To honor the great Freddie Mercury who passed away 27 years ago today on November 24, 1991, this blog post, highlighting 5 lesser-known Queen songs, is intended to celebrate a man who is and forever will be one of my two favorite musicians of all-time.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Almost 27 years ago, my love affair with all things Queen and Freddie Mercury began. And it started a little somethin’ like this:

Picture It: New Windsor, 1992.

A group of 14 and 15-year-old girls sit on the floor of Jennifer’s bedroom, a rousing game of Rummy 5000 in progress. Directly behind them, popular music videos of 1992 play on MTV because back in 1992, kids, MTV actually played…. music.

#12 hit me like a ton of bricks and I still haven’t fully recovered.

Engrossed in collecting as many groups and sequences as possible, my friends and I weren’t paying much attention to the TV that day. More than likely I didn’t even realize it was on.

Until this video began to play:

“Who is this?” I ask nobody in particular, my eyes now glued to the tube.

Someone behind me snickers. “Um, that’s Wayne’s World, Jill.”

“No, not them,” I reply, rolling my eyes. As the scene from Wayne’s World cuts away, I point.

“THEM. HIM. Who IS THAT?“

Not many men could pull off a checkerboard-patterned, plunging-neckline, full-body unitard, but Freddie Mercury sure as hell could.

I am pointing to the lead singer of an as-yet-unknown-to-me-at-the-time band, performing the most incredible song I’d ever heard in my life. Extremely attractive in a very non-traditional way, he possesses the most striking facial features I’d ever seen. His band sounds like no rock group I’ve ever heard before, his voice like no other singer.  This group is light-years beyond any other band I’d ever listened to before in terms of raw talent, and as I watch this mysterious, mesmerizing man with the voice of an angel croon away while his bandmates expertly back him on guitar, bass, and drums, I am, literally, transfixed.

“Look at his teeth,” somebody blurts out. “He’s weird-looking.” Everyone giggles except me, the phrase SHUT UP threatening to exit my mouth. I hold my tongue with my teeth.

This video is so old,” someone else chimes in.

This gets my attention. I turn to face my friends.

“Old?” I ask whoever made that last statement. “This video can’t be old. Wayne’s World just came out.” I turn back to the screen and continue watching.

“No Jill, the Wayne’s World parts aren’t old,” someone explains, “the rest of the video is. It’s from the 70s I think. Can’t you tell?”

I shift my focus and notice the slightly-blurry, filmy picture quality of the scenes containing the mystery band. “Oh yeah,” I mumble, disappointed.

Just then, the song ascends into a multi-harmonic operatic section. My jaw metaphorically hits the floor.

WHAAAT? 

My friend nudges me; it’s my turn to draw a card. Mesmerized, I hold up a finger. WAIT.

“Jill, he’s gay. He died of AIDS like last year. Don’t get your hopes up,” someone blurts out. I ignore more giggles and hope that what I just heard wasn’t true (unfortunately, it was).

As Bohemian Rhapsody transitions from operatic interlude to bang-your-head hard rock and finally concludes via a slowly decrescendoing coda, I feel I must learn more about this group-Queen, I find out their name is via credits. I especially need to know more about Queen’s incredible lead singer, the man possessing a voice that in an instant, just totally knocked my socks off.

Since that day, I have been a huge fan of both Queen and Freddie Mercury. I still am, almost three decades later. Discovering Queen and Freddie Mercury was an absolutely enthralling musical experience the likes of which I’ve only experienced one other time in my life thus far (the second time was courtesy of Eagles’ Randy Meisner after viewing this performance. Read more about that moment at the link here.).

And that’s how I became a lifelong Queen fan.

Fangirling, 1992-Style

As much as I loved and still do love Bohemian Rhapsody, man cannot live on one Queen song alone! Back in 1992, after discovering Queen, I began to amass quite the collection of their albums on cassette, the whereabouts of which could probably be found somewhere in the storage closet of my dad’s house these days (finding a cassette player to actually play said albums would likely be much more difficult, however). Since YouTube didn’t exist back in 1992 (heck I hadn’t even heard of the Internet yet), my Queen obsession was relegated to my growing albums-on-cassette collection, plus whatever Queen song videos or news clips I could tape off MTV with the family VCR.

