Queen: The Complete Works (90 page)

A video was shot at the Dominion Theatre on 22 May 1986 at ten o’clock in the morning, an absurdly early yet necessary time to start filming. The theatre was booked for evening performances, and the film crew had until 3:00 pm to film the performance, which was done as economically as possible. For the first – but certainly not last – time, a group of youngsters was used as extras, adding a certain degree of sentiment and poignancy to the video, and it remains a wonderful, albeit little-seen, performance.

Later that night, Freddie attended the performance of the show at the Dominion, where he hatched up the crazy scheme to become a pre-show ice-cream vendor, giving rise to one of the more memorable Freddie legends. Decked out in the full uniform, he remained anonymous at first, dutifully handing out the ice creams, but started to grow impatient – not only that, he had no idea how much to charge – and started to throw the frozen treats into the audience until his supply ran out. Once the crowd had figured out who the prankster was, Freddie left to rapturous applause, paying for the freebies he had just given away.

TIME TO SHINE
(Rodgers/May/Taylor)

• Album (Q+PR):
Cosmos

When recording sessions began for
The Cosmos Rocks
,
Paul came armed with a handful of songs he felt were worthy, though two of them had been written and performed on his 2007 UK solo tour. ‘Time To Shine’ was the first completely new song he submitted for
The Cosmos Rocks
, and, as Brian commented in
Rolling Stone
, “That ... was the first time we thought, ‘Ooh, we have a record here; this actually sounds like us.’” While Brian and Roger would write songs specifically for Paul’s voice, attempting to suit his blues rock swagger, Paul wrote ‘Time To Shine’ as an attempt to ape Queen’s style, and largely succeeds, despite its ricky-ticky U2 guitar riff. Roger agreed, telling
Rolling Stone
, “It was very suitable for us – quite grand and big.”

Unfortunately, the words are to the detriment of the song, alluding to Paul’s credit in
The Cosmos Rocks
booklet: “May the force be with you (seriously!)”. ‘Time To Shine’ is a song of spiritual harmony, an urging to find one’s inner peace and serenity through adversity, and comes off sounding cheesy and laughter-inducing in the process. What saves the song is a soaring instrumental backing and Paul’s transcendental vocal delivery, eclipsing most of the other songs on
The Cosmos Rocks
.

The song was performed only once on the 2008 Rock the Cosmos tour, on 23 September in Antwerpen, but it failed to get moving after a mistimed cue into the first chorus, and what could have been a noteworthy inclusion into the set was removed the following night.

TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR
(Bach)

Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Toccata And Fugue In D Minor’ was performed live by Smile in 1968 and 1969.

TONIGHT
(Taylor)

• B-side (Roger): 9/98 [45] • Album (Roger):
Electric
• CD single (Roger): 3/99 [38]

Upon first listen, ‘Tonight’ sounds like a simple love song, the only song from
Electric Fire
to feature an acoustic guitar so prominently. In fact, it’s a celebration of love, be it platonic or romantic, and may contain an underlying tribute to Freddie. With a gorgeous melody, including an absolutely sublime acoustic guitar solo from Jason Falloon, ‘Tonight’ chugs away with the double-drum action of Roger (providing the rhythm) and Keith Prior (providing the brushed snare) and comes to a close by recalling the mood and feel of ‘Who Needs You’ from 1977.

The song was premiered at the Cyberbarn gig on 24 September 1998, and it was this version that appeared on the CD single of ‘Surrender’ in March 1999. An earlier remix, given the subtitle of ‘Dub Sangria’, emphasized the pseudo-Latin rhythm (excising most of the words to become a semi-instrumental) and was released as the B-side of ‘Pressure On’ in September 1998. ‘Tonight’ was also performed live on the 1999
Electric Fire
tour, making little attempt to recreate the backing from the album, instead giving the song a more conventional approach that dulled its impact significantly.

TOO MUCH LOVE WILL KILL YOU
(May/Musker/Lamers)

• A-side (Brian): 8/92 [5] • Album (Brian):
BTTL
• B-side (Brian): 6/93 [23] • Live (Brian):
Brixton
• Album (Queen):
Heaven
• A-side (Queen): 2/96 [15]

The years between
A Kind Of Magic
and
The Miracle
were particularly difficult for Brian. Not only was his marriage with his wife Chrissy falling apart (the couple divorced in 1987), his father became ill and eventually passed away in the early summer of 1988. The band had also taken a temporary hiatus, with the prospect of future live work fading quickly.

