Absolutely fascinating song by Queen, and their performance is second to none. I have been a Queen fan for years. They are the most talented and intelligent guys, and remember, they are all university graduates, particularly Brian with his PH.D. Incredible musicians who have written some super songs. Freddie is sorely missed.
Freddie’s yellow jacket was designed by Diana Moseley, his costumer. It was inspired by Spanish opera military costumes. It sold in 11/2004 in Bonham for $26,204. One can only imagine what it would be worth today! Miss Freddie so much! What a gift we had!
They were flying on that night. During "A Kind of Magic" you can see them all looking at each other smiling because of how locked in they are with each other. It's a joy to see and hear.
My favourite band of all time. They were so tight as a unit when they performed live. They were geniuses in the studio. Everything about them is pure unique. Nobody sounds like them and nobody ever will. Simply the greatest and they set the bar very very high, they are the bar.
I was lucky to watch them live on the friday concert...first and most incredible concert of my life. Freddie's death in 91 broke my heart. Queen fan forever.
Seeing Queen, live at Knebworth in ‘86 was my first ever gig (as a 16 year old). One hell of a start for my gig watching life - and almost impossible to follow. 120,000 people clapping and stamping along to Radio Ga Ga and We Will Rock You was a sight to behold (& feel in my chest). God bless Freddie & the Queen boys!
That must have been a hell of an experience! That was Freddies last ever time on stage was it not? I absolutely love Queen and have seen them with Adam Lambert, but sadly being born in 1993 means I never got to see the man himself on stage but have to settle for my stepdad bragging about when he was in the crowd at live aid instead
I am huge Queen fan. For my wedding my guys and myself came the aisle to a mashup of the openings of "Princes of the Universe" & "Las Palabras de Amor"
There are some cool old Queen songs you'll probably like: - White Queen (As it began) - live version - Liar -Great King Rat - Fairy Feller's Masterstroke / Nevermore - Millionaire Waltz
When you listen to Millionaire Walz, doesn't it sound like an early roadmap to Bohemian Rhapsody? It's like the building blocks were always in Freddie's head.
@@earlblack7647 The Millionaire Waltz was released on A Day at the Races, the album after A Night at the Opera with Bohemian Rhapsody. Maybe you're confused with The March of the Black Queen?
@@egietje Thank you for the insight and timeline. I guess the structure, and range of styles are quite similar. I didn't actually note when each were released. Thanks again .
I'm gonna say it again. If you want to listen to a Queen masterpiece, you need te check out the Millionaire Walz from A Day At The Races. It's amazing. Also the live version of White Queen from 1975 at Hammersmith Odeon is something that's really worth it to check out. Probably the most beautiful live recording of Queen I know.
A few days later, saw them at the Manchester gig at Maine road. First concert I’d ever been to… went with my Mum. Quite the first concert… set me up for a lifetime of live music enjoyment! Saw 23 gigs last year 😊
when I was a kid in the early 90's, I saw the concert in Budapest from the same tour, I think it was broadcast by the ZDF (a german TV-Broadcaster) when Freddie Mercury died. My parents recorded it on VHS and I whatched it about a thousand times ...
It's a regret of mine that I never saw Queen live (with Freddie) because just watching videos I can sense the power he held. And the musicianship of the band. And their cheekiness! Also, it's nice to hear Freddie giving kudos to his bandmates who wrote the songs, as well as dancing over to them so as to draw the audience eye to everyone on stage. Gosh, what a voice and what delivery.
I consider who wants to live forever the best song ever written for a movie soundtrack. It fits the emotion of that scene from the movie so well. And really drives home the downside of being immortal.
Oh man, one of the best live performances by any band ever. I love it and listened to it sooo many times. I think you should also listen to their performance of A Kind Of Magic from that show, or Crazy Little Thing Called Love, both have amazing solos in it. Or Impromptu/Brighton Rock Solo, or Hammer To Fall, or, or, or you know what, why not just do the entire show.
One of the best concert openers .. EVER!! You can feel the excitement building & building .. Queen crowd holding their breath!! 🫢 The concert opener at Milton Keynes - Flash/The Hero/We Will Rock You (fast version). Thanks for your reaction! 🎉🎊🎈
I saw that tour too. July 9th in Newcastle. I was just 11 years old and taken by my parents. We were all big Queen fans. An experience I’ll never forget and so glad I got to see Freddie. A true one of a kind and still sorely missed all these years later.
As a 16 year old, my first ever gig was the Friday night at Wembley. Queen and Status Quo were regularly played in our house as I grew up, so seeing them both at this concert (with INXS and The Alarm earlier on in the day) made it such a special day. Was right at the front on the left, just where the stage front sloped upwards. Memorable moments: - Michael Hutchence falling on his a** when someone aimed an apple at his head. (I think it was INXS's first ever UK gig.) - '68 Guns' by The Alarm. - Bouncing the whole way through Quo's set on wooden boards laid down to protect Wembley's pitch). Plus, Francis Rossi saying, "Sod the rain, just boogie!" Rick's rhythm playing was incredible. - A lass wanted to sit on my shoulders to have a better view to take a photo. Once up, she asked, "Which one is Freddie?" I nearly threw her off! - Brain's solo, Freddie's singing. The whole bloody set! Amazing to think the tickets cost £14.50 each and we ordered them by replying to a postal advert in The Times newspaper! The cheque went in the post on Monday and all tickets were sold by the end of Tuesday.
There's a 20 minute documentary on the making of One Vision and shows them working the song out in the studio , making words fit to the music etc. It's a fascinating insight literally watching them at work
My mum brought me up with Queen (and Jeff Waynes musical version of war of the world, maybe do one of those?) They were amazing from the start. After Freddie passed over he still has been around us. So Queen and Marillion... best in the world..
