Queen: The Complete Works (41 page)

Brian’s account of the song was a self-deprecatory one: “A lot of people have used ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ as a theme song – the Detroit Lions used it for their games, and they soon began to lose, so they bit the dust soon afterwards
[laughs]
, but it was a help to the record. And, there’s been a few cover versions of various kinds, notably ‘Another One Rides The Bus’, which is an extremely funny record by a bloke called Mad Al
[sic – actually Weird Al Yankovic]
or something in the States – it’s hilarious. We like people covering our songs in any way, no matter what spirit it’s done in, because it’s great to have anyone use your music as a base, a big compliment.”

Though the band’s first attempts at funk had come with Freddie’s ‘Get Down, Make Love’ in 1977 and Roger’s ‘Fun It’ in 1978, those songs also contained other elements, rock in the former, disco in the latter. John’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, however, was pure funk, and contained very few Queen-like elements: there was no guitar solo, the drums were crisp, tight and dry, and it featured a very prominent bassline. Vocal harmonies were limited to occasional double-tracking on some verses and the choruses, and only Freddie’s voice distinguished the song as being Queen.

It was this level of anonymity that allowed several US DJs – specifically, in New York, Philadelphia and Detroit – to label the song as a virtually unknown single from an obscure black R&B band. Once the song’s success started to snowball, Elektra and EMI issued it as a single in August 1980, despite protests from Roger, where it reached a modest No. 7 in the UK but became Queen’s second No. 1 single in the US, solidifying the band’s popularity and making 1980 one of their most lucrative years, both in terms of ticket and record sales.

“This song was written ’cause I always wanted to do something in the direction of black music,” John said in a contemporary interview. “It’s not a typical Queen song and I do not know if we ever will do something similar again. We had disagreements about this song. Our company wanted this song as a single ’cause it was very successful at black radio stations. Roger tried to avoid that, because he said it’s too disco-like and that is not good for the reputation of Queen.”

As Brian explained in 1993, “John Deacon, being totally in his own world, came up with this thing, which was nothing like what we were doing. We were going for the big drum sound: you know, quite pompous in our usual way. And Deakey says, ‘No, I want this to be totally different: it’s going to be a very tight drum sound.’ It was originally done to a drum loop – this was before the days of drum-machines. Roger did a loop, kind of under protest, because he didn’t like the sound of the drums recorded that way. And then Deakey put this groove down. Immediately Freddie became violently enthusiastic and said, ‘This is big! This is important! I’m going to spend a lot of time on this.’ It was the beginning of something quite big for us, because it was the first time that one of our records crossed over to the black community. We had no control over that; it just happened. Suddenly we were forced to put out this single because so many stations in New York were playing it. It changed that album from being a million-seller to being a three-million seller in a matter of three weeks or so.”

The song was recorded in the spring of 1980 at Musicland Studios, during the main sessions for
The Game
, and featured John playing bass, rhythm guitar and backwards piano. Like ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, though, the band were unsure of the song’s commercial potential and initially opted to keep it as an album track. Though various stories persist, the most commonly known is that Michael Jackson, then hot on the heels of his 1979
Off The Wall
album and building a (brief) friendship with Freddie, suggested that the band release the song as a single. Crystal Taylor, Roger’s personal assistant, has said that it wasn’t Michael who suggested it, but the road crew themselves: “The actual very first people to suggest ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ to be released as a single was The Royal Road Crew. We were lurking around at Musicland Studios while the fab ones were mixing, and I think it was Jobby [John’s assistant] who said it would be a huge hit. When we told the band they just glared at us and told us to mix some more cocktails. I suppose Mr Jackson saying it sounds more impressive than ‘Our pissed road crew said...’”

“I can remember many times when Roger and I would be pulling in absolutely diametrically opposite directions,” Brian said in 1998. “No chance of either of us budging. And Freddie would find a way through. He’d say, ‘Well, you can do this and do this and it will all work.’ That was one of Freddie’s great talents. He was good at finding roads in the mist. But he would certainly fight for things he believed in. Like ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, which was a bit of a departure for
Queen. Roger, at the time, certainly felt that it wasn’t rock and roll and was quite angry at the way it was going. And Freddie said, ‘Darling, leave it to me. I believe in this.’ John had written the song. But it took Freddie’s support to make it happen.”

