by Georg Purvis
MY GENERATION (Townshend)
The Who’s 1965 power anthem was played live by 1984.
MY GIRL (Robinson)
Originally performed by The Temptations, ‘My Girl’ was also covered live by 1984.
MY LIFE HAS BEEN SAVED (Queen)
• B-side: 10/89 [25] • Album: Heaven
Written by John and recorded during sessions for The Miracle in 1988, ‘My Life Has Been Saved’ was unfairly relegated to B-side status – despite some of the more questionable material that ended up on the album – as the flip-side of ‘Scandal’ in October 1989. With some beautiful keyboard work and a hardworking Brian on slide guitar, the song is a moody, atmospheric appreciation for life and taking things in stride in a world of disarray and confusion.
In the context of Freddie’s passing, this seems like an odd choice to have revisited for the Made In Heaven album, but it provided an optimistic glimmer of hope to an album of downbeat, sombre ballads. Unfortunately, the reworked version is more keyboard-dominated, with Brian’s guitar buried in the mix, and the touching vocal coda (“I made it up / I’m blind / I don’t know what’s coming to me”) removed.
MY LOVE IS DANGEROUS (Mercury)
• Album (Freddie): BadGuy • B-side (Freddie): 9/85 [50] • Compilations (Freddie): Pretender, FM Album, The Solo Collection
The penultimate track from Mr Bad Guy is the least inspiring: Freddie’s vocals are drenched in echo and set to a vague reggae-dub rhythm. Freddie, however, held some affection for it, feeling it accurately summed up his position as a lover. “I haven’t actually analyzed myself and said, ‘OK, my love is dangerous’,” he said in 1985. “I think after all these years I just feel I’m not a very good partner for anybody and I just think that’s what my love is. I think my love is dangerous. Who wants their love to be safe? Can you imagine writing a song called ‘My Love Is Safe’? It would never sell!”
An early version, going under the name of ‘Love Is Dangerous’, was recorded on 29 May 1984 and deviates little from the released version, while an extended remix, running just over six minutes and bordering on the tedious, was created for inclusion on the 12” single version of ‘Living On My Own’. Thankfully, it was remixed in 1992 for inclusion on the compilation album The Great Pretender, giving new life to an otherwise unremarkable track. Remixed by Jeff Lord-Alge and produced by Julian Raymond, the song is turned into a muscular hard rocker and benefits greatly.
MY MELANCHOLY BLUES (Mercury)
• Album: World • CD Single: 11/89 [21] • Bonus: World
What better way to close News Of The World than with this slick jazz-lounge track? After the final bars of the raucous ‘It’s Late’ have finished ringing, Freddie’s dulcet piano heralds the intro to one of his most sublime compositions, and showed that, despite the base carnal desires of ‘Get Down, Make Love’, he could still come up with something surprising instead of shocking. Written from the viewpoint of an inveterate barfly, the narrator is drowning his sorrows in the bottom of a glass, lamenting the loss of his lover but certain he’ll bounce back in time for the next party. Featuring an understated performance from Roger on brushed drums and John on bass, ‘My Melancholy Blues’ (originally demoed as ‘My Melancholy Baby’) is one of the few Queen tracks with no guitar contribution whatsoever. Instead, Freddie takes the initiative, turning in two gorgeous and tasteful piano solos.
The song became a regular in the 1977/1978 News Of The World tour, but was dropped from the Jazz tour in favour of ‘Dreamers Ball’. An outstanding live version from December 1977 in Houston was released on the CD single of ‘The Miracle’ in November 1989, which had also featured on the cut-and-paste video anthology Rare Live: A Concert Through Time And Space. The BBC version, recorded on 28 October 1977, was finally released in 2011 on the double-disc edition of News Of The World. Adding in a splendid guitar solo courtesy of Brian, the song concludes with a spine-tingling laugh from Freddie and is undoubtedly a highlight of the sixth BBC session.
MY SECRET FANTASY
From the same batch of demos as ‘Self-Made Man’ and ‘Robbery’, ‘My Secret Fantasy’ is an alluring though lyrically sparse song, structured around a mesmerizing keyboard sequence. Rumoured to have been written by John, it’s very likely that Freddie had a hand in the writing of the song too.
