How did they do it? Well, it is an album that required more production than your average bear. Hey hey Boo Boo! Following the completion and release of the “Innuendo” album in February 1991, it was apparent that Freddie’s health was failing, and that he was on very borrowed time. During those sessions the band was prepared to record whenever Mercury felt well enough to do so. Mercury was insistent that this should continue after the album was released. Freddie would come to the studio when he felt well enough to sing and would lay down whatever he could. All three other members of the band, in many interviews since, have spoken of Freddie’s almost frantic desire to have contributions – write anything, write whatever you can, and I will record it. Two main quotes on this time of his life come from Brian May and producer David Richards, both from the documentary “Champions of the World”. May said: “By the time we were recording these other tracks after Innuendo, we had had the discussions and we knew that we were totally on borrowed time because Freddie had been told that he would not make it to that point. I think our plan was to go in there whenever Freddie felt well enough, just to make as much use of him as possible, we basically lived in the studio for a while and when he would call and say, 'I can come in for a few hours', our plan was to just make as much use of him as we could, you know he told us, 'Get me to sing anything, write me anything and I will sing it and I will leave you as much as I possibly can.'”. Richards backed this up, saying: “The thing that was really unusual about these last songs they recorded was that Freddie insisted on doing final vocals. Normally he had always wanted to wait until all the music was completed before he would put his final vocal on. There must have been a reason for this, I think he felt there wasn't enough time to have it completed in time. Which also means that he definitely wanted these things to be released, there's simply no other reason why he would have done that”.
Once Freddie had passed, there was simply not enough material to warrant a full album, despite his absolute best efforts to provide it. And that is where the production side came into play. The band went back and utilised tracks that Freddie had sung on in the past, song that were not Queen songs as such, and took his vocals and rebuilt the songs around him, creating what would become known as “Queenified” versions of those songs, and added them to the album. They also used other tricks to create songs out of almost nothing. This processed had been begun by Roger and John while Brian was out touring on his solo album “Back to the Light”, but once he returned they began the task in earnest. The result of theirs and David Richards endeavours came together to form the final album of the band’s storied career, the aptly titled and emotionally wrought offering of “Made in Heaven”.
Once it reached the point that Freddie could contribute no more, and his passing had been completed, only three of the songs that appear on this album were close to fully realised in this time, those being Mercury's "A Winter's Tale", Mercury and May's "Mother Love" and what would become "You Don't Fool Me". Depending on how invested you are in the band and how you felt about the time this was released, the depth of emotion that you find in these three songs will coincide to that emotional investment. “A Winter’s Tale” was Freddie’s final composition, written in the home he had in Montreux, a ballad on which he also played keyboards. According to reports, this was recorded in one live take in the studio, something Freddie was not wont to do, but as he acknowledged that his time was short and he feared he may not get the chance to do the vocal if he waited, it was performed in this way, although Brian’s guitar solo was added later. “You Don’t Fool Me” is a remarkable piece of song composition, in this instance by producer David Richards. Brian May related the story on his website regarding the song, in that Richards built the song from scratch, taking bits of lyrics including harmonies recorded for “A Winter’s Tale”, editing and mixing it and then playing it to the other three members. They then added their instruments and voila! A song had been born! Amazing, and it sounds wonderful, much like something that could have appeared on Freddie’s solo album “Mr Bad Guy”. The final of these three Is "Mother Love”, the final song that Freddie ever sang in the studio. And Brian’s words describe the scenario best: "And Freddie at that time said 'Write me stuff... I know I don't have very long; keep writing me words, keep giving me things I will sing, then you can do what you like with it afterwards, you know; finish it off' and so I was writing on scraps of paper these lines of 'Mother Love', and every time I gave him another line he'd sing it, sing it again, and sing it again, so we had three takes for every line, and that was it... and we got the last verse and he said 'I'm not up to this, and I need to go away and have a rest, I'll come back and finish it off...' and he never came back". In the end, Brian sings the final verse of the song. And it gets you – gets me – every time I listen to that song. That Freddie was so committed to creating everything he could, and yet at the end he just couldn’t quite get to that final verse. Heartbreaking. And beautiful, all in the same moment.
