At the time when Mr. Bad Guy was released, was it like an event or did it go under the radar? Was the music press excited?
I remember it being released, but I don't think it was over the top or anything. It isn't like these days with online blurbs and forums and such. Normally it would be a poster in a record store, a single on the radio, and a write up in a local music magazine
If Mr Bad Guy had been a huge success, I wonder if it would have tempted Freddie to ditch Queen completely? Despite what the Bo Rhap film implied, I don't think he intended to go completely solo at that point. This was more a chance for him to explore some of his wider pop and dance music interests, which might not have found a home on a Queen album. Then again, if Hot Space was better received on its release, I could easily imagine Queen recording some of these songs on a sort of a 'Hot Space 2' album. Are we going to do a track by track here? Anyway, I will say now that 'Man Made Paradise' might be the campiest song I have ever heard on a mainstream pop/rock record.
I'm happy to song by song these ... unless you guys don't want me to.... The movie was a good movie, but it sure was outside some facts ... I mean Roger was doing his second solo album, and nobody batted an eye about that lol
I think Mr Bad Guy deserves the track-by-track treatment if the Starfleet Project did! Also, did I miss the Love Kills single (released 1984)? Probably my favourite solo Freddie song, and another biggish hit despite being critically panned.
Love Kills Single by Freddie Mercury from the album Metropolis: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack B-side "Rotwang's Party (Robot Dance)" Released 10 September 1984 11 September 1984 (US) Format 7" single, 12" single Recorded 1984 Genre Hi-NRG[1] Length 4:29 Label CBS Songwriter(s) Freddie Mercury, Giorgio Moroder Producer(s) Freddie Mercury, Giorgio Moroder, Reinhold Mack This is a well written pop song, but one would expect that from Moroder and Mercury. Moroder could do just about no wrong in the pop world at the time, so it's surprising to some extent that this didn't really capture the imagination of the public at large. I like the arrangement of the music, but I have always found it terribly difficult to have one monotonous drum machine pattern all the way through the song, as we do here. This could have been a much better Queen song in my opinion, and we will get a different version on the Queen forever album. The b-side is a Moroder instrumental
Lets Turn It On We start off with a good beat and then move into a feel reminiscent of a Rio carnival or something similar. The sound is based in synth style pop, with some guitar thrown in here and there. There are some interesting edits, and also some minor Queen sounding bits and pieces. Lyrically this track is pretty simplistic, and comes across as a song made to set up the album.
I must say I love this album, and I bought the CD version when it was released. Love the title track in particular. As Mark writes, "LET´S TURN IT ON" is there to set up what happens later in the album - and it works. I think it´s a good idea to start the album with a statement of intent. The CD version includes the extended mixes of several songs - "LET´S TURN IT ON", "I WAS BORN TO LOVE YOU" and "LIVING ON MY OWN".
With a few exceptions, the album sounds more like a collection of demos, MiH is perfect example of this. Lyrics and general melodies are fine but Freddie's choice of musicians and production style really doesn't do this album justice. Of course making this a dance/disco oriented collection in 1985 did not help.
In a way, it´s easy to see why it failed, commercially. But there is a lot to enjoy, and the best songs are great. I played it a lot back then. I agree that the recordings aren´t up to the usual standard of a Queen album, but I didn´t think in those terms back in... the day. But for all its flaws, it´s an album of great energy and lust for life. Freddie Mercury in a nutshell - or, at least, one aspect of him. And, as stated, I love the title track.
Mr Bad Guy is Hot Space pt.2 to me, but it really misses the other three Queen members that make Hot Space an album I love. I know that's obvious, but they haven't been replaced with anything of any quality on Mr. Bad Guy. A lot of cheap sounding drum machines and synths here. This makes it sound like I don't like Mr. Bad Guy, but I do. There's some good songs here, Freddie's singing is at a peak around this time and it's a fun album as well as extremely camp! With better, still electronic, instrumentation and a bigger sounding production on some tracks this album could have been as charismatic and over the top as Freddie himself. As it is, it's good but musically half baked, like well recorded demos. It often sounds strange, with superb passionate vocals and weak backing. I Was Born To Love You is the best and most successful track here. I love the ridiculous video too. Made In Heaven and Mr. Bad Guy are highlights too. I've also always liked Foolin' Around.