A NATION OF HAIRCUTS (Taylor)
• Album (Roger): Electric • B-side (Roger): 3/99 [38]
Attacking the fashionistas of the world, Roger’s ‘A Nation Of Haircuts’ is a fine, driving rocker on Electric Fire, buried among songs that deal with far weightier subjects like domestic discord and success stories. A nice complement to ‘London Town, C’mon Down’, the song rolls along at a decent clip, with Roger’s diatribe (distorted by the “shouting down the telephone” effect he prefers on much of his latter-day material) cutting down a peg the moody heroin chic models more concerned with their coif than with anything of substance.
Believing that the very poseurs that he was lambasting wouldn’t appreciate the grittier album version, Roger deconstructed the song into a sleek, sexy “club dub” remix, removing the backing track completely and adding faceless programmed drums and percolating synths. Released as the B-side of ‘Surrender’ in 1999, this rendition is worth a cursory listen or two, but isn’t a match for the less image-conscious original.
NAZIS 1994 (Taylor)
• A-side (Roger): 5/94 [22] • Album (Roger): Happiness?
It had been just over a decade since Roger’s last true solo album, so imagine the response when faithful listeners purchased Happiness? and were greeted with the opening kick-march strains of ‘Nazis 1994’, the first song on the album. Set to a dirge-like rhythm, with little embellishment, the song expresses the drummer’s outrage over the recent uprising of neo-Nazism and its proponents’ ridiculous claim that the Holocaust never happened.
When asked about the song in 1994, Roger exclaimed, “You want to talk about ‘Nazis’, eh?! I believe that it is a real problem ... one of the main dangers that exist in today’s society and particularly in Europe, of all places. I wanted to write something simple and direct which gives the main idea, one which repeats throughout the whole song. In my opinion the repetition fixes firmly the idea in people’s heads. This sentence that continually comes back is, ‘They say that it never happened’. To think that of the Holocaust is purely and simply outrageous. How can they be stupid enough to think that? The general atmosphere of ‘Nazis’ is cold and without feeling. That’s at least what I wanted to create. The only emotions that we can set against these people are the strongest emotions. That’s all there is which can stand against them.”
Set to a terse backing of goose-stepping drums and Roger’s hushed vocals, the song positively seethes anger and outrage. Originally, the repeated line was “We’ve gotta kick these fucking Nazis” instead of “stinking Nazis”, but after careful consideration Roger altered the line to make it more accessible. Released as the first single from Happiness?, it created quite a controversy when radio stations refused to air it and record stores wouldn’t stock it. Roger was surprised, telling The Independent On Sunday, “For me it is not political. It is a case of fundamental right and wrong. Peddling hatred through ignorance is wrong. The record is fairly outspoken but it doesn’t make any political statements in my view. I find it odd that it is a successful record but the media seems shy of it.” Music journalist and one-time bad boy Allan Jones weighed in for no particular reason: “I’m sure his heart is in the right place. But it is just not a very good record. Let’s face it: he’s an ageing rock star and they just don’t want to play his record. Pop station audiences want little boys that they can look at and fancy or dance records. This song, as well as being controversial lyrically, is not a good tune.” As with most good examples of controversy, the single still fared well, reaching No. 22 in the UK and becoming Roger’s first Top Thirty (and highest-charting) single.
The CD single featured several alternate remixes, each marginally less i
nteresting than the previous one. The ‘Big Science Mix’ features Matt Hillier on additional analog synthesizers and was remixed by Joshua J. Macrae, explaining its percussion-dominated backing, with excerpts from news reports and what sound like samples from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. The ‘Kick Mix’, produced by Serge Ramackers, Dominic Sas and Remo Martuf for No More Productions, is an attempt at a dance remix, using the original banned version but adding a generic dance beat, and really starts to grate on the listener within the first sixty seconds. (However, it does feature an additional verse not heard on any other version.) The ‘Radio Mix’ is the most interesting of the bunch, restructuring Roger’s drum beat to feature a droning synthesizer background and additional percussion. Again produced by No More Productions, the song was extended by nearly a minute yet still loses a verse. The ‘Makita Mix Extended’ and ‘Schindler’s Mix Extended’, both produced by Danny Saber, are the most extreme, featuring excerpts from an actual Nazi rally.
