TALON'S TAKE (thanks guys for the help to hitting page 2! :D):
Today's song...
Liarwritten by Freddie Mercury
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - vocals, organ
Brian May - acoustic & electric guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, tambourine, backing vocals
- An epic song of ROCKING quality. This was a crowd favorite during their concerts and they would often close gigs with this track in their very young concert tour before encoring with a medley of rock and roll staple covers
- Another mention of Mercury in the lyrics.
- Played live through 1977 and then sporadically thereafter. In 1986 and beyond, Brian would often throw a riff or two before songs or what not.
- The bass solo by John made an appearance in QAL during Neil Fairclough's "Spot-the-riff" solo after Dragon Attack.
- Begun as a track called "Lover" by Freddie's previous band Wreckage with guitarist Mike Bersin but obviously changed enough to drop Bersin from the writing credits.
QUOTES:
- "I had heard Wreckage play this track in a rehearsal, and particularly liked one rff, but the rest of the song was changed drastically by the four of us, using some of my own riffs, and Freddie's words. There is actually an interesting aside to this. 'Liar' was one of the first songs that we worked together on, and there was a moment when we discussed if we should all be credited in such cases. Freddie said, 'As far as I'm concerned the person who wrote the words has effectively written the song.' It may have not been the most logical solution, but it was a workable rule, which we used virtually unchanged right up to the last two albums, when we decided to share everything regardless of origin. The rule almost certainly discouraged us from co-operating on lyrics for a long time, and started a trend towards separateness in song producing in general, which was acute at the time of the Munich records." - Brian May - 1992
- "There was a classic case where everything got messed up on the first album cos we did the first Queen album on basically dark time, in Trident Studios. In other words, you know, 'Somebody's just finished boys. It's four o'clock in the morning and you've got til five.' We'd done a backing for 'Liar' and Trident said 'Oh, that's alright boys, just overdub on this tape' which they pulled out. And it was the wrong tape. We only discovered weeks later and all the way through we were thinking, 'This doesn't sound right! What's happened to this tape?' So eventually we got to redo it again after a big fuss." - Brian May - BBC Radio Two - 1998
- "The biggest factor of our music being lighter than in the early days is that Freddie has developed more interest in piano...'Liar' from the first album was written on guitar, and naturally goes into the hard rock extreme, as opposed to 'Killer Queen'. Freddie is now surrounded by Japanese furniture and a grand piano, so the songs are written there. Simple isn't it? But I doubt Roger writes songs on the drums." - John Deacon (no date given but I'd say 1974-75)
ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:
DE LANE LEA DEMODE LANE LEA DEMO - Q3 POSTED- ESSENTIAL LISTENING
- Released on the 2011 Island remastering of
Queen Deluxe Version.
- Additional percussion and guitars and includes the very first hint of what would become the basis of Brian May's guitar solo...first seen in the Smile track '
Blag'.
US EDITUS EDIT- NOT essential listening.
- Released on vinyl as a single in the US.
- Their US record company decided to release 'Liar' as a single and absolutely butchered it without the band's knowledge or consent. Cut from over six minutes to three it is a butchering. The band has disowned it and it will never officially be released.
BBC Session #1BBC SESSION #1 - Q3 POSTED-ESSENTIAL LISTENING
- Released on
Queen At The Beeb in 1989 in the UK and
Queen At The BBC in 1995 in the US.
- Different vocal line, slight drum sound difference and some extra guitar bits.
1991 Hollywood Remix- NOT essential listening, but interesting
- Released on the 1991 Hollywood Records Remastering of
Queen as a bonus track.
- In 1991 Hollywood Records remastered the catalogue and hired people to remix songs as bonus tracks (and leaving out some obvious bonus material at times *shrug*. They are usually crap and very inessential listening, but this is one of the better ones with some additional percussion.
UNRELEASED VERSIONS:
BBC Session #2BBC SESSION #2- NOT essential listening.
-Very similar to the album cut.
UNRELEASED AND UNHEARD:
- Rumors of a "rough demo" have been bandied about - but it may be an old rumor regarding the De Lane Lea Demo.
LIVE VERSIONS:
LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH - DECEMBER 1975- Audio only
- A very fun live performance as Freddie often went off during the middle section. The video which I could not find, does include rare shots of John Deacon singing backing vocals although you'd struggle trying to hear them
LIVE IN JAPAN - MAY 1985- As part of the medley - so much shorter!