These days, Queen has their own YouTube channel that contains all of their official music videos, and there are biographical books and band documentaries galore out there for one’s reading, watching, or listening pleasure. I haven’t devoured it all as of yet, as there is so much available to consume! Eventually, I’m sure that like with Eagles, I’ll see it all (though Eagles pre-1978 concert videos, documentaries, and books are much more scarce) but for now, I want to savor the limited media resources that are presently available- slowly.

A Back Catalog of Champions

As a Queen-obsessed fangirl, I found myself drawn to a lot of the band’s back catalog, which, similar to Eagles,’ is pretty damn stellar. Of course, Queen’s hit songs are also damn good too. After a steady diet of hits, however, I craved something different from them. I was thrilled to discover that Queen has plenty of fantastic deep cuts peppered throughout their fifteen studio albums. Even at this point, I doubt I’ve found them all!

So I present, in honor of the recent release of the Bohemian Rhapsody quasi-biopic (which yes, I have seen and will hopefully get around to reviewing) as well as the late, great Freddie Mercury, five relatively unknown-to-the-masses “diamonds” in the crown that is Queen’s massive song catalog. Here are five lesser-known Queen songs you should hear, get to know, and then add to your Spotify playlists. Enjoy!

’39

Album: A Night At The Opera
Written by: Brian May (lead vocal also by Brian May)
Year: 1975

’39 has been a favorite Queen song of mine since I bought A Night at the Opera on cassette back in 1992. After buying the two compilation albums Classic Queen and Queen’s Greatest Hits, I began collecting their studio albums (always on cassette). I never ended up owning them all, as being a fickle teen at the time I eventually moved on to other bands. However, Queen has always been a band I found myself frequently revisiting during different points in my life.

’39 features a rare lead vocal by Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May. And although May’s singing voice isn’t nearly as strong as Freddie Mercury’s (as is true of most mere mortals), it suits this particular song well (though Freddie usually sang lead when Queen performed this song live). ‘39’s lyrics are also pretty darn interesting. According to Wikipedia, ’39 “relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realize that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein’s special theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged.”

Did I mention that all four members of Queen are smart AF? And not just in a musical sense. Brian May is actually a Ph.D-level astrophysicist. His brain is bigger than likely yours and definitely mine.

Have a listen. I feel like ’39 could be an Eagles song. Perhaps that adds to its allure:

Brian May’s scenes look like they were recorded in the late 90s-2000s. The scenes with Mercury were straight 1970s, however. 

Play the Game

Album: The Game
Written by: Freddie Mercury
Year: 1980

Queen in 1980 accepting gold discs for “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” 

I discovered Play the Game after buying the compilation album Queen’s Greatest Hits back in ’92, which is the companion album to the first Queen album I acquired, Classic Queen. Although Classic Queen is a great mish-mash of Queen tunes spanning the entirety of the band’s Freddie years (1973-1991), there were some pretty important songs left off of it, most notably We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions, Another One Bites the Dust and Killer Queen. All three were included on Queen’s Greatest Hits.

While listening to Queen’s Greatest Hits in its entirety, I came across Play the Game for the first time and instantly fell in love with the track. Since then, it has been one of my favorite Queen songs of all time. I particularly like John Deacon’s bass line. Like Randy Meisner, Deacon is another extremely underrated bassist who might not be ultra flashy but possesses an understated genius difficult to adequately replicate.

According to Wikipedia, Play The Game “commences with a series of overlapping rushing noises on a… synthesizer, heralding the band’s acceptance of electronic instruments into their once explicitly “no synths” sonic repertoire. [Queen] played it in their live shows from 1980-82. The single was a hit in Queen’s home country reaching #14 in the charts. In America, it peaked at #42.”

WTF, America?

