BY ROYAL APPOINTMEN
PLUS! THE RHAPSODY WORLD TOUR REVEALED! PAGE 98
EVEN for a band as seasoned as Queen, a new tour presents certain tribulations. For example, as they resume their Rhapsody World Tour – including a 10-date residency at London’s O2 Arena – Brian May, Roger Taylor and Adam Lambert are facing a familiar conundrum. Just how do you adequately represent Queen’s capacious back catalogue in a single live set? “We do just over two hours, which is time for just over 30 songs,” says Taylor. “There’s that constant challenge – to fit in big hit singles alongside slightly deeper cuts. God help anyone trying to whittle our back catalogue down to a Top 30!”
As it transpires, both Taylor and May are fascinated by Uncut’s entirely impartial and scientific list of Queen’s best songs. “That looks like a good mix of hits, live favourites and album tracks,” admits Brian May. “I can imagine that lots of fans will argue for days about this selection! But it’s heartening that there is such depth in our catalogue. There are so many deep cuts we’d love to do live again. Part of me would love to do a whole set of obscure album tracks. But you can’t afford to do that when you have so many hit singles that people expect to hear. As Prince used to say: ‘There are too many hits, darling!’”
Over the last 50 years, Queen have recorded nearly 200 songs – including 40 hit singles. As a consequence, many of the band’s biggest singles don’t make the setlist – songs like “Flash”, “You’re My Best Friend”, “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy”, “Play The Game” and “A Kind Of Magic” haven’t been played in years.
Too many hits? Not a bad problem to have. But what Brian May is uncomfortable about is explaining what some of those hits mean… “I’m so glad that Freddie was never grilled by journalists, asking him the exact meaning of ‘Bicycle Race’ or whatever,” says May. “Part of me is uncomfortable about analysing what these songs mean. I love that no-one understands ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It means that anyone is free to put their own interpretation to the song. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that the intention of the writer is just a small part of what a song means. There is always an autobiographical element to every song, but so much is in the eye – or the ear – of the beholder, of the interpreter. That’s how music should be.”
1 DOING ALRIGHT (QUEEN, 1973)
Queen before Queen? A Brian May co-write from Smile, recast by Freddie
BRIAN MAY: We played it in Smile, with Tim Staffell and Roger. Freddie used to come and see our gigs. When he joined as lead singer, he said he really loved singing Tim’s song and wanted to bring it into this new regime. I think the first time he sang it properly was in the recording studio – and he sang it beautifully. It’s got quite a complicated structure, it’s very episodic. We were edging towards that drama in our music. We wanted it to have a vast amount of light and shade, because rock music was able to depict the tenderest moments to the very hard and angry moments. The whole spectrum of human emotions. So much of this song is Tim’s work; he is a very talented musician and songwriter. Do I stay in touch with Tim? Oh, yes. He’s a great friend. He went off and pursued the visual arts – he’s done all sorts of model designs and animations, most famously for The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and Thomas The Tank Engine. But he also makes music and I’ve played guitar on a few of his records. He was involved in the film:he rerecorded his vocals on a great version of this song!
2 KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE (QUEEN, 1973)
The band’s debut single… championed by John Peel!
This was pretty much the first song I wrote on my own for Queen. Before that I think I’d only written “Step On Me” – which was the B-side to our Smile single, “Earth”. When I went to parties as a student, I was pretty antisocial. I’d go off to some side room and find a guitar and play”. Despite all that, the song comes across as very jolly. Let’s keep ourselves alive and be happy, happy, happy! I realised that songs mean different things to different people and you’ve got to relinquish control over their interpretations.
