Notes:

Mike and I are Queen fans from way back, and we conceived a project for several purposes: to help me test and get proficient with my new 8 track (then 16 track) recorder, to learn how to do complicated stacked vocal parts, and, on my part, as a way to get Mike back into music after he’d taken a break after leaving Brat.

We did these in two batches, the first four with my brother Mitch on drums. We also recorded Leaving Home Ain’t Easy, but it came out too poorly to keep. These are admittedly very half-ass versions and in no way meant for public consumption, I merely include them here as an interesting way of seeing how the band Vengeance progressed.

We recorded these between Predator and Malicious Intent, and the second batch right before Bad Crazy, and you can easily see how they influenced us on those albums.

Since the studio was in my house, I did the lion’s share of rhythm parts and backing stuff, because I could just walk in and do it at any time, but I left most of the lead solos for Mike, since he’s a huge May fan. I did do almost all the stacked harmony guitar, however. Sleeping on the Sidewalk was done in one take (out of several tries) with the bass, guitar and drums the original, live in the studio with no overdubs tracks. The vocals were added later.

Some other interesting stuff: I didn’t have a good piano sound keyboard at the time (this was just before I got the Ensoniq) so I dubbed Freddy’s piano part at the beginning of Just You and I on to the beginning, you can hear it drop out subsequently. The only keys I had at the time were a very old and beat ARP synthesizer, but it works for the few songs on which I used it.

Fight From the Inside is a song I was always very high on, so I did all the parts myself, as Taylor did on their album. Sail Away Sweet Sister is a blend of Mike and me on lead vocals on almost all of it.
There are plenty of time breaks, awkward vocal moments, bad mixing, out of tune backing vocals and broken drum rolls, but the intent of these sessions was merely an exercise, they weren’t meant to be polished for release.

We did try to do most of them as well as we were able, but if something came out under par we didn’t alway do innumerable tries at getting it right, as we did on the Bad Crazy backing vocals. We would frequently spend an entire 8-12 hour night getting one song done, then go back and listen to it, deem it unsatisfactory, and clear the tracks and start over. This was not the case on these songs.

However, they did help me learn how to utilize my tracks to stack 32 part harmonies, the best way to arrange them, how to figure them out and notate them, then record each part, how to do counter-melodies and backing vocals that don’t necessarily follow the lead vocals, but work within the chord, etc.

Please take these for what they are, interesting artifacts in our evolution, and not polished product meant for release. They are what they are, and I put them up with no embarrassment because they are work tapes, rehearsal for the real deal. Judge us on the Bad Crazy, Love Kills and other stacked vocals we did for release.