Wikipedia also states that Freddie Mercury hits a C5 in chest voice (as opposed to falsetto) at one point during this song. Damn!

Regarding the music video, Wikipedia states that it “marked the first time Mercury appeared…. with what later became his trademark mustache.” The video also features a very obvious green screen filled with at first, an outer space background which quickly changes over to multicolored projected flames that change color at each solo shot of a band member. In shots containing multiple members of Queen, the flames default to red (Freddie’s color). The video also contains a few now-laughable i-Movie-esque transitions similar to those used in Queen’s I Want To Break Free video. My daughter S12 found said transitions pretty laughable, stating “those transitions tho” upon watching. LOL!

But #realtalk: I’d rather have great music and crapola special effects than vice versa (which describes most music and videos of today, IMO).

Take a listen down yonder:

Good stuff, though admittedly I prefer a mustache-free Freddie. Not that he would GAF, of course.

I Want It All

Album: The Miracle
Written by: Brian May (but credited to Queen)
Year: 1989

Queen at the Brit Awards on February 18, 1990, which was Freddie Mercury’s last public appearance.

Ah, this song. When I heard it on Classic Queen many years ago, I didn’t pay it much mind. Composed in the late-80s, it definitely has the harder rock sound of its time and while I love me some 80s rock nowadays, in 1992, the late-80s rock genre was pretty much the laughingstock of music.

HAHAHA if people only knew what was to come…

I rediscovered this track during a recent drive to work while listening to the Queen YouTube channel on shuffle. Replaying it over and over, I proceeded to revel in just how damn good this song truly is. Also notable is how different this track sounds from the music most folks typically associate with Queen.

And then, of course, there’s the video. While I couldn’t exactly view it in my car, once I arrived home and could safely watch it- Oh. My. Goodness. In 1989, Queen was sexy as heck! While I never saw this particular video back in my initial Queen discovery days of ’92, even if I had, I wouldn’t have noticed the quadruple-sexiness that was 1989 Queen. Why? In 1989, the members of Queen were all around the age I am now (Freddie turned 43 that year, Brian May, 42, Roger Taylor celebrated 40 and John Deacon, 38). At 14-15 years old, I didn’t find middle-aged men sexy (thank goodness) but damn, I sure as heck do now!

According to Wikipedia, sadly, Freddie Mercury never got to perform this song live as he would pass away less than three years after its release. Sung mainly by Mercury, Brian May chimes in on the choruses and middle eight section of I Want It All. Brian’s solo part contrasts nicely to the harder edge of the rest of the song, as his bit is much softer and slower, pairing well with his softer-sounding voice. Freddie chimes in during May’s solo section as well, resulting in what Brian May describes as “a bit of sparring between me and Freddie.” It works well.

Wikipedia also reveals a conflict between how Freddie looks in the music video and the truth about his health at that time. “Mercury’s health was already quite bad when the video’s shooting took place, and it was remarkable that it didn’t show up in the video, with Mercury performing with all the energy he had. The video also features Mercury’s first public appearance with a beard to hide the Kaposi’s sarcoma marks on his jawline, after shaving off his trademark mustache… [back in] 1987.”

And here I thought he was just channeling a new sexy-accountant-by-day, rockstar-by-night look. Hmmm.

Prepare to hear a different side of Queen in this clip. Ain’t no operatic section here:

This ain’t no boy band; these are 100% MEN. Swoon

Don’t Stop Me Now

Album: Jazz
Written by: Freddie Mercury
Year: 1978

Freddie Mercury and Brian May onstage in 1978.

Don’t Stop Me Now is the song on this list folks are most likely to have some familiarity with. Those who have seen the recent Queen quasi-biopic Bohemian Rhapsody definitely have heard this song, as the official music video plays during the end credits. According to Wikipedia, said music video was taken from a live concert “assembled with cuts… filmed on 26 & 27 January 1979 at Forest National, Brussels, Belgium.”

Wikipedia also states that “Don’t Stop Me Now reached number 9 in the UK charts, but only number 86 in the U.S.” Again, U.S.A, WTF? The popularity of this track has risen over time, however, and it is now regarded as one of Queen’s best-ever songs. I, myself, concur.