Brian was clearly a confused man, and fell into a deep depression that he tried to cure by attempting to record his first solo album, as well as jamming with his peers and young upstarts alike. He took on the task of producing Bad News, a parody hair metal band from the minds of UK’s comedy troupe The Young Ones. He also contributed to the recording career of his post-divorce girlfriend, former
EastEnders
star Anita Dobson. Finally, Brian channelled his depression into a song that perfectly summed up his state of mind at the time.

‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ was originally written and recorded for Brian’s solo project in 1988, before being turned over to Queen and recorded for inclusion on
The Miracle
, but was ultimately rejected. Songwriting royalties were the main dispute: the song was co-credited to Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers, songwriting friends of Brian who also helped him record a personal demo earlier that year. Brian’s version was later issued on his 1992 solo album
Back To The Light
, and issued as a single later that year, where it became his highest-charting solo single (and, up until that point, the highest-charting solo single by any band member), peaking at No. 5. He had performed the song unaccompanied except for his own piano
at the Concert For Life, turning in an emotive yet understated performance.

“It was a big step to do it and I wanted to do it for Freddie,” Brian told
Guitarist
in 1992 of his Concert For Life performance. “It wasn’t that the song had a particular relevance – it wasn’t about AIDS – but it was a song that I felt was the best way of expressing myself and also the best thing I had to offer at the time. It was terrifying! It was in front of 72,000 people in the Stadium, half a billion people around the world and so it took an incredible amount of getting hold of myself to do it. As I was walking over to the piano I was thinking, ‘Should I really be doing this?’ So it was difficult, it really was. It’s so easy to do in rehearsal and yet, when that moment comes, something happens to your throat. Plus it really brought me back in touch with what was going on; suddenly there was only me doing my personal little bit.”

Equally beautiful was a guitar version, which was released as part of the CD single in August 1992, featuring The Red Special ‘singing’ the words instead of Brian, though this has become something of a rarity over the years, much like a live version that was released on the ‘Resurrection’ CD single from Los Angeles. A different live version, from the Brixton Academy, was released on Brian’s sole live CD,
Live At The Brixton Academy
.

The 1988 recording was dusted off six years later and released as-is on
Made In Heaven
. (It had first been planned as a bonus track on the Live At Wembley ’86 CD, to capitalize on Brian’s performance at the Concert For Life, but was removed at the last minute.) ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ was issued as the third single from the album in February 1996, reaching No. 15 in the UK charts (it was also issued as the first single from the album in the US a month earlier, climbing no higher than No. 118) and securing a well-deserved spot on the 1999
Greatest Hits III
compilation.

TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS
(Berry)

This Chuck Berry song was played live by 1984.

TOP OF THE WORLD, MA
(The Cross)

• Album (The Cross):
MBADTK
• Live:
Bootleg

One of two tracks written as a five-way split between The Cross, ‘Top Of The World, Ma’ is a great rocker, opening up
Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know
with a declaration of lust for a girl, with the protagonist prepared to shout it from the rooftops. The song features a great guitar solo from Clayton Moss, with Spike’s Hammond organ high in the mix, and gets The Cross’ first proper collective album off to a rollicking start. ‘Top Of The World, Ma’ became the second song performed on the
Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know
tour, and was later shuffled in the set for the 1991
Blue Rock
tour, becoming the closing number instead. A live version from 1990 was released on the Fan Club-only disc,
The Official Bootleg
.

TOSS THE FEATHERS
(trad.)

Performed by The Corrs on 29 November 2003 at the Cape Town 46664 concert, Roger was asked by Andrea Corr to play drums on this traditional Irish song, lively in execution even if it offers little room for Roger to showcase his talents.

TOUCH THE SKY
(Taylor)

• Album (Roger):
Happiness?

Blending in effortlessly from ‘Revelations’, ‘Touch The Sky’ is one of Roger’s most delicate songs, and was written about Debbie Leng, Roger’s then-girlfriend and mother of three of the drummer’s children. The song features a touching lyric, almost an update of ‘Breakthru’ and ‘Final Destination’ (especially the line “and when you smile, you set the world alight”), though there are a few lines that are borderline cringe-inducing. With Jason Falloon on guitar and Mike Crossley on keyboards, Roger provides the remainder, with his powerful drumming a particular highlight.

