Band : Queen
Venue : Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
Date : 1. May 1975
Title : Emperors of Japan
Lineage :
Source 1 : AUD > "Song Brothers" master tape > ? > "Young Nobles Of Rock"
(Tarantura) silvers > EAC > WAV > Har-Bal > Wavelab > WAV > Cool
Edit Pro (small hiss reduction) > WAV > Traders Little Helper >
FLAC level 8 (*)
Source 2 : AUD >
"Killing Me Softly" (Wardour) silvers > EAC > WAV > Cool Edit
Pro (strong hiss reduction) > WAV (**)
Source 3 : AUD > ? > CD(x) > WAV > Cool Edit Pro (speed correction,
equalisation ) > WAV (***)
Source 4 : "Queen II" (album) > EAC > WAV (****)
Source 5 : "A Night At The Opera" (album) > EAC > WAV (*****)
Source 6 : Studio > vinyl flexidisc > Thorens TD160 turnable > ADC : Sony
PCM601ES (emphasis on) > digi clone > Sony DCT77ES (emphasis on) >
digi clone > Marantz CDR620 (emphasis on) > WAV > Cool Edit Pro (
hiss and cracks / pops removal, speed correction) > WAV (^)
Source 7 : Radio (The All Japan Pop 20) > tape(x) > "A Night At The Nagoya"
(Wardour) bootleg > WAV > Cool Edit Pro (hiss reduction) > WAV (^^)
Technical info
Comments from QueenLive.ca :
This is the last concert of the Sheer Heart Attack tour, and the performance
is incredible. The show can be seen as a culmination of early Queen, as the
band would move into their next epoch and mature in many ways with the
creation and success of A Night At The Opera.
The band play their guts out tonight, and perform nearly every song with
unique embellishments. They are clearly appreciative of the Japanese fans
throughout the show. All this, as well as some rare choices for songs, make
this a very special final night of the world tour. Many of the songs are long
and full of energy, even moreso than usual. Brian plays a daringly long and
creative guitar solo in Son And Daughter (including part of the traditional
Japanese folk song "Sakura", something which he'd often play in Japan over the
years), and they turn in an extra long version of Liar. But there really is no
point of highlighting individual things, as the entire concert is really
a highlight of their career to this point.
The band came on for the encore dressed in kimonos, somehow turning up the
excitement of the ecstatic audience a notch. The band finish up with a rare
performance of the B-side See What A Fool I've Been, bringing a hugely
successful first Japanese tour to a close.
One notable thing about these early Japanese shows is that Freddie is just
learning how to communinicate with larger audiences, but he's not having too
much success, since most the audience members don't speak English! It really
is amazing how bands like The Beatles, Deep Purple, Queen, and Cheap Trick
were so successful in a country where most of their fans couldn't understand
a word of their music - which goes to show how powerful music is and how it
can transcend cultural barriers.
The show was filmed, and three songs (Now I'm Here, Killer Queen, and In The
Lap Of The Gods...Revisited) were soon broadcast on TV, along with some press
conference footage and a few shots of the boys having a picnic with a few
locals. There is speculation as to whether or not the remaining footage of the
show still exists.
The concert footage was previously attributed to the April 19 show, as it was
labeled as such on The Magic Years documentary. But upon closer examination,
these three songs are definitely from May 1. Some of the footage of Now I'm
Here was broadcast again on Japanese TV in 2004 in a documentary on the band
called "The Jewels." On both documentaries, part of the audio of Now I'm Here
is actually from London '74, a choice made by the compilers of the former
probably because the screaming Japanese fans drowned out the music.
It is worth noting that since this is the final performance of the Sheer Heart
Attack tour, it is the last time In The Lap Of The Gods would be performed.
Tonight also marks the last time the full version of Great King Rat would be
heard live. It would be revived, albeit in much shorter form, in 1984.