The song was performed throughout Roger’s 1994/1995 Happiness? tour, but was dropped in favour of more recent material on his Electric Fire tour. A video was made in the spring of 1994, directed by David Mallet in London. Two versions were produced: one featuring the normal album version, which was the most widely seen, and another of the banned version. Both versions feature intercut scenes of World War II Nazi footage, making for an unsettling viewing experience.
NEED YOUR LOVING TONIGHT (Deacon)
• Album: Game
Written by John for The Game album in 1980, ‘Need Your Loving Tonight’ is a joyous pop romp that recalls the bubblegum days of The Beatles, even deriving its title from ‘Eight Days A Week’, perhaps that band’s finest pop song ever. Lyrically speaking, the song gives a false optimistic slant to the end of a relationship, with the narrator taking the higher road by insisting the break-up was a mutual decision. Released in the US as the fourth and final single from The Game in November 1980, ‘Need Your Loving Tonight’, backed with Roger’s ‘Rock It (Prime Jive)’, reached a disappointing No. 44 and never appeared on any compilation. The song was performed on and off between 1980 and 1981, but wasn’t a mainstay in the set list and was out just as quickly as it was in.
NEVERMORE (Mercury)
• Album: Queen2 • Bonus: Queen2
Slipping in unnoticed between the adventurous ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’ and the epic ‘The March Of The Black Queen’ on Side Black of Queen II is this gorgeous ballad by Freddie, which is rumoured to have been written about his then-girlfriend, Mary Austin. Brian later attributed this and ‘Lily Of The Valley’, on the surface lyrically simple songs, to Freddie’s realization “that his body needed to be somewhere else”.
A BBC version, recorded on 3 April 1974, features a rougher arrangement, and more pronounced bass and drums (which are lacking on the album version). Other than this airing, ‘Nevermore’ was never performed live.
NEW DARK AGES (Taylor)
• Album (The Cross): Blue • German single (The Cross): 8/91 • Live (The Cross): Germany
Roger’s exquisite ‘New Dark Ages’ is an emotive plea for safe sex (“Stop / Take care / Think / Is this real love?”) and AIDS awareness. Set to a terse backing, dominated mostly by keyboards and bass, The Cross is in fine form here, and ‘New Dark Ages’ is arguably one of their finest performances captured in the studio. Released as the first single from Blue Rock in August 1991 with Clayton Moss’ ‘Ain’t Put Nothin’ Down’ on the B-side, the single made no significant dent in the German charts, despite considerable promotion provided by The Cross as well as a fine video directed by Paul Voss. It’s a ‘Body Language’ for the 1990s, with an oiled-up man and woman cavorting across the stage as the fully-clothed band perform the song. Presenting the Hot Space imagery from another angle, the single sleeve featured the same wide-eyed child from the ‘Las Palabras De Amor (The Words Of Love)’ single from June 1982 with a pattern of birds as an overlay.
The song was performed live on the European tour supporting Magnum, with a live version appearing on the 1992 Fan Club-only bootleg Live In Germany. Intriguingly, it was revealed by Greg Brooks that the song was recorded during sessions for Innuendo, but remained unfinished due to objections from John.
A NEW LIFE IS BORN
Dating from The Miracle sessions, this (partly) unreleased track written by Freddie was featured as the intro to Roger’s ‘Breakthru’ (the a cappella “when love breaks up” segment), but instead of the “somehow I have to make this final breakthru” line, Freddie continues into a gorgeous, improvised piano ballad. A second, more atmospheric, mostly instrumental version was also recorded, and both sound like pieces from Freddie’s 1988 Barcelona sessions.
