QUEEN: Days Of Our Lives – PART 1 [BBC/2011]
There's been a lot of rumors lately about certain bands or queen the rumors are that we're gonna split up what do you think They're talking from here Let's forget those
rumors we're gonna stay together until we fucking will die up show There really wasn't much sex.
Wow that one much drugs I tell you to do that now For that moment we kind of owned the world.
Where's the modesty gun? Well, there isn't any For East I never quite understood a lot the press took against them England doesn't really think with that cool, but I mean, I don't want some asshole critic to tell me that you might as well sort of paint a target on your head and you gonna shoot me I Think when you go all the way up, the only place is to come down Controversy behind Sun City, which I'd never heard of the place Whenever the band came under pressure there would be a walkout a separation around We were at a really crucial point we might have had to break up the arguments were creative and then it would become first Of course There is an inward jealousy and they're all wondering and all waiting for see if it's a my albums gonna do better than the last Quino Freddie took to the gay scene like David Attenborough making a Wildlife Program Just what a packet is much of life and having a good time As much as I can Londyn the Imperial College of Science and Technology meeting place for space scientists from fifty nations Specialist who helped develop the equipment which has taken mankind into the new age of a space exploration We've got flying Bay on guitar I was studying physics as an undergraduate here, but astronomy was always my thing And so I did the astronomy postgraduate for a PhD when we were at school me and my mates had a group called 1984 and When I left for university, the singer that we had Tim staefel and myself decided it with a new group together called smile We've got Roger meadows Taylor on the keshe There's a multi-sports somewhere here Where you would pin items that were of interest to musicians? So this is where I put my notice saying drummer wanted we need Ginger Baker Mitch Mitchell type drummer I booked this little jazz club room here and Roger brought his kitten.
I brought a guitar.
No nervous the first time we played together Something happened that to say we thought hmm there is some kind of special sound to this good I guess we were the same sort of sound in our heads Freddie Mercury on vocals Freddie came from a colonial background.
He was born in Zanzibar and he went to boarding school in India our first point Freddie ailing art school in 1968 and there was a piano down there Freddie Adu this kind of Flowery style on the piano and he was very much Affected but unique, you know, you've never seen anybody play the piano like that before The first time you sang can you straight away that that voice was going places Distinction I Used to follow a sort of smile a lot unites here We like friends eyes to go to their shows freddie was waiting in the wings Literally and an advising is um what to do He would always say, you know, you guys are brilliant brilliant, but he's amazing But you know, you should do this and you do this What did he see in in what Brian and Rudd shooting was father nothing I think he sort of had in the back of his mind maybe in you know It's a dumb idea about maybe working with us Freddie told everybody that he was gonna be a pop star we didn't take it that seriously really and he was sitting over there one night and I walked in the pub and he just put his head in his hands like this and Looking really depressed and I walked over said it was the boss about it with you If I said I'm not gonna be a pop star.
I'm very slowly.
He stood up and he said I'm gonna be oh legend Oh We had a lot of successful gigs, and we played colleges and we played pubs and small clubs up and down the country We just never got anywhere smile neither single we did nothing at all And then Tim our singer got an offer from someone else and there someone else was called humpy bong.
So Tim Sorted off to that and Freddie sort of goddess.
He said come on you can't give up I want to sing so we decided to beat you know Take the plunge and it was then then I sort of thought about the name Queen why Queen I got her at the time it was uh, It's outrageous So here we have the main hall There's 1973.
This is where Queen played and this is really the first proper advertised gig we ever did I would think and it's certainly the first review we ever got by Rosemary Hall right of what was then disc From the very beginning Freddie was absolutely remarkable for stagecraft He had a presence unlike anything that I'd ever seen and I've been a music journalist for a long time Freddie even from those days had an ability to work an audience and they would eat out of his hand.
He Could actually turn his hand round like that and do that and the audience would stand up Try and help me Father won't you let me I Think the first moment when I thought my good something's really happening You people actually want to see us and and they know what we're about When they came along there had been a denim rock movement if you like with status quo uriah he was think queen were an incredible breath of fresh air in rock music their brilliance songs Freddie Mercury was an absolutely Charismatic frontman Brian May was just this brilliant guitarist and would you say there was a phenomenal drummer and you had that guy that played bass? And then spent a couple of years looking for a bass player We had several bass players very hard to find the right guy and we found John Deacon John on bass So I came along in a way.
