Queen: The Complete Works (42 page)

The promotional video, filmed in Toronto during rehearsals for the Rock ‘n’ America US tour, was directed by Brian Grant and was a blatant rush job, with a glum-looking band positioned in a flooded warehouse, while Freddie attempts to instill some life into a lackluster performance by dancing around violently chugging pistons. The single mix remained unavailable on a compilation until 2009, when it finally showed up on
The Singles Collection – Volume 2
, while an extended remix, Queen’s first of any kind, was created for the 12” release of the single. Remixed by John, it nearly doubles the length of the song and adds all sorts of percussion and instrumental segments, but was not included on
The 12” Collection
, released as part of the
Box of Tricks
set in 1992. An ideal home for the extended mix would have been on the 2011 reissue of
Hot Space
, but this was overlooked in favour of the single mix.

Live, the song took a whole new direction, as with most of the
Hot Space
material, but was never given a fair chance in the live setting, only being performed a handful of times; it was dropped by the end of the 1982
Hot Space
world tour.

BACK TO STORM

Initially known among collectors as ‘Song 2’, ‘Back To Storm’ was reportedly recorded during the 1985 sessions for
A Kind Of Magic
, though there’s still speculation that it may have been an idea recorded by Freddie during sessions for
Mr Bad Guy
. However, that is most definitely Roger on drums, with his distinctive hi-hat touches, long established as his signature sound, thus lending further weight to the
A Kind Of Magic
outtake theories. (An instrumental solo version of the song has leaked out as ‘Little Boogie’, and contains some lively piano work from Freddie.) Like most unfinished doodles, ‘Back To Storm’ is interesting enough upon first listen, but there’s not much else here to sustain repeated listens.

BACK TO THE LIGHT
(May)

• Album (Brian):
BTTL
• A-side (Brian): 11/92 [19] • CD single (Brian): 6/93 [23] • Live (Brian):
Brixton

Brian was in a confused state after the end of the Magic tour in August 1986. The video shoot for ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ the following month would be the final unified spurt of activity the band embarked on for the next eighteen months. That time would be spent focusing on solo projects, and Brian was certainly no exception. He had been itching to start work on his own album;
Star Fleet Project
was a one-off, a trio of loose jams with some of his musician friends, but hardly definitive of his capabilities as a songwriter. So, after some activity with other bands, including a brief stint helping Bad News produce and record their debut album, Brian finally set to work on his own project.

The title track of that album,
Back To The Light
, is an outpouring of emotion. Brian was clearly a troubled man during this period: his marriage was falling apart due to a scandalous attraction to
EastEnders
star Anita Dobson, and his father had passed away in June 1988, which hit him hardest. He was extremely close to his father, and dealt with his depression by rediscovering the instrument he had built with him back in 1963.

Segueing in from a short keyboard and guitar intro, ‘The Dark’, the song is a masterful display of light and shade, with Brian’s voice distant and frail in the verses but powerful and commanding in the chorus. ‘Back To The Light’ was recorded in March 1988 at Allerton Hill, Brian’s home studio, and was one of four songs initially set down at that session (the others were ‘I’m Scared’, ‘Let Your Heart Rule Your Head’ and ‘Rollin’ Over’), but this was clearly the strongest of the bunch. Brian certainly thought so and, as well as making it the first song performed during his 1992 and 1993 world tour, issued it as the third single from the album in November 1992. Backed with ‘Nothin’ But Blue’ (the regular album version on the first CD single, which also included ‘Star Fleet’ and ‘Let Me Out’, and with an instrumental guitar version on the second single, which included ‘Bluesbreaker’), the single peaked at an impressive No. 19 in the UK, but was the first single from the album not to reach the Top Ten.

A live version, performed on
The Tonight Show
on 5 April 1993 and featuring a mock-Cockney introduction from host Jay Leno, was released on the CD single release of ‘Resurrection’, which also featured ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ (with Slash guesting on additional guitar) from the same performance. By this point, the
Brian May Band had been on tour for six weeks, and Brian wasn’t yet used to singing a two-hour show every night. As a result, his voice is tired and he tries but often fails to reach several of the higher notes from the song, dropping down an octave to prevent further vocal strain. A better live version can be found on
Live At The Brixton Academy
, by which time Brian had become accustomed to lengthy nightly performances.

