Queen: The Complete Works (37 page)

Disc Ten, The David Wigg Interviews
: London 1979 (The Crazy Tour) (8’08), Munich 1984 (Part 1: The Works Tour) (11’24), Munich 1984 (Part 2: Going Solo) (7’35), London 1985 (Week of Live Aid) (6’42), London 1986 (The Magic Tour) (10’33), Ibiza 1987 (Part 1: Freddie’s 41st Birthday) (9’52), Ibiza 1987 (Part 2: Montserrat Caballé) (8’18), Ibiza 1987 (Part 3: The Great Pretender) (10’25)

Disc Eleven, The Video Collection (DVD)
: see Part Six

Disc Twelve, The Untold Story (DVD)
: see Part Six

Bonus disc (three-disc set only)
: ‘I Can Hear Music’ (3’30), ‘Love Kills’ (4’31), ‘The Great Pretender’ (3’28), ‘Living On My Own (1993 radio mix)’ (3’39), ‘In My Defence (2000 remix)’ (3’55), ‘Time (2000 remix)’ (4’02), ‘Love Kills (rock mix)’ (4’27)

What better way to commemorate Freddie Mercury than with this gargantuan box set collecting a generous portion of his recorded material – both released and previously unreleased – and concentrating mostly on his brief solo career? Aimed at the die-hard fans who have ample disposable income (initial prices averaged upwards of £150 in the UK, close to $200 in the US),
The Solo Collection
is not for the faint-hearted. With nearly ten hours of music and spoken word divided among ten discs, as well as a further three hours on two DVDs, there is enough material here to keep listeners busy for a long time.

Rumours of a box set started to formulate around 1996, when it was reported that John Deacon had remixed ‘There Must Be More To Life Than This’ for a planned box set; ultimately, this might have been wishful thinking, for that song never surfaced, nor did confirmation of John’s involvement. However, something was going on behind the scenes, and avid readers of
Record Collector
were given hints that that something would be spectacular. No one was ready, however, for
The Solo Collection
’s emergence in the autumn of 2000. Not only did it contain Freddie’s two solo albums (
Mr Bad Guy
and
Barcelona
), but also the remix album
The Great Pretender
, a disc of instrumentals, two full discs of singles and their variations, two discs of rarities from his two solo albums, a third disc of miscellaneous rarities, and an interview disc with David Wigg (evidently the only journalist Freddie ever trusted).

Lovingly compiled by Justin Shirley-Smith and assembled, researched and copiously annotated by Greg Brooks,
The Solo Collection
was intended to be the final, definitive release of Freddie’s solo career, with all the loose ends tied up. (It was this project that also sparked rumours, later confirmed, that a similar project was in store for Queen.) There’s little to complain about here: each disc is uncluttered, with accompanying notes about each album, previously unreleased song and ‘variation’ to serve as an example of how meticulous Freddie was. A lengthy essay and beautiful images by a handful of Freddie’s favourite photographers (including some early experimental sessions with Mick Rock), most accompanied by an explanation or anecdote by Brian May, make up the bulk of the extensive book, while the obligatory lyrics are also tucked neatly at the back.

It’s inevitable that, in a collection of such uncompromising size, a few tracks would be missed or not included. Major criticism over the lack of any of Freddie’s 1983 collaboration with Michael Jackson (which included ‘State Of Shock’, ‘Victory’ and ‘There Must Be More To Life Than This’) or his appearance at the
Time
musical in 1988 was aimed at the set, though the official reason is simple enough: the people who own those tracks were not willing to let them go. Additionally, why only ‘Rain’ from Wreckage’s 1969 Liverpool gig was included instead of the full set is curious; again, the official reason is more of a deflection than anything concrete, with the vague explanation being that the sound quality for the remainder of the live set was below average. (As explained in the song entry for ‘Rain’, having heard the full set I can confirm that the quality is no worse than what is presented here.) Several auxiliary songs were also omitted, including single versions of ‘Living On My Own’, ‘Mr Bad Guy’, ‘The Fallen Priest’ and ‘The Golden Boy’, along with various reissue and extended variations of certain tracks, but these exclusions (or oversights) hardly detract from the listening experience.

Simply said,
The Solo Collection
is worth the price; for those more fiscally restricted, the three-disc
Solo
set is more affordable, containing
Mr Bad Guy
,
Barcelona
and a bonus disc running under a half hour of various songs from the many rarities discs on the ten-disc collection. But the more expansive (and expensive) set is recommended, and is the only place to go for everything that Freddie Mercury was and shall remain.

