Queen: The Complete Works

by Georg Purvis

  It was fitting, then, that the song was chosen as the final proper single from Innuendo, released in October 1991 to minimal fanfare. Backed by Queen’s first single, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, the synchronization of the situation is clearer with hindsight: the band were aware that the end of their career was coming, and it made sense to put their first single as the flipside of their last single. The single peaked no higher than No. 16 in the UK charts, but was coupled with the reissue of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the US when released in January 1992, promptly shooting up the charts to No. 2, their highest position there (and first Top Ten single) since ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ in 1980.

  Since Freddie was too ill to film a video for the single (he had already made his final film performance in May 1991 with ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’), the band left the task of assembling one in the hands of The Torpedo Twins, who constructed a touching remembrance of Queen over the years, pulling clips from all the officially released videos as well as a few previously unissued moments. This video was later issued on the Greatest Flix II and Classic Queen videos in the UK and US respectively.

  Live performances of the song were initially limited to two with Brian, Roger and John, both of them with Elton John on lead vocals. The flamboyant vocalist/ pianist, a close friend of Freddie’s, declared at the Concert for Life in April 1992 that the song was his favourite from Innuendo, and proceeded to hoarsely deliver his own touching performance, which may have been one of the highlights of the evening. Elton later included the song in subsequent solo performances as a memorial for his friend, and even made it a part of his 1992 video release, Elton John – Live World Tour 1992. The second performance came in January 1997 at the Bejart Ballet for Life in Paris, France, which was inexplicably issued on Greatest Hits III and Greatest Flix III in 1999.

  Brian included the song in his 1998 set lists, and Roger and Brian performed the song in several We Will Rock You musical one-offs, the most notable being at the 30 April 2002 concert in Amsterdam, as well as the 46664 concert in Cape Town in November 2003. Most recently, the song was incorporated into the 2005/2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers tour, and again on the 2008 Rock The Cosmos tour, with stirring renditions issued on Return Of The Champions and Live In Ukraine; however, none of the live versions can match the drama and passion the band produced on the studio version.

  SILVER SALMON

  Long rumoured not to exist, ‘Silver Salmon’ is a raucous, Black Sabbath-style rocker originating from the 1972 sessions for the debut album, though some have argued that it’s an outtake from News Of The World (the drums, including timbales, and Freddie’s vocal strength are the main arguing points). The song was apparently written by Tim Staffell, though Queen give it a different treatment than may have originally been intended. With explosive drum fills and a crunching guitar riff, Freddie practically screams the lyrics over the din, though there appear to be times when the band are unsure in which direction to take the song. Nevertheless, it’s a curious recording and, for the casual fan, a revelation.

  SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE (Ballard)

  • Live (Brian): Brixton

  In 1975, following the break-up of Deep Purple, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore formed the rock group Rainbow, which employed a revolving cast of musicians. The following year, Cozy Powell joined the group and remained its drummer until 1980; their most well-known album came in 1979 with Down To Earth. Easily ranking as one of the best rock albums of the late 1970s, one of its two hit singles was ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, written by Russ Ballard, charting at No. 6 in September 1979.

  When forming his touring band for the upcoming Back To The Light world tour in 1992, Brian asked Cozy Powell to be the drummer in the group, and duly inserted ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ into the set list. A live version appeared on the 1994 album Live At The Brixton Academy, and is a particularly hard-rocking track, with Brian attempting to mimic the vocals of Graham Bonnet. While it may have been more interesting to have heard an obscure Queen track, it’s an enjoyable performance, though it comes nowhere near surpassing the original. The song was later incorporated into the 1998 Another World tour, this time as a tribute to Cozy, who had died in a car accident on 5 April of that year.

  SISTER BLUE (Noone)

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

  Written by Peter Noone, ‘Sister Blue’ is a rollicking rocker from Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know, and ties with ‘Liar’ as the highlight of Noone’s three contributions to the album. While the lyric matter is ambiguous, Roger turns in a fine vocal delivery, imploring the main character to “lose that ball and chain, shake it loose” as The Cross form a dense backing, full of chugging guitars and thick drums. The song was performed live during the 1990 tour in support of the album, with a live version appearing on the Fan Club-only album, The Official Bootleg, in early 1991.

