by Georg Purvis
GRAND DAME
Premiered alongside ‘Affairs’ by David Richards in November 2010, ‘Grand Dame’ is a more basic instrumental jam, with heavy guitar work and a slight boogie feel that firmly instilled it as an enjoyable throwaway. While this kind of recording is a revelation and an indicator that the band were still creatively fertile, its staying power isn’t as strong as ‘Affairs’ or other outtakes from the Montreux sessions for Innuendo in 1990.
GREAT KING RAT (Mercury)
• Album: Queen • Compilation: BBC • Bonus: Queen
Kicking off a hat trick of Mercury-penned compositions on Queen, ‘Great King Rat’ is a stunning song, rife with oblique imagery and stunning prose that indicated early on Freddie’s inventive gift of lyricism. While Brian’s early songs were more straightforward, Freddie’s goal was to cram his songs full of meaning to the point that they barely made any sense, and while he would dismiss his compositions as lyrical fluff, Brian maintains that this was simply to deflect having to explain his songs. “I don’t like to explain what I was thinking when I wrote a song,” Freddie said in a 1977 Circus magazine interview. “I think that’s awful, just awful.” And so, Freddie never explained ‘Great King Rat’, preferring to keep his fairytale story of the titular character’s overindulgent death a mystery for listeners. As with his subsequent songs, which often contained tongue-in-cheek in-jokes or musical references to bygone days, Freddie threw in a reference to Mother Goose’s ‘Old King Cole’, paraphrasing the rhyme as its lyrical hook: compare “Great King Rat was a dirty old man, and a dirty old man was he / Now what did I tell you / Would you like to see?” to “Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he / He called for his pipe in the middle of the night / And he called for his fiddlers three”. Elsewhere, and in line with Freddie’s other early songs, are references to religion and the Bible, with Great King Rat painted as a joyful, fun-loving character, urging his followers to “put out the good and keep the bad”. It was a philosophy that Freddie himself would later believe in.
This weighty composition was a live favourite in the band’s formative years, and was often in and out of the set list throughout 1974 and 1975, before being resurrected for the 1984 Queen Works! tour. At least three studio versions are known to exist: the officially released studio version, complete with poorly mic’d and mixed drums; a demo version recorded between September and December 1971 at De Lane Lea Studios, with several improvised instrumental sections excised from the album version, bringing the running time to nearly eight minutes; and a recording for the BBC on 3 December 1973, which is given a fresher arrangement while still remaining close to the original. After countless bootleg appearances, the demo version was finally released in 2011 on the deluxe edition of Queen, while the BBC recording was issued in 1989 on the UK compilation Queen At The Beeb, and in the US in 1995 on Queen At The BBC.
THE GREAT PRETENDER (Ram)
• A-side (Freddie): 2/87 [4] • A-side (Freddie): 1/93 [29] • Compilations (Freddie): Pretender, FM Album, Solo Collection • Compilation (Queen): GH3
“Most of the stuff I do is like pretending, it’s like acting: I go on stage and pretend to be a macho man. I think ‘The Great Pretender’ is a great title for what I do ... I’ve always had this [idea] in the back of my head – a cover version, and this song is the one I’ve always wanted to do. I went into the studio and tried a few trials, and I liked it. It suited my voice and it’s a great song to sing.”
Originally released by The Platters in 1956, ‘The Great Pretender’ was recorded in November 1986, mere months after the end of the Magic tour (in fact, a demo version was recorded three months to the day – 9 November 1986 – after Knebworth Park, Queen’s last-ever gig), with Mike Moran and David Richards co-producing the sessions with Freddie. Moran, whom Freddie had met through his involvement with Dave Clark’s soundtrack album of the musical Time, offered his own explanation of the sessions: “The mix saw our roles being somewhat reversed. David Richards, Queen’s producer, came into London to mix the track at Townhouse. I was rather nervous and concerned about what was, after all, my co-production. The mix went on and on, and so did my neurotic attention to every tiny teeny detail. On and on and on until Freddie could stand it no longer: ‘For God’s sake, leave it alone!’ he demanded. ‘Let’s go home, dear. You’re doing a me!’
