Mr Bad Guy (Special Edition - Remastered) Freddie Mercury

• 1 Let's Turn It On (Special Edition) 03:41
• 2 Made In Heaven (Special Edition) 04:08
• 3 I Was Born To Love You (Special Edition) 03:39
• 4 Foolin' Around (Special Edition) 03:28
• 5 Your Kind Of Lover (Special Edition) 03:33
• 6 Mr. Bad Guy (Special Edition) 04:10
• 7 Man Made Paradise (Special Edition) 04:10
• 8 There Must Be More To Life Than This (Special Edition) 02:59
• 9 Living On My Own (Special Edition) 03:23
• 10 My Love Is Dangerous (Special Edition) 03:41
• 11 Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow (Special Edition) 03:45
• Total Runtime 40:37

Info for Mr Bad Guy (Special Edition - Remastered)

For this 2019 ‘special edition’ of the “Mr Bad Guy” album, sound team Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson have taken the very best original source material available. They went back not to previously remastered and mixed tapes, but to the original source multi-track tapes, so that they could build a new mix true to Freddie’s original versions, now taking advantage of the time, resources and technology that Freddie may not have originally had available to him in the 1980s. All offer ultimate quality, first generation vocals showing off Freddie’s incredible vocal range.

In early 1983, hot on the heels of exhaustive Queen tours of Europe, Canada, North America and Japan, Freddie and German record producer Reinhold Mack returned to Musicland studios in Munich to commence recording sessions for Freddie’s first solo album. Mack had already forged a working relationship with the band, having co-produced Flash Gordon, The Game and Hot Space.

What emerged in April 1985, was a rich fusion of material spanning the entire spectrum of human emotion; from the upbeat optimism of I Was Born To Love You and Let’s Turn It On, to the subdued poignancy of Love Me Like There’s No Tomorrow and There Must Be More To Life Than This.

For the most part, Mr Bad Guy finds Freddie in typically jovial mood, enjoying a particularly creative period, and in fine voice. The music is vibrant and the lyrics as candid as ever, taking on issues never very far from Freddie’s consciousness, evident on songs like Living On My Own, Your Kind Of Lover, Foolin’ Around, My Love Is Dangerous and the album’s semi-autobiographical title track.

Freddie: “I’ve put my heart and soul into this album. It has some very moving ballads - things to do with sadness and pain, but at the same time they’re frivolous and tongue-in-cheek, because that’s my nature. I’ve wanted to do a solo album for a long time and the rest of the band have encouraged me to do it. I wanted to cover such things as reggae rhythms and I’ve done a couple of things with a symphony orchestra. It has a very rich sound and it’s very beat orientated. I think it’s a very natural album, and I hope people will like my voice."

“I’m possessed by love. I’m a romantic. I’m also a man of extremes. I think the songs on this album reflect the state of my life; a diverse selection of moods. I wanted to write a batch of songs that came out under the name of Freddie Mercury. It’s not like starting a new career, it’s more like going off at a tangent. I feel I’m doing this with all the experience I’ve gained with Queen. But this is just me. I’m in control."

“It’s like painting a picture; you have to step away from it to see what it’s like. I’m stepping away from Queen and I think it’s going to give everybody a shot in the arm. But of course I’ll be working with Queen again, there’s no doubt about that."

“Yes, I would like it to be successful. It matters to me a lot. I’ve made a piece of music which I want to be accepted in the biggest way possible. But I’m not worried about the fact that it might not be successful, because if it isn’t, I will just go out and make another one.”

Originally titled Made In Heaven, Freddie changed his mind just weeks prior to the album going to press, preferring instead the aptness, as he perceived it, of Mr Bad Guy. However, Made In Heaven was destined to provide Roger, Brian and John with a fitting title to the final Queen album - albeit a decade later, in November 1995. For that project, the three remaining band members would painstakingly piece together the vocals left behind by Freddie – recorded in Montreux during his last months - to make a seamless final album. They would also respectfully revisit two of Freddie’s songs from Mr Bad Guy - I Was Born To Love You and Made In Heaven. As you might expect, Queen’s ‘re-visited’ versions are very different to the originals.

Freddie: “Basically, I was lost for a title, but as far as I’m concerned album titles are immaterial. I didn’t know what to call it, but I had what I thought was a very beautiful track called Made In Heaven, which seemed to conjure up an image of some kind. But to be honest, I’m not really worried about it. It’s what you listen to that matters, not what the title is. Don’t judge a book by its cover! - although, there is a beautiful photograph of me on this cover.”

Freddie Mercury, vocals, piano, synthesizer
Paul Vincent, guitar
Fred Mandel, piano, synthesizer, guitar
Stephan Wissnet, bass, [Fairlight], synthesizer, drum programming
Curt Cress, drums

Digitally remastered

Freddie Mercury
The life of Farrokh Bulsara began on the East African island of Zanzibar on September 5, 1946. 25 years later in London under the name of Freddie Mercury he was fronting the now legendary rock group named Queen.

The son of Bomi and Jer Bulsara, Freddie spent the bulk of his childhood in India where he attended St. Peter's boarding school. He began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. No one could foresee where a love of music would take him.