  SLEEPING ON THE SIDEWALK (May)

  • Album: World

  Opening side two of the News Of The World album, Brian’s excursion into cool blues comes as a surprise, especially considering that the last blues track to be recorded was ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ in 1973. However, with the eclectic diversions on News Of The World, it’s a welcome addition, allowing the guitarist a second opportunity to sing lead vocals.

  Continuing Brian’s discomfort with becoming successful too quickly (see also ‘Good Company’, ‘Long Away’ and ‘Leaving Home Ain’t Easy’), he changes the story up, allowing a bit of humour as he relates his fame to a trumpeter in a jazz band. Coerced into numerous contracts allowing him everything his heart desires, the protagonist enjoys his life on the road until he realizes that he’s not only become yesterday’s news, but that it’s also not all it’s cracked up to be, ultimately deciding that he prefers life on the sidewalk instead of in the spotlight.

  Brian told BBC’s Radio One in 1983, “That was the quickest song I ever wrote in my life, I just wrote it down. It’s funny because it’s one of the ones I’m quite pleased with as well. It’s not trying too hard, it’s not highly subtle but I think it leaves me with quite a good feeling. It was sort of a one-take thing as well. Although I messed around with the take a lot and chopped it about and rearranged it, it was basically the first take, which we used. So it has that kind of sloppy feel that I think works with the song. Which we never would have dreamed [of doing] with the previous albums. We always used to work on the backing tracks until they were a million per cent perfect and if they weren’t we would splice together two which were. We’d go to great lengths, but for this album we wanted to get that spontaneity back in.” A legend was built up over the years that the band were recorded unaware that the tape was rolling, which Brian debunked in 2008 on his Soapbox: “We were fully aware that the tape was rolling – stories get a little modified over the years, I guess.”

  ‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’ was played once on the News Of The World US tour, on 11 November 1977, but was dropped because it didn’t work as well as planned. Brian has since revived it for his 1998 solo tours, and even performed it at some of the We Will Rock You musical after-parties.

  SLEEPY BLUES

  Though the origins of ‘Sleepy Blues’ (also known as ‘Drunken Blues’) are unknown, the song is a bit of a curio in that it features Brian recording an idea for a song, undoubtedly intended for Back To The Light, but features no instruments whatsoever. Instead, Brian provides vocal approximations of the instruments he envisions on the final version, which was apparently never recorded. Brian introduces the song by saying, “Right. Now, this is a song, some blues for the session upcoming, dated the fifth of March or something. Due for some sessions soon for my solo album ... This is a blues song.” Understandably, the demo remained unreleased, though it’s worth checking out for Brian’s distinctive ‘harmonica’ solo.

  SLOW DOWN (Williams)

  • Album (Brian): World

  Originally written and recorded by Larry Williams in the late 1950s, ‘Slow Down’ was later popularized by The Beatles, who were
aficionados of his work and covered several of his songs in their career. As recorded by The Brian May Band – indeed, the only track on all of Another World to feature a full band arrangement – the song is strong enough but comes off as filler, sounding like it was more fun to record than it is to listen to.

  “The only track we really recorded live is ‘Slow Down’, which I have played with my old band,” Brian explained, though what old band he was referring to is anyone’s guess; Queen never performed the song live. “Otherwise I had a plan, a frame to which people should play. I found a friend and a fiend in the computer. It is a friend because you can write wonderfully with it. For the album I spent most of the time programming a good drum track. The track had, of course, not been used but instead of describing to Cozy Powell what he should play, he heard it directly. But a computer can also be terrible because you can become obsessed and spend your whole life with it.”

  The song, originally part of Brian’s Heroes project (see the entry for Another World in Part Two for more information), was recorded in 1996 but would have been better suited as a non-album track. Surprisingly, given its obviously spontaneous recorded performance, the song was only performed twice during the Another World tour: the first time in Hamburg on 3 October 1998, with a second and final performance in Birmingham on 28 October.