“Freddie was in something of a quandary as to how to end the song,” Mike continued. “I had a few ideas, but as I tested each one, he merely pronounced limply, ‘Very good, dear’. I knew it wasn’t up to scratch. The ending just got longer and longer and seemed never to reach an end. Freddie urged me to ‘do a few flashy bits’. He loved anything technically virtuoso. It was then that he came up with Paganini, and that was the key to the problem. From that as a starting point, I went into a violin arrangement that eventually ended the record.”
Although not credited on the single, the backing musicians were Harold Fisher on drums and Alan Jones on bass, with Mike Moran on keyboards and piano. With a superb and soaring lead vocal, ‘The Great Pretender’, backed with ‘Exercises In Free Love’, was released at the end of February 1987 and became the first Queen-related product to hit the shelves in the new year, though it would also mark the beginning of a frustratingly long hiatus. The single reached No. 4 in the UK, the highest chart position that any Queen-related solo single would reach until the re-release of ‘Barcelona’ in 1992, and later a remix of ‘Living On My Own’ in 1993 – all songs originally recorded and released by Freddie. An extended version, reaching nearly six minutes, was also created, and this would later be used as the soundtrack to the extended video version, which had rarely been seen until its inclusion on The Freddie Mercury Video Collection in 2000.
The song was reissued in January 1993, as it was featured in Irwin Winkler’s film Night And The City, starring Robert DeNiro and Jessica Lange. The single peaked at No. 29 in the UK charts, though it had been remixed considerably for inclusion on the US compilation album The Great Pretender. Remixed by Brian Malouf, who had also provided the Headbangers mix of ‘Hammer To Fall’, the song’s distinctive, percolating keyboard melody is replaced with a jangly guitar, lending it a more powerful, anthemic sound that adds a different feel to the emotion already provided in the original.
The success of the single also marked one of the few rare promotional appearances that Freddie made on television. In March 1987, right before sessions for Barcelona started in full, Freddie appeared on the Vier Gegen Willy show in Germany, wearing a white version of his pink suit while a video screen behind him flashed scenes from Freddie’s past, including the memorable shot of the vocalist appearing at the conclusion of ‘God Save The Queen’ from the previous year’s tour, resplendent in cape and crown.
Also in February, Freddie and director-of-choice David Mallet booked time to film a video for the single and, in line with their penchant for grandiose productions, the results were extraordinary. Freddie cavorts around the soundstage while revisiting many of his past glories (moments from ‘I Want To Break Free’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, ‘It’s A Hard Life’, ‘I Was Born To Love You’ and even ‘Radio Ga Ga’), painstakingly reshot to synchronize with the lyrics, instead of merely using alternate takes. The originally planned conclusion, which would have seen Freddie on the white cliffs of Dover, was canned for two good reasons: cost, and because Freddie was reluctant to film on the English coast in the middle of winter. An equally extravagant, though far cheaper (and warmer!), alternative was proposed: Freddie descending a long staircase amid a hundred life-size cardboard cut-outs of him in his pink-suited guise. “I wanted to show people that all these different roles I was creating in videos,” Freddie said at the time, “was a kind of pretense – that I was pretending. I chose roles that I had done in the past, to bring back again, and then tried to marry them with the word ‘pretender’. Basically, we had different mini-sets built around the studio, and recreated some of those things. Using my costumes, we sort of bridge
d all the elements together with lighting techniques and things.”
