Friday 23 August 2013

Mistakes & Omissions in the Liner Notes

Liner notes from albums give the public a general idea of who played what, etc. Sometimes they're quite specific, such on Guns 'n' Roses' Use Your Illusion I & II, where each song has its own credits; sometimes, they're quite vague.

When it came to Queen albums, liner notes usually mentioned the studios used, the month and year of recording sessions, who'd produced and a somewhat brief who-played-what. Sometimes they were vague, incomplete or they had some mistakes. Here's a partial list of that:

Queen (the début album): John Deacon's forename and surname are swapped (he's credited as Deacon John), several staff members are misspelt (Dave Siddle, Ted Sharp, Louis Austin). No mention of who played the organ on Liar.

Queen II: No mention of the additional backing vocals or the synthesiser (yes, there is a synthesiser) at the end of Seven Seas of Rhye. Nick Bradford isn't credited as engineer; nor is Roy Baker - he's only credited as producer but not as engineer.

Sheer Heart Attack: No mention of the organ on Now I'm Here.

A Night at the Opera: Only Freddie's credited for backing vocals, except for Bohemian Rhapsody. That effectively ignores Roger's backing vocals on Death on Two Legs, You're My Best Friend, '39, Sweet Lady and The Prophet's Song as well as Brian's backing vocals on Death on Two Legs, You're My Best Friend and Sweet Lady. There's no mention of the double-bass on Two Legs. If Roger did play rhythm guitar on I'm in Love with My Car (maybe he did, maybe he didn't), that's not mentioned either.

A Day at the Races: No mention of the additional people singing at the end of Teo Torriatte.

News of the World: Same backing vocals problem as Opera; Brian's not credited for piano on All Dead, All Dead; John's not credited for acoustic guitar on Spread Your Wings; no mention of the extras on We Will Rock You.

Jazz: There are no who-played-what credits at all. No mention of the additional people at the end of Let Me Entertain You.

The Game: Ditto. Andy Gibb may be there, by the way, but because he was an RSO artist there could've been contractual difficulties so he wasn't credited for backing vocals on Play the Game. Cameos like that happen all the time in music. No mention of the additional crowd on Dragon Attack or Mack's synth work on Rock It.

Flash Gordon: The orchestra's not mentioned, nor is the organ on Marriage of Dale and Ming.

Hot Space: No who played what credits at all. Loads of things are not cleared: Bowie's performance on Under Pressure (not just vocals but which instruments, if any, he played), the horn players on Staying Power (the arranger & producer is credited, but not the performers or the engineer) or the sax player on Action This Day.

The Works: No mention of who played what, except when it was someone outside the band (Fred Mandel and Reinhold Mack).

A Kind of Magic: No mention of some engineers (e.g., Stephan Wissnet, who's shown working on the One Vision sessions).

The Miracle: No performance credits, no mention of David Richards' additional synths though, to be fair, Brian Zellis does get a general credit for 'computer programming' or something like that, which may cover some MIDI things.

Innuendo: No mention of bits of The Fallen Priest being sampled and reversed near the end of I'm Going Slightly Mad.

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