5. Mustapha (Queen - Live In Phoenix: 7/6/1980) HD

All right you wonderful people, it’s time to start re-uploading some shows that have better available sources/transfers! Since there’s a debate on the 1980 Game Tour coming up, I’ll start with shows from that respective tour. Some of these upgrades come from a gentleman named Peter Wiley (who was kind enough to send me his tape collection to check for upgrades), while others come from bootleg companies (such as Wardour). This particular upload comes from the Peter Wiley upgrade collection. Compared to the old copy of this show, the sound quality is slightly better (a bit less rough-sounding) and is slightly more complete. That being said, this copy still misses all of the songs after the short “Love Of My Life” segment. Despite the incomplete recording, this show still has plenty to offer and shouldn’t be skipped! On this early Game Tour show, the band sound energetic and fairly tight overall (although quite a bit looser compared with shows later on). Freddie sounds excellent overall and is at a vocal crossroads at this stage in his live career. Compared with the Crazy Tour shows, Freddie sounds a bit more forceful and “edgy” with his vocal delivery which often gets polarizing views. Some people like the “new” voice with the added power and edge - while others dismiss it as being too overdone and shouty. For the early Game Tour shows (the July recordings we have), Freddie doesn’t completely unleash the “macho” voice - so he more or less sounds like a hybrid between his natural Crazy Tour voice and the later macho Game Tour voice. For people that aren’t fans of the macho voice, this show shouldn’t be too bad of a listen! Let’s go through the performances… “Jailhouse Rock” (which is Ethan Thompson - Murray’s favorite Queen opener) is a brilliant version where the band keep the song loose throughout and Freddie does “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” ad-libs towards the ending. The fast “We Will Rock You” has now been permanently cut down a verse (which I’m not the biggest fan of), but we have a good version overall (despite the ending being slightly sloppy) with Freddie still singing the A4s in the remaining verses. “Let Me Entertain You” is a great version overall with Freddie singing the song similar to the Crazy Tour versions. “Play The Game” is an excellent version overall and a candidate for one of the best versions ever as Freddie sings the song amazingly and does excellent phrasing in the bridge section. “Mustapha” is a great version with Freddie singing the song well and sounding motherfucking hot before the song begins. “Death On Two Legs” sounds like a Crazy Tour version with Freddie nailing “all my money” with the Bb4 and doing the more conservative phrasing on “fools of the first division.” The only real blemish on the performance is Brian fudging the guitar riff in the first chorus. “Killer Queen” is an entertaining performance with Freddie oversinging the song in spots (this becomes a huge problem later on in the tour), singing parts