A video for the single was shot during a soundcheck on 9 August 1980 at The Reunion in Dallas, Texas. Directed by Daniella Green, the video shows the band running through the song as normal, with very few embellishments; only during the middle section, when Freddie prances around the stage with various multicoloured baseball caps with devils’ horns plastered to them, does the video actually get interesting.

Live, the song received very few airings during the first few performances in 1980. Only after its success in the charts did it finally become a mainstay in the set list, being performed during every tour between 1980 and 1986. The song remained an encore number until 1982, but was moved up earlier in the set list for the
Queen Works!
tour in 1984.

Inexplicably, a remix by Wyclef Jean was issued on the 1999 barrel-scraping
Greatest Hits III
album release. The song had been reissued in this format in September 1998 in support of the American film
Small Soldiers
, but is completely out of place among the other songs on the album.

ANOTHER WORLD
(May)

• Album (Brian):
World

Bringing Brian’s second full-length solo album to an emotional close, ‘Another World’ is a typical ballad sung with such poignancy that it’s hard not to be touched by the vocal performance. Unfortunately, schmaltzy string keyboards are added to the mix and the song is bathed in echo, reducing it to the level of such treacly MOR crooners like Barry Manilow and others of his ilk. Indeed, even the press release stated that it was a “ballad which would probably work for anyone from Axl Rose to Celine Dion.”

Released as a Holland-only single after the album was issued, a more well-known version was issued on the Spanish-only album
Baladas 99
. Retitled as ‘Otro Lugar’, Brian sings the song in Spanish, approximating the phrasing of the English version, and it is indeed a beautiful rendition. The song was performed live with Brian standing at the front of the stage without a guitar (Jamie Moses played the acoustic guitar solo), and in this stripped-back arrangement was more effective than the album version.

The song took on a more poignant tone after Cozy Powell died in a car accident on 5 April 1998, though it had been completed before then with Ken Taylor on bass and Steve Ferrone on drums and percussion. When asked if Cozy (and, inevitably, Freddie) were in mind when Brian wrote the song, he explained, “As soon as you start working on an idea for a song, then all kinds of things come into your head, and you weave all the threads together. It’s primarily a love song, really, and the first seed of the idea came from a film again, strangely enough. This guy [Peter Howitt] wrote a script for a film called
Sliding Doors,
which has now come out, as a matter of fact. He was an old friend of mine, and he said, ‘Please write me a song. I’ve always dreamed of asking you to write me a song, Bri.’ So I wrote this ‘Another World’ track and was very pleased with it: took it straight round to him, and he loved it, jumped up and down, said ‘This is it! This is the perfect thing for the film!’ About four months later I’d never heard another word from him and he said, ‘Oh, sorry Brian, politics, y’know, I got involved with a record company who is financing the film and we can’t use your song.’ So I was upset for a couple of days, but then I thought, ‘Well, I have the song’, and I started to weave into it the thoughts which go with my own life and my own feelings and I’m very ... actually, it’s a shock. Every time I hear this song, it’s a shock, because it’s very different for me, and it really is another world in terms of technique and atmosphere in song writing and record making. It’s a record which I didn’t think I would make. I’m much more into excess, y’know (laughs). This is a very grown-up kind of song, and it is another world for me.”

APPARITION
(May)

• Soundtrack (Brian):
Furia

With vocalizations by Brian’s daughter Emily (then only 12 years old), ‘Apparition’ is another variation of the main theme from Furia, although the ethereal rendition helps make this piece memorable.

APRIL LADY
(Lucas)

• Compilation (Smile):
Ghost Of A Smile

With Brian on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, ‘April Lady’ is one of the most delicate tracks recorded by Smile. Written by unknown songwriter Stanley Lucas, the song was suggested by producer Fritz Freyer, and
was recorded in August 1969 at De Lane Lea Studios. Featuring some gorgeous harmony vocals from Tim Staffell and prominent chorus vocals by Roger, the song is a rare highlight of the sessions but, as with the other five tracks recorded that month, it snuck out on the 1982 bootleg
Gettin’ Smile
, and then again in 1998 on
Ghost Of A Smile
.

