On the anniversary of Freddie Mercury‘s death (5 Sep 1946 – 24 Nov 1991): “Flash’s Theme” from the soundtrack of the film of that name, released as single on 24 Nov 1980, and “No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)” from 24 Nov 1997 (at least in Germany and some other countries), the song recorded by Brian, Roger and John.

» Flash’s Theme ↓

» No-One But You ↓

On the 36th anniversary of the release of the first Queen album, I’ve got a few songs for you that have not been released on singles:

» “My Fairy King” (still-image video) – this vocally interesting song has an additional story (quote from Wikipedia):

Before writing this song Mercury was known as Freddie Bulsara, and this song is said to have inspired him to change his surname. Its lyrics contain a verse with the words “Mother Mercury, look what they’ve done to me.” Brian May has said that after the line was written, Freddie claimed he was singing about his mother. Subsequently, Freddie Bulsara took the stage name Freddie Mercury. This was another attempt to separate his stage persona (“extroverted monster”, as Mercury himself once described it) from his personal persona (introverted).

» “The Night Comes Down” (still-image video) – A ballad written by Brian May.

» “Modern Times Rock ’n’ Roll” (still-image video) – Not just written by Roger Taylor, he was also singing, and somehow this song’s always modern.
When played live on stage, though, Freddie was singing, as here at the Rainbow in 1974.

Hope you liked at least one of them.

Photo: clix/sxc

Another edition of my little series about the B-sides of Queen singles, this time “Stealin'” on the “Breakthru” single from 19 June 1989 from the The Miracle album. Though today the A-side also gets its spot…

New: » All songs in a row in a Youtube playlist

First the A-side: This is – after a slow intro that’s originally from a separate song “A New Life Is Born” which didn’t get beyond demo sage – a fast-paced rock song that somehow makes one think of a train, and exactly that’s what the video shows: Queen performing on a flatbed carriage behind an old steam engine; the blonde at the beginning is, by the way, Roger Taylor’s then girlfriend Debbie Leng.

Freddie once said in an interview (see Wikipedia) that this was a great example of two separate bits coming together to make a final track. He commented on how the band had about 30 tracks to work with and only completed a handful, working on all of them at least somewhat.

» Breakthru – official video
» Breakthru (Extended Version) – fan video (using the official one)
» A New Life Is Born (Demo) (1:30) – still-image video
» lyrics

On to the B-side, a bluesy tongue-in-cheek song (which offers more variety than one might think from first couple of minutes) about a notorious thief, and there’s a (really good!) demo version of it that normal Youtube users need to split in two parts to upload it (here linked to inside my playlist):

» Stealin’ (4:01) – single version, still-image
» Stealin’ (Demo) (12:10) – still-image
» lyrics

Photo: clix/sxc

On the 20th anniversary of the release of the Queen album The Miracle let me briefly introduce to you a few songs that have not been released on singles:

» “My Baby Does Me” (lyrics video) – lyrics – A rather simple, quiet song written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon.

» “Was It All Worth It” (still video)1 – lyrics – A “good old” rock song, mainly written by Freddie. Yes, it was a worthwhile experience!
The one-line Shakespeare quote they injected without much connection to the rest of the lyrics may seem a bit, well, subtle, given Freddie’s Aids illness (which the band new then), if you look at the beginning of Macbeth:
  When shall we three meet again?
  In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
  When the hurlyburly’s done
You could see that as referring to the three remaining Queen members and when they should continue – but maybe I’m reading “a little” too much into it…

» “Chinese Torture” (still video) – A short, dark instrumental which conveys the horror and fear that Chinese Water Torture was known to evoke in victims. Only on the CD.

Hope you liked at least one of them.

Photo: clix/sxc

1. there are also a few fan videos, but they don’t have acceptable sound quality [↩]