Artist: Queen
Tags: DSD / Albums / Rock
Album: Made in Heaven
Genres: Pop Rock
Bitrate: 1/5.64 MHz
Codec: DSD128 (tracks)
Duration: 46:44
Size: 3.69 GB
01 — It’s A Beautiful Day (2:33)
02 — Made In Heaven (5:24)
03 — Let Me Live (4:46)
04 — Mother Love (4:50)
05 — My Life Has Been Saved (3:15)
06 — I Was Born To Love You (4:53)
07 — Heaven For Everyone (5:34)
08 — Too Much Love Will Kill You (4:21)
09 — You Don’t Fool Me (5:25)
10 — Winter’s Tale (3:50)
11 — It’s A Beautiful Day (Reprise) (3:05)
12 — 13 (22:35)
Dynamic range: 12,10,10,10,11,9,11,10,11,10,12,15
Digitized source: by the author of the distribution
Vinyl State Class Code: Mint
Playback device: Technics SL-Q2
Pickup Head: AT-440 MLB
Preamplifier: Creek OVN-8SE
ADC: Creative EMU 0404 USB
Digitizer: Audacity
Processing: Enhanced manual removal of loud clicks
So, after the death of Freddie Mercury, releases of new books about Queen, various video and audio materials, collections and remixes rained down. All of this sold out very well, and just imagine that at this time in the Swiss studio Montreux lay and waited for their time recordings made just before Freddie’s death.
Roger and John tried to start work on material in ’92 while Brian was on his solo tour. However, at the end of 1993, when all three were in the studio, Brian decided that the work of John and Roger was worthless! We decided to start from the beginning. Having invited the producer David Richards, the musicians began to painstakingly unusual work for themselves.
Composition «It’s A Beautiful Day» from the last studio album of the group.
Let’s see what our musicians had at their disposal.
First of all, there were the last materials Freddie recorded. One of such compositions is «Mother Love», the last verse of which was sung by Brian, since Freddie was no longer able to sing. This is his last recorded song.
There is pain in my body, but I do not sleep
My dreams are all that surrounds me
Feels like the sun is setting
I am returning home to my beloved mother …
Then time turns back, and we hear excerpts from «Live at Wembley» of 86 and a piece of «Going Back», and then a child’s cry …
Another track recorded in those last sessions was “You Don’t Fool Me”. It was literally collected piece by piece. As the musicians recall, the song appeared almost out of nothing. Let’s hear what came of it.
The last song written entirely by Freddie, i.e. and lyrics and music, there was a magical «A Winter’s Tale» («Winter’s Tale»). He painted it in his apartment in Montreux, Switzerland. The song is imbued with the fabulous spirit of Christmas, the spirit of school winter holidays, when everyone, young and old, pour out into the street, play snowballs, ride sleds, have fun in one word. You listen and imagine this whole wonderful peaceful picture. Standing on the verge of death, Freddie looks at the world through the eyes of a child, a naive, in love, open child. How it was necessary to love this life …
From the «last» recordings — this is all that our musicians had. Then I had to sort through the old unreleased and published records, where Freddie’s vocals were preserved.
Let’s go in order:
“It’s a Beatiful Day” — the vocals were taken from the recordings of a kind of Freddie’s improvisation at the Munich studio “MusicLand” in the 80th year.
«Made In Heaven» and «I Was Born To Love You» are tracks from Freddie’s solo album «Mr. Bad Guy «. From there, Freddie’s vocals were taken and set to new music that differed from the old Queen’s signature sound.
«Let Me Live» — there is some information that this song originated during the Queen and Rod Stewart jam in ’83. From there, Freddie’s vocals were taken.
«My Life Has Been Saved» is a track composed by John. It came out on the back of the single «Scandal». Freddie’s vocals were taken from there, and the music was reworked accordingly.
“Heaven For Everyone” — we have already listened to this track performed by the band The Cross.
“Too Much Love Will Kill You” — we already talked about her today. Actually, this song could have been released on the album «The Miracle», it was recorded with Freddie on vocals back in ’88, but somehow they did not understand the copyright.
So. 10 tracks were ready. This could have stopped, but Brian, Roger and John went further, making a kind of conclusion. It consists of 3 compositions. First comes “It’s a Beautiful Day (Reprise)”, which starts like the first composition of the album, then turns into a rock ending, ending with a 4 second track “Yeah”.
The last track of the album, the so-called «Untitled» or «Track 13», is probably the group’s most mysterious composition. It lasts 22 and a half minutes and at first glance represents an unusual experiment with a synthesizer with the addition of echo effects. The main question connected with this song — why put on the album such a long, and, as critics responded, boring composition? There are several opinions on this matter, similar in one thing — the musicians dedicated this composition to Freddie. There is an opinion that the length of the track (22.5 minutes) roughly corresponds to the time of Queen’s existence until the moment of recording (22-23 years). There are several highlights in the song:
The music in the first half of the track does not bode well — it is painted in white tones. What parallels can be drawn with the group and Freddie — everything is wonderful, they have become successful, they do what they love, they succeed, life is wonderful.
Starting from the 12th minute, the ominous notes begin to sound more and more distinctly, they grow, pile up, absorb us. And now you feel like you’re in a horror movie, waiting for a scary moment. It comes unexpectedly at 13.5 minutes. Perhaps this moment symbolizes Freddie’s infection with the AIDS virus. Again, this is just guesswork …
The music remains dark until the 16th minute, when good notes begin to penetrate into it again. Now good and evil are here together. Perhaps it symbolizes humility and acceptance of the rules of the game, symbolizes harmony and enlightenment, seasoned with extraordinary sorrow and longing.
The climax comes at the 19th minute. This undoubtedly symbolizes Freddie’s death.
The music brightens, the rain has begun, thunder rolls, it passes — the music becomes louder, more solemn. Sounds reminiscent of a spaceship flying away and everything fades away. Freddie says the final word “Fab” (which can be translated as “amazing”) and that’s it … Freddie’s soul left the Earth …
Album «Made In Heaven» was released in November 95th. Of course, he immediately hit the first places in the charts around the world, of course, he went platinum many times.
The cover features a monument to Freddie against the backdrop of Lake Geneva. Then it was just a photomontage. However, on November 24, 96, the monument to Freddie Mercury was erected in Montreux.