ARBORIA (PLANET OF THE TREE MEN)
(Deacon)

• Album:
Flash

A sinister-sounding composition for
Flash Gordon
, John’s atmospheric ‘Arboria (Planet Of The Tree Men)’ opens side two with a whirling synthesizer background, while a flute-like synth motif dominates the remainder of the piece.

ARREST
(May)

• Soundtrack (Brian):
Furia

Largely featuring programmed keyboards, ‘Arrest’ is a dark and brooding, albeit short, piece, ending with more dialogue from the film.

ASSASSIN

‘Assassin’ has eluded collectors for years, and, according to legend, was the predecessor to ‘Innuendo’ but altered considerably due to its apparent similarity to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’. This rumour has been disproved over the years, with Queen’s archivist Greg Brooks confirming the song’s existence, but that it wasn’t an early version of ‘Innuendo’; if anything, ‘Assassin’ is more likely to be a working title of ‘The Hitman’.

BABY IT’S ALRIGHT
(Edney)

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

Coming after ‘Dirty Mind’ on Blue Rock, ‘Baby It’s Alright’ is the best song written by Spike Edney, though that’s not saying much. The song starts off as a delicate ballad before turning into a mid-tempo rocker, with Roger forgiving the object of his affection for the resulting heartache and blues. With a gorgeously understated guitar solo and subtle accompaniment by Geoffrey Richardson (violin and viola) and Helen Liebman (cello), the song also features some poignant backing vocals from Candy and Clare Yates, just a few of the many reasons why
Blue Rock
is regarded so highly by fans of The Cross.

The song was performed live on the 1991 tour in support of Magnum, with a live version appearing on the 1992 Fan Club-only release,
Live In Germany
.

BACK CHAT
(Deacon)

• Album:
Space
• A-side: 8/82 [40] • Live:
On Fire
• Bonus:
Space

The song that instigated the
Hot Space
sessions led the band down an alley their fans weren’t exactly prepared for. Written by John, this pseudo-funk rocker achieves a lot in its four-and-a-half-minute life; with a muscular backing track, ‘Back Chat’ chugs away as Freddie snarls the lyrics with malicious intent, the words depicting a sparring couple. Considering the strained relationships and drug- and alcohol-fueled recreations during the
Hot Space
sessions, the subject matter of ‘Back Chat’ hints at the ill feelings and frustrations of the period, with Brian later prophetically remarking that “We worked hard and played hard, but those later Munich days were lost in a haze of vodka ... You end up emotionally distracted, trying to keep your life together away from the studio. I was married with two children by then, and it was a continual life-and-death battle to keep everything going.”

Under the working title ‘Woolly Hat’, the song, in its original state, lacked the scorching guitar solo, though the horrid electronic drums were part of the original. As Brian recollected to
Guitar
magazine in 1983, “We would experiment with the rhythm and the bass and drum track and get that sounding right, and then very cautiously piece the rest around it, which was an experimental way for us to do it. In [that song], there wasn’t going to be a guitar solo, because John, who wrote the song, has gone perhaps more violently black than the rest of us. We had lots of arguments about it, and what he was heading for in his tracks was a totally non-compromise situation, doing black stuff as R&B artists would do it with no concessions to our methods at all, and I was trying to edge him back toward the central path and get a bit of heaviness into it, and a bit of the anger of rock music. So one night I said I wanted to see what I could add to it – I felt that the song, as it stood, wasn’t aggressive enough: it’s [called] ‘Back Chat’, and it’s supposed to be about people arguing and it should have some kind of guts to it. He agreed, and I went in and tried a few things.”

‘Back Chat’, with rhythm guitars and synthesizers
played by John, was chosen as the fourth and final UK single from
Hot Space
. Upon its release in August 1982, expectations were high for a chart performance reminiscent of ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ only two years before. However, despite a punchier single mix by John, ‘Back Chat’ peaked at only No. 40 in the charts, their lowest British charting since the live rendition of ‘Love Of My Life’ in 1979.