FREDDIE MERCURY

LOVER OF LIFE, SINGER OF SONGS:

THE VERY BEST OF FREDDIE MERCURY

Parlophone 00946 367169 2 3 (single disc edition),

September 2006 [6]

Parlophone 00946 371824 2 0 (double disc edition),

September 2006 [6]

Hollywood Records D000007802, September 2006

Single disc edition
: ‘In My Defence’ (3’55), ‘The Great Pretender’ (3’28), ‘Living On My Own’ (1993 No More Brothers radio mix) (3’39), ‘Made In Heaven’ (4’06), ‘Love Kills’ (4’30), ‘There Must Be More To Life Than This’ (3’01), ‘Guide Me Home’ (2’50), ‘How Can I Go On’ (3’52), ‘Foolin’ Around’ (3’37), ‘Time’ (4’00), ‘Barcelona’ (5’40), ‘Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow’ (3’48), ‘I Was Born To Love You’ (3’40), ‘The Golden Boy’ (6’07), ‘Mr Bad Guy’ (4’12), ‘The Great Pretender’ (1992 Brian Malouf remix) (3’40), ‘Love Kills’ (Star Rider remix) (3’40), ‘I Can Hear Music’ (3’29), ‘Goin’ Back’ (3’35), ‘Guide Me Home’ (Thierry Lang piano version) (4’19)

Double disc edition, second disc
: ‘Love Kills’ (Sunshine People radio mix) (3’17), ‘Made In Heaven’ (extended version) (4’50), ‘Living On My Own’ (The Egg remix) (5’38), ‘Love Kills’ (Rank 1 remix) (7’19), ‘Mr Bad Guy’ (Bad Circulation version) (3’26), ‘I Was Born To Love You (George Demure Almost Vocal mix) (4’02), ‘My Love Is Dangerous’ (extended version) (6’29), ‘Love Makin’ Love’ (demo) (3’38), ‘Love Kills’ (Pixel82 remix) (6’14), ‘I Was Born To Love You’ (extended version) (7’06), ‘Foolin’ Around’ (early version) (4’16),
‘Living On My Own’ (No More Brothers extended mix) (5’16), ‘Love Kills’ (More Oder Rework by The Glimmers) (6’53), ‘Your Kind Of Lover’ (vocal & piano version) (3’38), ‘Let’s Turn It On’ (a cappella) (3’04)

With what would have been Freddie’s sixtieth birthday looming, and the music-buying industry’s appreciation of rounded numbers signifying important events, Freddie’s estate and Queen Productions put together the first-ever single-disc compilation album of Freddie’s untouched solo material. There had been
The Freddie Mercury Album
and
The Great Pretender
back in 1992, of course, but those discs were predominantly remixes, and weren’t a true assessment of Freddie’s output.
Solo
, the three-disc companion piece to
The Solo Collection
, was a step towards presenting his original visions, but that was designed as a catch-all for fans not willing – or able – to splurge on the more expansive box set.

Lover Of Life, Singer Of Songs
comes closest to maintaining Freddie’s original vision, mixing the best of his solo albums with the hit singles, and a few choice remixes thrown in for good measure. There’s the odd misstep – two versions of ‘The Great Pretender’ on the same disc is overkill, as well as the superfluous remixes of ‘Living On My Own’ and ‘Love Kills’ – and the closing ‘Guide Me Home’, as performed by Thierry Lang, is a questionable inclusion on a disc that should feature Freddie’s original songs, and not songs interpreted by others – no matter how good a performance it may be. But these are small, niggling complaints, and the disc is a superb cross-section of a solo career that Freddie only reluctantly agreed to, instead of bursting at the seams to assert his popularity outside of Queen.

The real problem comes on the double-disc editions, where a second disc of material is presented, with motives that are unclear. In a move similar to that right after Freddie died, the compilers packed the second disc full of remixes, all of them supremely uninteresting or insistently annoying, begging the question, why did anyone bother? Did the average – or even die-hard – Freddie fan really need four further remixes (in addition to the one on the first disc) of ‘Love Kills’, or two more ‘Living On My Own’ remixes – none of them, it must be said, the original extended remixes, but remixes of remixes? The selections from
The Solo Collection
– extended versions of ‘Made In Heaven’, ‘My Love Is Dangerous’ and ‘I Was Born To Love You’, the demo of ‘Love Makin’ Love’, and the alternate versions of ‘Foolin’ Around’, ‘Your Kind Of Lover’ and ‘Let’s Turn It On’ – are nice, if superfluous, and the “Bad Circulation” remix of ‘Mr. Bad Guy’ features some alternate, unfinalized lyrics, making for pleasant but inessential listening. But when faced with the option of packing the second disc full of something interesting, what fans are instead offered is another crass attempt to further the notion that Freddie’s dance-oriented excursions were his true passion, and that any of his songs from
Mr. Bad Guy
could be given anonymous club beats and be worthy of release on a related album.