What’s this tune about? In a word, awesomeness.  According to Alexis Petridis of The Guardian, Don’t Stop Me Now was “a direct product of [Mercury’s] hedonism and promiscuity: an unrepentant, joyous, utterly irresistible paean to gay pleasure-seeking. You find yourself wondering if its title might not have been aimed at his censorious bandmates.”

OMG if Don’t Stop Me Now is legit a “nyah nyah” towards (likely) Brian May and Roger Taylor (I doubt John Deacon gave Freddie a hard time) that just makes it even better!

The video for this track is, to put it plainly, epic. Why? It contains a variety of the absolute best of the best possible 1970s rock and roll fashion. The clothing choices of all four members of Queen make the official Don’t Stop Me Now video almost as epic as the song. Case in point:

Roger Taylor channels a hybrid look best described as 1970s-era-game-show-host-meets-clown. Taylor’s resplendent bright green blazer stands out like a field of perfectly landscaped grass behind his drum set. Complementing his blazer is a black button-down dress shirt, black-and-white patterned tie, and yes, RED PANTS. Taylor’s trademark blond locks, layered in a kinda-sorta-mullet brings his overall look just that much closer to perfection.

John Deacon predicts the future of television with his Alex P. Keaton vest containing a muted-yet-colorful pattern running across it. Additionally, Deacon’s mauve butterfly-collared button-down worn under his Charles in Charge vest compliments his outer statement piece just perfectly. John finishes off his look with what looks like either brown or gray corduroy pants and a straight-from-the-barbershop freshly shorn hairdo. In this video, John Deacon actually resembles more Buster Brown shoe salesman than rock and roll bass guitarist, yet the look also 100% works.

Freddie Mercury, as usual, dazzles in his tight leather flare-bottom pants, leather jacket, t-shirt, long double-strand gold chains, and white Adidas (?) sneakers. Out and proud without actually ever proclaiming to be so, Freddie is 100% embracing the leather-BDSM-biker lifestyle here, all the while continuing to remaining coy about his sexuality. Why Freddie’s gayness was still “in question” in 1979, especially when videos of him looking like this were being released, is beyond me. Folks really must have been in denial.

The fashion standout in this video, however, isn’t Freddie Mercury (for once). Instead, the fashionista award goes to the typically much more straightlaced astrophysicist-by-day-rock-god-guitarist-by-night Brian May. In this video, May is wearing literally the most amazing shirt I have ever seen. Tight, black, and with an attractively odd silhouette, he looks as if a Star Trek character, Renaissance-era prince and glam rock god walked into a biker bar, got drunk, and had a baby. The shirt is paired with an exaggerated pair of tighty tight black bellbottom pants that are so disproportioned they make Brian come off almost cartoonish. All fitted business up top with a Jnco-width party flair at the cuff, May’s pants in this video do NOT F AROUND. Further adding to Brian’s outfit is his long, unruly, black curly mop of hair, making him look more rock star than most rock stars.

Hells yes.

Don’t Stop Me Now is featured on the compilation album Queen’s Greatest Hits and, similar to Play the Game on the same album, it quickly became a favorite of mine back in ’92. Don’t Stop Me Now just straight-up puts me in a better mood than I was before I listened to it, and that’s not a phenomenon solely experienced by me! According to Wikipedia, “in 2005, [Don’t Stop Me Now] was voted as “The Greatest Driving Song Ever” by viewers of the BBC television program Top Gear,” and “in 2015, the electronics company Alba conducted a survey of 2000 UK adults, which asked respondents to name their favorite uplifting song, and Don’t Stop Me Now was the most popular response.”

Listen, and you’ll quickly see why:

Epic song, epic fashions, epic video.

Innuendo

Album: Innuendo
Written by: Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor (but credited to Queen)
Special Guest Musician: Steve Howe (Yes) on guitar
Year: 1991

Flowers in front of Freddie Mercury’s home in Kensington, west London, the day after his death on November 25, 1991.

