Beach Boys cover Queen

[matt-zeus]

My fave band of all time (just above the BB and Led Zepp) is Queen (who in many ways are the combination of the BB and Led Zepp), the BB influence on Queen is great (who covered 'I can hear music' early on in their career under a different name - in fact Freddie Mercurys vocal is better than Carls!).
Anyway, to get to the point, I read online once a few years ago that the BB covered Queens 'You take my breath away' (from their 1976 LP 'A day at the races'), I'm not sure if it was finished or what year it was done or anything, or even if this was true. Does anyone have any information regarding it?

[Mitchell]

I read the same thing and had the same reaction as you, but alas, it is a fake. The alleged cover took place at the cocaine sessions where Brian and Dennis recorded music while sitting at a piano. This page says that they covered the song, but I recall many people on this board saying that this bootleg was not real. Too bad, too.

[Aegir]

Imagine the Beach Boys doing Bohemian Rhapsody?

That's what I was hoping this thread would be about when I saw the title.. a previously-unheard Bohemian Rhapsody bootleg. Alas.

[Mitchell]

Too bad they'd have to have had covered it in the mid-late 70s and therefore not have their  top voices for it. Could any of them have hit that B-flat (or so I have read) right before the solo?

[teardropcity]

Isnt there some kind of quote somewhere from Brian in the 70's saying that the music of Queen "scared him"?

[Mitchell]

I'd be interested in reading THAT. I'd love to know more about Queen's love of the Beach Boys, too. I never really heard much about their influences aside from Cream/Zep/Beatles/Who/Hendrix but I figure the BBs would have to be in there.

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Ive often wondered if their original name "smile" had something to do with the beach boys also another slight connection was that freddies first solo release was "i can hear music" under the name larry lurex

[Mitchell]

Yeah, Brian and Roger played on that, too. I think I read somewhere that Freddie loved Pet Sounds and was listening to it while working on A Night at the Opera, but I don't remember where I read it.

[Roger Ryan]

Isnt there some kind of quote somewhere from Brian in the 70's saying that the music of Queen "scared him"?

This could have been another example of "Brianspeak". I've noticed that Brian has oftened referred to strong, effective musical moments as "scary" in his own work and others'. He has also talked of the intro to Pink Floyd's "Time" as terrifying, but regularly praises "Dark Side Of The Moon" as one of his favorite albums.

[c-man]

Brian talks at fairly great length about "Bohemian Rhapsody" in a 1976 interiew with Circus magazine.
I'd have to dig to find it.  Can't remember if he said it "scared" him, but if he did, he meant it in a competitive kind way.  I remember he said something like "They went right in the studio and just freaked out!". 

C-Man

[Mitchell]

If you could dig that up, I'd love to read it!

[matt-zeus]

My favourite Queen album is Queen II from 1974, which has a heavy BB influence mostly on the vocals (tons and tons of harmonies), but the whole album is stunning, especially side two (all written by Freddie) which just all flows into one. Its essential!!!!!! My fave album of all time.

[Rocker]

If you could dig that up, I'd love to read it!

Me too...

[Howdy Doody]

I love Queen very much.

[Chris Brown]

I would also love to hear Brian's comments on Bohemian Rhapsody...always seemed like a direct homage to Brian's modular technique, as well as his vocal arranging. 

[Mitchell]

I don't really hear the "Beach Boys sound" in Bohemian Rhapsody, actually. I mean, obviously there is a very strong vocal harmony element (a reason I now know why I love both bands) but I don't really make the direct connection. I think there are some very "Beach Boys/Phil Spector" sounds on Queen II, like the end of Father to Son (the harmonies during "and my letter to you will stay by your side through the years") and especially Funny How Love Is. I guess the fact that they are such full, rich, thick harmonies makes it that way (i.e., double-tracked, more than three parts).

In general, how would one distinguish the "Beach Boys sound"? That gets thrown around a lot, and usually it's because there's a harmony with a falsetto (weezer and Green Day's Jesus of Suburbia have been described as having Beach Boys-like harmonies, for example). Surely the Beach Boys had something more special than that.

[humanoidboogie]

Brian talks at fairly great length about "Bohemian Rhapsody" in a 1976 interiew with Circus magazine.
I'd have to dig to find it.  Can't remember if he said it "scared" him, but if he did, he meant it in a competitive kind way.  I remember he said something like "They went right in the studio and just freaked out!". 

C-Man

ANy luck with finding that article yet? 

[absinthe_boy]

I was at a Queen tribute band gig last weekend, and I admit I'd not listened to much of the music in the last decade. As a kid I was a huge Queen fan and still am I suppose, just don't get the time to listen to as much of my "back catalogue" collection as I used to before wife and work came along

It struck me that there are BB/Brian influences in Queen's music and use of the studio. Whether they realised it or not, the use of vocal harmony is quite BB-esque. And Queen always had immaculate studio recordings, often with complex multi-tracking...building up songs layer after layer. Of course by 1975 this was becoming fairly common but Queen made greater use of the studio facilities of the day than most bands did.

Also the structure of a lot of Queen songs, with often two or three different melodies and tempos...seems to owe something to Brian. While obviously most of Queen's music is heavier than the BB's work, I can hear influences there...though maybe unconscious on Queen's part. Someone ask Brian May I suppose...