I also grew up with Queen and Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds because of my Dad. He bought Queens first greatest hits album in 1981 - I was 2 years old. Jeff Wayne’s musical I was a little older 3 or 4.
One of the differences that I most enjoyed seeing change between concerts of 1982 and 2014 was the electronics supporting the music. Gone was that lengthy cord attached to Brian's same Red Special. He could move around so much more easily in spite of the years added to his body. This was wonderful to revisit. I would recommend a performance of A Kind of Magic. Its bass line is probably my favorite of all time. John Deacon is a marvelous bassist and was a joy to watch. I feel lucky to have seen the original line-up with Freddie and John 7 times between 1976 and 1982. Treasured memories.
It's simply astonishing that Mercury was able to perform at such a high level by this point. The seams were beginning to show (to wit: "We Are the Champions" at Kenilworth), but he simply refused to let his health limitations get the better of him. Too much was at stake. He was a REAL fighter. And the band were a classic example of four gifted individuals who together were far greater than the sum of their parts.
His voice issues were more down the smoking and drugs. After the diagnosis he went clean, and by 1990 his voice was sounding far better gain than in 86.
In the summer of 1986 along with 119,999 other people I was lucky enough to see Queen at Knebworth Park (30 miles north of London) at what turned out to be Freddie Mercury's last concert . Most memorable moment was the epic track Brighton Rock.
My first concert was Queen at Slane castle in Ireland about a week or so prior to their last ever concert at Knebworth. I was 18. It is still the best concert I ever attended.
Nobody mentioning how incredibly tight these guys were playing even on a live performance? Especially on such a big venue (if you've ever been in a such big stadium, the reverb is horrendous, couple of seconds long), and still those incredible vocals.
Love that this isn't just a reaction of some dude on the internet who basically says he's blown away... but rather a commentary on a work of art. I very much appreciate this.
The way that Freddie has such intuitive understanding of the harmonies that he's singing through, that he is able to seamlessly transition to an easier note to sing as his voice is not what it used to be, and still make it sound right instead of struggling for notes he can't hit anymore. It's truly impressive.
These are difficult songs to sing, he hit quite a few A4 notes during these three songs and a B4, in full chest voice. That is very, very difficult for most singers to do, most singers would do those notes in mixed voice or head voice not in full chest voice, like Freddie did. He was also singing at Wembley with the flu. He could still easily hit high notes in falsetto, check out Impromptu - Queen live at Wembley 1986, in that sections he hits a Bb5, the same note Roger did in Bohemian Rhapsody. High falsetto notes was always very easy for Freddie. Budapest was two weeks later and you can hear he is not sick there.
it‘s not obvious to me, like so many say, that his voice changed and couldn‘t reach the high notes anymore in the 80‘s. i think he couldn‘t reach them on this very day. why? because first there are later recordings where he was already very sick and even sang higher like with „the show must go on“. and now one has to take into account that at this time there hasn‘t been any protools around in the studio for altering voices because they‘ve been invented few years after fred‘s death. so everytime you listen to fred on record be aware of listening to his real voice even if it is a studio take. second in terms of live performances the year before wembley in 1985 they‘ve performed at the „rock in rio“ where freddie performed very high notes. just listen to their „rock in rio-blues“. it‘s on youtube. so, either he developed problems just between 1985 to 1986 or it‘s just on this day because afterwards freddie had still life performances with high powerful notes like the duet with cliff richard in a theatre when they‘ve performed some songs for the musical „time“. it‘s also on youtube but in poor quality. a song out of this is „in my defence“...it‘s phenomenal. one of fred‘s most emotional songs in my opinion and nothing of a weak voice. also his demos for his album with montserrat caballé bears songs of him singing real classical opera like the song „ensueño“. and that‘s all after 1986 when montserrat offered freddie to sing with her a classical opera in some theatre. he refused though. i think there‘s enough evidence of freddie just saving his voice on some days of live-performance. if one follows his performances through time and not just sticking to one or two concerts then you can recognise this very easily.
@@greenogre22 to be fair, it's a lot easier to get The note you need in a studio session when you can take as many takes as you need. Doing it live, he's doing some smart voice conservation, and that's the clever part. Whether he Can ever hit them isn't relevant; what is relevant is what he's doing there on the fly when he knows the note that he would normally do isn't going to happen the way he wants to.
@@thembill8246 that’s clear but anyway i must clarify that it’s possibly a false story that’s been told regarding his voice by some. in my novel above i‘ve also told about the „rock in rio - live performance the year before and also the life performance with cliff richard after 1986 where he indeed could reach all the high notes when he wanted to. moreover if you know more of the concerts you recognise that he never sang the songs always the same way even at his earlier times as he‘s stated once would be boring. so i‘m aware of his possible clever voice-saving attempts on some occasions when he‘s been exhausted or sick, but it’s also clear to me that many times he’s done it due to artistical reasons and i‘m also aware of him not having lost his ability to reach the high notes as he‘s shown shortly before and after 1986 in live-performances. it‘s on youtube. there are many people who say it even ever became better till near his end.
I was there, at Knebworth, with my friends and my wife to be (now married 34 years) to see Queen perform with Freddie for the last time. It was an unforgettable experience, 140,000 fans in a natural bowl formed by the landscape and a huge stage at the bottom. The concert was a full day, supported by three other acts (Belouis Some (very forgettable), Big Country (superb) and Status Quo (not one of their finest performances). The day culminated with Queen coming on stage at 10:00pm to blow us all away with a magnificent performance, better than the Wembley gigs. BTW, you need to check out Big Country, especially their live sets, they were an awesome band.
