Queen - The Night Comes Down (De Lane Lea 1971 Demo)

Recorded during studio downtime in December 1971, the De Lane Lea Demos are the first Queen studio recordings. The only known original source is Brian May's own 12" acetate. The De Lane Lea demo of The Night Comes Down is actually the first mix of the final album version.

Written by: Brian May
Produced by: Queen
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - vocals
Brian May - acoustic & electric guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals

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Lyrics:

When I was young it came to me
And I could see the sun break in
Lucy was high and so was I
Dazzling, holding the world inside
Once I believed in everyone
Everyone and anyone can see

Oh, oh, the night comes down
And I get afraid of losing my way
Oh, oh, the night comes down
Oooooh
And it's dark again

Once I could laugh with everyone
Once I could see the good in me
The black and the white distinctively
Colouring, holding the world inside
Now all the world is grey to me
Nobody can see
You gotta believe me

Ooh, ooh, oh, the night comes down
And I get afraid of losing my way
Oh, oh, the night comes down, oooh

And it's dark again
And it's dark again
And it's dark again

[queenfanatic]

Here is essentially everything that is know regarding this track:

Basic Information:
Studio: De Lane Lea Music Centre
Recording Date: 2 - 7 December 1971
Released: 13 July 1973 in the United Kingdom

20 Facts About the Making of The Night Comes Down:
1. Queen recorded this track predominantly within studio one, which apparently could fit approximately 120 people within it.
2. John Deacon uses his Sunburst Precision Bass to record this track. His bass is hooked up to an amp (which isn’t the Deacy amp, made to repair a concert disaster at the Pheasantry Club in London on November 6, 1972. The amp they had for the bass either exploded or didactic n’t arrive from what I heard).
3. The bass is mixed higher than the rest of the album tracks due to the fact that the bass played a key role musically within the half a minute introduction of the song.
4. If you listen closely, you’ll notice the snare, and hi-hat are panned to the right, along with a cowbell.
5. Roger’s 20” Zildjian Crash Cymbal is panned as well, while Roger’s other 16” Zildjian Crash Cymbal is panned to the opposing stereophonic division, and the bass drum is panned to the centre.
6. The microphones were placed a little further away from the kit than the standard recording procedure, this provided the drums a “mushy” but bright sound.
7. In total, six guitar tracks were recorded.
8. The first noticeable guitar track is an acoustic guitar track, but there isn’t just one acoustic guitar being played, there are two.
9. The first track guitar is with an acoustic guitar with an acoustic with steel strings, and the other track is a classical guitar with nylon strings.
10. A separate track was dedicated to the prodigious amounts of reverberation within the introduction.
11. The acoustic guitars were picked up with several microphones, one in front of the sound hole, another one is dedicated to scratching noises, and another one was even placed behind the guitar. Koodo’s to Brian for not banging into a microphone!
12. Three tracks are dedicated to the BHM Red Special’s harmonies, hooked up to a VoxAC30-amp with vast amounts of gain and sustain.
13. Each track is panned to a different stereophonic region. The center channel harmonies are decelerated in volume.
14. A treble booster may have been used amidst the recording of the guitar tracks.
15. The sixth track is dedicated to rhythm guitar.
16. Freddie’s vocals are mixed within the center channel.
17. A new track was dedicated to harmonies in the end of the second verse
18. Freddie’s vocals are copied and placed into another track for delay and reverberation
19. Roger, Freddie, and Brian sing backing vocals
20. All backing vocals are double tracked so one can fill the left channel, and another can fill the right.

[Gardenlodge]

Beautiful sweet voice of Freddie and amazing instrumentation by Brian, Roger and John (plus backing vocals of Brian and Roger). It gives me goosebumps hearing these early demos. Queen in it's "infancy" having little idea of the brilliant career that lay ahead and how they would change music forever.

[M-MMo]

Great song written by Brian, beautifully sung by a young Freddie. Love it!

[evanneta]

On of the best songs in my opinion on the album

[liamcito_giri]

Queen es la mejor banda del mundo! Marco la historia de la musica y humanidad!! Te amo Freddie y te amo Queen

[lynda.m.]

I love early Queen track's. & this one is amazing. 👍 Freddie sounds so good, as always! 👏👑👑👑

[ludmilaalekseev]

Как же красиво у них получалось с самого начала.

[jmart]

Treasure. Thank you so much for this ❗❗❗❗💛

[davebain]

Fun fact - A demo version of TNCD is actually on the album and not a finished track, as they preferred the demo version to the finished track

[verybadguy]

1:10 Like Across the universe but by queen

[FoxBoi]

what is the difference between this demo and the album version for this song? i read somewhere that they did not record this for the album