BAD ATTITUDE
(The Cross)

• Album (The Cross):
Blue
• Live (The Cross):
Germany

The opening song on
Blue Rock
is a full-blown rocker allowing Roger to do his best Robert Plant impression as he squeals through a story of a misunderstood rebel, apathetic to society and downright confrontational toward authority. While the performance is muscular, with the guitars mixed roughly and Roger clearly relishing the occasion, the lyrics are downright laughable (“Only way to stay cool / Gotta break some rules / Systems made for fools” is just one particularly engaging triplet) and, with songwriting credit being split five ways among The Cross, it’s hard to point specific blame at anyone. Nevertheless, it served as an appropriate set opener on the brief 1991
Blue Rock
tour, and was even tried out on stage before it was recorded, with a ramshackle performance released on the 1991 bootleg
The Official Bootleg
, including an intriguing bit of information from Roger: “OK, here’s a brand new song that we haven’t finished writing yet, so the words are— aren’t quite right. It’s called ‘Tear It Up’ or ‘Bad Attitude’, we’re not quite sure.”

BAD COMPANY
(Rodgers/Kirke)

• Live (Q+PR):
Ukraine

Recorded by the band of the same name and released on their 1974 eponymous debut album, ‘Bad Company’ is a timeless rock ballad and a staple of US radio. Therefore, it was expected that the song was to be included in the set lists of the 2005 and 2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers shows in North America, though the song actually debuted in Aruba and was also performed on the first date of the Japanese leg. For the 2006 shows, Paul played piano, with the instrument rising out of a pit in front of the stage, though on one occasion Brian evidently lost sight of where and when the piano was emerging and took a nasty tumble, falling into the pit. After the general confusion and a few minor bruises, the humbled guitarist was more cautious of his footing, with no further mishaps – especially the next night, thanks to the assistance of a flashlight-equipped tech.

BAMA LAMA BAMA LOO
(Richard)

Little Richard’s 1964 song was covered extensively by Queen in their live set, appearing in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Medley between 1970 and 1973.

BARCELONA
(Mercury/Moran)

• A-side (Freddie): 10/87 [8] • Album (Freddie):
Barcelona
• A-side (Freddie): 7/92 [2] • Compilation (Freddie):
Solo Collection

For one of the first times in his illustrious career, Freddie found himself writing to task. After meeting with Montserrat Caballé (see the separate entry in Part Two for
Barcelona
) and deciding to turn their collaborative efforts into a full album, Freddie was simultaneously elated and horrified by the fact that he would have to write forty minutes of material. ‘Exercises In Free Love’ had already been written and recorded without Montserrat, and was therefore not in the running for inclusion, but the diva asked Freddie to write a paean to her hometown, Barcelona. The result was so inspired and majestic that it became the title track of their album.

Starting off with a Freddie-led chorus chanting the title over a subtly orchestrated backing, the song explodes with a clattering of piano, timpani and orchestration, and is certainly one of the most dramatic openings to any Queen-related album. After ninety seconds of the overture, the song slows down to a gorgeous piano-dominated segment, featuring Freddie and Montserrat duetting in English and Spanish, respectively. Unexpectedly, the song reprises the intro cries of the title, soaring to a completely new level with one of Freddie’s most emotive vocal performances guiding the way. Montserrat provides only occasional, though stunning, vocalizations; it wouldn’t be until later in the album that their voices would truly mesh. For now, though, this is Freddie’s show.

Atypically, outside musicians were used on the track, though most of the backing was painstakingly created on keyboards by Mike Moran and Freddie. Homi Kanga and Laurie Lewis contributed violins, with Deborah Ann Johnston on cello, Barry Castle on horn, and Frank Ricoffion percussion. The instrumentation is cleverly arranged, and is a testament to Mike’s
talents (the instrumental version on
The Solo Collection
is a stunning revelation): the song twists and turns with astonishing ease, going from delicate keyboard passages to thunderous explosions of percussion and brass, and is a veritable rollercoaster of musicality that only hints at the diversity of the resulting album.

