|
 Accompanied by just a piano, the late Queen frontman sings a
simpler version of the track he recorded as a solo artist with
British musician, songwriter and producer Dave Clark for the
"Time" concept album of the London musical of the same name.
The new version, released under its full title "Time Waits For
No One", provides a moving rendition of the song about not
knowing what is around the corner.
Mercury died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1991.
"It's just Freddie and piano and it really shows what an amazing
performer, an amazing range he had," Clark, who found the
recording after years of searching, told Reuters.
"It gave me goosebumps because it's the way he performs it, like
he tastes every word."
Clark, who led the Dave Clark Five band in the 1960s, worked
with various singers for "Time" the album. Mercury sang two
songs, the title track and "In My Defence", recorded in 1985.
When he joined Clark again at Abbey Road Studios in January
1986, the session recorded 48 tracks of backing vocals for
"Time". The final version ended up with 96 tracks.
But Clark said he always remembered that first rehearsal of
Mercury singing alongside keyboardist Mike Moran on the piano.
"I kept thinking about it," he said. "A decade after, I felt I'd
love to hear the original and I went back and I couldn't find it
because it was 96 tracks."
[to top of second column] |
"A few years later I got my engineer to go down and go through
everything, we couldn't find it ... Then at the end of 2017, we gave
another try and we found it, which was wonderful."
The song's video was recorded in a four-camera shoot in 1986, and
the original 35mm film was put away.
Clark, 76, restored the negatives to add video for this version and
brought in Moran to record a new piano track.
"This is about a celebration of Freddie, what an amazing
contribution he did to our music industry," he said of Thursday's
release. On working with Mercury, Clark said the star preferred
recording in the evening, going "100 miles an hour".
A 1986 interview shows Clark and Mercury discussing the song, with
Mercury saying he wanted to put his stamp on it.
"When we first met he said, 'But how can I do this song?' and I said
to him, 'I want a cross between Edith Piaf, Jennifer Holliday and
Shirley Bassey'," Clark says in the interview.
Mercury then replies: "I said 'David, I have all their dresses, I
can do it perfectly'."
(Reporting By Marie-Louise Gumuchian, Editing by William Maclean)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
