gabby
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Post by gabby on Aug 23, 2012 20:29:26 GMT -5
Tenement FunsterThe opening chords of the single version (especially) reminded me of The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals intro ;D Love RT's voice and as I said before he is a very passionate singer and as a drummer. ETA: Do you know what RT's vocal range is? He seems to go low and high in this song. From my hearing the lowest is at this line: I got a way with the girls on my block Thanks for the heads up, Talon :D Appreciate it. I'm glad you included the single versions so it doesn't sound jarring when it ends as it did in the album version.
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talon
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Post by talon on Aug 24, 2012 6:59:28 GMT -5
Tenement FunsterThe opening chords of the single version (especially) reminded me of The House of the Rising Sun by The Animals intro ;D Love RT's voice and as I said before he is a very passionate singer and as a drummer. I agree with that! I believe it was probably a little bit of a nod to that track. I've never been very good at looking at the numbers for ranges but I have done some work. I did this awhile ago and can't remember which tracks I used as pinpoints...but I remember it was something like a four octave range...E2-E5ish? VERY impressive considering he wasn't the lead singer  Then in his falsetto he'd go higher than an A5 at some points to the point where people thought it was either a female vocalist or a synthesized effect! No problem! It doesn't happen TOO often after this...off the top of my head anyways :D |
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talon
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Post by talon on Aug 24, 2012 9:17:44 GMT -5
Flick Of The Wrist
Written by: Freddie Mercury
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
Brian May - guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, backing vocals
- The first (and less famous) song Freddie wrote about their increasing disillusionment with their management company. Surprising enough to me is that the management took more offense at the second one (Death On Two Legs) as this one seems far more specific!
- As a double A-Side with Killer Queen it had all the same successes as that track technically, which means it has to be one of the least known international hits of all time!
- It was performed on tour through 1976 and then dropped from the set never to appear again.
ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:
SINGLE VERSION
- NOT essential listening
- This version starts with a slightly shortened piano opening. Track ends with the "baby you've been had" lyrics and a drawn out guitar chord.
US SINGLE VERSION
- NOT essential listening.
- This version starts similarly to the other versions, just with no piano intro. The end fades into the intro of Lily of the Valley. Probably the worst of the edits.
DUTCH SINGLE EDIT VERSION
- NOT essential listening...but nice.
- A true stand-alone version that has the complete piano opening. The track ends with the "baby you've been had" lyrics and a drawn out guitar chord.
UK CD SINGLE VERSION - 1988
- NOT essential listening
- This mix starts from the last chord of Tenement Funster. The end of the track fades with the "all this time honey..." lyrics.
BBC SESSION 5 VERSION
- NOT essential listening.
- The band uses the album backing track but Freddie records a new vocal and Brian adds some guitar but it is nothing special.
OFFICIAL LIVE VERSION:
LIVE AT THE RAINBOW 1974
- Early sinister version of the track. Tight performance
UNRELEASED LIVE VERSIONS:
LIVE IN BOSTON - 1976
- Audio only but a great representation of the live versions.
- In concert due to the segue the band used to play the end of Brighton Rock to finish the song off since they did the whole Brighton Rock -> Guitar Solo -> Son And Daughter medley.
LIVE AT HYDE PARK - 1976
- Not as great a live version but this one is in video at least!
PERSONAL NOTES:
- This is a song that grew on me. It wasn't a track I clamored to listen to but I did respect. Love the haunting verse vocals by Freddie and there is some great backing vocals and guitar work.
Next up is the cousin to Nevermore in that it is a short but absolutely beautiful song, Lily Of The Valley - one of my favs.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Aug 24, 2012 16:26:36 GMT -5
Flick Of The Wrist
Maybe (in the beginning) Trident was not aware that the unpleasant character that FM wrote in this song is about them. Eventually ;D it dawned on them that Freddie wrote this song about them - singing about the band's increasing disillusionment towards them and probably thought that was it ... it will pass :D
So Freddie wrote another song directed at them, put it on album 3 and Trident approved the release? Or they can't really do anything about it since they are management but not the publisher? Not sure about how much control the management has over artist/group when it comes to the product the artist(s) put out.
I'm just glad Queen found/met Jim Beach.
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talon
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Post by talon on Aug 24, 2012 17:02:10 GMT -5
Well it wasn't the record company, but the management who really didn't have approval rights. As I understand it, they organized the bands finances and their original distribution deal with EMI. The band wrote the music and would deliver it to the record company to distribute.
