Queen: Days of Our Lives Page #3

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# Drop of a hat, she's as willing as

Playful as a pussycat

# Then momentarily out of action

Temporarily out of gas

# To absolutely drive you wild

# She's all out to get you

# She's a killer queen

# Gunpowder, gelatine

Dynamite with a laser beam

# Guaranteed to blow your mind

Any time

# Oh, recommended at the price

Insatiable an appetite

# Wanna try?

# You wanna try... #

We were doing a lot of major tours

in Japan, America.

We were headlining by now and doing very well and

selling loads of records and not seeing any money.

We decided to go with the production

company, rather than with the record company.

The deal was that we made the album for the production

company and they sell it to a record company.

It's probably the worst thing

we did.

The deal that they were on just meant that they

weren't going to make any money out of what they did.

And the way it came to a head

was with the song Death On Two Legs.

# You suck my blood like a leech

# You break the law and you breach

# Screw my brain till it hurts

# You've taken all my money

# And you want more... #

Often I would go to do an interview

and I buy a couple of bottles of wine

on my expenses

because they had no money.

We didn't expect instant riches.

We didn't get them!

Roger was breaking sticks because

he hit the drums pretty hard.

The management's going, "Don't break

any more sticks. " We had no money.

One of the management group bought a Rolls-Royce and

we thought, "Hang on, something's going on here. "

It affected Freddie deeply and

Freddie got to the point where he said,

"I am not delivering any more music.

I can't. "

To cut a long story short,

we went with John Reid

who was Elton's incredibly

successful manager at the time.

I remember saying, "You go away

"and make the best record you can.

I'll take care of the business. "

We had a good working relationship

with John.

He was very fiery and feisty, but so

were we. We weren't scared of him.

It was the first night

I'd gone out to dinner with Freddie.

I said, "I'd just like to say, as I said to the other

guys, I hope you know I'm gay and it's not a problem. "

And he put his knife and fork down

and said, "So am I!"

Freddie, when I first met him,

wasn't out to the band

because he was struggling

with his own sexuality anyway.

And Freddie 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

A Night At The Opera, it felt like make or break.

We were not only poor,

but we were in debt.

All the sound and lighting companies and

the people we worked with hadn't been paid,

so we were at a really crucial point. We might

have had to break up if that album hadn't done well.

It was an expensive album,

enormous complexity on there.

Even now, I wonder

how we did some of that stuff.

There was so much hunger there. We

had so much we wanted to bring out.

It was all kept in

and so we had all kinds of songs.

Bohemian Rhapsody was basically like three songs that

I wanted to put out and I just put the three together.

I think the groundwork for a song

like that was done at Ealing College.

Freddie had lots of bits of songs

which we'd link together

and one of his bits, I just referred to it as The

Cowboy Song and it went, "Mama, I just killed a man. "

# Mama

# Just killed a man... #

The first thing I heard was Freddie

playing "Mama, just killed a man... "

"What do you think?" "I love it. It's absolutely

brilliant. " Not knowing what was to come.

We ended up having to do it

in six studios.

Because they were using all these

studios, you didn't know what was going on.

You would have guitar parts in one

studio and vocal stuff in another.

# Galileo

# Galileo

# Galileo, Figaro... #

Freddie would just turn up and go,

"I've got a few more Galileos. "

We were going round all these studios

just hearing parts.

# Thunderbolt and lightning

Very, very frightening me

# Lightning, very, very frightening,

very, very frightening me... #

Only Fred had it in his head and he was

making some of it up as we went along.

I thought, "I'll do as I please. "

# Thunderbolt and lightning,

very, very frightening me... #

Do as many multi-layer harmonies as

possible. You know, go well over the top.

It really was tongue-in-cheek, but at

the same time, "I bet you can't do this. "

# He's just a poor boy

from a poor family

# Spare him his life

from this monstrosity... #

But the record company as a mass came to us and

said, "This is too long. Nobody's going to play it. "

I played it to Elton John

at the time

and he said, "Are you off your head?

You'll never get that on the radio. "

I said, "It goes out in its entirety

or not at all. "

At the crucial moment, this young

man called Kenny Everett came in,

loved the track, stole a copy of it

and played it on his radio show.

Kenny played it 14 times over the

weekend and of course it was a smash.

Then following that up with what, to my

mind, was the first ever real music video.

# We will not let you go

Let him go! Bismillah!

# We will not let you go

Let him go! Bismillah... #

I'd never seen anything like it

and I don't think anybody else had.

The video took Queen to another level

where they could really command

the landscape.

# Mamma mia, mamma mia

Mamma mia, let me go... #

Night At The Opera was that landmark album

that established them as a major force.

That was the context in which you could

do something like the Hyde Park concert.

# So you think you can stone me

and spit in my eye

# So you think you can love me

and leave me to die... #

It was Richard Branson. "We think

we can put you on in Hyde Park. "

Thank you very much.

Good evening, everybody.

CHEERING:

Welcome to our picnic

by the Serpentine.

I remember thinking, "Gulp!" 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 heroes' welcome.

THRASHING GUITARS

# Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhh... #

It was a thrilling experience to have that kind

of contact with an audience in your own home town.

When it came to make Day At The Races, we

just thought, "Let's just do what we do. "

The added ingredient in Day At The Races

is this feeling of freedom which we had

because we had escaped the old situation, we'd sorted

out the money side, we weren't in debt any more,

we weren't struggling for our very

existence, so there's a great freedom and joy.

# Ca-a-an

# Anybody... #

It was almost like we were still making A Night

At The Opera. We just loved it. We revelled in it.

# Somebody to lo-o-ove... #

Freddie came up with a magnificent, little sort of

foray into white Gospel, if you want to call it that.

# Ooh

# Each morning I get up... #

We really worked our harmonies

on Somebody To Love.

# Take a look at yourself Take

a look in the mirror and cry... #

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