It's bit of an outside of it first.
I Did take me quite a few years to sort of grow more into the groove, you know and find myself, you know.
Oh, really? Before we signed her record label We actually signed to tried new Productions a management company run by the Sheffield brothers who had their own studio right in the middle of Soho Recording our first album we were all still just students finishing off, you know degrees We had to do it in what time was available because you know, the studio's being booked up all the time So we had to go in you know, sometimes it took in the morning and sometimes you know You know finishing 6:00 in the morning.
Yeah, all those sorts of weird times that nobody wanted You know you could see the working girls at night through their lace curtains So while we were mixing, we'll have a little bit of fun diversion The album came out and sort of resoundingly crashed Well, it did really didn't do much Well, at least funny when you make your first album, you know you go out into the record shops Do you think oh, we're in the record stores now? You know and you go in and say have you got the new queen album then and they go what? It's a long haul With green – I couldn't believe how much work we put into that.
I think we felt we were evolving our own sound We'll pioneering the serve multi-tracking Thing it gave you a tremendous Talent get massive coral effects with just three of us singing That's when we sort of first really got into production and went completely over the top and straight on there called march of the black queen Very long is in a man 11 different sections and the complexity of it is staggering I mean the tape was literally transparent for 16-track to each take names The oxide has completely almost completely worn away it we've got over it So many times so many overdubs and glanced at it.
The military was transparent It was really only with Queen two and seven seas of rye that we had the breakthrough we realized that really the easiest way of getting a hit album is to have a hit single that has some musical validity the key to that was The stroke that was pulled in getting them on top of the pops when now he dropped out and it absolutely broke that single It was a very underwhelming experience the very first time because there was a strike on at the BBC So it was shot in the weather studio It was great fun to be at Top of the Pops cuz it was sort of all happening You felt like being on viewer in a sense becoming part of public consciousness Toffler Potts was incredibly uncool.
It was rubbish because nobody was actually playing It was about 75 teenagers, which were herded about the studio and a bunch of aging disk jockeys presented Pans people were those very glamorous girls dancing, you know, it was a lot of fun The BBC actually had a set of plastic Sanders, but when when you hit and so didn't any mani noise I think that sort of said it already I Suppose it's true to say we had slightly mixed feelings of that Top of the Pops because it wasn't very cool But it was the great vehicle for selling records.
So what can you say it had a quite a big impact? I know because I record went straight into the top ten So obviously the impact was huge We had this song conservancies a bribe But it's a universal truth that more groups break up because of some Writing arguments than anything else in the world because your songs are your babies the person who's written the song Tends to be the one person who sees that one song all the way through from the idea they have in their head at first You know the final production, you know, the sounds on everything and the mix most the time I have a clear picture of what what I want and I still have a lot of serious parts and Brian should do things there are hours, of course I've probably never spoken about this before ever but I remember seven seas of writing, you know, it was Freddie's idea He had the this lovely little riff idea on the piano and I think all the middle eight is stuff that I did So we definitely worked on it together, but when it came to the album coming out Freddie went I wrote that and we all went Okay It didn't seem like that big a deal but Freddie said look, you know, I wrote the words and it was my idea That's my song this sort of unwritten law was the person who brought the song in would get the credit for writing that song and The money for writing that song much much later in queen history.
We recognized this fact We were very lucky in that we hooked up with Mott the Hoople and we were their warm-up act And we went all around the UK with them it worked out just perfect And then the guys from Mott said would you like to do the same thing in America After a few gigs, I started to feel weird and something was happening I didn't know if it was my head on my body or whatever, you know But I started to feel odd and then I woke up one morning in Boston which was gonna be the climax of the – I woke up and looked at myself and I was yellow and The doctor came around I said you got hepatitis.
You have to go home.
I still was amazed We managed to Shepherd him through the immigration queue at JFK in New York Poor fella could hardly stand.