So, here we are at Freddie's highly anticipated debut solo album, Mr. Bad Guy. I don't remember when this was first unleashed on the world, though I can certainly imagine how disappointing it must have been for those fans hoping for anything - and I mean anything - except a return to the Hot Space formula of more synth-heavy club music. From the opening seconds of Let's Turn It On, it's clear Freddie was still in that mode, but if there's one thing to be said for this project's direction (along with that of Hot Space, actually), he went all-out with the vocals. Indeed, you could argue that some of his notes were a little too daring, which seems an odd criticism to be making of Queen's frontman. By contrast, Made In Heaven finds him a lot more restrained, at least musically. The production is less in-your-face, yet he's still delivering an incredibly daring performance. I can definitely see why his colleagues decided to revisit this as the title track of their final LP together, and Brian's guitar work is infinitely better than the somewhat cheap-sounding keyboards of the original mix. Wasn't this supposedly the most expensive album to date from CBS? I'm sure Walter Yetnikoff was thrilled to be hearing so little return for his record-breaking investment! In its original, pre-Made In Heaven form, I Was Born To Love You is a harmless enough slice of pop that seems a little reminiscent of Keep Passing The Open Windows with a Hi-NRG twist. As seems to be the case with much of its parent album, I can imagine this doing well in some clubs, but was the underlying material capable of reaching a much wider audience? The rest of Queen seemed to think so, and I'm still shaking my head all these years later at some of the production choices. Was it Paul Prenter to blame for pulling Freddie in that direction, or Mack for dropping the ball and not giving these songs the punch they deserved? Either way, Foolin' Around continues the lightweight approach, only this example would be reworked for the posthumous Freddie Mercury Album, where I feel Steve Brown did a much better job of mixing the constituent elements into something with commercial potential. Even though both versions share the same basic tempo and sound, the sparseness of the mix Freddie approved in his lifetime falls short of the effect achieved on much of Hot Space. For this example, the gaps just leave me with the impression that music was coming first to other pursuits, which it seems might have been the case for large parts of his stay in Munich. If I didn't know any better, I'd expect that piano and vocal introduction for Your Kind Of Lover to serve as the guide into something truly epic from Freddie, who instead slips into the kind of loose synth-backed jams that pad out his Solo Collection boxed set. Once again, Steve Brown came to the rescue and at least tried to salvage this song from itself with little effort being necessary. Freddie was so close to having something with much wider appeal, yet it breaks my heart to already look back on this post and see just how negative I'm being in general. Beginning with a combination of synthesised strings and a real orchestra, the centrepiece of Mr. Bad Guy only just falls short of being the grandiose statement it could have been. By adding a guitar riff that wouldn't sound out of place on a Meat Loaf album of the period, Brian Malouf opened up this song's potential for the aforementioned Freddie Mercury Album, but the original mix is comparatively thin - painfully so, even. One detail that I think might be of worth to bring up is that the arrangement of this track was handled by occasional Mack collaborator Rainer Pietsch. If his name doesn't immediately ring a bell, he stepped in to help ELO with its Time album in the absence of regular orchestrator Louis Clark, who briefly left to promote his own project, Hooked On Classics. Apart from all-too-brief glimmers of what might have been if Brian had been allowed to add his guitar to the resulting track when it was initially pitched for The Works, Man Made Paradise is perhaps the most obvious example of where Freddie's mind was at in the mid '80s. I can definitely see why Brian in particular took offence at Freddie wanting to emulate portions of Queen's trademark sound without actually relying on the same personnel... Sorry, where was I? Out of nowhere, the last minute or so of this otherwise harmless excursion into camp takes a most shocking operatic diversion, previewing the Barcelona project. Now that would have made for a far more ambitious solo effort from Freddie, but I'll return to Mr. Bad Guy's actual content. (As a very quick side note, there's a distinctive keyboard effect on Man Made Paradise that was also featured intermittently