Queen - Play The Game (Live in Phoenix, Arizona, USA) [July 6, 1980]

After coming off of the Crazy Tour six months earlier which is regarded as the best for Freddie, he continues the momentum into the US leg of the Game Tour where he sounds just as good! This tour is widely known for being a transitional period for Freddie's voice. By the 2nd leg of the US tour, he starts to develop a deeper tone (otherwise known as macho voice). It's speculated whether this was a stylistic choice to go with his newly introduced moustache, or rather a side effect from smoking. No matter which version of his voice you prefer, one thing for certain is that his voice remains in consistently great shape during the whole tour!

The 1st leg of the US Game Tour still features Freddie sounding much like he did 6 months prior during the Crazy Tour (which many people prefer). This show in Phoenix is the first circulating recording from the tour, and includes what I believe to be Freddie's best vocal performance of Play The Game out of the available recordings. His voice is much less forceful/shouty than later versions (specifically with the high notes in "Step Inside" and "Resistance Is Low"). Mercury still hits all the highest notes he'd hit in the other highly ranked versions, but with more ease. As it's one of the very first live performances of this song, the band are a still a little loose and experimental (particularly with the outro), but sounds fantastic none the less and mixed with Freddie's more laid back delivery, this goes down as probably the most unique version, and also one of the all-time best!

NOTE: This video does not come from the same night as the audio. They have been synced together to give us an idea of how the actual performance would have looked if it were professionally recorded.

The visuals are from the Sao Paulo 20/3/1981 show and the audio is from the best-sounding audience recording available.

You are more than welcome to take these videos for personal use (in compliance with copyright laws), but if you do, please give credit as finding the best possible video & audio sources, syncing them together in-time and rendering takes a lot of time.

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