The song was performed live on the 1994/1995
Happiness?
tour, complete with the lengthy keyboard-dominated introduction, but was not reprised for further live airings.

TRACK 13
(Queen)

• Bonus:
Heaven

For those fans who accidentally left their CD players running after the final strains of ‘It’s A Beautiful Day (reprise)’ concluded
Made In Heaven
, they were greeted with several unusual sounds. Those sounds have been confirmed by Brian to have been written about Freddie’s journey into Heaven, and were constructed mainly by John, Roger and Brian along with David Richards.

“This was started by me having fun with the ASR10
sampler,” Richards said in 2001. “I took the opening chords of ‘It’s A Beautiful Day’ and made them loop forever. Then I added some of Freddie talking through strange echoes. Brian and Roger heard it and came in to add some effects of their own and we thought of it as a surreal
Requiem
. It was the end of the album and we all were feeling very emotional.”

The piece runs at an astonishing twenty-three minutes, and was understandably included only on the CD versions of the album (the vinyl and cassette versions featured a pointless, seven-second edit). In this author’s opinion, the piece, which has received the original official title of ‘Track 13’, is best listened to late at night with all the lights off.

TURN ON THE TV
(Taylor)

• B-side (Roger): 8/77

The flipside of Roger’s August 1977 debut solo single, ‘Turn On The TV’ borrows its title from the opening line of ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and, like ‘I Wanna Testify’, is about as far away from punk or new wave as could be expected. Dealing with apathy and the summer doldrums, the song is like an upbeat rewrite of ‘Drowse’, set to a funky, disjointed rhythm. Roger handles all the instrumental duties here, but it’s hard to escape the notion that ‘Turn On The TV’ is little more than filler.

TUTTI FRUTTI
(Penniman/LaBostrie/Lubin)

• Live:
Wembley

A superb rendition of Little Richard’s 1957 hit single was performed nightly as the centrepiece of the acoustic medley on the
Magic
tour, starting off with a terrific acoustic introduction, allowing plenty of interaction between Freddie and the audience, before giving way to a fiery electric finish. An edited version from Wembley Stadium appeared on the 1992
Live At Wembley ’86
, but was reinstated fully for the 2003 reissue, which was retitled
Live At Wembley Stadium
.

TWIST AND SHOUT
(Medley/Russell)

Originally performed by The Isley Brothers in 1962 and made famous by The Beatles on their 1963 debut, Please Please Me, ‘Twist And Shout’ was performed as an encore number during Roger’s 1994/1995
Happiness?
tour.

TWO SHARP PENCILS (GET BAD)
(Taylor)

• B-side (Roger): 7/84

A candidate for one of the strangest Queen-related tracks ever recorded, ‘Two Sharp Pencils (Get Bad)’ shows that Roger still had an ear cocked towards the funkier side of the charts. Unfortunately, everything here is programmed and dates the song to a specific week in the summer of 1984, becoming embarrassingly obsolete the second it hit the shops. The backing is terse and deviates little, and the words are sung by Roger with his voice electronically lowered to give the impression that he is soulful and funky. In all, ‘Two Sharp Pencils (Get Bad)’ should have remained unreleased, especially in favour of some of the stronger material recorded during the sessions, but it was issued instead on the 12” version of ‘Strange Frontier’.

THE UNBLINKING EYE

(EVERYTHING IS BROKEN)
(Taylor)

• Download: 11/09 • CD Single: 1/10

Just as he had done with ‘Woman You’re So Beautiful (But Still A Pain In The Ass)’ following the 2006 North American leg of the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour, Roger went back into the studio after the 2008 Rock the Cosmos tour to work on some further solo material. With the creative juices flowing and the ideas abundant, Roger worked discontinuously at The Priory on songs throughout 2008 and 2009, before announcing the first fruits of his labours that November. Titled ‘The Unblinking Eye (Everything Is Broken)’, the song was touted as a protest song: “What happened to the protest song?” Roger mused in the press release. “Music is now so polished, shiny and predictable, we have forgotten to try and say something with it. I am getting old and like everyone, have the right to say something about the ‘state of control’ we live under – powerless to do anything about it.”