The Bulsara family moved to Middlesex in 1964 and from there Freddie joined up with a blues band called Wreckage while studying graphic design courses at Ealing College of Art. While singing for Wreckage, a fellow student introduced Freddie to Roger Taylor and Brian May, founder members of a band called Smile. Smile metamorphosed into Queen when Freddie joined Roger and Brian as the lead vocalist. The final member of the band, which was to stay together for the next 20 years, was bassist John Deacon, who joined the band on 1st of March 1971.

The rest is rock history. EMI Records and Elektra Records signed the band and in 1973 their debut album 'Queen' was released and hailed as one of the most exciting developments ever in rock music.

The immortal operatically styled single 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was released in 1975 and proceeded to the top of the UK charts for 9 weeks. A song that was nearly never released due to its length and unusual style but which Freddie insisted would be played became the instantly recognisable hit. By this time Freddie's unique talents were becoming clear, a voice with a remarkable range and a stage presence that gave Queen its colourful, unpredictable and flamboyant personality

Very soon Queen's popularity extended beyond the shores of the UK as they charted and triumphed around Europe, Japan and the USA where in 1979 they topped the charts with Freddie's song 'Crazy Little thing Called Love'.

Queen was always indisputably run as a democratic organisation. All four members are each responsible for having penned number one singles for the band. This massive writing strength combined with spectacular lights, the faultless sound, a sprinkling of theatricality and Freddie's balletic movements made up Queen on stage and on film.

Through Freddie's ability to project himself and the band's music and image to the four corners of 70,000 seater venues they became known as the prime developers of stadium rock, a reputation perpetuated by their pioneering tactics in South America where in 1981 they performed to 231,000 fans in Sao Paulo, a world record at the time. They also became known as the key innovators of pop videos as their catalogue of 3-minute clips became more and more adventurous in style, size and content.

Their phenomenal success continued around the globe throughout the 80's highlighted in 1985 by their show-stealing and unforgettable performance on stage at Live Aid.

In the mid 80's, Freddie started concentrating on his solo career, which was to run in tandem with Queen ("the mothership") for several albums commencing with the 1985 release of 'Mr. Bad Guy'. Freddie's much loved sense of self-parody reached a zenith with his cover version of The Platter's song 'The Great Pretender' in 1987, the video of which recorded him descending a sweeping staircase among acres of identical cardboard cutouts of himself.

His first major collaboration outside Queen was with Dave Clark for the recording of London's West End musical Time, in 1986. This was followed in 1987 with the realisation of one of Freddie's long-term dreams; to record with the world revered opera diva Montserrat Caballé. The LP's title song, 'Barcelona' went on to become an anthem for Señora Caballé's home city and the theme for the Olympics in 1992.

While most publicly recognised as the front man to one of the most progressive rock bands of the 70's, Freddie defied the stereotype. A taste for venturing into new territories - a trait that was to have a marked influence on the direction Queen would take - took Freddie to explore his interests in a wide spectrum of the arts, particularly in the areas of ballet, opera and theatre, even taking a participating role: in October 1977 the sell-out audience of a charity gala at the London Coliseum organised by Royal Ballet Principal dance Wayne Eagling received the surprise of an unannounced appearance by a silver-sequinned leotard-clad Freddie performing an intricate routine choreographed for him by Eagling. In 1987 he made a one-night appearance in Dave Clark's Time at the Dominion Theatre, although legend has it Freddie occasionally turned up at the theatre to support friend Clark's musical, one night selling ice-creams in the stalls! Freddie would have loved the fact that The Dominion now plays host to the band's phenomenally successful musical We Will Rock You which has now held the Dominion stage eight years longer than Time's two year run.

Freddie returned to the studios to record 'Innuendo' with Queen in 1990.

In November 24th, 1991, Freddie's struggle against AIDS ended when he passed away just over 24 hours after he had publicly announced he had the disease. Musicians and fans from all over the world paid their highest respects as the passing of rock's most innovative, flamboyant ambassador signified the end of an era at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992 which gave birth to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the AIDS charity set up in Freddie's memory by the remaining members of Queen and Freddie's Executor, Jim Beach.

Freddie Mercury, who majored in stardom while giving new meaning to the word showmanship, left a legacy of songs, which will never lose their stature as classics to live on forever. Some of the most poignant of these were immortalised on the Queen album 'Made In Heaven' released in November 1995. The sleeve of the album shows a view from Freddie's Montreux home.

Despite twenty years having passed since Freddie lost his life to HIV complications, he remains in the minds of millions throughout the world as one of the greatest artists we will ever see. In September 2010 (coincidentally, around Freddie's 64th birthday) a poll carried out among rock fans saw him named the Greatest Rock Legend Of All Time, beating Elvis Presley to claim the title, and ahead of David Bowie, Jon Bon Jovi, Jimi Hendrix and Ozzy Osbourne.

A spokesman for OnePoll.com which conducted the poll said: "Freddie Mercury had it all, the voice, the image, the stage presence, everything.

He combined his ear for music with an ability to deliver to stadium audiences and as such millions were devastated when HIV killed him in 1991. His legend will live on forever". (OnePoll.Com. September 6, 2010)

This album contains no booklet.