Queen - Blurred Vision (1995)

After the 1971 demos resulted in a record deal with EMI, Queen spent 1972 recording their debut album for the label. They had quite a few songs ready to lay down, in fact more than could be fitted on the album, so 'Mad The Swine' had to be omitted from the final cut after producer Roy Thomas Baker and the band disagreed on the quality of the percussion. The song was meant to be the fourth track on the album between 'Great King Rat' and 'My Fairy King', but with the issue unresolved, the track was left off the album, and later re-surfaced in 1991 as both the B-side to the 'Headlong' CD single in the UK, and on the Hollywood Records re-release of the 'Queen' album. Another song recorded in 1972 was 'See What A Fool I've Been', which was used as the b-side to 'Seven Seas Of Rhye', making a classic single, with one of their best-ever songs on the A-side and a previously unheard song on the flip. After that flurry of productivity, however, b-sides tended to be taken from the same album as the single, or in some cases even the previous release, and it wasn't until 1980 that another single with an unissued track on the flip emerged, and from then on it was a regular occurrence. 'Blurred Vision', from 1985, is an experimental instrumental re-working of it's A-side 'One Vision', and it's great to hear the band trying something a bit different, while similarly, 'Forever' is a beautiful piano version of 'Who Wants To Live Forever'. The only non-album A-side they ever issued was their 1984 Christmas single, and that was something of a last minute decision, as originally the plan was to release 'Man On The Prowl' as the 5th and last 7" single from 'The Works' album, but it was cancelled at the last minute in favour of a new song 'Thank God It's Christmas', although it kept the same catalogue number. Being Queen, there isn't a bad song on this album, even though they are all basically left-overs, and I might be wrong but I couldn't find any sign of an official b-sides collection from the band ever being released, so it makes this album rather special. 

Track listing

01 See What A Fool I've Been (b-side of 'Seven Seas Of Rhye' 1974)
02 Mad The Swine (previously unreleased 1972, and b-side of 'Headlong' 1991)
03 A Human Body (b-side of 'Play The Game' 1980)
04 Soul Brother (b-side of 'Under Pressure' 1981)
05 Thank God It's Christmas (single 1984)
06 Blurred Vision (b-side of 'One Vision' 1985)
07 I Go Crazy (b-side of 'Radio Ga Ga' 1983)
08 Forever (Piano Version) (b-side of 'Who Wants To Live Forever' 1986)
09 Hijack My Heart (b-side of 'The Invisible Man' 1989)
10 A Dozen Red Roses For My Darling (b-side of 'A Kind Of Magic' 1986)
11 Hang On In There (b-side of 'I Want It All' 1989)
12 Stealin' (b-side of 'Breakthru' 1989)
13 Chinese Torture (from the 'A Kind Of Magic' bonus EP 1989)
14 Lost Opportunity (b-side of 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' 1991)
15 Rock In Rio Blues (b-side of 'A Winter's Tale' 1995)


You might also like this reworking of 1989's 'The Miracle' that I spotted on another blog last year. I pieced it together using the suggested track listing and made a cover for it, and now for the life of me I can't remember where I got it from, but I have saved the notes from the blog in the folder.