Comment from Collector's Music Reviews :
Young Nobles Of Rock is the very first Queen release on the prolific and
enduring Tarantura label. This title contains a new tape source for Queen’s
May 1, 1975 show at the Budokan in Tokyo. Several older sources exist with
the first appearing on a rare Japanese vinyl titled Kimono My Place Live (Marc
TC-75122) released in 1976 and copied on Stunning Live In Tokyo on Rodan
Records. This tape source is very good but incomplete, covering only
forty-minutes of the two hour show and containing "Procession," "Now I’m Here,"
"Great King Rat," "Killer Queen," "Seven Seas Of Rhye," "Hangman (Shag Out),"
"In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited," "See What A Fool I’ve Been," and "God Save
The Queen." Three songs from this source, "Jailhouse Rock," "See What A Fool
I’ve Been," and "God Save The Queen" was released on compact disc on Great
King Hangman in 2000 along with a fragment from Queen’s April 19 show at the
Budokan. A second complete audience recording was used for First Live Attack
(Private Masters PM-007/008). The sound quality of this is fair to good, very
distant with the screams of the girls in the audience frequently drowning out
the music. Private Masters packaged this in a slimline double jewel case with
a replica of the concert ticket. Wardour released Killing Me Softy
(Wardour-004) in 2004 and contains a better sounding mono recording. "Now I’m
Here" and "Ogre Battle" are incomplete and the source from First Live Attack
was used to complete the songs. The concert was also professionally
videotaped and three songs, "Now I’m Here," "Killer Queen," and "In The Lap Of
The Gods… Revisited" were broadcast on television. The new tape source found
on the Tarantura release is a virtually complete stereo audience recording
produced by "Song Brothers." He was very close to the stage and was able to
capture the dynamics of the performance in detail making this one of the very
best audience recordings for the early Queen.
This is the final live show on the Sheer Heart Attack and the end of their
first very successful visit to Japan. "Killer Queen" was number one on the
charts and the band played eight sold out shows throughout the country. The
tape begins when the lights go down and records the entire taped introduction
"Procession" which leads directly with their travelogue "Now I’m Here."
Freddie sounds a tad self-conscious afterwards as he speaks to the audience in
Japanese. "It looks like we’re gonna have some fun tonight." After the live
staple "Ogre Battle," the band play "Great King Rat," a real rarity. Except
for the BBC sessions, there are only a handful of early live references to
this song including the April 21st, 1974 New Orleans and the May 4th 1974
Waterbury, Connecticut tapes. It would be resurrected ten years for the Works
tour, but it is great to have such a great sounding recording. "White Queen
(As It Began)," a song described Innuendoes author Sylv as pure poetry,
emotion, and the beginning and end of "March Of The Black Queen" in the story
of Lily and the Phoenix, follows and features a lyrical guitar solo from May.
"We’re gonna do a number we haven’t done in a long long while. But as this is
our last show on the world tour, it’s very nice to end it in Tokyo, and we’ll
do it especially for you" is Freddie’s introduction to the still unreleased
song "Hangman." This again appears on a small number of early tapes but not
in this sound quality. A studio recording has been rumored to exists, but
have been constantly denied by the band and such a recording has never
surfaced. After "Doing All Right" the band play a medley of the songs mostly
from the last two albums. The "early medley" first appeared about this time
and is a feature of the set they would retain until their final tour.
Three songs from Sheer Heart Attack are included beginning with "In The Lap Of
The Gods." There are few live recordings of this song since it was dropped
after this show, never to return again. The studio recording relies upon the
treated, slowed down vocals which are absent from the stage version. "Killer
Queen" follows and despite being their biggest hit at the time isn’t played
complete, ending after the guitar solo with the final verse dropped. "The
March Of The Black Queen" is simply the final heavy section ("I rule with my
left hand / I rule with my right / I’m king of all darkness / I’m Queen of the
night") and is segued with an instrumental reduction of the fun track "Bring
Back That Leroy Brown."