For the contemporary footage, Freddie is dressed in a light pink suit, the creation of which wasn’t without incident: the vocalist was less than pleased with the original suit, but liked the velvet piping it sported, and asked, quite innocently, if the suit could be made out of that material instead. Of course it was, though it wouldn’t be the only wardrobe switch on the video: Freddie asked his two closest friends, Peter Straker and Roger Taylor, to join in the fun and provide mimed backing vocals for the video. Instead of appearing as themselves, though, it was suggested that the trio dress up in drag, costumed as garish whores hamming it up for the lenses. (This would fuel the rumour that Roger and Peter performed backing vocals on the song, perpetuated by the liner notes to Lover Of Life, Singer Of Songs; once and for all, the backing vocals were sung exclusively by Freddie, so there.) The video also marked another image modification for Freddie, marking the last appearance of Freddie’s moustache, a trademark that had been with him since 1980 and which had been the cause of much debate and, for some, consternation. Though he shaved it – briefly – for the ‘I Want To Break Free’ video in 1984, he stuck with the image-change this time since it looked more appropriate for his next endeavour: the Barcelona project. While facial hair would make a few more appearances in the last three years of his life, the video for ‘The Great Pretender’ marked the end of an era; in a way, it can be seen as Freddie’s farewell to that portion of his life.
GREEN (Bulsara)
• Compilation (Freddie): Solo Collection
The earliest recorded Mercury-penned song is this pleasant song, laid down by Wreckage at Freddie’s flat in Barnes during October 1969. Recorded in one take as a demo, the song features Mike Bersin on unplugged electric guitar, John Taylor on bass and Richard Thompson providing the rhythm by tapping on his legs with drum sticks. Only a month prior, Ibex had performed their last concert together, but Freddie convinced Mike and John to form a new group with him, and while Freddie did write new material, ‘Green’ remained the only song to be recorded by Wreckage.
THE GREEN PARADE
When asked by a fan in August 2006 what his favourite protest song was, Brian cheekily namechecked ‘The Green Parade’, coyly forgetting that such a song wasn’t commonly available – not least because he had written it and decided not to release it! The history of the song goes back to the 1989 sessions with Ian Meeson and Belinda Gillet, who contributed vocals to a re-recording of ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ for the British Bone Marrow Donor Appeal. According to Brian, the intent was for ‘The Green Parade’ to be issued as the B-side but, after a few takes (presumably with Roger on drums and John on bass, the same musicians who contributed to ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’), time ran out and the song was never completed.
GUIDE ME HOME (Mercury/Moran)
• Album (Freddie): Barcelona
• Compilation (Freddie): Solo Collection
Recorded as a continuous piece with ‘How Can I Go On’, ‘Guide Me Home’ is one of Freddie’s most underrated ballads, dominated largely by piano and Freddie’s voice, with Montserrat Caballé adding her own touches. Lyrically dazzling and featuring some of Freddie’s most beautiful couplets (especially “Where is my star in heaven’s bough? / Where is my strength, I need it now”), the song is short and sweet, leading into the more musically upbeat, but lyrically similar, ‘How Can I Go On’.
An instrumental mix was created for The Solo Collection and is absolutely breathtaking, while an alternate version was also featured. As it leads directly into ‘How Can I Go On’, the focus is more on that song, and only one verse was finalized for ‘Guide Me Home’, with vocal improvisations making up the majority of the remainder. A stand-alone single mix was created, ending with some finality (although the introductory keyboards of ‘How Can I Go On’ can be heard), but not included on The Solo Collection.
GUITAR EXTRAVAGANCE:
see BRIGHTON ROCK
GUN (SOLO VIOLIN) (May)
• Soundtrack (Brian): Furia • Bonus (Brian): Furia
As with the other solo pieces from the Furia soundtrack, ‘Gun’ is a variation on the main theme, this time emotively performed by Rolf Wilson on first violin. An alternate version of this piece was included as a bonus track, though one would be hard pressed to distinguish the differences.
THE GUV’NOR (May)
• Album (Brian): World
Brian wasn’t known for writing slinky, sexy blues songs, but ‘The Guv’nor’ is just that. It would have been a perfect addition to the aborted Heroes project since it was written specifically about Jeff Beck, guitar hero of The Yardbirds and later, a solo act. “I started to sort of sculpt the song,” Brian explained, “and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if it was kind of in some way about Jeff, who is the guv’nor in our area, and there’s a sort of metaphor there, an analogy – there’s always the kid in the area that everyone goes, ‘Hmm ... don’t go near him’ kind of thing. So Jeff is that kind of guy, you know, don’t even think of it. And I got Jeff in to play. I actually plucked up the courage to say, ‘Jeff ... would you play on my track?’ and he said, ‘Yeah!’, and he loved the track, which I was thrilled about, came down here and played, and did some great stuff, some outrageous bits and pieces.