After 18 years, the creative quotient of the majority of rock bands tends to nosedive. It just happens- its hard to continuously generate peak-level output over multiple decades of music-making, at least I would think. Often a band will start off strong and slowly ascend to greatness, each album topping the next one. Then comes the band at their peak, and following that, the quality of their output typically declines.

But Queen ain’t by any means typical.

In 1990, Queen released their fourteenth studio album, Innuendo. The members of Queen were well into middle age by that time and even more of an issue was the fact that Freddie Mercury, an essential element of all things Queen, was in the final stages of his battle with AIDS. You would not think that a band would, in such a late stage of their career and with a lead singer whose health was rapidly declining would release one of their best albums ever.

But again, Queen ain’t just any old band.

Innuendo was the first single off of the Innuendo album and went straight to number 1 in the U.K. Here in the states, the song only charted on the Mainstream Rock Chart, peaking at a laughable #17. SMH.

After acquiring  A Night At the Opera back in ’92, the fifth Queen album I bought was Innuendo. I had already heard a bunch of songs from the record on MTV, as they played a decent amount of Queen videos each day in the weeks and months following Mercury’s death. However, MTV never played the Innuendo music video in its entirety- at least from what I saw. This was likely due to the track’s epic six-and-a-half-minute length (its 35 seconds longer than Bohemian Rhapsody!). The length of Innuendo, however, is not even close to covering the heights of the song’s epicness quotient. In fact, to put Innuendo’s level of amazingness into perspective, it was said (and could be believed) to have been inspired by Led Zepplin’s Kashmir. Nuff’ said.

According to Wikipedia, Innuendo “has been described as “reminiscent” of “Bohemian Rhapsody”… “harking back to [Queen’s] progressive rock roots.” Some even refer to the song “Bohemian Rhapsody 2.” Innuendo features a flamenco guitar section performed by Yes guitarist Steve Howe and Brian May, an operatic interlude, and sections of hard rock that recall early Queen, in addition to lyrics inspired in part by lead singer Freddie Mercury’s illness.”

Wikipedia also states that “Innuendo was pieced together ‘like a jigsaw puzzle'” which pretty much nails the makeup of the song. It starts off with what I learned is called a “Bolero-esque beat,” ascends to the May-Howe flamenco guitar solo, then moves to a classically influenced bridge, with the lyrics:

You can be anything you want to be
Just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be
Be free with your tempo, be free, be free
Surrender your ego be free, be free to yourself,

The melody of the aforementioned flamenco solo follows the bridge, though performed solely via electric guitars this time. After that part, the song then cycles back to its original melody at the beginning, eventually ascending to a most satisfying conclusion.

It. Is. Amazing.

Adding to Innuendo’s epic factor is the fact that Freddie Mercury was in the final years of his life when he recorded this. Listening to him sing, I 100% would not be able to tell that he is a man who is ailing, had I not knew.

The video, according to Wikipedia, features “plasticine figures reminiscent of the album artwork in a detailed miniature cinema set. The band members only appear as illustrations and images, mainly taken from earlier Queen music videos on a cinema screen in the same manner as in the film Nineteen Eighty-Four, with Mercury drawn in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, May in the style of Victorian etchings, Taylor in the style of Jackson Pollock, and Deacon in the style of Pablo Picasso. [The video] also featured a montage of historical stock footages and film clips of the Nuremberg Rally, the funeral of Freddie’s former singing idol Umm Kulthum, battle footages from World War II and the Gulf War, Stonehenge, Hungarian folk dancing, Spanish Flamenco dance, the Virgin of El Rocío, Locusts, Russian March, and Mecca praying.”

Totally innovative at the time and still pretty neat to watch today, the video for Innuendo is almost as epic as the song.

Almost.

Behold:

Rest in Peace, Freddie Mercury.

Edits added 11/26/18:

Here is my Spotify playlist of these five great Queen songs:

And here is my YouTube playlist:

 

Thanks for reading. Until next time!