“Deedaeeeh!” – the live version of “Throwing It All Away”

  • “Throwing It All Away” is a nice song in the studio version, but the live performance is something very special. I really like Phil’s vocal exercises at beginning, middle and end: “Deedaeeeh!” (Or how to spell it …) Also, this is one of the instances during concert when Phil interacts with the audience. I’ve always liked how Phil interacts with the audience in various ways. There’s a truly magic recording of this song from Berlin on 8th June 1987: Phil delivers some really powerful singing and the audience is a bit slow with the response at the start but all the better and enthusiastic later during the song – and for another minute after it finished. Many people rightfully praise Freddie Mercury for his stage persona, but I think Phil deserves to be mentioned too in this respect. I mean, how many artists are actually “playing” with their audience in the way Phil does?


    I’ve listened to the very first concert of the Invisible Touch tour, on the 18th of September. The “Deedaeeeh!” is there, although as somewhat of an embryo. Of course it developed during the tour until he reached his vocally strong and very confident performances later on the tour.


    Now, I have a question. Where does “Deedaeeeh!” come from? How did that come about? My hypothesis is that this playful vocal exercise actually stems from the recording sessions. We know how the band used to work: they jammed and Phil sang nonsense lyrics. Sometimes the actual lyrics took inspiration from the nonsense singing. When they wrote “No Son Of Mine” Phil sang something that sounded somewhat like that, which then gave the song its title and theme. So maybe it was the same when Mike wrote the lyrics to “Throwing It All Away”? And doesn’t “Deedaeeeh!” sound a little, little, little bit like “Throwing It All Away”?


    I’ve never heard the band or anybody else say anything about the live version of this song, so I am curious if you any of you know anything about it.


    Detroit 18th of September 1986:

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    Berlin 8th June 1987:

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  • Just an assumption - isn't that "sigaleeeeeoh" or whatever it was and has been over the years just a melodic something without and meaning or source?


    Mercury did a similar thing with the audience.


    I assume it came into Phil's mind and then it simply stayed, just like the laughter on Mama or stuff like the word "sussudio"

    some are wise ... and some otherwise

  • Just an assumption - isn't that "sigaleeeeeoh" or whatever it was and has been over the years just a melodic something without and meaning or source?


    Mercury did a similar thing with the audience.


    I assume it came into Phil's mind and then it simply stayed, just like the laughter on Mama or stuff like the word "sussudio"

    I always just assumed this, but hear it as "deee-ah-dair-eee-oh". I wondered if it started as a riff on "AWAAAAY" and morphed into "AWAAAAY-EEE-AY" then into whatever it is he's done ever since. But you hear a "siga-" do you? Hmmm, interesting. Well, sort of. A bit.


    Yes FM used to just randomly do it between songs didn't he? Definitely something starting with a "deeee". Similar to his scatting in Under Pressure, which a lyric site I just checked actually writes out thus:


    Um ba ba be

    Um ba ba be

    De day da

    Ee day da



    :D


    This is reminding me of the rehearsal scene in Rain Or Shine when Collins and Rutherford have an exchange something like "Isn't it blah-dadda blah-dadda blah-dadda blah-dadda blah?" "No, it's more chakkatah-chakkatah-chakkatah-chakkatah-chak"

    Abandon all reason

  • Yes FM used to just randomly do it between songs didn't he? Definitely something starting with a "deeee". Similar to his scatting in Under Pressure, which a lyric site I just checked actually writes out thus:

    It was very prominent on his solo track Living On My Own too. I think the chorus had a "zee za day-ay" thing and then there was a whole middle bit that was only scat singing.

  • It was very prominent on his solo track Living On My Own too. I think the chorus had a "zee za day-ay" thing and then there was a whole middle bit that was only scat singing.

    Just looked it up. You've got to hand it to some of these lyrics site compilers, they're meticulous. They've set out the


    Dee do dee do day
    Dee do dee do dee do dee do day oh


    at the beginning, and detailed the later


    Di di di di
    Dibby dibby du-wop du-wop
    yeah y-y-y-y-y-y-ow-yeah
    Living on my own, living on my own
    Living on my own, living on my own, wooh
    da, day, day, day, day
    di, di, di, di, di, di, di
    Be-dop, be-dop, be-dop, be-dop
    Be-dop, be-dop, be-dop, be-dop
    Be-dop, be-dop, be-dop, be-dop
    Woh!


    But can Good Morning Starshine, from stage show Hair, be beaten for its chorus? Imagine the director getting this from the lyricist, frowning and saying, "Is this it or will there be actual lyrics added later?"


    Gliddy glup gloopy

    Nibby nabby noopy

    La la la lo lo
    Sabba sibby sabba

    Nooby abba nabba

    Le le lo lo
    Tooby ooby walla

    Nooby abba nabba
    Early morning singing song


    The frustrated musical director during rehearsals - "No, no, no, NO! You keep mixing up your nabbies and noopies, and getting sabba and nabba the wrong way around! Suffering Christ - from the top, AGAIN!"

    Abandon all reason

  • I had forgotten about ”Living On My Own”. Wow, what an impressive song! It was released in September 1985, so it may well have inspired Phil in the same way as Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” did in 1982.


    What Phil does after “Throwing It All Away” in the Berlin recording linked above actually sounds like one of those vocal intermissions by Freddie Mercury, as far as I remember anyway. I’m trying to find it now in order to compare. Maybe it's on the Wembley live album (recorded in 1986).

  • This is reminding me of the rehearsal scene in Rain Or Shine when Collins and Rutherford have an exchange something like "Isn't it blah-dadda blah-dadda blah-dadda blah-dadda blah?" "No, it's more chakkatah-chakkatah-chakkatah-chakkatah-chak"

    Wow, I have to watch that documentary again. It's been a long, long time ...

  • I had forgotten about ”Living On My Own”. Wow, what an impressive song! It was released in September 1985, so it may well have inspired Phil in the same way as Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” did in 1982.

    I was only a little gasur in 1985, my memory of it is from the rerelease in 1991 or so. He had another solo track around the time, Barcelona. But yes, Living On My Own is a pretty great song