 nor in any of Brian or Roger's solo shows, or QPR - although Brian did throw the main riff into his solo on occasions. It was resurrected for QAL.
- Features Freddie on lead vocals but both Brian and Roger have a lead vocal line (Roger on "Do you think you're better every day?" and Brian with the answer "No, I just think I'm two steps nearer to my grave")
QUOTES:
- "That was real tape phasing. This was in the days when you took the tape off the synch head, put it through a couple of other tape delays, and then brought it back with the play head. There is no processing whatsoever on the solo in that tune, as far as I remember. I used John Deacon’s small amplifier and the Vox AC-30 to do that little three part chorus thing behind, as well as the fingerboard pickup on the guitar. There is a bit more tape phasing on the end of that track.” – Brian May – Guitar Player – 1983
- “As far as arranging the guitar harmonies, it wasn’t that difficult – I was always able to hear in my head what was going to work. As a result, my guitar orchestrations were mostly intuitive and worked out on the spot, such as the harmonized solos on ‘Keep Yourself Alive.’ It was afterwards that I actually analyzed why a certain arrangement I came up with work” – Brian May – 1998
ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:
DE LANE LEA DEMO:- Released on the 2011 Island Remaster of
Queen Deluxe Version
- The actual very first recording by Queen. Finally released on the 2011 remaster of Queen. Features an acoustic intro and a MUCH better drum sound. Brian actually liked this version better than the final version:
QUOTES:
- “The first recording of it ever was in De Lane Lea when we did it ourselves and I’ve still got that recording and I think it’s very good and has something which the single never head. But THEY pressurized us very strongly to redo all the tracks and we redid ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ with Roy and it was pretty awful, actually. I thought it was terrible and I was very unhappy about it and I thought the De Lane Lea one was better and I eventually managed to persuade Roy that it was better as well. So we went back in and did it again in a way that was a bit more true to the original. But there is no way that you can ever really repeat something. I have this great belief that the magic of the moment can never be recaptured and, although we ended up with something that was technically in the playing and perhaps even in the recording a bit better than the De Lane Lea thing. I still think that the De Lane Lea one had that certain sort of magic, so I was never really happy. As it turned out no one else was ever really happy either and we kept remixing it. We thought that it’s the mix that’s wrong, we kept remixing and there must have been at least seven or eight mixes by different groups of people. Eventually we went in and did a mix with Mike Stone, our engineer, and that’s the one that we were in the end happiest with. That’s the one that we put out. But to my mind, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ was never really satisfactory. Never had that magic that it should have had.” – Brian May – BBC Radio One – 1983.
US EDITNO YT VIDEO THAT I COULD FIND
- Released on vinyl in the US. Also found on the original US version of
Greatest Hits- The single edit has an early fade out.
BBC SESSION #1- NOT essential listening.
- Released on
Queen At The Beeb in 1989 in the UK and
Queen At The BBC in 1995 in the US.
- Recorded at Langham One Studio in 1973 for the BBC. Very similar to the album version - slight difference in backing vocals.
LONG LOST RETAKE - Released in 1991 on the Hollywood Records remastering of
Queen as a bonus track. This was recorded in 1975 when the studio suggested re-releasing their first single after they got a little success. They decided not to use this version and just re-released the original.
- This is actually MY favorite studio version. The drum sound is phenomenal!
UNRELEASED VERSIONS:
BBC SESSION #2- NOT essential listening.
- Recorded a few months later than the previous one - although it sounds as if the backing track is the same as the album and may just be a slightly new vocal - again VERY little different.
LONG LOST RETAKE EDIT- NOT essential listening.
-An edit of the retake that appeared on the vinyl promo. Not much different, just shorter.
UNRELEASED AND UNHEARD:
- There are about 8 different takes/versions existing according to Brian May while they fussed with the sound and ultimately were discarded. Do they still exist? Who knows.
OFFICIALLY RELEASED LIVE VERSIONS
LIVE KILLERS- Audio only. Much like the Hammersmith verison below but I was more impressed with Hammersmith.