Three amazing songs - powerful and exciting as always from Queen. Freddie's voice here was so impressive as he hit all those great notes. Thank you, Doug.
I saw Queen live on one occasion in around 1978. I'm a musician, and played in local bands, and my brother was our sound man. Wanting to advance his career, my brother endeavored get into working for some professional sound companies, the kind that did rock concert tours. He had the chance to be on tour with several big rock bands, the high point being on tour with Queen when they were following up their "Jazz" album. When the tour came through our area, he arranged to get me and a friend into the show. The band put on a fantastic show!
I remember watching this gig live (it was livecast on the BBC) as it happened during my second year at uni.,.,a bunch of us clustered round the little TV in my friend's room with a ton of beer, it was awesome :)
Nice analysis! Frddie did have the flu at Wembley 1986. Freddie Mercury also recorded the Barcelona album alongside Montserrat Caballe just before the The Miracle album. It is a great album ,some of best work. You have to check out Barcelona - Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballe. Also some more early Queen, Queen II is a very progressive album. It would be to see you tackle, The Fairy Fellers Master-Stroke, it is a very quirky song.
I still have my A Kind of Magic album even though I no longer have a turntable. Who wants to live forever gives me chills every time. Tq for reacting to this. Memories of my teenage years. Greetings from Malaysia.
Great job Doug, but Freddie was a master at going for the lower notes if his voice was tired or sore. Also, you can hear Brian & Roger helping him out. I’m sure this was the night when it rained
Regrettably I never attended a Freddie fronted Queen concert, but I do have the DVD of this concert, (I also had vhs recordings of other concerts including Rio). I regularly listen to this concert and to the 221 Queen tracks I have loaded on my phone.
@@EgoShredder I have been to 3 concerts in New Zealand with Adam Lambert out front, he is good, but not Freddie. However the overall experience was great, although I did enjoy the arena gigs were better than the stadium tour (for me) as the atmosphere and view were better.
Actually, the opening song, 'One Vision' was credited to the entire band, as much as Roger was the one who started the idea. The song was released in late 1985 and featured in the military action film "Iron Eagle".
Thank you, Dr. D., especially for Who Wants To Live Forever. Sorry if this gets too personal, but it's long been one of my 2 songs as a go-to for those moments when I need to have a good cry, a cathartic release of emotion. I always ugly-cry when it's done. ( Which is why I don't listen to it while driving. 😉). "Who wants to live forever. . .when love must die." Simple, direct, yet spine-chilling moment.
Just a quick anecdote about the "fry chiken part". The band joined at the studio to work on a piece. That first song come up to be what we know now as "One Vision". But the reallity is that the got to the music first. Once they had the basic music structure, they started to put word on it. The metric of the lyric was set by Mercury, but not the words. So they used a Chinise Menu in which the name of the plates fit, more or less, into that metric. One of those were "fry chicken". And, as a joke, they left it just in the end of the album version. "just give me, give me, give me, fry chicken". After that, Roger though that, as One Vision, was one of the lines they joked about, it could be related with the "A had a dream" speach, and he started to play with it, but, as Roger said and a few interviews, the rest of the band quickly took it to another thing completaly. Please, check the "Making of...." video of One Vision to see how funny it was the creation of the song, in terms of music and lyrics. From Roger missing the metric of the lyrics leaving Freddie waitting for one more word that never come up, to one sentences beeing: "One turd, two tits, John Deacon" hahahahaha. Also from that time in the studio, and the song, the famouse phrase "chicken feet baby" was born, to describe Deacon "moves" while playing the base.
When I wrote my thesis, I listened to this and other queen albums/concerts ALL the time. Rewatching/listening to this has me thinking about product-moment correlation coefficients. Mixed feelings, but Queen is never a bad thing.
I'm so glad you picked this version of Who Wants to Live Forever, the best in my opinion. I believe this was from the Friday show and Freddie's voice was better that night.
DOUG, I AM GIVING YOU A HUGE COMPLIMENT!! YOU MANAGED TO FIND A CLIP OF “ONE VISION” AT WEMBLEY THAT HAS THE ORIGINAL RAW AUDIO… INSTEAD OF AUDIO OVERDUBBING THAT WAS ADDED TO A COUPLE OF FREDDIE’S VOCAL LINES LATER, WHEN THE VIDEO FOOTAGE WAS BEING EDITED/PREPARED FOR RELEASE. (I’ve watched allll of the various videos posted on YT of these shows - not that I’m Queen/Freddie obsessed or anything! …So I actually knew immediately, which source you got this from.) GOOD JOB!!🫶
I was fortunate enough to see Queen at Knebworth a few days later - an incredible gig but sadly not filmed officially. So glad that the Wembley gigs were filmed - and that here we are 36 years later still celebrating the music of one of the greatest rock bands of all time - the sum of the parts greater than the parts alone which is saying something with Freddie on vocals, Brian on guitar, John on bass and Roger on drums and tiger skin trousers!!!! Although not in the same league (no one is) try The Darkness with "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" as they approach their twentieth anniversary. Brian certainly appreciates them!!!!
I love watching your Queen reactions because of your music theory knowledge. It's fascinating to listen to you break down the musical progressions, chord changes, etc. Thanks and keep them coming!
My uncle was a sound engineer at Tyne Tees Television in the 1980s, and was part of the crew that filmed this. They were actually offered the Live Aid gig by Midge Ure a year earlier but turned it down as they thought it might bankrupt the company putting together such a massive operation, and it went to the BBC instead.
