Queen Discussion Thread

Today's song...

Liar

written 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 DEMO


- 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 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 #1


-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.

- 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 #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.

OFFICIAL LIVE VERSIONS:

LIVE AT THE RAINBOW - MARCH 1974

LIVE AT THE RAINBOW - NOV 1974


- The singular biggest live crowd draw of the time!

UNRELEASED LIVE VERSIONS:

LIVE AT HAMMERSMITH - DECEMBER 1975


- 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.

Next up: Queen goes a little mellow psychidellic with The Night Comes Down

Thanks for your post Gabby. It inspired me to get going with my comments.

I loved the first video. The unity of the group so early in the process was overwhelming - down to their physiology and clothing. I thought they were all stunning. I am so taken with Brian May. There is a sensitive fragility about him then and now. He is a very special soul. I find myself totally fascinated.

Even a rocking song like Liar is complex and textured - amazingly organic so early in the game. Nothing gratuitous or superficial or mindless. This is creative genius. Lyrics are also amazing - subtle and subject to many layers of interpretation.

I also watched the live performance and loved that as well. Again, need to listen more times.

Wow - just wow!

Talon, thanks so much for all the fascinating info, WOW you're incredibly knowledgeable about Queen!! I've been a fan for quite a while but certainly not at this depth. Finding out all kinds of interesting stuff and I'm only on page 2! I'll catch up though, keep it coming!

Today's song...

The Night Comes Down

Written by: Brian May

Musicians:

Freddie Mercury - vocals
Brian May - acoustic & electric guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals





- A very mellow tune, one of the very few acoustic based songs in Queen's catalogue. Of course it doesn't stay acoustic.

- This song, the band never were satisfied with the re-recording done in Trident Studios under producer Roy Thomas Baker so they decided to use the original De Lane Lea Demo and just mix that for the final album.

- This song may never have been performed live. There are rumors of it appearing on the setlist during the very earliest days but there are no recordings of it that have leaked thus far. It would have been interesting to see what Queen would have done for a light show on this track!

- Very subtle and angelic vocals from Freddie with a nice touch to the Beatles' 'Lucy was high and so was I'.

ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:

DE LANE LEA DEMO


- NOT essential listening.

- Honestly very little is different - this is just the raw version before it was mixed for the album.

UNRELEASED (AND UNHEARD?):

ROY BAKER THOMAS VERSION

- Not on YT. I may have a copy - I have a music file that was labeled as such but it doesn't sound very different so I'm not certain what to believe.

PERSONAL NOTES:

- This track is always a forgotten treasure. I don't think about it often and usually only listen to it when listening to the first album but when I do hear it, I smile. It's a nice tune.

Next up:

Roger's first writing credit and lead vocal! Queen does punk about 5 years before punk became vogue...in Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll