Queen: The Complete Works (58 page)

Issued on the October 1991 CD single release of ‘Life Changes’, ‘Heartland’ deserved to be more widely heard but, out of respect for Freddie’s death the following month, ‘Life Changes’ was withdrawn from release.

HEART FULL OF SOUL
(Gouldman)

This revolutionary Yardbirds track was played live by 1984 and even, apparently, by The Art.

HEAVEN FOR EVERYONE
(Taylor)

• Album (The Cross):
Shove
• A-side (The Cross): 3/88 [83] • A-side (Queen): 10/95 [2] • Album (Queen):
Heaven
• Compilation (Queen):
Hits3

Crystal Taylor once labelled ‘Heaven For Everyone’ as the Queen single that never was, even suggesting that Roger save the song for a Queen project. Though a version was recorded during sessions for
A Kind Of Magic
in 1986, possibly intended for Joan Armatrading, the song was left incomplete and the drummer instead reworked it for his 1987 solo album,
Shove It
. Released as that album’s third single in March 1988, it peaked at an abysmal No. 83 in the UK, despite the presence of Freddie on backing vocals.

The Cross did perform the song regularly throughout their career, but it was omitted from the set during the 1991 support tour to Magnum. The single was heavily promoted upon its release, with the band appearing on German television programmes
Formel 1
on 23 April 1988 and on
ZDF
, around the same time, and was given further exposure when The Cross appeared at the Golden Rose festival in Montreux on 12 May 1988. A performance video, directed by Dieble and Myers, was also shot that year, with Roger languishing on a tropical beach (heaven) with a guitar as homeless people rise from beneath a decrepit building to join him, transformed from the unwashed masses to Hawaiian shirt-clad beach bums.

‘Heaven For Everyone’ was restructured by Brian, Roger and John in 1994 for inclusion on
Made In Heaven
. Freddie had recorded a lead vocal track for the song, which ended up on the UK release of
Shove It
and the German B-side of the same single, and the band took Freddie’s original vocal and recorded fresh arrangements, including a scorching guitar solo from Brian but, unfortunately, dropping the spoken bits. While a case can be argued in favor of The Cross’ original, Queen’s re-recording is vastly superior, and not only because of Freddie’s ethereal vocal performance.

Chosen as the debut single from the album and the first “new” Queen single since ‘The Show Must Go On’ four years prior, ‘Heaven For Everyone’ was released in edited form in October 1995 with a unique mix of ‘It’s A Beautiful Day’. The single reached No. 2 in the UK, Queen’s highest, new-chart entry since ‘
Innuendo
’ in 1991 ... and this was with an eight year-old song! David Mallet was recruited to make a film for the single; since there wasn’t any footage of Freddie singing the song, a
heavy dose of creativity was used to fashion an original video combining footage from the 1902 film
Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip To The Moon)
with clips of the band, to remind you that this was a Queen video. The result was met with approval from the band, and inspired the band to commission independent directors from the British Film Institute to create unique videos for all the songs from
Made In Heaven
. The version directed by Simon Pummell, retitled ‘Evolution’, features performance artist STELARC. This was issued on the video compilation
Made In Heaven – The Films
, while Mallet’s version was released on
Greatest Flix III
.

HELLO MARY LOU (GOODBYE HEART)

(Pitney/Manginaracina)

• Live:
Wembley

First released by Ricky Nelson in 1961 as the US B-side to ‘Travelin’ Man’, but released in the UK as an A-side, ‘Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)’ is a classic relic of the innocent, pre-British Invasion rock ‘n’ roll, and was cited by Brian as a favourite single of his, not least because of the guitar solo. “And then you would find this wonderful solo in the middle of ‘Hello Mary Lou’, by Rick Nelson and that was wow, incredibly inspiring for me to find things like that,” Brian gleefully told Richard Allinson in June 1998.

No surprise, then, that Brian was the prime mover in the song’s inclusion in the set list for the 1986
Magic
tour. Performed as the second song in the acoustic medley of influential 1950s and 1960s rock ‘n’ roll songs (Elvis’ ‘(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care’ and Little Richard’s ‘Tutti Frutti’ were the other two songs), ‘Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)’ featured Brian on prominent vocals, almost overpowering Freddie and Roger at times. Though it lasted just over a minute in the live setting, it was pleasant enough to nearly justify the inclusion of the medley at the expense of ‘Somebody To Love’, ‘It’s A Hard Life’, or ‘Princes Of The Universe’.

HELP!
(Lennon/McCartney)

This Beatles song was played live by 1984.

THE HERO
(May)

• Album:
Flash
• Live:
On Fire, Montreal
• Bonus:
Flash

Of the eighteen compositions released on the
Flash Gordon
soundtrack album, only two have a set of lyrics: ‘Flash’s Theme’, the lightweight main theme for the title character which also became the album’s sole single, and ‘The Hero’, a far superior, and more universal, track reminiscent of Queen’s heavier songs. Written by Brian, the song is essentially a vocal version of ‘Battle Theme’, constructed around film composer Howard Blake’s melody of the same-titled orchestral piece. Stuck for an end credits composition, Brian and engineer Alan Douglas created a rough demo of ‘The Hero’ out of drum machine loops, before the rest of the band joined the session to commit to tape the raucous rocker. Completed in a day, the solo was overdubbed on an unknown guitar, as The Red Special was then back in Munich, and not at the Townhouse in London. Freddie reportedly cried to Brian, “You always write me these songs which fucking kill my beautiful voice!” Hearing his powerful but strained howl on ‘The Hero’, it’s hard not to sympathize with him. An alternate take, with a slightly different vocal from Freddie, was heard during the end credits of the film, and was then released on the 2011 reissue of
Flash Gordon
.

‘The Hero’ was included in the set list late in the 1980
The Game
European tour as part of a
Flash Gordon
medley. This was retained throughout 1981 in the Japanese, South American and Mexican tours, and was also played in Montreal for the ‘We Will Rock You’ video shoot but dropped prior to its release. The song then became the opening number on the 1982
Hot Space
European, UK and (occasionally) Japanese tours before being dropped indefinitely.

“HEROES”
(Bowie/Eno)

Instead of David Bowie tackling any other Queen tracks besides the obvious one at the 1992 Concert For Life, the chameleon rocker opted to perform two of his own songs, ‘All The Young Dudes’ and ‘“Heroes”’, backed by Brian, Roger, John, Spike Edney on keyboards, and a host of backing vocalists. On ‘“Heroes”’, Bowie’s 1977 classic is transformed into an even more powerful anthem than on its original studio recording, and is undeniably one of the best performances of the concert.

HEY MAMA (KEEP YOUR BIG MOUTH SHUT)

(McDaniel)

This little-known Bo Diddley track was performed live by The Reaction.

HIJACK MY HEART
(Queen)

• B-side: 8/89 [12]

It had been nearly a decade since Roger sang lead vocals on a Queen song, but those yearning for the drummer’s raspy, high-pitched voice would be pleasantly surprised by ‘Hijack My Heart’, an outtake from
The Miracle
sessions issued as the B-side of ‘The Invisible Man’.

With the unspoken rule persisting throughout the 1980s albums that Freddie should be the main vocalist, it’s unsurprising that ‘Hijack My Heart’ wasn’t a serious contender for
The Miracle
, but it’s a shame that a concession couldn’t have been made. It’s certainly a stronger track than ‘Party’ or ‘My Baby Does Me’, and would have offered a bit of diversity, not only in the vocal department, but also in terms of lyrics: the song is very ‘Roger’, as he sings about beautiful women and fast cars. The faded outro contains some delicious funk bass lines, though a demo version which leaked out in 2006 contains some beautiful piano playing absent from the finished version.

THE HITMAN
(Queen)

• Album:
Innuendo
• B-side: 3/91 [22]

This vicious rocker is a welcome return to such early Queen anthems as ‘Tie Your Mother Down’ and ‘Sweet Lady’, and provided
Innuendo
with a fresh balance of hard rock songs with the more introspective ballads. The initiator this time was Freddie, who originally wrote the song on keyboards but gave it to John, who restructured the arrangement. “[The] finished version had very little to do with the original idea,” Brian told
Rip
magazine in 1991. “Most of the riff came from Freddie. I wasn’t even in the room when they wrote it. I changed the key and some of the notes to make it playable on the guitar. We finished the backing track, but it seemed to ramble. John sat down and decided to reconstruct the track. He changed the order. He changed everything. I went back and played on that. Then we filled in the gaps on the lyrics, did the harmonies and generally tidied up.”

The song features a roaring ensemble performance and some truly inspired guitar work from Brian, but is otherwise a minor, throwaway track due to its forgettable lyrics and a thin, tinny mix that marred other songs on
Innuendo
. A minute-long demo version with Brian on lead vocals was released on the
Hints Of Innuendo
promo tape, and perpetuated the rumor that he not only wrote the song, but that it was intended for
Back To The Light
. At this point in their career, the band were working on each others’ songs with the rule that all songwriting credits were to the collective whole, so Brian may have been simply offering up his own lyrical ideas for consideration – and with lines like “Don’t gimme no shit, man” watered down to “I’m just it, man”, it was a blessing that the others intervened.

‘The Hitman’ was issued as the B-side of ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’ in March 1991.

HOLD ON
(Mercury/Mack)

• Soundtrack (Freddie):
Zabou
• Compilation (Freddie):
Solo Collection

With a laid-back reggae rhythm, ‘Hold On’ was recorded by Freddie and American actress Jo Dare for the 1986 German film
Zabou
, during sessions for
A Kind Of Magic
in early 1986 at Musicland Studios in Munich. The lyrics were written by Freddie and the music was provided by Mack, and though the song is enjoyable, expressing similar emotions explored in ‘Friends Will Be Friends’, it’s an inconsequential listen and little more than filler.

Released as a German-only single with Tina Turner’s contribution to the soundtrack, ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’, as the flip-side, ‘Hold On’ unsurprisingly failed to chart.

HOLDING ON
(Mercury)

• Compilation (Freddie):
Solo Collection

This powerful song was recorded on 9 March 1987 at Townhouse Studios during the
Barcelona
sessions (but not intended for that album), with Erdal Kizilkay on bass guitar, David Richards on drum programming and Mike Moran on keyboards. Kizilkay, a multi-talented musician who had just contributed a slew of instruments to David Bowie’s
Never Let Me Down
(also produced by David Richards at Mountain Studios), contributed the funky bassline, and Freddie was so inspired by Kizilkay that he delivered the spirited, improvised vocals. Unfortunately, the track was never completed, and forgotten in favour of stronger material when Queen reconvened the following year to record
The Miracle
. ‘Holding On’ was finally released in 2000 on
The Solo Collection
.

HONKY TONK WOMEN
(Jagger/Richards)

This 1969 Rolling Stones classic was performed live by
The Cross, with Bob Geldof on vocals, at the Gosport Festival on 30 July 1992.

HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN
(Dixon)

Due to a technical difficulty during The Brian May Band’s September 1998 show in Warsaw, Jamie Moses took over on guitar and vocals and played this version of Willie Dixon’s ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ until Brian’s technicians were able to fix the problem.

HORNS OF DOOM
(Richards)

• