Queen: The Complete Works (79 page)

PEOPLE ON STREETS
(Taylor)

• B-side (Roger): 9/98 [45] • Album (Roger):
Electric

Not to be confused with the first version of ‘Under Pressure’ before David Bowie became involved, ‘People On Streets’ is one of the few songs on the
Electric Fire
album performed almost exclusively by Roger, who contributes drums, bass and keyboards (along with Jonathan Perkins on the latter); only Jason Falloon contributes the occasional guitar lick. The song features a mysterious vocal performance from ‘Arty’ (a phonetic spelling of RT, Roger’s initials, which he would return to in 2006 on the collaborative Felix + Arty single ‘Woman You’re So Beautiful (But Still A Pain In The Ass)’), and is a slight misstep on an otherwise faultless album. The lyrics, surprisingly, aren’t about the downside, the faux-concern of celebrities (and, yes, politicians) for the poverty-stricken, but instead feature Roger imploring those who weild that kind of power to actually do something about it and fix it.

A ‘mashed’ version was included on the ‘Pressure On’ single as well as the Japanese CD version of
Electric Fire
, with some of the lyrics replaced by an anonymous rapper and with a darker musical approach. Not surprisingly, the song wasn’t a mainstay in the set list, and was only performed a few times before being dropped.

PHONE
(May)

• Soundtrack (Brian):
Furia

This is a short, atmospheric keyboard piece, with the main theme performed by flute and doubled by keyboards.

PISTA 3
: see
FEELINGS

PLAY THE GAME
(Mercury)

• A-side: 5/80 [14] • Album:
Game
• Live:
On Fire, Montreal

By the time
The Game
was released, Freddie’s songs had started to focus mainly on the pursuit of love and happiness, and most of his lyrics took a more literal approach. The lead-off track from Queen’s eighth studio album, ‘Play The Game’ was a straightforward plea, wearied by lust and mindless sex, for love and romance. “I don’t really sympathize with [the] lyrics,” Roger said in 1980. “It was suggested that we call the album
Play The Game
, and I don’t like the idea of that; basically, that means, in English, let’s go along with the Establishment. I don’t particularly sympathize with that view.”

Roger appeared to have misinterpreted the song’s meaning; according to Peter “Phoebe” Freestone, Freddie’s personal assistant, the song was written about Freddie’s then-lover Tony Bastin, who wasn’t following Freddie’s arbitrary rules of love at the time, and was summarily given a gift of a Rolex watch – the singer’s “going away present” for lovers. Constructed as a languid piano ballad, written in the same vein as earlier tracks like ‘Jealousy’ and ‘You Take My Breath Away’, ‘Play The Game’ is brought to extraordinary heights by Brian’s solo, and Freddie’s piano is excellent. The problem is the presence of a synthesizer, which creates a sheet of noise instead of enhancing the textures, achieving what Brian could have easily done instead and with better results. However, the band were determined to evolve, and instead of using the synthesizer as an atmospheric addition (as on ‘Sail Away Sweet Sister’ and ‘Save Me’), on ‘Play The Game’ it’s just there to be there.

The Official International Fan Club spring 1980 magazine reported that an alternate version was recorded: “Staying at the same hotel [as Queen] in Germany were Andy Gibb and Leif [Garrett] and so the boys invited them to visit the studio during the recording. The band were putting the finishing touches to a backing track when Freddie insisted that Andy Gibb sing with them. The track, as yet untitled, is one of Freddie’s compositions and he was very impressed
with Andy’s voice and was heard to remark how good it was.” Gibb, the younger brother of the brothers Gibb (who formed the Bee Gees in 1958), was at that time enjoying his status as a teenage heart-throb and solo artist. This recording has been denied by those “in the know”, but this party line has been thrown about before with other songs, so time will only tell whether or not this actually, definitively exists.

Released as the third single from
The Game
in May 1980, the song, backed with Roger’s non-album ‘A Human Body’, peaked at a respectable No. 14 in the UK, but stumbled to a dismal No. 42 in the US. The music video, shot at Trillian Studios and directed by Brian Grant, implements green screen technology (footage of roaring fires and zooming stars play behind the mostly stoic band) to liven up what is an otherwise straightforward performance video. Much like the synthesizer that is so prevalent in the song, this technology might have been groundbreaking at the time, but it hasn’t aged well at all, and remains an unimpressive addition to the band’s catalogue of music videos.

The song translated better to the live setting, where it was a mainstay in the set between 1980 and 1982. Because the band initially refused to incorporate synthesizers into their live performances, Brian was taken to task to fill out the sound, which he did with aplomb. An especially spirited live version was released on
Queen Rock Montreal
, while a rendition with Morgan Fisher assisting on synthesizers was released on
Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl
.

POLAR BEAR
(May)

• Compilation (Smile):
Ghost Of A Smile

Written by Brian in 1968, ‘Polar Bear’ is a sublime ballad, an unorthodox genre for an aspiring three-piece rock band to write. The lyric compares a forgotten man to a stuffed polar bear in a store window, witnessing the world going by in front of his helpless eyes, declaring of a lovely girl that “I see her as I’d see a star / Love her from where you are.” Featuring an especially beautiful acoustic guitar solo, the highlight of the song is the delicate harmonies of Brian, Roger and Tim. Recorded in September 1969 at De Lane Lea Studios and produced by Fritz Freyer, the song was later issued on
Gettin’ Smile
in 1982 and
Ghost Of A Smile
in 1998.

‘Polar Bear’ was recorded by Queen during sessions for the debut album in 1972. Though rumours circulated that it was Barry Mitchell on bass, which would fix the recording date at 1970, a reliable collector has revealed recently that no material was recorded with Mitchell, and that the song actually features John Deacon. More definitively, Mitchell himself, in an impromptu online Q&A on noted fan site
Queenzone.com
, confirmed both points.

The technical quality of the song would lead the listener to believe that the performance is little more than a demo, but Freddie’s vocal delivery is clearly the highlight. Because the song is written in a higher register, the vocalist is forced into a falsetto for the chorus, which is executed beautifully. While it’s easy to see why ‘Polar Bear’ wasn’t included on the first album – it was far too delicate and downbeat among the other rock-oriented tracks, and ‘The Night Comes Down’ filled that niche perfectly – it still deserves to be heard.

POWER TO LOVE
(Macrae/Noone/Moss)

• Album (The Cross):
MBADTK
• A-side (The Cross): 4/90 [85] • Live (The Cross):
Bootleg, Germany

The songwriting on
Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know
was surprisingly strong, and while most fans argue that
Blue Rock
is The Cross’ strongest album released, their sophomore effort had its moments, too. Witness ‘Power To Love’, which at first listen is more typical of the mid-1980s power metal ballads, but is actually a strong composition with obvious roots in Roger’s work with Queen. Taken at a heavy tempo, dominated mostly by drums and root notes on the guitar, the focus is on Roger’s voice, with occasional embellishments on slide guitar from Clayton Moss.

Not surprisingly, considering all the strong material on the album, ‘Power To Love’ was chosen as the first (and only) UK single from the album. Backed by Joshua J. Macrae’s ‘Passion For Trash’, the single performed abysmally, peaking at No. 85, thus becoming the proverbial final nail in the coffin of The Cross’ homegrown success. From here on, all their singles (and their final album) would be continental-exclusive, becoming a minor sensation in Germany. This would also mark the first time that a single by The Cross didn’t feature at least a collaboration credit for Roger.

A video directed by The Torpedo Twins was prepared for the single and is one of their finest and most elaborate. Imagine all the raunch of ‘Body Language’ with the pomp and circumstance of ‘It’s
A Hard Life’: the band perform on stage in full gear (with Roger hamming it up for the cameras, more interested in mugging than in focusing on his mimed guitar parts), completely oblivious to the Renaissance debauchery taking place above them as dozens of well-endowed women and bewigged men engage in a good old-fashioned orgy. As with any good orgy, food is also served, and string cheese and grapes are held and rubbed suggestively; the power to love, indeed.

PRESSURE ON
(Taylor)

• A-side (Roger): 9/98 [45] • Album (Roger):
Electric

Kicking off
Electric Fire
, Roger’s fourth proper solo album, with an infectious groove, ‘Pressure On’ may arguably be his finest single choice in years. Expanding on the moods previously explored on
Happiness?
, the song is “just sort of the typical day-to-day pressures which everybody sort of has,” said Roger, adding dryly that it was ‘Under Pressure Mark II’, though that downplays its effectiveness as a song by comparing it to a more popular one.

While it’s true that the lyrics deal with everyday pressures, Roger has honed his songwriting abilities and not only comes up with some memorable lines (“Analysts here, therapists there / You ain’t getting me sitting in your chair”) but avoids the cringe-inducing couplets that hamper some of his other major works.