The song was aptly chosen as the debut single from the album, and anybody expecting Freddie’s latest work to be an extension of the
Mr Bad Guy
singles, or even ‘
The Great Pretender
’ which predated the release of ‘Barcelona’ by eight months, was in for a surprise. Released in October 1987, the single, backed with ‘Exercises In Free Love’ (making its second appearance as the B-side of a single that year), reached No. 8 in the UK charts, making 1987 a year of triumph for Freddie: not only did he score his highest-charting single with ‘
The Great Pretender
’ in March, but the general public had responded well to his latest efforts.

An extended version, bringing the running time to seven minutes, was issued on the 12” version of the single, while the single version omitted the first sixty seconds of the track, starting with an introduction of chimes and piano. This version was later issued on
Queen’s Greatest Hits III
in 1999, and the following year on
The Solo Collection
, which would also include three outtakes (not including ‘Ideas’ from the
Garden Lodge
tape) that were previously unheard, yet just as stunning. The first version, recorded on 28 April 1987 and dubbed ‘Freddie’s Demo Vocal’, contained all of Freddie’s own vocal parts, though the lyrics hadn’t yet been finalized, as well as the falsetto vocalizations for Montserrat to follow. The second version, recorded later that same day, was a more polished rough mix and dubbed ‘Freddie’s Vocal Slave’, with the vocalist’s falsetto omitted and focusing only on his own parts. The most stunning outtake was recorded five days later on 3 May 1987 and is an isolated track of Freddie’s vocals, revealing the awesome power and control he had over his voice.

Appropriately, the single was reissued in July 1992, in anticipation of the summer Olympics held in Barcelona, and peaked at No. 2 in the UK and becoming Freddie’s highest-charting single to date, beaten only by ‘Living On My Own’ twelve months later. The song was submitted to the Olympics committee, and Freddie and Montserrat were slated to perform it as a duet at the opening ceremonies, but Freddie died eight months prior to the games; instead, the album version was performed over a video montage of the city.

He was able to perform the song twice with Montserrat, though both were mimed performances: the first was on 29 May 1987, shortly after the song had been completed, at the Ku Club in Ibiza, Spain, as the finale to the worldwide Ibiza 92 festival. The overwhelmingly positive reception to the song was the cue to continue work on the album. The second performance, and Freddie’s last true performance in front of a live audience, was on 8 October 1988 and involved the duo miming to the track (as well as ‘The Golden Boy’ and ‘How Can I Go On’) at the La Nit event on the steps of Montjuic Castle in Barcelona. The pair were in the presence of the King and Queen of Spain and the event was commissioned to mark the arrival of the Olympic flag from Korea. The three-song set was filmed by Gavin Taylor (who had previously worked on Queen’s 1986 Wembley show), employing no fewer than eighteen cameras for the occasion, and was broadcast live worldwide. Unfortunately, the backing tracks for the songs were played at a slightly slower pace, causing Freddie to explode backstage, though hardly anybody could tell the tempo was off. This performance, along with the other two songs, were later released on the 2000 video compilation,
The Freddie Mercury Video Collection
.

‘Barcelona’ would also receive a video treatment, becoming the only officially commissioned video to emerge from the album, though the aforementioned mimed performances of ‘The Golden Boy’ and ‘How Can I Go On’ would later be used as promotional material for those songs. Filmed on 8 October 1987 at Pinewood Studios, Freddie and Montserrat performed the song in front of an audience of 300 fans. Freddie is dressed in a smart, dark blue suit while Montserrat is gowned in fine, flowing silk robes, and watching the two interact is profoundly moving.

BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED

Written and recorded during
News Of The World
sessions in 1977, little is known about this song, except that it was written either by John or, less likely, Brian. One collector has stated it could be the working title of another song from the sessions, but chances are it’s a song in its own right.

BATTLE SCENE

While some of the other titles from the
Highlander
soundtrack (‘Under The Garden’, ‘Swordfight At 34th’, ‘The Quickening’, ‘Rachel’s Surprise’ and ‘Highlander
Theme’) were written and composed by Michael Kamen, only ‘Battle Scene’ was written and performed by Queen, and failed to make it onto either the film soundtrack or accompanying
A Kind Of Magic
album. Composer credits are unknown, but this moody theme, set to a droning synthesizer with otherworldly backing vocals and occasional stabs from The Red Special, is a stunning instrumental, and was recorded at The Townhouse at the same time as ‘Princes Of The Universe’.