The first disc ends with an extended version of "Son And Daughter." The early
showcase for May’s solo, he plays for ten minutes and includes a reference to
"Sakura Sakura" in the middle. "Keep Yourself Alive" contains a short drum
solo by Roger, who afterwards introduces Freddie Mercury as "Fredrick" before
"Seven Seas Of Rhye." "In The Lap Of The Gods…Revisited" is the last song of
the set. With its apocalyptic chorus and communal spirit, it remains one of
their most effective closers which would be dropped in the future only to
reappear on their last tour as part of the early medley. This is followed by
two minutes of audience applause as they wait for the encores. The mc speaks
in Japanese over the PA system, telling the crowd to put out the candles. The
first encore begins with "Big Spender" and includes Taylor’s Black Sabbath
inspired "Modern Times Rock And Roll" in an undifferentiated medley with the
oldies. None of the tunes lasts for more than a minute and a half and are
played with the same furious tempo, but it’s great fun to hear Freddie work
the crowd as the show reaches the two-hour mark. The final song of this long
show is a live performance of "See What A Fool I’ve Been," one of Queen’s rare
blues songs.
Comments from stark :
Firstly, this recording has been crushed by excessive compression (sometime
since the introduction of digital limiters, so an uncompressed master SHOULD
exist), and it's all but impossible to undo. However, by correcting the
equalisation I have minimised the effect and increased the peak-to-average
ratio (dynamic range) by about 4dB. As the original has a ratio of about
9dB (!!), this represents a significant difference. Please note that if you
are comparing this version with the original, it will sound quieter.
The bulk of the equalisation was done with Har-Bal. I then applied high- and
low-pass filters with a Waves Renaissance 2-band eq and brought it back up to
level (-0.2dB) with a Waves L3 limiter in Wavelab. I have re-tracked the
songs, corrected the balance between left and right channels and applied
new fades.
Comments from pittrek :
Stark's remaster was fantastic, but there were a couple of things which I
didn't like. First of all, stark doesn't use denoisers, which is usually a good
idea, since you can damage the sound completely if you don't know what you're
doing. However this recording had some small amount of hiss, which got pretty
annoying during the silent parts, that's why I've done a very careful hiss
reduction in Cool Edit Pro. There were 2 cuts in the original bootleg, so
I have filled the gaps with the Wardour bootleg and an unbootleged 5th source.
I have used a little cheat at the beginning and the end of the concert to make
it sound better. Since they used taped intro and outro, I have created for
both tracks a matrix between the audience recording and the album track.
Tracklist :
Disc 1
1. Procession (matrix of * / ****)
2. Now I'm Here (*)
3. Ogre Battle (*)
4. Great King Rat (*)
5. White Queen (As It Began) (*)
6. Flick Of The Wrist (*)
7. Hangman (*)
8. Doin' Alright (*)
9. In The Lap Of The Gods (*)
10. Killer Queen (*)
11. The March Of The Black Queen (*)
12. Bring Back That Leroy Brown (*)
13. Son And Daughter (*)
Disc 2
1. Keep Yourself Alive (*)
2. Seven Seas Of Rhye (*)
3. Stone Cold Crazy (*)
4. Liar (*)
5. In The Lap Of The Gods ...revisited (*)
6. Waiting for encore (* / **)
7. Big Spender (*)
8. Modern Times Rock'n'Roll (*)
9. Jailhouse Rock (*)
10. Stupid Cupid (*)
11. Be Bop A Lula (*)
12. Jailhouse Rock (reprise) (*)
13. Waiting for encore (* / ***)
14. See What A Fool I've Been (*)
15. God Save The Queen (matrix of * and *****)
16. Bonus - transfer from "Musiclife" flexidisc (^)
17. Bonus - interview (All Japan Pop 20) part 1 (^^)
18. Bonus - interview (All Japan Pop 20) part 2 (^^)
Keep it lossless ! Convert to lossy formats (e.g. mp3) ONLY for your personal
use, like your portable mp3 player. NEVER trade or share it in lossy formats !
If you share it elsewhere, always include this text document and full lineage !
Thanks to ...
Song Brothers ... for taping this fantastic show
Tarantura ... for releasing a wonderful bootleg of this show
bootLuca ... for sharing it on Queenzone
stark ... for his wonderful remaster
SirGH ... for providing me the alternate sources
Vali ... for the cover
Made by pittrek 2009
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