‘Pressure On’ features a lovely melody, with a repetitive guitar motif as Roger delivers an understated vocal performance, using his natural voice instead of shouting or screeching in the rock ‘n’ roll mode he’d used for most of his career. The band he assembled for the sessions – Keith Prior on drums, Jason Falloon on guitars, Steve Barnacle on bass, Mike Crossley on keyboards and the underused Treana Morris on backing vocals – is tight and on good form, leaving Roger to contribute only vocals, one of the rare instances when he doesn’t perform anything instrumental on one of his own tracks.

Chosen as the first single from
Electric Fire
in September 1998, the single mix of ‘Pressure On’, with a ‘mashed’ version of ‘People On Streets’ and a ‘Dub Sangria’ mix of ‘Tonight’ on one disc, and ‘Dear Mr Murdoch’ and the non-album ‘Keep A-Knockin” on a second disc, peaked at only No. 45 in the UK, despite a fair amount of promotion and a prominent position in the live setting.

PRINCES OF THE UNIVERSE
(Mercury)

• Album:
AKOM

Coming at the end of Queen’s most uneven album to date, ‘Princes Of The Universe’ is a bit of a reward (especially after tolerating the likes of ‘Don’t Lose Your Head’). Finally, Freddie had written a hard rock track reminiscent of ‘Ogre Battle’ and ‘Let Me Entertain You’ but, significantly, this is one of the few songs written by the vocalist in this period not to centre around love.

When viewed in context with the
Highlander
movie (which the song was written for, being promoted to the status of main theme because of its anthemic sound), ‘Princes Of The Universe’ is a celebration of immortality and of defending one’s honour to the death. In conjunction with Queen’s history, it’s a cry of defiance, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched to suggest that Freddie was subconsciously insinuating that the band were the princes. Indeed, 1986 was a red-letter year for the band: they would prove that, for the brief two months they were on the road, they could still sell out packed stadia across Europe and the UK, and it’s not surprising that, with all the extra exposure that Live Aid,
Highlander
and ‘
A Kind Of Magic
’ – both single and album – afforded them, they were regarded as the hottest ticket of the year.

It’s understandable that Freddie was gloating, especially if it meant that more songs would be written and recorded in this style. Unfortunately, hard rock would be the exception rather than the rule: after this, the band rarely ventured down this path again, revisiting it only slightly in 1989 and, to a lesser extent, on the final studio album. However, a lot is crammed into the song and several phases of Queen’s career are revisited; the heavy drum beat and vocal harmonies of ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ forms the basis of the song, with a guitar riff that sounds like a variant of the earlier album track ‘Gimme The Prize (Kurgan’s Theme)’. This is no ordinary rock song – ‘Princes Of The Universe’ twists and turns through many tricky passages and time signatures similar to ‘Bicycle Race’, with the pomp and bombast turned up to eleven.

It was perhaps for this reason that the song was not aired in the live setting, which may be one of Queen’s most erroneous omissions, but, when viewed in this light, is entirely understandable. Perhaps because it was released as a single only in America and Japan, the song remains virtually unknown, although a video was filmed in New York in April 1986, which shows the band on the set of
Highlander
amid explosions, wind
machines, and a walk-on cameo from Christophe “Connor MacLeod” Lambert. This would be one of the few instances when any other country besides Britain received a promotional video for a single, but unfortunately it did little to boost sales. ‘Princes Of The Universe’ failed to chart in America, but enjoyed a new life when it was used as the theme song for the long-running television adaptation of
Highlander
.

PROCESSION
(May)

• Album:
Queen2

Opening
Queen II
in a dirge-like manner, Brian’s guitar extraordinaire ‘Procession’ is an exquisite orchestration, with the Red Special seamlessly leading into the opening arpeggios of ‘Father To Son’.

Brian explained in 1998, “That’s this Deakey amp. It’s a little one-watt amp that John Deacon built and brought into the studio one day. I had done ‘Procession’ with [Vox] AC30s and it sounded just a little bit too smooth. I wanted it to sound more violin-like and orchestral. So I double-tracked some of the layers using that little amp. Incredible. I’ve used it ever since on anything where there’s a real orchestral-type sound. And depending where you put the microphone in front of the amp, you can really tune the sound. It’s very directional. It’s a germanium transistor amp, which is a transformer coupled – unlike things these days; that isn’t really done any more – with silicon transistors. There’s this guy Dave Peters, who is one of the designers of the AC30 and a real expert on valve electronics and the early days of transistors. I’m working with him trying to reproduce the Deakey amp. Maybe we’ll put it on the market. I have to talk to John about it, as it happens. Because John made the thing. And he’s very kindly allowed me to use it ever since. It’s pretty magical.”