Queen: The Complete Works (86 page)

Freddie writes about an issue on which he was very vocal, allowing little room for misinterpretation. The entire performance is impressive, with a strong rhythm section laid down by piano, bass and drums, giving the song a chance to breathe and affording Brian the freedom to add his own parts as he saw fit. The result can be heart-wrenching: the pain and longing in Freddie’s voice is evident, especially in the opening line.

“[It’s] Aretha Franklin-influenced,” Roger told
Circus
in 1977. “Freddie’s very much into that. We tried to keep the track in a loose, gospel-type feel. I think it’s the loosest track we’ve ever done.” With that in mind, it became one of the band’s most performed songs, and a highlight of any show between 1977 and 1985 (the song was omitted from most 1980 and 1982 US and Japanese set lists). For years, however, it eluded any live album release, being left off the Live Killers album in lieu of several inferior tracks. A powerful version from
the June 1982 Milton Keynes Bowl performance was finally issued in 2004 on the
Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl
CD and DVD, and is an early highlight of a spectacular show. (This version was re-released in 2011 on the bonus EP of the
A Day At The Races
reissue.) A remix was presented for the 1991 reissue of
A Day At The Races
, which attempted to recreate the live version – especially the vocal breakdown and stark drum passages – but nothing can compare to a decent live rendition, of which there are several.

The song was reissued in April 1993 with George Michael on vocals, extracted from his performance at the Concert For Life on 20 April 1992. Clearly, Michael knows his stuff, and the performance was unanimously voted the finest of the night, causing rumours to form that he would become lead singer of the band. While Roger and Brian may have entertained the thought, especially as late as 1997, they ultimately decided against it, with the guitarist saying, “You know, we’re very good friends with George, and he did a wonderful job at the tribute. But at the moment it wouldn’t suit either him or us to team up in some way. I think we have our separate ideas about our careers. That doesn’t mean that we never want to work with him, I think he’s fantastic, but the rumours were not true, he was never joining Queen.”

His rendition of ‘Somebody To Love’ earned the single a deserving No. 1 placement in the UK, while the extended play disc it was issued on in the US reached No. 30, even receiving airplay, which by that time was something of a feat for a new Queen single. This version was subsequently issued on the insipid
Greatest Hits III
album in 1999.

SOME DAY, ONE DAY
(May)

• Album:
Queen2

Coming between the more well-known ‘White Queen (As It Began)’ and Roger’s raucous ‘The Loser In The End’, Brian’s ‘Some Day, One Day’ unfortunately fell mostly on deaf ears. Despite being a gorgeous song which evokes images of kings and castles from the middle ages, the song received scant attention upon release, due mostly to the lack of an appearance in the live setting. Driven by a beautiful acoustic guitar line and incorporating breathtaking guitar orchestrations, Brian sings (his first lead vocal appearance on a Queen record) about a love that has never been, but could be, with its songwriter later explaining, “[It] was born of my sadness that a relationship seemingly couldn’t be perfect on Earth, and I was visualizing a place in eternity where things would be different ... the acoustic ‘tickling’ and the overlaid smooth sustained electric guitars were intended to paint a picture of that world.”

SOME THINGS THAT GLITTER
(May/Taylor/Rodgers)

• Album (Q+PR):
Cosmos

On ‘We Believe’ and ‘Still Burnin”, Brian sounds like he’s going through the motions, delivering rote, by-numbers material as if he was trying to convince not only Paul and Roger that he was interested in
The Cosmos Rocks
, but himself. Not so on ‘Some Things That Glitter’, an utterly gorgeous piano ballad that, yes, Brian is known to deliver, but when he delivers, the result is astounding. Addressing an awkward girl blossoming into an intellectual and confident person, with a gentle admonishment of arbitrary societal standards, the song is reminiscent of ‘Sail Away Sweet Sister’ and ‘Why Don’t We Try Again’, with some lovely vocal harmonies and a soaring guitar solo. Paul certainly liked the song, telling the
Halesowen News
, “Some of the songs on the album are different; some are very natural and organic, like ‘Voodoo’, but there are others that are beautifully produced, too: ‘All That Glitters’ [
sic
], for example.”