That said, it didn’t matter much; the compilation was a success, reaching No. 6 upon its release, while its similarly-titled companion DVD soared to the top of the charts for two weeks.

C. QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS ALBUMS

RETURN OF THE CHAMPIONS

Parlophone 3 36979 2, September 2005 [21]

Hollywood 7 2061-62526-2, November 2005

‘Reaching Out’ (1’06), ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ (4’30), ‘I Want To Break Free’ (3’59), ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ (5’45), ‘Wishing Well’ (4’33), ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ (4’02), ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ (4’35), ‘Say It’s Not True’ (4’15), ‘’39’ (4’38), ‘Love Of My Life’ (5’11), ‘Hammer To Fall’ (6’45), ‘Feel Like Making Love’ (6’20), ‘Let There Be Drums’ (3’42), ‘I’m In Love With My Car’ (3’36), ‘Guitar Solo’ (6’59), ‘Last Horizon’ (4’42), ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ (4’38), ‘Radio Ga Ga’ (5’59), ‘Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love’ (4’22), ‘A Kind Of Magic’ (6’07), ‘I Want It All’ (5’09), ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (6’18), ‘The Show Must Go On’ (4’33), ‘All Right Now’ (6’54), ‘We Will Rock You’ (2’35), ‘We Are The Champions’ (4’30), ‘God Save The Queen’ (1’33)

Musicians
: Brian May (
guitars, vocals, acoustic guitar
), Roger
Taylor (
drums, vocals
), Paul Rodgers (
vocals, acoustic guitar on ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’
), Spike Edney (
piano, keyboards, vocals
), Danny Miranda (
bass guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar on ‘Say It’s Not True’
), Jamie Moses (
guitars, vocals, acoustic guitar on ‘Say It’s Not True’
)

Recorded
: 9 May 2005 at Hallam FM Arena, Sheffield Producer: Justin Shirley-Smith

Recorded on 9 May 2005 at Hallman FM Arena in Sheffield,
Return Of The Champions
is a largely complete show; ‘Under Pressure’ was played after ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ but Brian explained, “This is actually something that we probably won’t put on the DVD, so this is for you. This is like a bonus track!” The set draws heavily from Queen’s expansive past, as well as throwing in several of Paul Rodgers’ songs from Bad Company and Free, and the result is surprisingly listenable. While it doesn’t stand up to Queen’s heyday with
Live Killers
,
Live At Wembley Stadium
or
Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl
, this is a new band out to have a good time, and it shows.

However, the audio release doesn’t live up to its video equivalent, which is inevitable: Queen’s shows were always about the theatrics, and this is no exception. Listening to the music does little justice to actually seeing the band, but for what it is,
Return Of The Champions
is a good celebration of Queen’s past. Clearly, Roger is enjoying himself the most, and the few times he addresses the audience are great. Brian, meanwhile, was more reserved, allowing his excitement to come out in his charismatic playing, while Paul proved himself an adept frontman and unique interpreter of Queen’s songs, though he obviously felt more at ease on his own songs.

The loss of John Deacon on bass was a heavy blow and, while Danny Miranda was a suitable substitute, it’s not quite the same. One has to wonder, too, why Jamie Moses was brought on board; Brian had never needed a rhythm guitarist on previous Queen tours, and Jamie doesn’t offer much in the way of expanding the sound. This may have something to do with the mix, though Brian did explain that Jamie was simply meant to provide rhythm while Brian tried some new things on lead.

The Independent
called it “a knock-out CD”, while
The Denver Post
said that “Purists can argue whether this is a revival of an iconic band’s songs or a bastardization thereof, but the music is at least faithful to the spirit of Queen’s 1970s glam-rock bravado, and in that it’s a success.”
Classic Rock Revisited
was perhaps more justifiably critical, but gave particular praise to Paul’s vocals on ‘I Want It All’ and ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and the performances of Paul’s own songs: “In fact, the crowd seems more surprised at the power of the Queen + Paul Rodgers combo on these tracks than they do on any of the Queen material.”
The Sun
was impressed: “Whatever you make of Paul Rodgers stepping in to Freddie Mercury’s shoes to front Queen on tour, you have to admit he’s pretty good at it. And since Queen are still as popular as ever, despite the fact that frontman Freddie died nearly fourteen years ago, there’s still a huge market for shows like this ... The songs still sound just as fresh, the audience is just as captivated – and Brian May’s hair hasn’t changed.”

Name disputes aside, Queen + Paul Rodgers’ first proper album is a fine introduction to the joie de vivre their live shows exhibited on the 2005 tour. Having temporarily silenced the critics, the only question that remained was: how would they do as a studio band?