I think the reason why the Wembley show was released later is that they also filmed their concert in Budapest (which was recorded on film so it has better image quality) so they released the VHS for that gig in 1987. The Wembley gig was initially intended for TV broadcast only.
I am heavily biased but we fell in love with them again esp with Freddie and Brian when they performed a Hungarian folk song (Tavaszi szél) in Budapest.
This is a classic - they owned Live Aid. The DX7 was used on a lot of 80's music including Fleetwood Mac's Tango in tbe Night. The vocals on Who wants ... are phenomenal... live performances ... not a computer in sight
A "Making of One Vision" video here on TH-cam documents the composing and recording of the song. There were several humorous alternative lyrics because they were struggling a bit. 😄
Powerfull lyrics There's no time for us There's no place for us What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us Who wants to live forever Who wants to live forever Oh ooo oh There's no chance for us It's all decided for us This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us Who wants to live forever Who wants to live forever Ooh Who dares to love forever Oh oo woh, when love must die But touch my tears with your lips Touch my world with your fingertips And we can have forever And we can love forever Forever is our today Who wants to live forever Who wants to live forever Forever is our today Who waits forever anyway?
Glad to see a new Queen set here! Still waiting for White Queen live at Hammersmith. I think when you see it, you'll wish you had discovered it earlier. I enjoy your reactions.
As a huge Queen fan - only about 3 years as of now - I've been obsessed with the Queen bootleg concert community, who are constantly trying to discover as many (mostly audience) recordings as possible. This show is unanimously considered to be one of Freddie's worst nights vocally of this tour. His voice is phenomenal here, but that just shows how good he was on this tour.
Ah yes the Magic tour. This is easily my biggest regret, not being able to go see them on this tour before Freddie died. If only I knew in 1986 that he would be dead 5 years later. I managed to get to the Freddie Mercury tribute concert but it was never going to be quite the same as if Freddie was there. But still amazing standing in the midst of 90,000 people or so. That would make a great quiz question - What are the last 2 words of One Vision.
On One Vision the ending of "Fried Chicken" was held over from a studio run of the song where Freddie picked up a Chinese Take Out menu and started singing the items on the menu as the lyrics of the song. If you listen closely to the words on the long version of "The Making Of One Vision" video you will here him singing such things as "Chicken Feet, Baby". The band decided to leave the Fried Chicken in just for the fun of it all. Who Wants To Live Forever, one of my favorites.
I think this was Friday night footage. The two nights are slightly different. It rained Friday and the guys had some fun with that. Freddie's voice was better at the Budapest concert called Hungarian Rhapsody from 27 July 1986. It's a great concert with footage of the guys having fun on their free time. The first concert behind the Iron curtain by a western rock band. If you haven't seen it you should definitely look it up. Love your reactions, Doug!
The video release was probably delayed due the fact Queen signed with Hollywood Records (Disney) and Innuendo was their first studio release in 1991. Wembley 86 was their first release on Hollywood Records. Queen moved their entire catalogue to Hollywood Records. Wembley 86 was my favorite show, until Live In Montreal 1981 was released in the 2000's. I saw them on the Hot Space tour in Toronto, and my cousin was at THE Montreal show Hot Space 1981. Both video releases are equally as good. Both are phenomenal sounding, even the VHS.
Absolutely fascinating song by Queen, and their performance is second to none. I have been a Queen fan for years. They are the most talented and intelligent guys, and remember, they are all university graduates, particularly Brian with his PH.D. Incredible musicians who have written some super songs. Freddie is sorely missed.
Freddie’s yellow jacket was designed by Diana Moseley, his costumer. It was inspired by Spanish opera military costumes. It sold in 11/2004 in Bonham for $26,204. One can only imagine what it would be worth today! Miss Freddie so much! What a gift we had!
Queen was, is and will be one of the greatest bands.
They were flying on that night. During "A Kind of Magic" you can see them all looking at each other smiling because of how locked in they are with each other. It's a joy to see and hear.
My favourite band of all time. They were so tight as a unit when they performed live. They were geniuses in the studio. Everything about them is pure unique. Nobody sounds like them and nobody ever will. Simply the greatest and they set the bar very very high, they are the bar.
I was lucky to watch them live on the friday concert...first and most incredible concert of my life. Freddie's death in 91 broke my heart. Queen fan forever.
Seeing Queen, live at Knebworth in ‘86 was my first ever gig (as a 16 year old). One hell of a start for my gig watching life - and almost impossible to follow. 120,000 people clapping and stamping along to Radio Ga Ga and We Will Rock You was a sight to behold (& feel in my chest). God bless Freddie & the Queen boys!
I was there - right at the front of the mixing desk...
@@Hoyerman I was pretty close to the mixing desk too. Small world eh!
That must have been a hell of an experience! That was Freddies last ever time on stage was it not? I absolutely love Queen and have seen them with Adam Lambert, but sadly being born in 1993 means I never got to see the man himself on stage but have to settle for my stepdad bragging about when he was in the crowd at live aid instead
I am huge Queen fan. For my wedding my guys and myself came the aisle to a mashup of the openings of "Princes of the Universe" & "Las Palabras de Amor"
Queen Is the best band, EVER!!!
There are some cool old Queen songs you'll probably like:
- White Queen (As it began) - live version
- Liar
-Great King Rat
- Fairy Feller's Masterstroke / Nevermore
- Millionaire Waltz
When you listen to Millionaire Walz, doesn't it sound like an early roadmap to Bohemian Rhapsody? It's like the building blocks were always in Freddie's head.
