Freddie Mercury returns in release of stripped-back version of 'Time'

Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury performs in Germany. Picture: Marco Arndt/AP

Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury performs in Germany. Picture: Marco Arndt/AP

Published Jun 20, 2019

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London - A stripped-back version of

Freddie Mercury performing the song "Time" was released on

Thursday, the result of a long search for the 1986 recording

made at London's Abbey Road Studios.

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."

"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'."

Reuters

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