It is possible they didn't care what Freddie wrote since he was still theirs and they were collecting the $$. But then when the band started to sever ties suddenly they got up in arms!
But yeah, Death On Two Legs, the lead off track of the next album is also about The Sheffield Brothers.
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gabby
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Action with Vision is making a positive difference.? Joel Barker
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Post by gabby on Aug 24, 2012 17:21:43 GMT -5
Does Trident still exist? Unless they were bought out and changed the name? Doesn't seem to have a good rep but maybe at that time they were at least able to find a record company to publish the Queen's work when nobody else would take a chance? Just speculating.
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talon
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Post by talon on Aug 24, 2012 18:31:41 GMT -5
Trident actually at first was a recording studio...not a management. Queen was one of the if not the first band they wanted to manage. They did end up producing a few of the albums but they were distributed by EMI.
A lot of bands recorded at Trident...
It does kind of still exist today but it's more back to a recording studio under different management. But I don't know of any big acts who have recorded there recently...
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gabby
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Action with Vision is making a positive difference.? Joel Barker
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Post by gabby on Aug 24, 2012 20:41:39 GMT -5
Forgot to ask when you first introduced this album.
Why was it titled "Sheer Heart Attack" ?
Do you have any info re: album sales figure?
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talon
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Post by talon on Aug 25, 2012 3:37:02 GMT -5
Forgot to ask when you first introduced this album. Why was it titled " Sheer Heart Attack" ? Do you have any info re: album sales figure? Forgot to put the sales in the initial posts. It was hard to locate concrete sales for this one but I would place it somewhere in the area of $4.5-5 million. It was awarded platinum status in the UK, Poland, and golf in the US. Of course what does that mean? In Poland, platinum status = 20,000 - 40,000. In the UK platinum status = 300,000 copies. In the US gold status = 500,000, So right there that's upwards of about 1 million. Less concrete, I also found : Canada - 200,000 France - 150,000 Germany - 200,000 Italy - 150,000 Japan - 250,000 Netherlands - 100,000 Spain - 60,000 , so another 1 million there. I will try to include that in future posts as well! As for the title...I'm not absolutely certain. I know they didn't want to go with Queen III as Roger hadn't even wanted Queen II. Roger was writing a song called Sheer Heart Attack because he just liked the sound of the words together. It was a punky, loud, cardiac inducing sound :D Of course they decided not to use the track until 3 albums later! |
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Post by talon on Aug 25, 2012 5:07:57 GMT -5
Today we have one of my favs (I know I say that a lot  ): Lily Of The ValleyWritten by: Freddie Mercury Musicians: Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano Brian May - guitars John Deacon - bass guitar Roger Taylor - drums - The last of Freddie's mythological world of Rhye! It seems he cloaked a real life song of needing to escape in a fantasy world, but the passion in it is just amazing. - This song has never been performed live...at least not by any Queen incarnation or member. QUOTES: - "Freddie’s stuff was so heavily cloaked, lyrically. But you could find out, just from little insights, that a lot of the more meaningful stuff was not very accessible. Lily Of The Valley was utterly heartfelt. It’s about looking at his girlfriend and realizing that his body needed to be somewhere else. It’s a great piece of art, but it’s the last song that would ever be a hit.” – Brian May – Mojo - 1999 ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS: SINGLE VERSION- NOT essential listening - Edit starts by fading in from Flick Of The Wrist. US SINGLE VERSION- NOT essential listening but nice. - Complete standalone created when it was put on the B-Side of the Keep Yourself Alive re-release in 1975. DIGITAL MASTER SAMPLER EDIT- NOT essential listening. - From the previously mentioned Digital Master Sampler from 1994. This edit fades in with the 'baby you've been had' from Flick Of The Wrist and also with the ending rumble of In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited. Kind of a strange edit. PERSONAL NOTES: - A beautiful track with some great vocals and passion from Mr. Mercury. I know it's short but it should have been put into a medley somewhere...In fact I'd like to see a Queen short song medley with Nevermore, this song, and Dear Friends amongst others! NEXT I will post a YT video of the previous medley and then tomorrow's track will be a bit of a long post.. Now I'm Here is one of Queen's greatest hits and they performed it live quite a bit! |
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Then in his falsetto he'd go higher than an A5 at some points to the point where people thought it was either a female vocalist or a synthesized effect!
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