Beyond these three songs, it was necessary to bring in tracks that had been recorded in a previous life, and bring some up-to-date Queenifying to the tracks. The opening track, “It’s a Beautiful Day” and therefore the more-or-less final track on the album “It’s a Beautiful Day (Reprise)” are based around a sound bit from back in 1980, one of Freddie playing piano and singing a vocal line. From that, the piece is built into far more, with John Deacon incorporating the pieces around Mercury’s part in the original, and the repise adding a more hard rock feel to the end of the piece. Both “Made in Heaven” and “I Was Born to Love You” were originally recorded by Freddie on his “Mr Bad Guy” solo album. For this album, the trio of Taylor, Deacon and May recorded their own version of the music, and placed Mercury’s original vocals over the top. It gave both tracks a different sound and feel to Freddie’s original keys and synth based versions, especially so of “I Was Born to Love Love” which has those hard rock qualities that May and Taylor in particular brought to their songs. “Let Me Live” was originally recorded with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck during sessions for “The Works” though was never used. On this version the lead vocal is shared between Freddie, Brian and Roger, and acts as a balance on the album to incorporate all three main vocalists on the same song. “My Life Has Been Saved” is a song that was originally conceived by John Deacon, and was recorded as the B side to the single release of “Scandal” from “The Miracle” album. While this version with re-recorded music differs from the original version it again utilises Freddie’s recorded vocals from that session. “Heaven for Everyone” is written by Roger, and was eventually recorded and released with his side project The Cross on their album “Shove It”. Two versions of the song exist, one with Roger providing lead vocal, and the other with Freddie doing so. That vocals versiosn was taken and utilised for this updated version rerecorded by Queen for this album. And the last remaining track is “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, written by Brian may along with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers. This song was recorded to be on “The Miracle”, sitting between “I Want it All” and “The Invisible Man” on the track list. However, due to recording contract disputes between the three writers the band was unable to use it, which probably for the album was a good thing. Brian eventually rerecorded it for his solo album “Back to the Light”, and it went top ten in the UK charts when released as a single. The version that appears here is the only song on the album not to receive an upgrade, it appears as it was originally recorded in 1989 when it was going to make its appearance on “the Miracle”.
On all of these songs, the band and producer David Richards have done a magnificent job. They sound terrific, and in throwing in bits and pieces from the past into the mix, it brings the album together as a fitting tribute to the spirit of Freddie Mercury.
Still, given that there were essentially very few songs that had been completed by the time of Freddie's death, was this a necessary release? What the band has done in re-invigorating some other tracks with Freddie's vocals by recording updated music to them, or pasting and cutting vocals and grafting them to music, was any of this a necessary device, if only to have these final recordings of Freddie released as a full album? Could it have been done in a different fashion? Whatever the case, Freddie went through a lot in order to do these final recordings, and he obviously wanted them to find their way into our hands, so we can't be too hard on the effort that was made to do so.
It's a difficult task to not only explain how I feel about this album now, but also about how I felt about it when it was released. Posthumously released albums are not unusual or new. Posthumously RECORDED ones, well that's a different story. Given all of what went into releasing this album, and the significance behind it, I still have mixed feelings over this final album release of Queen's stellar career. I won't lie to you. When it was announced that this album was being released, containing material recorded before the final demise of lead singer Freddie Mercury, I was excited. What kind of stuff would it contain? What style of music would there be? How much did Freddie contribute to it? There is little doubt that I expected too much. Having loved almost everything of the previous four albums as I grew up in the 1980's, I guess I was expecting it to be a lot like them. That was never likely to be the case, but hopes ran high.
I bought this on the day it was released, and returned to the home I was sharing with two of my best mates at the time, and we all listened to it that night, the stereo booming out into the lounge room with the lights out, me lying on the floor in contemplation. Then we listened to it again. From the next day though... well... it probably didn't get quite the reception that I had envisaged. It wasn't until I actually had the album in my hands that I was aware of the way that it had been... constructed. That it had been more a form of taking a small piece of what Freddie had managed to leave them, and then creating this story around it. It was a little like those great unfinished novels by Chaucer, Austin, Dickins and others, where the story has begun but they died before its completion, and it has been left to others to create an ending that they feel works for the literature. Freddie offers us some glimpses of lyrics and vocals but sadly was never going to be able to complete them. And – let's face it, May, Taylor and Deacon, along with Richards, have done an incredible job of what they achieved in bringing all of this together. The updated version of the songs here that were brought in the help make this what it is are stunning, and give us that vision and version of the songs as they would be imagined by Queen as the four members rather than Freddie on his own or with another of the members alone.
My opinion has changed over the years in regards to this album. From my initial excitement, I began to feel that this would have been better left alone, and let the magnificent “Innuendo” be the final crowning moment of the band and its wonderful lead vocalist. In recent times though, I have come to appreciate this release much more, and enjoy it more and more as I listen to it. I love knowing the ins and outs of how this was recorded, and hearing the different versions of those songs that had been recorded before. More than anything else, I love hearing the band together, and Freddie's voice resonating from the speakers with the love and joy he had for his music.
Over the past week, reliving this album again, I continue to feel the same way. I accept this album as it was meant to be, a final gift from Freddie to his fans, and to his bandmates, to allow them to work with him one last time. And on those counts, it does provide a closure for the band Queen. I don’t believe this will ever be considered a classic album. It can't, and the circumstances around its recording is the major reason behind that. But if you take the album for what it was meant to be, and concentrate on the brilliance of all four members of the band at work, then like me you will be able to draw enough out of this album to still raise a smile. It has again for me this week, and I am guessing always will.
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