@@earlblack7647 The Millionaire Waltz was released on A Day at the Races, the album after A Night at the Opera with Bohemian Rhapsody. Maybe you're confused with The March of the Black Queen?
@@egietje Thank you for the insight and timeline. I guess the structure, and range of styles are quite similar. I didn't actually note when each were released. Thanks again .
I'm gonna say it again. If you want to listen to a Queen masterpiece, you need te check out the Millionaire Walz from A Day At The Races. It's amazing. Also the live version of White Queen from 1975 at Hammersmith Odeon is something that's really worth it to check out. Probably the most beautiful live recording of Queen I know.
You always look like you are having so much fun, Music uplifts the soul.
A few days later, saw them at the Manchester gig at Maine road. First concert I’d ever been to… went with my Mum.
Quite the first concert… set me up for a lifetime of live music enjoyment! Saw 23 gigs last year 😊
when I was a kid in the early 90's, I saw the concert in Budapest from the same tour, I think it was broadcast by the ZDF (a german TV-Broadcaster) when Freddie Mercury died. My parents recorded it on VHS and I whatched it about a thousand times ...
It's a regret of mine that I never saw Queen live (with Freddie) because just watching videos I can sense the power he held. And the musicianship of the band. And their cheekiness! Also, it's nice to hear Freddie giving kudos to his bandmates who wrote the songs, as well as dancing over to them so as to draw the audience eye to everyone on stage. Gosh, what a voice and what delivery.
I consider who wants to live forever the best song ever written for a movie soundtrack. It fits the emotion of that scene from the movie so well. And really drives home the downside of being immortal.
Oh man, one of the best live performances by any band ever. I love it and listened to it sooo many times. I think you should also listen to their performance of A Kind Of Magic from that show, or Crazy Little Thing Called Love, both have amazing solos in it. Or Impromptu/Brighton Rock Solo, or Hammer To Fall, or, or, or you know what, why not just do the entire show.
The best, and certainly the most charismatic frontman of all time.
One of the best concert openers .. EVER!! You can feel the excitement building & building .. Queen crowd holding their breath!! 🫢 The concert opener at Milton Keynes - Flash/The Hero/We Will Rock You (fast version). Thanks for your reaction! 🎉🎊🎈
Queen have to be one of the greatest live bands of all time
Freddy truly had a love with affair his audiences !!!
We all loved him right back !!!
- Boston, March ‘81
I saw that tour too. July 9th in Newcastle. I was just 11 years old and taken by my parents. We were all big Queen fans. An experience I’ll never forget and so glad I got to see Freddie. A true one of a kind and still sorely missed all these years later.
As a 16 year old, my first ever gig was the Friday night at Wembley. Queen and Status Quo were regularly played in our house as I grew up, so seeing them both at this concert (with INXS and The Alarm earlier on in the day) made it such a special day. Was right at the front on the left, just where the stage front sloped upwards.
Memorable moments:
- Michael Hutchence falling on his a** when someone aimed an apple at his head. (I think it was INXS's first ever UK gig.)
- '68 Guns' by The Alarm.
- Bouncing the whole way through Quo's set on wooden boards laid down to protect Wembley's pitch). Plus, Francis Rossi saying, "Sod the rain, just boogie!" Rick's rhythm playing was incredible.
- A lass wanted to sit on my shoulders to have a better view to take a photo. Once up, she asked, "Which one is Freddie?" I nearly threw her off!
- Brain's solo, Freddie's singing. The whole bloody set!
Amazing to think the tickets cost £14.50 each and we ordered them by replying to a postal advert in The Times newspaper! The cheque went in the post on Monday and all tickets were sold by the end of Tuesday.
There's a 20 minute documentary on the making of One Vision and shows them working the song out in the studio , making words fit to the music etc. It's a fascinating insight literally watching them at work
Freddie, oh, Freddie... you were and are a Gift but we couldn't keep you. May you rest in peace. You're missed.
My mum brought me up with Queen (and Jeff Waynes musical version of war of the world, maybe do one of those?)
They were amazing from the start. After Freddie passed over he still has been around us. So Queen and Marillion... best in the world..
I also grew up with Queen and Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds because of my Dad. He bought Queens first greatest hits album in 1981 - I was 2 years old. Jeff Wayne’s musical I was a little older 3 or 4.
One of the differences that I most enjoyed seeing change between concerts of 1982 and 2014 was the electronics supporting the music. Gone was that lengthy cord attached to Brian's same Red Special. He could move around so much more easily in spite of the years added to his body.
This was wonderful to revisit. I would recommend a performance of A Kind of Magic. Its bass line is probably my favorite of all time. John Deacon is a marvelous bassist and was a joy to watch. I feel lucky to have seen the original line-up with Freddie and John 7 times between 1976 and 1982. Treasured memories.
I was at Wembley 11th July and knebworth Park 9th August 1986, Queen were the best live band ever, I also saw them in 1979 at hammersmith . FREDTASTIC
It's simply astonishing that Mercury was able to perform at such a high level by this point. The seams were beginning to show (to wit: "We Are the Champions" at Kenilworth), but he simply refused to let his health limitations get the better of him. Too much was at stake. He was a REAL fighter. And the band were a classic example of four gifted individuals who together were far greater than the sum of their parts.
He was not sick at this time.
@@jpirard apparently he was, actually.
His voice issues were more down the smoking and drugs. After the diagnosis he went clean, and by 1990 his voice was sounding far better gain than in 86.
@@molokoko786 it wasn’t just his voice, though, from what has been said by people who were actually around him at the time.
