A lot of overdubs on top.
That's a sort of a bit of a mixture, that's a mish-mash really, there's sort of quite machine like in some ways, but with sort of African overtones. There's a lot of sort of percussion on top that I did, on top of that one, so there's all sorts of things happening, but they made me take most of it out of course, to make room for the guitars… and the vocals.
Rain Must Fall is mostly synthesizer; I did the drums and the sequencing on the Linn 9000. I also have an Atari / C-Lab setup at home now, but I find the Linn stops you getting too involved, otherwise you can spend hours shifting notes around.
I'm not sure whether Freddie was a hundred per cent over the moon about this album. He was very pleased with the result but perhaps he found it a little strange to be working in partnership with the other three members again after having to please only one other person for the past two-and-a-half years. This was the first album where all the tracks were suddenly credited to the band as a whole as opposed to each separate member. Maybe this stopped some arguments and made the accountants' lives easier but in the studio things were just as fractious. As anybody in a long-term marriage knows, which is basically what the Queen partnership was, tantrums and walkouts have to happen so that people can make up, get back together again and let life be good once more. However, for the record, I can assert that Khashoggi's Ship is Freddie's. Party was, of course, Roger's [sic]. The Miracle itself was a true studio collaborative creation. I Want It All is down to Brian. Rain Must Fall is Freddie… The guitar is the giveaway where Brian's tracks are concerned. The guitar work on them is unrestrained although he was very happy to contribute what was wanted of him on all the other tracks. The band didn't change their time-honoured way of working just because the accreditation had been changed.
Very much a Deacon area.