I was sort of taken on the plane shoulder to shoulder We were devastated the tour had been cut short, you know could it's our first trip to America But we just sort of ploughed on in the studio without him It was a bit of a long haul back to health As he stopped getting over all this stuff and I remember seeing Freddy batting out all these things You know and thinking god, I have not got my shit together, you know and and really starting to worry about it She says just like Marie, Antoinette Queen one Queen to with full-on rock albums and I suppose it was only a question of time before they put some really clever Melody into it and sheer hard tap.
Was that breakout album and the track like Killer Queen Mercury's vocals have probably never been better I do remember having a slight reservation about Killer Queen and I remember thinking Are we kind of selling ourselves as something which has become very? pretty light But every slice through that record is a perfect vision There's lots of little things which visit one sounding at a little bell of the cymbal Killick Wayne always felt a bit special.
It was very sophisticated and it was very Freddie as the albums are progressed I mean a sort of songwriting has progressed and we sort of ventured interest of a different area I like writing different songs, you know, we don't like to sort of repeat the same formula It had just like, you know cowards, you know that that kind of element in it When you took the lyrics apart you thought how incredible is that because they were so clever Of action We're doing lots of major tours from Japan America, we were headlining by now and doing very well and Selling loads and loads of Records and not saying any money What we decided to do was go with a production company rather than with a record company and The deal was that we made the album for the production company They sell it to a record company in retrospect is probably the worst thing we ever did to deal that they were on just meant that they weren't gonna make any money out of what they did and The way it came to a head was with that song death on two legs Often I would go to an interview and I would buy a couple of bottles of wine You know on my expenses because they just didn't have any money.
We didn't expect instant riches or anything get him either Raju is breaking sticks cuz he's hitting the drums pretty hard and the management's going we don't you break any more sticks, you know We can't afford to do things that we had nobody One of the Management Group just spoiled a Rolls Royce and we thought hang on something going on here It affected Freddy deeply and Freddy got to the point where he said look I am not delivering any more music I can't Cut a long story short we went with John Reed who is Pelton's incredibly successful manager at the time I Remember saying you go away and make the best record you can make I'll take care of the business We had a good working relationship with John.
He was very fiery and very feisty.
But so were we So he weren't scared of him.
It was the first night.
I'd gone out to dinner with afraid I said Freddy.
I just liked safety as I said to the other guys I hope that you know that I'm gay and it's and there's no problem.
He pushed Nick from 4/3 and said Sam I Well Freddy when I first met him wasn't out to the band because he was struggling with his own sexuality anyway and Freddy was from a very very traditional Zoroastrian background and I think his family considerations were probably paramount I Remember when we went into the studio to make the night the Opera It felt like make or break.
We were not only poor but we were in debt All the sounds and lighting companies and the people that we work with hadn't been paid So we were at a really crucial point.
We might have had to break up if if that album hadn't done well It was an expensive album enormous complexity on there even looking at it now I wonder how we did some other stuff.
It was so much hunger We just had so much that we wanted to bring out.
It was all sort of kept in and so we had all kinds of songs and Bohemian Rhapsody had to happen to be It was basically like three songs that I wanted to put out and I just put a three together I think the groundwork for a song like that Was done at Ealing College Well Freddie had lots of bits of songs which we used to link together.
And one of his bits was I Just referred to it as the cowboy so many went mama just killed a man mama Just killed The first thing I heard was Freddie paying murmur just killed a man.
You know, what do you think his killer? I love it as absolutely brilliant not knowing what was to come we ended up having to do it in Six studios because they were using all these different studios You didn't really know what was going on You would have guitar parts in one studio and then vocals stuff in another Freddie would just what I turn up in the morning go.
Oh, I've got a few more Galileo's dear We were going around all these different studios and you were just hearing parts.
I know their name very very frightening me The only person who had it in his head was Fred and even then he was making some of it up so we were going Along, I thought I'm gonna do exactly as I please There's many Multi-layer harmonies as possible, you know go well over the top It really was so tongue-in-cheek, but at the same time that you can't do this, you know But the record company as a mass came to us and said don't do this this thing is too long Nobody's gonna play it.