@@sethcashman1011 oh for sure physically he couldn’t go on after Knebworth but I’m just talking about the vocals
In the summer of 1986 along with 119,999 other people I was lucky enough to see Queen at Knebworth Park (30 miles north of London) at what turned out to be Freddie Mercury's last concert . Most memorable moment was the epic track Brighton Rock.
Wow, you were lucky indeed! I was born in late 1985 and only had my first contact with Queen's music in early 1996, thanks to my dad. Thanks dad!
My first concert was Queen at Slane castle in Ireland about a week or so prior to their last ever concert at Knebworth. I was 18. It is still the best concert I ever attended.
Nobody mentioning how incredibly tight these guys were playing even on a live performance?
Especially on such a big venue (if you've ever been in a such big stadium, the reverb is horrendous, couple of seconds long), and still those incredible vocals.
Love that this isn't just a reaction of some dude on the internet who basically says he's blown away... but rather a commentary on a work of art.
I very much appreciate this.
The way that Freddie has such intuitive understanding of the harmonies that he's singing through, that he is able to seamlessly transition to an easier note to sing as his voice is not what it used to be, and still make it sound right instead of struggling for notes he can't hit anymore. It's truly impressive.
These are difficult songs to sing, he hit quite a few A4 notes during these three songs and a B4, in full chest voice. That is very, very difficult for most singers to do, most singers would do those notes in mixed voice or head voice not in full chest voice, like Freddie did. He was also singing at Wembley with the flu. He could still easily hit high notes in falsetto, check out Impromptu - Queen live at Wembley 1986, in that sections he hits a Bb5, the same note Roger did in Bohemian Rhapsody. High falsetto notes was always very easy for Freddie.
Budapest was two weeks later and you can hear he is not sick there.
it‘s not obvious to me, like so many say, that his voice changed and couldn‘t reach the high notes anymore in the 80‘s. i think he couldn‘t reach them on this very day. why? because first there are later recordings where he was already very sick and even sang higher like with „the show must go on“. and now one has to take into account that at this time there hasn‘t been any protools around in the studio for altering voices because they‘ve been invented few years after fred‘s death. so everytime you listen to fred on record be aware of listening to his real voice even if it is a studio take. second in terms of live performances the year before wembley in 1985 they‘ve performed at the „rock in rio“ where freddie performed very high notes. just listen to their „rock in rio-blues“. it‘s on youtube. so, either he developed problems just between 1985 to 1986 or it‘s just on this day because afterwards freddie had still life performances with high powerful notes like the duet with cliff richard in a theatre when they‘ve performed some songs for the musical „time“. it‘s also on youtube but in poor quality. a song out of this is „in my defence“...it‘s phenomenal. one of fred‘s most emotional songs in my opinion and nothing of a weak voice. also his demos for his album with montserrat caballé bears songs of him singing real classical opera like the song „ensueño“. and that‘s all after 1986 when montserrat offered freddie to sing with her a classical opera in some theatre. he refused though. i think there‘s enough evidence of freddie just saving his voice on some days of live-performance. if one follows his performances through time and not just sticking to one or two concerts then you can recognise this very easily.
@@greenogre22 to be fair, it's a lot easier to get The note you need in a studio session when you can take as many takes as you need. Doing it live, he's doing some smart voice conservation, and that's the clever part. Whether he Can ever hit them isn't relevant; what is relevant is what he's doing there on the fly when he knows the note that he would normally do isn't going to happen the way he wants to.
I dont mean to be ”that guy” but most singers can do this. And trust me, Freddie has had some hilarious blunders too
@@thembill8246 that’s clear but anyway i must clarify that it’s possibly a false story that’s been told regarding his voice by some. in my novel above i‘ve also told about the „rock in rio - live performance the year before and also the life performance with cliff richard after 1986 where he indeed could reach all the high notes when he wanted to. moreover if you know more of the concerts you recognise that he never sang the songs always the same way even at his earlier times as he‘s stated once would be boring. so i‘m aware of his possible clever voice-saving attempts on some occasions when he‘s been exhausted or sick, but it’s also clear to me that many times he’s done it due to artistical reasons and i‘m also aware of him not having lost his ability to reach the high notes as he‘s shown shortly before and after 1986 in live-performances. it‘s on youtube. there are many people who say it even ever became better till near his end.
A Kind Of Magic from this show is epic, almost carnival like. Should check it out
I was there, at Knebworth, with my friends and my wife to be (now married 34 years) to see Queen perform with Freddie for the last time. It was an unforgettable experience, 140,000 fans in a natural bowl formed by the landscape and a huge stage at the bottom. The concert was a full day, supported by three other acts (Belouis Some (very forgettable), Big Country (superb) and Status Quo (not one of their finest performances). The day culminated with Queen coming on stage at 10:00pm to blow us all away with a magnificent performance, better than the Wembley gigs. BTW, you need to check out Big Country, especially their live sets, they were an awesome band.
I was at this gig. Nice memories.
Love my Queen! Thanks Doug. More Queen to come I hope!?
Three amazing songs - powerful and exciting as always from Queen. Freddie's voice here was so impressive as he hit all those great notes. Thank you, Doug.
The Who Wants to Live Forever Highlander montage always breaks me. Amazing.
Tie your mother down was their first hit and 1st album. One of the greatest intros to a song.🤘😎🤘
6:09 - You can hear Queens mysterious 5th band member playing here somewhere offstage.
Queen - the greatest. Period. Please watch Somebody to Love from Live in Montreal, 1981. You’ll be blown away by that performance.
The Greatest Band of all time ❤
Queen was epic live.....