ROCK MONTREAL VERSION- Includes a snippet of a jam that was an unrecorded song called
Sex ShowUNRELEASED LIVE VERSIONS
LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH - DECEMBER 1975- Freddie has fun during this performance! Really rocking out and interactive.
LIVE AT ROCK IN RIO - JANUARY 1985- A different version as it was only a part of a medley really and much shorter...but much later in time!
ALTERNATIVE LIVE
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS LIVE IN CHILE - 2008- Brian would occasionally throw the riff into his guitar solo as in the beginning of this verison.
QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT - LONDON - JULY 11, 2012- Adam's take is different from Freddie here. If anywhere this is where Freddie outshines Adam to a bit and I think I saw a post that defined what I meant earlier but can't think who to attribute it to - Freddie's is more DANGEROUS which is more apt to rock and roll :D BUT that being said, I'm far from a moaner - Adam does a fine job here and it becomes even more theatrical in a way altering the song but it is quite good - Love the glory note ending!
PERSONAL NOTES:
- I always thought this was a great opener - the intro guitar gets you into a groove and never lets up. You get to hear great vocals from all 3 singers and it just showcases where Queen was at this early stage of their existence. I prefer the live versions due to the interplay with the audience...
CHANCES:
Keep Yourself Alive......85% -- If songs are to be replaced for the upcoming tour, this may be one but I like the opening medley...
SUPPLEMENTAL:
I Can't Live With YouWritten by Brian May
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - guitars, keyboards, drum programming, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - backing vocals
David Richards - keyboard programming
- Another song initially considered for Brian's solo album, this one ended up being a bit tough. Brian never got Roger's live drums to sound like he wanted so he ended up using the programmed drums he had initially used for the demo. For the Rocks Re-take below he was finally able to matchup Rog's drums with his guitar...
- Usually I say this in the later fields but I will say it now - the Rocks Retake (see below) is SO much better...
- Never tried live - surprisingly. I thought Brian would have tried it on one of his solo tours.
- Reportedly there is a demo in the vaults with Roger doing a guide vocal...well he wasn't drumming
"For some reason, 'I Can't Live With You' was almost impossible to mix. It was one of those things where you put all the faders up and it sounds pretty good, and you think, 'We'll work on this for a couple of hours.' Then it gets worse and worse and worse. We kept going back to the rough mix. It's got an atmosphere to it. I think it sounds so special because we kept a lot of the demo stuff on it. Usually it all gets replaced."
- Brian May - August 1991 - Guitar World
"As time goes by I find I'm more concerned with the lyrics than ever. A lot of people say you can only create when you're in pain. But when I was really in pain, I couldn't create anything. I couldn't even get out of bed. When you're climbing out and beginning to get things in the right boxes again, that's when you can put it into music. There's quite a bit of that sort of thing on this album. There's some in 'I Can't Live With You'; it's very personal, but I tried not to make it autobiographical because that narrows things too much. I tried to express it in a form that everyone can relate to."
- Brian May - August 1991 - Guitar World
"I was in the studio for a couple of days to get some things out of my system. I thought maybe I’d be left with a solo album, maybe a Queen album – I just didn’t know – and I came up with ‘Headlong’ and ‘I Can’t Live With You,’ and the guys liked them”
– Brian May
MALOUF MIX- NOT ESSENTIAL but a nice remix - some phasing on Freddie's vocals and tweaking of the keyboards.
MALOUF EDITNO YT
- NOT ESSENTIAL - slight edit
ROCKS RETAKE- ESSENTIAL!!!
- Awesome version that was released a few years later on the compilation, Queen Rocks. This one takes the inital track and adds Roger's live drums to it and Brian got it to work to his satisfaction. He then added a few more guitars on top. The result turns the song from a decent pop rock song to an awesome energy driven rock number. MUCH better than the original and I like the original!
PERSONAL NOTES:
A great pop rock song that is fun to singalong to. Nice fun track.
CHANCES:
I Can't Live With You......5% -- One of those songs I think Brian has in the back of his mind and sometime it might just come out...
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