throughout ELO's A Matter Of Fact, both mixed by Mack around the same time at Musicland Studios. If the credits for Mr. Bad Guy are correct, this was either played on a Fairlight or Kurzweil keyboard, though my own research suggests that ELO might have been using a Synclavier - who is right?) More recently known for its ill-fated duet with Michael Jackson that was restored for Queen's love-themed Forever compilation, only to then be ruined at the mastering stage by a blaring guitar overdub that nearly blew my speakers out when I first heard this, There Must Be More To Life Than This begins with a short piano run that's not a million miles removed from that opening Your Kind Of Lover. Really, I encourage you to switch between both tracks! Anyway, back to the present song, "More To Life" is another of what I'd describe as Freddie's message songs, which he seemed to be writing a lot in the early-to-mid '80s. Next, we have Living On My Own, or yet another song with all the potential in the world, but less chance of succeeding in its anemic original form. As I've said before, Hot Space endures as something I'll go back and occasionally find myself enjoying because there was a concept to stripping out Queen's usual bombast in favour of a dancier feel, though it's the infinitely more successful Julian Raymond remix of Living On My Own that I'll typically go back to when I need this song in my life, even if I do somewhat miss some of the piano work. I've not actually covered Love Kills yet, but I would have preferred that on the album for just how better it works, perhaps because of Giorgio Moroder's involvement. For once, My Love Is Dangerous is one of the few tracks that appeared on both Mr. Bad Guy and The Freddie Mercury Album that I prefer in its 1985 mix. There's a greater range to its musical ambition, and I especially love the shock of Freddie adding reggae to his bag of tricks, plus there's something about its lyrics that would make it a perfect fit on Hot Space or maybe The Works. From what I've read, this wasn't one of the songs Queen tried out for either of those projects, which genuinely shocked me because of how well it might have suited the group. Finally, Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow always seemed like it was bordering on a typical '70s piano-heavy ballad and the kind of optimism Freddie liked to offer his listeners in the subsequent decade's first half, only now with a more of a personal than universal lyric. In a few places, the lead vocal melody and his delivery reminds me of In My Defence from the Time soundtrack, even though I'm aware that was only co-produced by Freddie. Maybe he recognised similar qualities in that track from mostly Dave Clark and wanted to recycle a production from his own catalogue that deserved a wider audience? Whatever the case, it's hardly the most profound way to conclude what is a pretty underwhelming statement. To end for now, I can totally see why the throwaway Stop All The Fighting was kept as a single b-side, as it doesn't really have much of a hook to go with its wide-ranging gimmickry - this was definitely a product of that brief time in the '80s when established musicians wanted to embrace all the latest technological advances, yet forgot to actually bring a song they could build around what studios suddenly had at their disposal. On the other hand, She Blows Hot And Cold has something of a drive to it that was lacking from the majority of the Mr. Bad Guy sessions, but once again, the production is sterile, lacking and doesn't match Freddie's enthusiastic lead vocal. I know the Barcelona album is still a little way off being discussed in this thread, but if that could be given a more bombastic reworking years after the fact, why hasn't Mr. Bad Guy also received a similar treatment? Is it because you can already put together its better moments between Made In Heaven and The Freddie Mercury Album? P.S. I've been a lot more harsh on this album than I'd ever set out to be, though I can't entirely hate something Freddie directed at a group I'm very much a proud member of. With that in mind, I'll conclude by quoting the last message he chose to include on the liner notes of his first major release outside the Queen umbrella:
I'm sure the "Bad Guy" session guys are great musicians. What they were asked to play and how the instruments were engineering/produced, did the album a huge disservice, imo.
I seem to recall a quote from either Mack or Brian about how the main guitarist on Mr. Bad Guy was instructed by Freddie to sound like he was playing the Red Special... Why not just get the real thing in the first place, or did Brian object to being involved with another club-styled album so soon after Hot Space?
