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Liar (Queen song)

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"Liar"
Song
B-side"Doing All Right"

"Liar" is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by the lead singer Freddie Mercury in 1970, and originally titled "Lover". The song featured on the band's 1973 debut album Queen and it makes prominent use of the flanging effect, especially on the drums and cowbell. A heavily truncated version of "Liar" was released as a single – backed with "Doing All Right" – in the United States by Elektra Records in February 1974. The music video consisted of the band miming to the song on a sound stage.

In the band's early years, "Liar" was a concert staple, performed as a conclusion to their main set and often lasting for up to ten minutes. However, starting with the Crazy Tour with the song being performed scarcely. By the The Game Tour, the song was no longer included in the setlist. The song was revived for a few shows in the European leg of the 1982 Hot Space Tour and rumoured to have being played once in the North American leg on that very same tour. The song would be revived again in the The Works Tour (though the song was cut down to three minutes or less). "Liar" was referenced in the setlist of the Magic Tour, as Brian May played a partial guitar riff from the song immediately before "Tear it Up".The song also contains a bass solo performed by John Deacon, the most substantial solo he ever performed live.

As confirmed by the transcription on EMI Music Publishing's Off The Record sheet music for the song, this is one of three Queen tracks, the others being "Now I'm Here" and "Under Pressure" (their collaboration originally with David Bowie), to feature a Hammond organ.

This song briefly brought up the issue of songwriting credits within the band. May queried which band members would be credited for developing the music for each song, to which Mercury concluded the discussion, stating that the lyricist, or otherwise the individual who originates the song, should be credited as its writer, a practice that continued until The Miracle.

Personnel

Track listing

7" single (Royal Sound TKR 157)
  1. "Liar" (single edit) (Freddie Mercury) – 3:01
  2. "Doing All Right" (Brian May, Tim Staffell) – 4:09
7" single (Elektra E-45884)[2]
  1. "Liar" (Freddie Mercury)
  2. "Liar"

Legacy/Cover Versions

Comedy/spoof heavy metal band Bad News use the opening riff and other song structures in their song "Hey, Hey, Bad News". This is unsurprising, as Brian May produced their album, also titled Bad News, and played on their cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from the same album.

Notes

  1. ^ Georg Purvis (24 August 2012). Queen: Complete Works. Titan Books. p. 657. ISBN 978-1-78116-287-3.
  2. ^ "QUEEN - LIAR (SONG)". australian-charts.com. Retrieved 13 March 2010.
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