It’s useless to ponder the “what if”s of the world, but with ‘Some Things That Glitter’, it’s difficult not to: not only would it have made a fine follow-up single to ‘C-Lebrity’, thus guaranteeing it a position in the set list, it would have also been stunning to have heard Brian sing lead vocals instead of Paul. Brian certainly had faith in the song, submitting it to sessions for Kerry Ellis’
Anthems
album, a version of which was duly released on that album, albeit pointlessly retitled to ‘I Loved A Butterfly ’.

SON AND DAUGHTER
(May)

• B-side: 7/73 • Album:
Queen
• Compilation:
BBC

One of the band’s first real attempts at blues, a genre in which they didn’t find much extended success, ‘Son And Daughter’ is probably the song that garnered the most comparisons to Led Zeppelin. With interesting subject matter (instead of a single parent having to do the work of two parents, the song features a child who has to please his parents by accepting the roles of both son and daughter), it worked far better in the live setting than on record, where it was reduced to a three-minute song devoid of the improvisational sections
that made so many live performances spectacular.

Two BBC versions exist. The first, recorded on 25 July 1973, is an enjoyable but perfunctory run-through, with the band only just starting to expand the track through improvisation. The second, recorded on 3 December and issued on
Queen At The Beeb
, is an exciting, seven-minute excursion that is far superior to the album version. It allowed Brian the chance to showcase his guitar techniques, incorporating a solo that would later be worked into ‘Brighton Rock’. The song was performed as early as 1970, but was eventually dropped in favour of newer material by 1976.

SON OF STAR FLEET
(May)

• B-side (Brian): 10/83 [65]

Essentially a re-edited mix of ‘Star Fleet’, ‘Son Of Star Fleet’ features all the instrumental bits of the original song in a convenient, four-minute piece, thus earning Brian even more royalties. As of this writing, the song has yet to appear on compact disc.

SOUL BROTHER
(Queen)

• B-side: 10/81 [1] • CD Single: 11/88 • Compilation:
Vision
• Bonus:
Space

Recorded during sessions for
The Game
, ‘Soul Brother’ was credited as a Queen composition presumably because of the numerous references to previous song titles: ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘We Will Rock You’ and ‘Somebody To Love’ are among the many titles mentioned. The song, which glides along at an easy, soul-based pace, was released as the B-side of ‘Under Pressure’ in October 1981, and then on the US ‘Heaven For Everyone’ single in June 1996. The song was given wider exposure on the 2009 box set
The Singles Collection – Volume 2
and then two years later on the
Hot Space
reissue. “Freddie told me one day he had a surprise for me,” Brian later said of the song. “He said, ‘I’ve written a song about you, but it needs your touch on it!’ I think, curiously, we were both working on songs separately which referred to each other. Can’t remember which one of mine it was, since a lot of my songs were obliquely aimed at him (as well as to be sung by him!). Anyway we got in the studio and he played this song. Now whether it was really about me I don’t know. But I thought it was fab. I know he wrote it in about fifteen minutes! As to why not on an album - well, Freddie deliberately wrote it as a B-side to fill a gap, so I imagine the album was already sewn up.”

SOUL (SEE YOU IN HULL)
(Falloon)

Performed on Roger’s 1994/1995
Happiness?
tour, little is known about ‘Soul (See You In Hull)’ except that it was written and sung by Jason Falloon, Roger’s guitarist of choice for
Happiness?
and
Electric Fire
and the two supporting tours.

SOUVENIR
(McCartney)

In May 2001, the Fan Club reported that Brian, Roger and possibly John had been asked by Paul McCartney to contribute to a tribute album for Linda McCartney, who had been Paul’s wife for nearly thirty years when she died in 1998 of breast cancer. ‘Souvenir’, a track from McCartney’s recently released
Flaming Pie
album, was named as their contribution, but, for whatever reason, the project either didn’t go ahead or Queen’s contribution wasn’t used; it’s not even known if the song was recorded or not.

SPACE
(May)

• Album (Brian):
World

Just as
Back To The Light
starts off with a short keyboard introduction, so does
Another World
. ‘Space’ can hardly be considered a song, but it sets a mood for the album to follow, indicating that all is not going to be bright and happy. Brian said of the piece, “I just wanted to put that little fragment on as an introduction to the album – it’s nice to sort of tease in that way, I think. And for me, I wanted something just to set up the big heavy opening track, and just set the mood of where the album’s going.”