I played it to album John At the time and he said are you off your head? You'll never get that on the radio I just said it either goes out in its entirety on lothal and at the crucial moment This young man called Kenny Everett Came in and fell in love with the tracks stole a copy of it and played it on his radio show the Kenny played it 14 times over the weekend and of course It was a smash and then following that up with what to my mind was the first ever real music video I'd never seen anything like it and I don't think anybody else has the video did take Queen to another level where they could really Command the landscape The Opera was that landmark album that established them as a major force That clearly was the context in which you could do something by the Hyde Park concert But it was Richard Branson so, you know, we think we can put you in I remember thinking gulp, you know, we've carved out a place around the world, but England doesn't really think we're that cool It was packed beyond belief and it was really like coming home to a sort of hero's welcome It was a thrilling experience to actually have that kind of contact in the audience in your own hometown And when it came to make day at the races we just thought well Let's just do what we do The added ingredient in day of the races is this feeling of freedom which we actually had because we had escaped the old situation We'd sorted out the money side.
We weren't in debt anymore.
We weren't struggling for our very existence So there's a great freedom in joy It was almost like we were still making a Night at the Opera we just loved it we reveled in it Freddie came up with a magnificent little so for a into a white gospel if you want to call it that And we really worked a hominis on somebody to love For his great inspiration for somebody to love was Aretha Franklin Absolutely loved Aretha Pretty would like to be Narita frankly that's living From that point of view Okay, Bohemian Rhapsody big hit but I think a song like somebody's in love is in my estimation a better sort of from the writing aspect a better song My boy Oh Somebody's come by We were using the studio to its maximum capacity Painting a picture like on a huge canvas.
Find me somebody to love find me somebody We had a gift really we had three voices which really blended instantly Freddie had this wonderful crystal clear sharp vocal sound me somebody Naturally, I've got the powerful high voice we've got the dog whistle picture very high by somebody And I had quite a swarm sound I suppose Somebody's Put the three together then you instantly have something which sounds very sort of Panavision To try and keep their attention because they're really tempted them Like okay even have a little break have a coffee and biscuits and then while they're sort of a good mood gravel, you know and do another 50 million her batons We score the sausage fact really Because making we got good at it.
We got so good at it.
We could just bang about you know a Day at the races as to follow up tonight at the Opera was clearly It had a hard act to follow So people who wanted to have a go at queen could quite readily say ice not as good as the last one for reasons I never quite understood and thought the press took against them.
Maybe if he got too successful too quick as They thought you know, there was a resentment there.
They hadn't made you and therefore they They wanted to break you Shortly after I started to manage them had told all the band one of the ground rules Just don't do any press without clearing it with me Cuz you open yourself up to all kinds of things.
Usually they turn on you So I went out to dinner with Freddie in the white elephant and Carson Street, casually in the middle of dinner He said I did an interview with David wake from the Express today I said I thought I told you no interviews without clear me.
Oh, well tea I've never mind I said well fuck you You don't work with them within my rules.
You don't work with me.
Now.
I got up and left and I left him there.
I Came home Went upstairs turned on the TV the next thing I knew a brick came through the window.
I Looked outside here as Freddie standing in the street hands on his hips Don't you ever fucking leave me in a tiger? I thought you better come in Queen didn't have a particularly respect from the critics during the seventies which is when they had so many hits and then punk happened in the late 70s which made the standard rock group seem passe The punk stuff as opposed to what Queen did they're coming from two different points of view you Know it was anarchy and once they did monarchy and the other Enemy was one of the most vocal proponents of punk.
We were taking if you buy music icons at that time a mover rubbishing them basically So it was thought that we should interviewed Freddie Mercury in particular and asked me to go over to her house in Knightsbridge owned by John Reed and There's Freddie Sitting on the patio and the whole house was very ostentatious It's got to be said we did an interview here with the NME and you know Very nice to the guy.
I had a butler we gave him lunch There was a butler there was a bodyguard there was probably other people, you know going round with feather dusters.