LIVE IN VIENNA - JULY 1986- Brian would play the riff in 1986 before
Tear It Up as a nod to the fans.
PERSONAL NOTES:
-Queen at their rocking-est best at the time. A raucous track that got the people up and moving.
CHANCES:
Liar......50% -- Just a hunch, but I think this may be under heavy consideration. If we're getting nostalgic about those 70s tours, there was NO song that the fans wanted more than this one. It may be done in medley format like it was done in the 1984-85 tours, but I think it gets played.
SUPPLEMENTAL:
BarcelonaWritten by: Freddie Mercury/Mike Moran
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - vocals, arrangements
Montserrat Caballé - vocals
Mike Moran - keyboards, programming, arrangements
Homi Kanga - violin
Laurie Lewis - violin
Deborah Ann Johnston - cello
Barry Castle - horn
Frank Ricotti - percussion
Roger Taylor - backing vocals
- Initially meant to be the only song the two would record.
- Theme of the 1992 Olympics.
- Reportedly Roger Taylor does some uncredited backing vocals.
- Issued as a single backed with ‘Exercises In Free Love’ in October 1987 in the UK (where it hit #8). The same pairing with additional mixes was reissued in July 1992 in the UK (where it hit #2).
- Issued as a single with an unknown B-Side in Australia, The Netherlands (where it hit #34), and Japan (where it did not chart) It was reissued in 1992 with an unknown B-Side in Australia (where it hit #42), and The Netherlands (where it hit #2)
- It was issued as a promo with an unknown B-Side in 1992 in Japan.
- Issued on the B-Side of ‘One Year Of Love’ on a US promo in 1992.
- When on tour in Barcelona with QPR, Brian put a little bit of the track in his guitar solo.
ALTERNATE RELEASED VERSIONS
2012 ORCHESTRATED VERSION- ESSENTIAL
- It does actually lack some punch from the original but the fluidity makes it well worth it.
IDEAS - TWO EXTRACTS FROM GARDEN LODGE- ESSENTIAL
- You get to hear Freddie and Montserrat during their brainstorming sessions!
EARLY VERSION - FREDDIE'S VOCAL SLAVE- ESSENTIAL - This is Freddie singing to his guide track so well it nearly phases at some points. This will grab your attention almost at once.
EARLY VERSION - FREDDIE'S VOCAL DEMOS- ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL
- This is Freddie singing both parts of the duet - Freddie as a soprano! Of course this was all just to guide Montserrat alone, so it wasn't meant to be a finished final product but even without Freddie trying it sounds awesome!
LATER VERSION - FREDDIE ONLYLATER VERSION - FREDDIE SOLO- NOT essential but nice
- This is the finished track, but without Monserrat. It still sounds very nice and you hear some things you wouldn't normally hear.
TRANSLATION DEMOTRANSLATION DEMO- NOT ESSENTIAL
- A convention demo which is what Freddie recorded in order to have it translated into Spanish.
SINGLE VERSIONSINGLE VERSION- NOT ESSENTIAL
- Basically cuts off the beginning section.
EXTENDED VERSIONEXTENDED VERSION- NOT ESSENTIAL
- Adds an instrumental passage but is basically a repeat of the verse backing track.
TV EDITTV EDIT- NOT ESSENTIAL
- An edit created for television advertisement of the Olympics
INSTRUMENTALINSTRUMENTAL- NOT essential
BARCELONA GOLDNO YT VID
- NOT ESSENTIAL
- From the
Barcelona Gold soundtrack to the 1992 Olympic games. It is fairly close to the single version just slightly more edited.
SPECIAL EDITION INSTRUMENTALNO YT VID
- NOT ESSENTIAL
- The real orchestrated instrumental
2012 VIDEO VERSION- ESSENTIAL
- A nice new video taken from alternate angles from the original.
2012 SINGLE VERSIONNO YT VID
- NOT ESSENTIAL - 99.9% the 2012 Video Version.
IBIZIA "PERFORMANCE"LA NIT "PERFORMANCE"- ESSENTIAL
- Just to see the two divas perform together even if they aren't singing.
PERSONAL NOTES:
- JUST WOW. That's all there is to say. It's a beautiful fusion of pop/rock and opera and watching these two together is a pure dream. Some of Freddie's best work.
CHANCES
Barcelona.....-5% -- LOL NO chance. If the tour ever does get to Barcelona, maybe Brian does a quote in his guitar solo again.