SPREAD YOUR WINGS
(Deacon)

• Album:
World
• A-side: 2/78 [34] • CD Single: 11/88 • CD Single: 2/96 [15] • Live:
Killers
• Bonus:
World

John’s standout track from
News Of The World
is one of the few connections between Queen past and Queen future: a piano rocker with a memorable chorus, as well as some remarkable guitar and drum work. Written about a drifter named Sammy who’s done nothing with his life, the song drives home a poignant message of expanding one’s comfort zone and searching for more in life than sweeping up a bar.

The song was issued as a single in February 1978, peaking at a disappointing No. 34 in the UK. In the US, Elektra mistakenly assumed the song wasn’t commercial enough and instead issued ‘It’s Late’. The
song was included in the set list between 1977 and 1979, but was dropped before the start of the 1980
Game
tour. The introduction was reprised on a few occasions throughout the 1982 and 1984 tours, but never progressed beyond a rendition of the chorus.

A far superior BBC take was recorded on 28 October 1977, taken at a slightly faster pace with a more aggressive guitar sound, and including a raucous up-tempo ending that was unfortunately not attempted on the album version. This arrangement was performed on the 1977
News Of The World
North American tour, but the band reverted to the standard performance for the 1978 European leg of that tour, simply because the song had been released as a single there and so the band wanted to present it as faithfully as possible. The BBC version was finally released on the 2011 double-disc edition of
News Of The World
.

STAND UP FOR LOVE
(Taylor)

• Album (The Cross):
Shove
• B-side: 7/88

One of the better tracks from
Shove It
, ‘Stand Up For Love’ features a tenacious guitar riff and a prominent Hammond organ, played by Spike Edney, and contains a fairly typical lyric in which Roger proclaims the benefits of love. The song is raucous and rollicking, and if it hadn’t been for the typical late-1980s production, it may have become a hit. Unusually, female backing vocalists are featured in a call-and-response chorus, but the women are not credited; the same can be said of the mystery saxophone player, who adds embellishments throughout, including a disjointed solo.

‘Stand Up For Love’ became the closing track of The Cross’ 1988 tour, and was resurrected in 1992 for the series of festivals and parties at which The Cross performed, the most notable being at the December 1992 Christmas shows at The Marquee Club.

STAR FLEET
(Bliss/May)

• A-side (Brian): 10/83 [65] • Album (Brian):
Starfleet
• CD single (Brian): 11/92 [19]

“I used to get up with my little boy [Jimmy] and watch it religiously every Saturday morning,” Brian said of the original
Star Fleet
television series. “And he said, ‘Daddy, you should play that!’, and I thought, ‘Actually, that’s a rather good piece of music!’” Opening with Eddie Van Halen’s trademark finger-picked guitar, with Brian providing the lead in the background, the musicians take a few moments to come together. However, once Eddie and Brian lock into that crucial guitar riff nearly thirty seconds in, the band (also including bassist Phil Chen, drummer Alan Gratzer and keyboardist Fred Mandel) is down to serious business.

Though the synthesizer dominates for the most part, Brian found a way to incorporate the instrument in a way that
Hot Space
couldn’t: instead of being so reliant on the instrument and featuring it prominently, it takes a backseat, though at times it almost sounds as if Brian is duelling with the synth. Truly an inspired decision, and there’s no doubt that had
Hot Space
sounded like this track, it would have been far better received.

The words, which are not Brian’s, are spread out so far between instrumental interludes that the song would have survived without them. However, Brian interprets them well, and his vocal performance on this song is commendable. “‘Star Fleet’ is the theme tune for a superb TV sci-fi series broadcast in England for kids of all ages; Japanese visuals and a British soundtrack including music by Paul Bliss,” Brian explained in the liner notes for the
Star Fleet Project
mini-album. “The heroes pilot space vehicles which can assemble into a giant robot for land battles. The aliens fly fantastic insect-like craft which spawn similar fighting machines, all intent on possession of the secret of F Zero One – having been introduced to all this by my small boy, I became equally obsessed by it, and formed the idea of making a hard rock version of the title theme.