What have you? And then the story came out slagging all Freddie Freddie Mercury when the whole of the punk new wave movement was going on around him had focused in on something that was Kind of a bit of an alien concept in some ways, which was ballet I Just feel that there are certain poletik moments in assitive repertoire One of the things that he said to me was that his mission in life was to bring ballet to the masses What were the enemy piece Kamath freddie was furious they called him a prat You'd be furious I think we've realized that talking to the press was it gets you nowhere You just you might as well sort of paint a target on your head and go you shoot me we all have Our ups and downs and we all have our limitations and we all know that There are certain things you can't do but I mean, I don't want some asshole critic to tell me that That's what the press Well, we met the Sex Pistols in wessex studios, and I thought it was fascinating Can you imagine it was just the whole thing about punk rock and anti-establishment all under one roof? Sid came in Sid was a moron, you know, he was an idiot I think Sid actually spoke first and said, of course, you're Freddie Mercury you you'll bring ballet to the masses, right? I called Sid Vicious Ann and called him Simon ferocious or something and he didn't like it at all I said what you gonna do about it now and he had all these very Well sort of he was very well marked, you know I said, did you really you know? Make sure you scratch yourself in the mirror and properly today and tomorrow even get something else He hated the fact that I could even speak like that right then So he went I think we survived that test I thought when we went into news of the world, you know, we couldn't reinvent ourselves as a punk band But we wanted it a little bit more simple, of course we thought maybe these really grandiose things weren't really quite what was happening then and To be more of the time I guess We we made a more straightforward record once we had our audience we felt so confident in them that they would be there for us and not Require us to be anything that they'd seen before They were very open-minded Queen audiences so we never felt constrained Well, we were cute and we're the champions had a very sort of definite Genesis the way I remember this story is Bingley Hall We played this great hall in the Midlands and it was heaving, you know, those gigs that you love It's all sweaty and hot the atmosphere is great.
Everybody's jumping up and down making a noise and what they were doing was singing along In those days it was really new I have to tell you you just didn't go to concerts where people sang to rock bands But on this particular occasion, they didn't stop and when we went off stage they sang you'll never walk alone to us I think I'd gone to sleep thinking what could an audience do what could you ask them to do? They're all crammed in there They can't do much, you know, they can stamp their feet.
They can clap their hands and they can sing So I woke up with we were up here in my head We went into Wessex with these ideas there happened to be some boards lying around Strangely enough and I thought what does this sound like? And we multi-tracked it a lot of times to achieve a sound of a Big throng of people stamping and clapping a huge sort of rally of people So I I came up with we work you and Freddie came up with we are the champions and I think his thought process was Very similar.
Basically it is a Participation thing.
I've been a record low and I'm just thinking in terms of a public stroke group thing We had no idea was can become a universal worldwide sports anthem will the two of them did rock un champions in football or Whatever sport you're playing You've got two opposing teams and both of them can seen we are the champions but in a rock show, there's only one team It could be construed as and Rivera and latest thing But it's really the collective we you know It's definitely a song of great unifying power Yeah Because here we've got three tracks of four tracks of boat as well in the solar system That's got n bits know that but listen to them darling.
That's the only way to do it Fred was very cheeky I think in of course it was about McQueen being the champions in a sense as really nervous sort of arrogance for which we were famous Only Queen could come up with the title.
We are the champions.
I mean, where's the modesty gun? Well, there isn't any no modesty whatsoever After this hiking's l forget from the english music, press well.
Who cares? We've got nothing to lose Anyway said he his song wasn't it fun? In those days that was due the album do a video tour America It was regarded this is a grail of the rock scene America is many more and more to us and obviously when you smell success in America you go for it If you looked at what was going on in the states at the time the music was very much dominated by the call West Coast kind of rock with Eagles and Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac and To some extent Queen I guess didn't fit that mold They were bigger more Glamorous more extravagant than I think anything that existed in the states at the time So they really didn't know what to make of them.
Why would you call your band Queen when there's obviously four guys in it? That was puzzling.
