Time for the next part of this little series about Queen singles’ B-sides, this time “Machines (or ‘Back To Humans’)” on the “I Want To Break Free” single from 22 April 1984 from the album The Works.
The pop song on the A side is probably best known for its video with the four Queen guys wearing drag, imitating a British sitcom – Freddie once said he’s always asked in interviews how he convinced the others to do that, but it wasn’t his idea at all, but Roger’s instead, if I remember correctly… The video wasn’t good for Queen’s success in America, though:
According to Brian May in an interview about Queen’s Greatest Hits, the video ruined the band in America, which – like many in the UK – failed to see the soap-opera connection & interpreted the video as an open declaration of transvestitism and Mercury’s homosexuality.
(Wikipedia)
The B side about the topic “rather humans than machines” aptly contains relatively much electronics, and the (near-)instrumental version also a few samples from older Queen songs – so enjoy:
» “I Want To Break Free” – video
» lyrics
» “Machines (or ‘Back To Humans’)” – fan video
» “Machines (or ‘Back To Humans’)” Instrumental Version – fan photo video
» lyrics
Kerstin Hummel1 2009-04-22 at 17:14 3 Comments
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Das ist ja witzig
Markus B.2 2009-04-23 at 23:05 18 Comments
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Rein musikalisch halte ich “I want to break free” schon immer für den wahrscheinlich schwächsten Queen-Song…. Machines dagegen war meiner Meinung nach einer der besten Songs auf der Platte..
Werd’ ich mir gleich mal wieder anhören..
cimddwc3 2009-04-24 at 9:06 6347 Comments
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Ja, so wahnsinnig toll fand ich IWTBF auch noch nie – John Deacon hat auch schon Besseres geschrieben… Hammer To Fall gefällt mir auf The Works aber noch besser als Machines.