Queen Discussion Thread

Who Needs You

Sounds like a "Spanish" guitar or what Santana would play :D.
I LOVE the sound. Who's playing it... JD or BM? Also love FM's vocals.

It's Late

Written by: Brian May

Musicians:

Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals




- A real archetype Queen song - or at least Brian May track. It is epic, large, bombastic, full of vocal harmonies and soaring guitar. Brian viewed it as a sort of mini-musical with the verses being called Acts in the lyric sheet.

- It was released as a US only single but it ended up peaking at #74

- Freddie gets a pretty high squeal at the end of this track during the real upbeat ending.

- Some great work from Roger during this track as well.

- Only played live through 1979. It is a very difficult track to pull off live.

QUOTES:

- "Yes, that was actually hammering on the fingerboard with both hands. I stole it from a guy who said that he stole it from Billy Gibbons in ZZ Top. He was playing in some club in Texas, doing hammering stuff. I was so intrigued by it, I went home and played around with it for ages and put it on 'It's Late'. It was a sort of a double hammer. I was fretting with my left hand, hammering with another finger of the left hand, and then hammering with the right hand, as well. It was a problem to do onstage; I found it was a bit too stiff. It's okay if you're sitting down with the guitar. If I persevered with it, it would probably become second nature, but it wasn't an alleyway which led very far, to my way of thinking. It's a bit gimmicky." - Brian May - Off The Record - 1982

- "It's another one of those story-of-your life songs. I think it's about all sorts of experiences that I had, and experiences that I thought other people had, but I guess it was very personal, and it's written in three parts, it's like the first part of the story is at home, the guy is with his woman. The second part is in a room somewhere, the guy is with some other woman, that he loves, and can't help loving, and the last part is he's back with his woman." - Brian May - In The Studio - 1989

ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:

BBC SESSION 6 VERSION

- ESSENTIAL listening.
- A decent version vocally and instrumentally. The middle is quite different as it incorporates portions of Get Down, Make Love

US SINGLE EDIT

- And perhaps this is the reason why it didn't do well. The edit takes out half the song and to me ruins the essence of the epic quality of the song.

1991 HOLLYWOOD REMASTERING ERROR
- Not on YT and not worth an upload - when Hollywood Records remastered the catalogue, initial pressings had the track starts 2 seconds into the first chord.

QUEEN ROCKS VIDEO VERSION

- NOT essential, but not a horrible edit...Although it ends up being a similar length to the single edit, this one doesn't come off so chopped. Still prefer the original though.
- Even though it was a single, the song did not have a video. When it was put on the Queen Rocks compilation which spawned a video collection this video version was created.


UNRELEASED LIVE VERSION:

LIVE IN STOCKHOLM - 1978

- AUDIO only. A tough song live, the band pull it off well here!

PERSONAL NOTES:
- I love this song. From the get go this was one of my favorites. Emotional, powerful, and flat out rocking at times.
- I believe it showcases Brian's emotional turmoil at the time. Having married his pre-band sweetheart, they were definitely having issues already and the temptations on the road were always lurking. But Brian, unlike many rock stars felt turmoil about it all so he tried to focus it in his music.

Next up? The final track of the album as Freddie closes it out with a little jazzy piano in My Melancholy Blues

Done
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It's Late

Love the overall composition of this song. Never heard BM tapping before and that was pretty good. The way he describe playing it seemed to be complicated so it is probably hard to play it live unless you are sitting down as he said. He seemed to always search/discover things he can do to enhance his guitar sound. I love FM's soaring vocals.

Talon, thanks for your support of Adam's Trespassing EP

BTW, do you have flac files from QAL-EMA event? All my audio and videos are converted from YT versions.