“But he said, ‘Brian, I’m not really happy – I need to take it away and think about it, and do my stuff at home,’ which tends to be what I do, so I said, ‘Fine.’ About a year later, I’m going ‘Er ... Jeff? Anything happened to that track?’, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, yeah ... no no no ... I’m really doing it, I really love it, but I haven’t got around to it yet,’ so I was crossing my fingers, and hoping he was gonna come back, and I think two days before we were due to deliver the album to EMI, finally, I got the stuff back from Jeff, and it was really, really great. He’d done some more stuff at home and pieced it all together. He’s such a perfectionist, I couldn’t believe that; you know, the image of Jeff Beck, which is true, is that he’s unpredictable and he’s spiky and spontaneous, you know. But there’s another side to him which is very concerned, and very much a perfectionist. He didn’t want that to go out unless it was something that was dead right. He rang up a few times and said, ‘Are you sure it’s okay?’ and I said, ‘Jeff? Okay? Are you kidding? It’s unbelievable!’”
For the first time in twenty-five years, Brian is happy to abdicate the guitar throne to Beck, who absolutely scorches on the track. The rhythm section swings, with Brian on bass and Cozy Powell on drums, and the result is one of the better tracks from Another World, though it sits at odds among the more introspective songs.
HAD TO BELIEVE ME:
see EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY
HAMMER TO FALL (May)
• Album: Works • A-side: 9/84 [13] • CD Single: 11/88 • Live: Magic, Wembley • Compilation: Hits2, Classic • Live (Brian): Brixton • Live (Q+PR): Return, Ukraine
A welcome return to hard rock is found in ‘Hammer To Fall’, a standout rocker from The Works, which addresses the guitarist’s concern of living in a world dominated by trigger happy political leaders. Inspired by the 1953 play Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett, the song reaches a climax with the appearance of a mushroom cloud in the final verse, something that baby-boomers had to live with as a real threat, with the line “What the hell we fighting for?” embodying Brian’s pacifist nature by questioning the futility of war. The figurative hammer is a reference to the Soviet hammer and sickle, hinting at the worldwide fear of the USSR’s rise in prominence during the Cold War era.
With a crunching guitar riff and an exuberant performance from the band, ‘Hammer To Fall’ recalls the early-era Queen with an updated message for the 1980s. No wonder, then, that it was chosen as the fourth and final single from The Works in September 1984. By that time, however, the album had been in shops for nearly nine months, so the single peaked at a modest No. 13 in the UK (the first single from the album to miss the Top Ten), not charting at all in the US. The or
iginal sleeve featured a dazzling photo of the band on stage, with their impressive lighting rig in full glory, but this was withdrawn and replaced with a dull red sleeve. Two reasons for this odd switcheroo have been posited, with the official gloss being due to objections from Brian, who complained it would give the impression that the single was a live release – a dubious justification, considering earlier sleeves (Queen’s First EP and ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’) featured impressive live shots. According to Paul Webb, avid Queen fan and collector, this was not the case, which he recalled on Queenmuseum.com: “... On Brian’s 1998 Another World tour I won a QFC competition to meet the great man before the Royal Albert Hall show. I took my [12” vinyl ‘Hammer To Fall’ picture] sleeve with me for Brian to sign, and inevitably I put the question to him, ‘Why was this cover withdrawn?’. His reply was (and I remember it as if it were yesterday), ‘Ah yes, I get the blame for this, don’t I? Well, it’s not true, it wasn’t my fault that it got withdrawn. The man who took the picture was not an official Queen photographer. This meant that we would have had to pay vast sums of money to him for using this picture. This all came to light just in time and the live cover was taken off the shelves. I really like the picture, I think it’s so much better than the red version.’”