I Remember one in one station wagon then Meryl in one limo Then it was two in one day moon turn another And then it was one each plate was really any because they sort of entourage grew It wasn't anything to do with nobody to talk to one another, you know But was there the Pink Floyd wasn't there? They had the trailers had to face in different directions, so they didn't have to look at one another It never quite got to that stage, you know, we did stay pretty connected, you know, we didn't disappear to our dressing rooms Generally, we sort of found a big place, but we'd all get ready together and we would kind of joke around We had a good kind of them camaraderie I Went to see the Queen show and it never seen so much luggage and crew and Amps and lighting and I said, this is not rock and roll.
This is a show.
This is a production.
This is Broadway The audience-participation Elevated the show's to something really special.
I think we put a bit of distance between us some of our contemporaries like like that Right because there was such a great two-way event.
This was a coronation for Freddie Mercury in this town It always surprised us that it took so long to break clean in the States It sounds like it happened quickly, but it didn't it happened over a period of about eight years We work very hard on it at no point.
Did you think we've made it because we hadn't this is some a mercury composition Overnight at the Opera and is something which a few people asked us to do last time.
So this is This is for those people.
This is love of my life the 1977 US tour was pretty much a sellout Midway through we actually played two nights of the legendary Madison Square Gardens in New York, which is a sort of landmark for any artist It was a watershed for me.
It was a mythical place of course and a big deal for us to play My parents from the beginning.
Well, my dad really my dad had really been Against the whole business and maybe in a rock star He's curious because he helped me build the guitar if it hadn't been for my dad slaving hours and hours making this homemade guitar I probably would never have got to this place You really felt that I thrown my education away I mean, I was educated to a high level.
So to suddenly go off and join a rock band with apparently no future My dad really could not Compute it and he was he was kind of in tears really, you know, you just felt I'd thrown my life away completely But anyway, we were playing Madison Square Garden I said looked at Basu the big one for us playing America, it's New York It's the first time we play this amazing place come over So I said dad you got a Concorde miss be tired of me mom and they came to the gig and I remembers to this day this fear that we our feet weren't really on the ground.
There was so much electricity in this place And We came off thinking.
Wow.
That was really suddenly nothing.
I went back with my dad and my dad said, okay He said okay I get it now Thank You Madison Square Garden What's happening when we go back to London you're one of very few bands neither actually haven't left Britain We've we're sort of an English band in a way.
We've always lived there.
Well London particularly, we've always recorded in England It doesn't change the fact that the taxman still takes A lot of a lot of your money because I think of the time we're paying 83% im+ if you had any money in the bank, which was earning interest another 15, which means 98% tax so we decided to record the next album, which was jazz in France So that's where we did it in a tiny little village called super bear.
We started the process of making this album Lots of sort of local color got put onto that album We were sitting there and the Tour de France seeing that the cycle race came through and inspired Freddie to write bicycle and For some strange reason inspired me to write some fat bottom girls.
Although there might have been other inspirations there Sadly we weren't there for the filming fifl is a hugely amusing idea.
I Remember the huge disappointment that none of us could be at the photo shoot Because we were exiled pruning them so we couldn't go back into fear You can't do that now.
Yeah, I don't think we would go there these days When it came time to launch the jazz album, we had the idea of having a massive party in New Orleans It was the so called launch of that album and we had lots of curls and things and There was a band of New Orleans band.
It was a very very over-the-top party We had a bit of a spiritual connection with your liens and a lot of her friends came of all sexes It was definitely fun when I open up the door of my suite on the bed was a complete case of Dom Perignon and Then and it was downhill from there I remember I felt quite ill the next day There were lots of Acts There was a man who he was actually a person for straight to growth Who did lay under meats? He said when asked what he did, he said I lay under meats and He's covered in sort of cold cuts and sort of Chopped liver and stuff like that and you couldn't see him and so what people would approach the Trestle table and as they just reset to scoop their meat He would just move about that that was his act Good time Fayla it wasn't a pretense.
We actually did live the life of a rock band sort of living on the edge in a sense It let's see so Don't stop me now.
This is a whole different trip pretty it's become one of the most populous Queen songs of all time It's a song of sort of unfitted joy I Mean I've been quoted as saying that I don't like the track out.
I kind of do like the track, but I had Mixed feelings because it's in a sense.
It represented a sort of separatism It was very much.