NEW YORK (Mercury)
• Compilation (Freddie): Solo Collection
Recorded on 6 July 1984 at Musicland Studios (a home demo was also recorded, though it remains unreleased), this short yet charming piano piece was the last thing to be recorded by Freddie before embarking on the upcoming Queen Works! world tour. Unfortunately, he didn’t complete this piece upon returning to the sessions in December, and it languished unreleased for over fifteen years before appearing on The Solo Collection in 2000.
NEW YORK AT LAST
An interesting fan mix (or ‘mash up’) featuring an almost club-style synthesized beat, ‘New York At Last’ was created in 2003 by a fan named Smash – real name Scott Akister – who programmed and produced the synthesizer and drum beats, and added Freddie’s vocal from the unreleased song ‘New York’, originally recorded by Freddie during the Mr Bad Guy sessions in 1984. Mixing in guitar parts by Brian from ‘Spread Your Wings’ and ‘Save Me’, the mash was such a huge success on the internet and among Queen fans that an online petition was started to get the song issued as a single. Unfortunately, the powers that be either decided against it, or simply didn’t listen.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK (Ebb/Kander)
A snippet of Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ appears in the Highlander film during Kurgan’s carjacked joyride into New York City, before merging effortlessly with ‘A Dozen Red Roses For My Darling’. For years, Queen fans have hoped that a full version exists, but it has recently been revealed that the thirty-second clip is all that was recorded.
THE NIGHT COMES DOWN (May)
• Album: Queen • Bonus: Queen
One of the earliest lyrics written by any member of Queen, Brian’s elegiac ‘The Night Comes Down’ recalls the simpler days of his youth, and laments growing old and having to take on responsibility. Set to a gorgeous acoustic backing, driven by a subtle rhythm section that doesn’t overpower the words, Freddie recalls a fling from the Summer of Love: “Lucy was high, and so was I / Dazzling!” That line, of course, harks back to The Beatles’ controversial 1967 song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, which was presumed to be about LSD but was revealed by its author, John Lennon, as a lyrical depiction of a painting his son, Julian, had made of a classmate.
‘The Night Comes Down’ is a stunning excursion into acoustic territory the band would rarely explore again. Seemingly influenced by many of The Kinks’ late 1960s singles, the song is a bright and cheery ballad, certainly a rarity among most other Brian-penned ballads. Performed live in 1971 and 1972 (recordings of which have not surfaced), its only post-Queen performance may have come on 1 March 1974, Greg Brooks reporting in his book, Queen Live: A Concert Documentary, that the song was rumoured to have been played that day along with ‘The Fairy Fellers Master-Stroke’.
Two versions of the song exist: the first is a demo, recorded between September and December 1971 at De Lane Lea Studios and produced by Louis Austin, while the second version hails from the Trident sessions in 1972. When the band listened to a playback of the rerecorded 1972 version, they decided that the original demo captured the mood they wanted to portray, so the new version was discarded and the old one was used instead. To date, the re-recording has yet to surface, and one can only wonder if it’s possible for the unreleased version to surpa
ss the beauty of the demo.
1983...(A MERMAN I SHOULD
TURN TO BE) (Hendrix)
Originally released on Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland album in 1968, ‘1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)’ merely served as an introduction to Wreckage’s rendition of The Beatles’ ‘Rain’.
NO MORE FUN (Taylor)
• Album (Roger): Electric • CD single (Roger): 3/99 [38]
A fast-paced, self-referential rock song (in the first verse, Roger makes note of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie and Mott the Hoople) that bemoans the loss of good times in the world, nostalgic for the golden days of rock ‘n’ roll, ‘No More Fun’ is a more characteristic song from Electric Fire. Set to a menacing backing, and performed entirely by Roger except for some wilder lead guitar from the ever-present Jason Falloon (interestingly, ‘No More Fun’ marks the only appearance Roger would make on guitar), the song secured a rightful position in the 1998/1999 Electric Fire tour set list. A version from the Cyberbarn gig on 24 September 1998 was released on the second CD single of ‘Surrender’ in March 1999.
NO-ONE BUT YOU (ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG) (May)
• Compilation: Rocks, Hits3 • A-side: 1/98 [13]