I saw Queen live on one occasion in around 1978. I'm a musician, and played in local bands, and my brother was our sound man. Wanting to advance his career, my brother endeavored get into working for some professional sound companies, the kind that did rock concert tours.
He had the chance to be on tour with several big rock bands, the high point being on tour with Queen when they were following up their "Jazz" album.
When the tour came through our area, he arranged to get me and a friend into the show. The band put on a fantastic show!
I was on the front row at this concert, 12th July 1986. I was also at their final show at Knebworth Park, both were absolutely amazing
I had this on cassette tape back in high school in the early 90s. I wore this tape out. It pretty much lived in my Walkman.
I remember watching this gig live (it was livecast on the BBC) as it happened during my second year at uni.,.,a bunch of us clustered round the little TV in my friend's room with a ton of beer, it was awesome :)
Nice analysis! Frddie did have the flu at Wembley 1986. Freddie Mercury also recorded the Barcelona album alongside Montserrat Caballe just before the The Miracle album. It is a great album ,some of best work. You have to check out Barcelona - Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballe. Also some more early Queen, Queen II is a very progressive album. It would be to see you tackle, The Fairy Fellers Master-Stroke, it is a very quirky song.
I still have my A Kind of Magic album even though I no longer have a turntable. Who wants to live forever gives me chills every time. Tq for reacting to this. Memories of my teenage years. Greetings from Malaysia.
I was at the Wembley Saturday concert… as a 14 year old. Such great memories!
Great job Doug, but Freddie was a master at going for the lower notes if his voice was tired or sore. Also, you can hear Brian & Roger helping him out. I’m sure this was the night when it rained
It was Freddie’s husband Jim who suggested the last words ‘fried chicken’ 😁
Freddie IS the BEST ever!
Regrettably I never attended a Freddie fronted Queen concert, but I do have the DVD of this concert, (I also had vhs recordings of other concerts including Rio).
I regularly listen to this concert and to the 221 Queen tracks I have loaded on my phone.
The DVDs give an idea of what a QUEEN concert experience was like.
But, alas, they will never replace being there.
@@EgoShredder I have been to 3 concerts in New Zealand with Adam Lambert out front, he is good, but not Freddie. However the overall experience was great, although I did enjoy the arena gigs were better than the stadium tour (for me) as the atmosphere and view were better.
Intersting that you chose this version. This is the raw, as you heard it at the concert footage. There are a few overdubs on the official release.
Actually, the opening song, 'One Vision' was credited to the entire band, as much as Roger was the one who started the idea. The song was released in late 1985 and featured in the military action film "Iron Eagle".
Queen, one of the best bands ever!
I was there that day aged 12 back in 1986. best concert I've ever seen !
I was there on the Saturday night. I was 15. They were supported by INXS, The Alarm and Status Quo! I’ve been listening to a lot of Queen lately!
Thank you, Dr. D., especially for Who Wants To Live Forever. Sorry if this gets too personal, but it's long been one of my 2 songs as a go-to for those moments when I need to have a good cry, a cathartic release of emotion. I always ugly-cry when it's done. ( Which is why I don't listen to it while driving. 😉). "Who wants to live forever. . .when love must die." Simple, direct, yet spine-chilling moment.
Just a quick anecdote about the "fry chiken part". The band joined at the studio to work on a piece. That first song come up to be what we know now as "One Vision". But the reallity is that the got to the music first. Once they had the basic music structure, they started to put word on it. The metric of the lyric was set by Mercury, but not the words. So they used a Chinise Menu in which the name of the plates fit, more or less, into that metric. One of those were "fry chicken". And, as a joke, they left it just in the end of the album version. "just give me, give me, give me, fry chicken".
After that, Roger though that, as One Vision, was one of the lines they joked about, it could be related with the "A had a dream" speach, and he started to play with it, but, as Roger said and a few interviews, the rest of the band quickly took it to another thing completaly.
Please, check the "Making of...." video of One Vision to see how funny it was the creation of the song, in terms of music and lyrics. From Roger missing the metric of the lyrics leaving Freddie waitting for one more word that never come up, to one sentences beeing: "One turd, two tits, John Deacon" hahahahaha.
Also from that time in the studio, and the song, the famouse phrase "chicken feet baby" was born, to describe Deacon "moves" while playing the base.
Greatest front man of all time. He will never be topped!
Still love Queen and thank you all for your reactions!🌹
Spike Edney plays additional keys and guitar throughout the show. You can often see Brian exchanging glances with him.
When I wrote my thesis, I listened to this and other queen albums/concerts ALL the time. Rewatching/listening to this has me thinking about product-moment correlation coefficients. Mixed feelings, but Queen is never a bad thing.
i was there on the second night, amazing presence to how and audience
I was at that concert , it was a great line up , The Alarm , INXS , Status Quo & Queen.
I'm so glad you picked this version of Who Wants to Live Forever, the best in my opinion. I believe this was from the Friday show and Freddie's voice was better that night.
One Vision was featured prominently in the movie Iron Eagle.
DOUG,
I AM GIVING YOU A HUGE COMPLIMENT!!
YOU MANAGED TO FIND A CLIP OF “ONE VISION” AT WEMBLEY THAT HAS THE ORIGINAL RAW AUDIO… INSTEAD OF AUDIO OVERDUBBING THAT WAS ADDED TO A COUPLE OF FREDDIE’S VOCAL LINES LATER, WHEN THE VIDEO FOOTAGE WAS BEING EDITED/PREPARED FOR RELEASE. (I’ve watched allll of the various videos posted on YT of these shows - not that I’m Queen/Freddie obsessed or anything! …So I actually knew immediately, which source you got this from.)
