Time for another look at the Queen archives, this time to a single released on 14 Feb 1974 in USA and New Zealand, the B-side of which was “Doing All Right” (sometimes also written “Doin’ Alright”) – originally a song by Smile, a Queen precursory band, if you will, consisting of Brian May (Queen guitarist), Roger Taylor (Queen drummer) and Tim Staffell (vocals and bass):

» Queen: Doing All Right (BBC recordings from 1973)
» Smile: Doin’ Alright
» Lyrics

But let’s not ignore the A side – well, we’ll ignore the shortened single version, but here’s the album version with the Greatest Hits video:

» Queen: Liar (album version)
» Lyrics

This alternative 1971 demo version from the De Lane Lea Studios is not just over one minute longer, but also offers different guitar parts and somewhat more playful vocals by Freddie (and unfortunately a lower audio quality) – I actually like it better than the album version:

» Queen: Liar (De Lane Lea Studios demo)
(slightly different lyrics, see video page on the right)

It’s up to you which song you’re prefering for your Valentine’s Day…

As an extension of the new series B-side of the day there’s now also “treasures” on Queen albums that are only available on the album and not on singles/maxis. For the 18th anniversary of the release of the Innuendo album, it’s “Don’t Try So Hard” today, a beautiful ballad mainly written by Freddie – apparently one of Brian May’s personal favorites among all Queen songs.

» Still-image video; lyrics

Needless to say that the album reached number 1 on many charts and achieved several platinum statuses – the last Queen album in Freddie’s lifetime who died in late 1991, and curiously it ends with the song “The Show Must Go On”…

Photo: clix/sxc

The second post in this little series about relatively unknown Queen songs, this time “I Go Crazy” – » unofficial still-image video here –, B-side of the “Radio Ga Ga” single that was released today 25 years ago, on 23 January 1984.

It contains somewhat funny lyrics with self-references:

I took my baby dancing – to see a heavy band
But I never saw my baby ’til the encore
She had the singer by the hand
[..]
So I ain’t gonna go and see the Rolling Stones no more
I don’t wanna go and see Queen no more no more

Postman, gas man etc. as rivals would still be okay for the narrator, but that she left him for a rock’n’roller?? — See the entire lyrics at LyricWiki.

And if you also want to see the video of the “slightly” better known A-side: This way. Or take the extended version (unofficial video) right away.

A new, irregular series of posts that will of course focus on Queen… (Due to unclear legal issues, I won’t embed the songs here but just link to them – they are only one click away, anyway.)

“Lily Of The Valley” was the B side1 of the Queen single “Now I’m Here” which was released this day 34 years ago, on 17 Jan 19752 – » here’s a “video” with the lyrics. (The “had” at the beginning is from the line “Baby you’ve been had” of the song before – both are blended. Unfortunately I didn’t find a better version (with lyrics) online.)

A and B side together can be heard here, and here’s a live version from late 1974 of “Now I’m Here”.

Opinions on this series (and the song selection) explicitly wanted.

Photo: clix/sxc

1. yeah, that was back then when music was still sold on large, usually black vinyl discs that had music on both sides… [↩]
2. I’ll usually use the UK release dates here [↩]