  SMALL (Taylor/May/Rodgers)

  • Album (Q+PR): Cosmos

  Roger’s songwriting on The Cosmos Rocks was a surprise to fans; not only was it consistently strong, with clever arrangements and a diversity of styles, but the lyrics were mostly decent, with only a few true Rogerisms (“I’ve got a criminal urge to twist and shout”, “Some may say I’m lackadasical”, “There’s a rock‘n’roll fever in every place / Next thing you know they’ll be rockin’ out in space”) thrown in for good measure. But Roger has a tendency to surprise the listener with a beautiful, reflective song that is so at odds with his usual style that, upon first listen, one would be forgiven for mistaking it as someone else’s song – ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’, for example. Such was the case with ‘Small’, a sublime acoustic rocker that seemingly had Brian’s fingerprints all over it, but was actually largely the work of Roger.

  With a superficial message of the joys of relaxing in the country, there’s an introspective and philosophical sense that this simple escape be allowed to everyone when the pressures and stresses of reality become too much; when surrounded by nature, these problems appear insignificant compared to the majesty of the environment. While Paul was given a fair amount of questionable lyrics to sing on The Cosmos Rocks (some his own fault), he sounds comfortable on ‘Small’, with a nod to Free’s ‘Lying In The Sunshine’ – which also explores similar sentiments to this song (“I’d rather sit right here and think about the world”, “If you could only feel the same / Your world would be a peaceful place”) – not going unnoticed. Still, despite Paul’s superb delivery, it would be intriguing to hear Roger tackle this song. While most of the album would be mired in either fun but meaningless songs or bloated sociopolitical statements, ‘Small’ is a true highlight, and an indicator that, beneath the sarcastic diatribes and questionable rhyming schemes, Roger could still deliver the goods.

  SMALL (REPRISE) (Taylor/May/Rodgers)

  • Album (Q+PR): Cosmos

  This brief, two minute reprise of standout track ‘Small’ is, like most reprises, nice but inessential listening. But after the manic rush of ‘Surf’s Up ... School’s Out!’, ‘Small (reprise)’ is a perfect way to bow out, the vocal harmonies and The Red Special gently breaking against seagull caws.

  SMILE

  This delicate ballad, opening with multi-tracked Rogers representing an angelic chorus before giving way to a lovely piano melody, was recorded at the same time as ‘The Unblinking Eye (Everything Is Broken)’, and was premiered at the 2010 Queen Fan Club convention. Destined for Roger’s still-untitled (and uncompleted) fifth solo album, the song got the rumour mill churning among fans as being an ode to Roger and Brian’s pre-Queen band of the same name, but its lyric is an optimistic paean to the simple joys in life, and is reminiscent to ‘Small’, easily a highlight of The Cosmos Rocks. The song was played again at the following year’s convention, with an intriguing segue into Roger’s other new solo song, ‘I Am The Drummer In A Rock ‘n’ Roll Band’.

  SO SAD (Everly)

  The Everly Brothers’ ‘So Sad’ was performed live by 1984.

  SO SWEET

  Authorship of this track is unknown, but it’s a fairly standard blues rocker, with the unofficial title of ‘So Sweet (Got To Get Away)’. An Ibex recording from The Sink Club, Liverpool on 9 September 1969 exists, albeit of poor quality.

  SOMEBODY TO LOVE (Mercury)

  • A-side: 11/76 [2] • Album: Races • CD Single: 11/88 • Bonus: Races • A-side: 4/93 [1] • CD Single: 12/95 [6] • Compilation: Hits3 • Live: On Fire, Montreal

  Queen, and Freddie particularly, were feeling adventurous. After proving they could tackle opera – successfully! – with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it was anyone’s guess what they would attempt next. It came as no surprise, then, when ‘Somebody To Love’ was released as the precursor to A Day At The Races. The band’s first excursion into gospel, incorporating the backing vocals of Brian, Freddie and Roger as a gospel choir, was a success upon its release as a single in November 1976, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 13 in the US.

  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 I
t 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.”