GOOD JOB!!🫶
I was fortunate enough to see Queen at Knebworth a few days later - an incredible gig but sadly not filmed officially. So glad that the Wembley gigs were filmed - and that here we are 36 years later still celebrating the music of one of the greatest rock bands of all time - the sum of the parts greater than the parts alone which is saying something with Freddie on vocals, Brian on guitar, John on bass and Roger on drums and tiger skin trousers!!!! Although not in the same league (no one is) try The Darkness with "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" as they approach their twentieth anniversary. Brian certainly appreciates them!!!!
One of the few bands that I truly regret never seeing live.
I love watching your Queen reactions because of your music theory knowledge. It's fascinating to listen to you break down the musical progressions, chord changes, etc. Thanks and keep them coming!
My uncle was a sound engineer at Tyne Tees Television in the 1980s, and was part of the crew that filmed this. They were actually offered the Live Aid gig by Midge Ure a year earlier but turned it down as they thought it might bankrupt the company putting together such a massive operation, and it went to the BBC instead.
I think Doug should make the entire Queen II album...or at least a side.
Amazing to see and hear Freddy and the boys performing at Knebworth back in '86.
I think the reason why the Wembley show was released later is that they also filmed their concert in Budapest (which was recorded on film so it has better image quality) so they released the VHS for that gig in 1987. The Wembley gig was initially intended for TV broadcast only.
I am heavily biased but we fell in love with them again esp with Freddie and Brian when they performed a Hungarian folk song (Tavaszi szél) in Budapest.
This is a classic - they owned Live Aid. The DX7 was used on a lot of 80's music including Fleetwood Mac's Tango in tbe Night. The vocals on Who wants ... are phenomenal... live performances ... not a computer in sight
I was lucky enough to be there as a 13yr old. It was an amazing gig
I had no idea the nights not used for the official releases were available. Truly amazing.
A "Making of One Vision" video here on TH-cam documents the composing and recording of the song. There were several humorous alternative lyrics because they were struggling a bit. 😄
I remember that 🤣🤣🤣 "two long tits, John Deacon" and "chicken feed baby"
Man I was so used to the DVD version that the bass here had me blown away
IKR? I was go Deaky go!
Powerfull lyrics
There's no time for us
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Oh ooo oh
There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Ooh
Who dares to love forever
Oh oo woh, when love must die
But touch my tears with your lips
Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever
And we can love forever
Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever
Who wants to live forever
Forever is our today
Who waits forever anyway?
I was there Doug. My first gig ever. Support by Status Quo, the Alarm and a little known band on their first tour INXS!
After Forever w/ Steve Wilson did an excellent cover of Who Wants to Live Forever. It plays wells as a duet.
Glad to see a new Queen set here! Still waiting for White Queen live at Hammersmith. I think when you see it, you'll wish you had discovered it earlier. I enjoy your reactions.
Doug, have you reacted to "White Queen" at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1975 (forgive me if you have and I somehow missed it). A phenomenal performance!
As a huge Queen fan - only about 3 years as of now - I've been obsessed with the Queen bootleg concert community, who are constantly trying to discover as many (mostly audience) recordings as possible. This show is unanimously considered to be one of Freddie's worst nights vocally of this tour. His voice is phenomenal here, but that just shows how good he was on this tour.
Ah yes the Magic tour. This is easily my biggest regret, not being able to go see them on this tour before Freddie died. If only I knew in 1986 that he would be dead 5 years later. I managed to get to the Freddie Mercury tribute concert but it was never going to be quite the same as if Freddie was there. But still amazing standing in the midst of 90,000 people or so. That would make a great quiz question - What are the last 2 words of One Vision.
On One Vision the ending of "Fried Chicken" was held over from a studio run of the song where Freddie picked up a Chinese Take Out menu and started singing the items on the menu as the lyrics of the song. If you listen closely to the words on the long version of "The Making Of One Vision" video you will here him singing such things as "Chicken Feet, Baby". The band decided to leave the Fried Chicken in just for the fun of it all. Who Wants To Live Forever, one of my favorites.
Fact: Martin Luther King liked Fried Chicken as his favorite food.
@@JohnnyMegabyteCanada I wonder if anyone in the Band knew that information? Who doesn't love fried chicken??
I'm almost 60 and I say the best concert I ever saw was Queen with Thin Lizzy opening!
I think this was Friday night footage. The two nights are slightly different. It rained Friday and the guys had some fun with that. Freddie's voice was better at the Budapest concert called Hungarian Rhapsody from 27 July 1986. It's a great concert with footage of the guys having fun on their free time. The first concert behind the Iron curtain by a western rock band. If you haven't seen it you should definitely look it up. Love your reactions, Doug!
This is definitely the Saturday concert, pre overdubs and better mix.
I went to the Manchester concert for this tour... Still the best concert I've ever been to.
Vision and Mother is from the 06.12.86 saturday show while Who wants to live is from a day erlier 06.11.86 friday both from Wembley
who wants to live forever is going to be a masterpiece trough the ages......
The video release was probably delayed due the fact Queen signed with Hollywood Records (Disney) and Innuendo was their first studio release in 1991. Wembley 86 was their first release on Hollywood Records. Queen moved their entire catalogue to Hollywood Records. Wembley 86 was my favorite show, until Live In Montreal 1981 was released in the 2000's. I saw them on the Hot Space tour in Toronto, and my cousin was at THE Montreal show Hot Space 1981. Both video releases are equally as good. Both are phenomenal sounding, even the VHS.
Originally One vision was called "A kind of vision" with the tune to "A kind of magic", so one song made into two songs.
I saw Queen live in Koln in 86 best concert i wil ever see