Freddie's world and reflecting what he was going through Freddie took to the gay scene in New York like David Attenborough making a wildlife program he'd Reports on what he'd seen with that kind of hey Hey Attitude that he had there was this one particular place called the anvil Which seemed to have invented new uses for parts of the human.
Anatomy.
He was never shocked He was eager to be involved in everything.
It was like he was a social field worker Said I'm not just wanted packing as much of life and fun and and and and having a good time As much as I can Stop The album jazz was not a complete flop it did get to number six in the chart But don't stop me now, which is a big favorite in Britain to this day but in America only got to the 80s the review in Rolling Stone was Notorious and it shows you that Queen were not respected.
We were confused by that title Why would a rock band call near album jazz? It had a couple of great tracks on it, but I had some sort of weakest stuff on it.
Queen was maybe viewed as The Indian meal that had gone cold in the refrigerator.
I was going to happen in 79 for Queen who? We're gonna make more records tour even more It's difficult to say this has been a hardest-working year, we'd heard that there was this great studio called music land in Munich and we heard that there's this great engineer called Mac and We got into this rather Kind of indulgent way of just bowling into the studio with no ideas or very few ideas and just doing it from scratch You know what you got? Well, I don't know.
I've got this First thing we did was crazy little thing and Fred did write the song in the bath in about 10 minutes And then next thing sit right tell them one coming over and we've gotta go straight into the studio I Was very quick had everything set up in pretty much no time and I put it down and Then the best bit was quickly.
Let's finish it before Bryan gets here.
Otherwise, it takes a little longer That was the first number one across the board in America Billboard cashbox and record world at him.
We were still making the record We hadn't even nearly finished That album and we were going out and Munich and somebody came out saying it's gone to number one in America They were going yeah more drinks Two crazy little thing completely cracked the charts in America But it wasn't easy to find the follow-up Later game charted outside the u.
s.
Top 40, but the next single was something very different One of the things I always liked about Queen was that they were four individuals all of whom brought something to the table musically and in terms of songwriting and that includes the bass player John Deacon, I Always wanted to do something a little bit more there was Discovery which was very uncool at the time.
I mean Frank wasn't really in the vocabulary John was pulling us strongly in that direction a sort of funky direction and John got Roger to play With tape all over his drums, which is exactly what Roger hated Roger hated his drums being made to sound dead I didn't really want to get into dance music It wasn't my thing Another one by the death Freddie got deeply into it Freddie suddenly just sang it until he bled because he was so committed to making it sound The way John wanted it which was like hardcore I don't know what you would call it, but it's kind of more towards black music than white music Michael came to several shows I think at the forum and then I and he loved Freddy and he kept saying you guys you gotta put that sold out Like I wasn't taking damage with it.
So I said now you're killing us never a single Another one bites the dust was never seen as a single.
I mean it barely made it onto the element It got on the radio and it got heard by people that didn't even know who the band was Strangely enough the record became huge because of the black audience was one particular station in New York picked it up Thinking that we were a black band and played the hell out of it and it became a huge hit.
I Was like number one in nine different charts I mean even in the country charts, you know, it's ridiculous and this thing just kept selling to around three million it was in the hot 100 for 31 weeks When an opponent would get knocked out in a boxing match you'd hear another one bites the dust Used it became an anthem of triumph I think it's still the bees record we ever had Remember people pointing in the cars you guys are bad.
It's not mean Good If you're successful in America, basically you've made it we kind of became the biggest group in the world at that moment You know, it's a fleeting moment because someone else will come and take over but for that moment we kind of owned the world The sales figures tell the story that the people wanted Queen even when the press did Looking back on it now I'd say queen were never in fashion and never fashionable group.
I don't think Maybe that was to our benefit that we didn't become the thing at the moment.
We didn't become a fashionable thing We were just popular which got right up.
Some people's noses Fred how do you feel playing and singing before 200, 000 people? I'm done again The free song you felt was there Stearmans show? I like Queen very much But I mean, I don't want to end up like living a quartet the band.
It's pretty much on the verge of falling apart I think he had an idea that he might not be terribly Well, he said I'll come back and finish it off and he never came back.
That was the lowest moment that I had with him You.
Nhận xét
Đăng nhận xét