Freddie over-singing live in the 80s?

Freddie's voice peaked in 80s. Mack recorded the best way his vocals. The disappointment is that in the 80s they wrote clever songs and lot of fillers.... So Freddie's voice was not used the best way.

In the mid 80s 84-86 Freddie tried to sing less soft, sweet in his tone instead of more powerful and stronger way of singing.

During 1988 his vocals become again soft and sweet, songs like Heaven for everyone or Face it alone. The same did for the Miracle album but the mix is bad. The Miracle needs to be remixed along with Jazz and Live Killers.

In the 80's they had seriously hard rocking songs like the ones I listed, and also live, the focus was shifting from piano to guitar and a hard rock voice

There is no way you're going to sell me that the '80s was when Queen got to rockin'. Sorry. Not gonna happen.

Every heavy Queen '70s tune downright creams over the ones you listed with one or two exceptions.

Queen became pop at most in the '80s.

In the 80's they had seriously hard rocking songs like the ones I listed, and also live, the focus was shifting from piano to guitar and a hard rock voice

There is no way you're going to sell me that the '80s was when Queen got to rockin'. Sorry. Not gonna happen.

Every heavy Queen '70s tune downright creams over the ones you listed with one or two exceptions.

Queen became pop at most in the '80s.

80's Queen had many pop songs. On the albums.

Live, their performance can hardly be described as "pop" or even "pop rock".

Tracks like "i want to break free", which is a standard pop song on the album, is dramatically rocked up live.

Freddie went all out hard rock with his voice in the '80s. it is well documented that freddie left the piano behind to focus on the performance. it all made for a snappier, harder experience.

I'm sorry, but I don't feel it when people say Queen live in the 80s was pop rock. They easily outplayed led zeppelin at their best. no one shouts harder than freddie. plant is a school girl in comparison

Freddie went all out hard rock with his voice in the '80s. it is well documented that freddie left the piano behind to focus on the performance. it all made for a snappier, harder experience.

I'm sorry, but I don't feel it when people say Queen live in the 80s was pop rock.

Freddie's voice got rougher with smoking - and he was barking a bit more. That's about it. It sure didn't correlate to a heavier musical direction. He sure didn't use that voice on the bubblegum Mr. Bad Guy.

Freddie leaving the piano behind to showboat around doesn't make it more rock and roll. It also didn't help that they started using synthesizers in the place of the piano, so.

"I'm sorry, but I don't feel it when people say Queen live in the 80s was pop rock."

I agree! There was hardly any rock in there.

"They easily outplayed led zeppelin at their best. no one shouts harder than freddie. plant is a school girl in comparison"

Man, you've got some odd opinions.

People don't like Freddie for his shouting, by the way.

I just heard the Sheer Heart Attack album and quite a few of those songs I much prefer the live versions of from that live era. I think Q2 and SHA are both albums that have amazing studio performances but sometimes have better live ones (Rainbow, Odeon) that sound richer, more lively, and with even better sound quality - that's a contrast, especially to their 80s performances where things were much tighter and potent in the studio.

I think I would possibly like some live versions more of both decades if some of those shows were released in top-tier quality like those Rainbow and Odeon ones. It's a treat to watch decent quality live shows but if the sound is long full and clear then I can't ever enjoy it the way I could the studio cut, nor call it a definitive version for me. That's why I can't hear those muffled bootlegs or watch many of those blurry live shows, how can you enjoy it and prefer something you can barely make out?

I’d love to hear a One Vision 1985 studio Freddie tackle Stone Cold Crazy.

I’d love to hear a One Vision 1985 studio Freddie tackle Stone Cold Crazy.

I think his 74 versions were perfectly done as is. SCC sounded great in the studio and live (being short helps).

Just went back and listened to some live '70s stuff versus live '80s stuff.

It's almost like he stopped "singing" as much and started mostly to shout the songs. There's little timbre or nuance in his live singing in the '80s.

He went for power over feel, it seems.

I've never been entirely fond of Freddie's performances from 1984-1986. I can only go by the few good quality concerts I've seen on Youtube (and official releases), but he started to "shout" sing, particularly during I Want to Break Free and in parts of Hammer to Fall. Obviously, his smoking had an effect on his voice, but he made excuses for it...he said he wanted to have a more rough voice. Can't remember the source, but I know I heard him say it. There were exceptions, of course. Live Aid springs to mind, but that was a short 20 minute or so performance. I just don't think he had the same stamina.

by action » Wed Jun 13, 2018 6:52 pm
studio, I completely discard the 70s work. To me, that's a footnote. The real feddie can be heard from the game onwards.

I'm sorry. I just can't take this comment seriously.

If you've listened to a wide variety of Queen live recordings and bootlegs as I have done....then you'd know, while Freddie was probably better in some tours than others, he had his moments in each tour. I don't know, maybe he had good days and bad days, maybe he felt better for some reason or another....I'm honestly not sure what his best concert tour was vocally. He kinda went back and forth, I think. Like for one instance, there's a few concerts from 84-85 where Freddie was just signing great.


Hmm....it's almost like his live vocal performances were, uh, I dunno.....mercurial?

by action » Wed Jun 13, 2018 6:52 pm
studio, I completely discard the 70s work. To me, that's a footnote. The real feddie can be heard from the game onwards.

I'm sorry. I just can't take this comment seriously.

Following on from this, I was thinking about how I see them.
With their studio work, I'm the polar opposite of action here.. I think their absolute best work was up to and including The Game, and from there on it was pretty much a move to global stardom, more pop oriented songs and overall, much more mediocre albums (still some great songs amongst it of course). Much less creative genius. If you want to look at their career in terms of two decades (1971 - 1991), then in my view, the first decade is about twice or even three times better than the second one.

When it comes to live, the years I would most have liked to see them would be between 74 and 79. The Rainbow 74 shows or Houston 77 etc. I did get to see them in 85 (4 times) and while they were still awesome, I think their best live stuff was behind them by that point. But as someone else pointed out, there is a lot of diversity in their gigs and there were of course not so good gigs in the seventies and some really great ones in the 80s (some of the 82 gigs I really like).

But I find it unfathomable that any serious Queen fan would think the second half of their career was better than the first.. That just does not compute for me. Unless of course, the joke is on me, and action was just taking the piss...

In the 80's they had seriously hard rocking songs like the ones I listed, and also live, the focus was shifting from piano to guitar and a hard rock voice

There is no way you're going to sell me that the '80s was when Queen got to rockin'. Sorry. Not gonna happen.

Every heavy Queen '70s tune downright creams over the ones you listed with one or two exceptions.

Queen became pop at most in the '80s.

80's Queen had many pop songs. On the albums.

Live, their performance can hardly be described as "pop" or even "pop rock".

Tracks like "i want to break free", which is a standard pop song on the album, is dramatically rocked up live.

Freddie went all out hard rock with his voice in the '80s. it is well documented that freddie left the piano behind to focus on the performance. it all made for a snappier, harder experience.

I'm sorry, but I don't feel it when people say Queen live in the 80s was pop rock. They easily outplayed led zeppelin at their best. no one shouts harder than freddie. plant is a school girl in comparison

He didn't leave the piano behind. During the Magic tour he played on 7 Seas Of Rhye, Lap Of The Gods, Bo Rhap and Champions. The set was planned around the fact they were playing mostly open air shows so it was felt the quieter p, more intricate piano led songs wouldn't work. But he certainly didn't stop playing.

Your Led Zeppelin/ Robert Plant comments don't warrant a reply