I would say Freddie appreciated Brian the guitarist but did not want his opinion as to what the solo should sound like.
I recall a quote from Brian to the effect that Freddie told Brian this, expecting that Brian would be happy with this flattery. Instead Brian was hurt and perhaps annoyed that Freddie wouldn't have just asked him to do it. I suspect that Fred really wanted this to be a solo album rather than a Queen-lite project with all the band members on it in some capacity or other. The unfortunate thing is that Freddie didn't find anybody of equal calibre to help him with the album and spark against creatively. Perhaps if Fred were to have worked with Giorgio Moroder instead of/as well as Mack that might have given the whole project more guts. There are glimmers of greatness, but for me it doesn't quite get there. It was intriguing to see how things might have been when the Made In Heaven album came out.
Made In Heaven This is a decent song, but to some degree I think the synthetic sounding production seems to clash with Freddie's type of vocals and delivery or something. We have a good melody, and Freddie obviously showing he can still sing. The video is bizarre to say the least, and I can't see that it would have helped the songs performance. It is somewhat of a hybrid of It's A Hard Life, the center part of I Want To Break Free and a touch of Dante's Inferno. I have never seen the video before this morning. I like the musical structure of this song.... really the best feature of this song is the vocal. This is the first time I'm hearing any of these songs, and I am essentially just giving my first impression. I believe some of theme were Queenified for the album Made In Heaven, but I have only heard that once, and one listen didn't really do much for me.... so bear with me here guys. It sounds, so far, like Mack didn't quite know how to deal with Freddie as a solo entity. I am not familiar with Mack except for a couple of Queen albums to be honest, but the songs are well enough written, the vocals are great, but there feels to be something missing, as though the tracks are at a high grade demo stage or something. Anyway we'll see how we go with the remainder of the songs.
It’s a travesty that Mr Bad Guy has been practically out of print for decades, apart from the little cd box set that was out in the 00’s. I don’t get it.
As I mention previously, this track is under-cooked or demo like. By default, I prefer the Queen band version.
Thread Guide Smile 68-70 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Queen I 1973 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Queen II 1974 Queen discography and appreciation thread Sheer Heart Attack 1974 - Queen discography and appreciation thread A Night At The Opera 1975 - Queen discography and appreciation thread A Day At The Races 1976 - Queen discography and appreciation thread News Of The World 1977 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Jazz 1978 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Live Killers 1979 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Queen discography and appreciation thread The Game 1980 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Flash Gordon (soundtrack) 1980 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Roger Taylor - Fun In Space 1981 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Hot Space 1982 - Queen discography and appreciation thread Outtakes/demos/one off songs - thank you @Giant Hogweed - Queen discography and appreciation thread Jive Junior and Man Friday - Picking Up Sounds Queen discography and appreciation thread Who Needs You alternate Queen discography and appreciation thread Star Fleet Project (Brian) Queen discography and appreciation thread The Works 1984 Queen discography and appreciation thread Mr Bad Guy/Love Kills (Freddie) 1985 Queen discography and appreciation thread
Love Kills - this originally was a Queen song as started during the works sessions - Roger programmed the drums and Brian plays the guitar on it too - I think it would have been a great addition to The Works. There was some deal struck with Giorgio Moroder that if Freddie gave it over to the Metropolis soundtrack then they could use footage of that for the Radio Gaga video. I much prefer the original to the stodgy remake in 2014.
Great comments - and I agree that some of the versions on the 92 remix album are actually better, and my go to versions. That could be something to do with having heard that first before I heard Mr Bad Guy. Foolin around and Mr Bad Guy in particular are a lot better in their remixes and the Queen version of Made in Heaven is a lot better. Though I do really enjoy the original version of IWBTLY for its sheer 'Joi de vivre'. You can almost make am entirely different version of the entire album with various remixes - though some of them do sound too early 90s Rave/2 Unlimited style!
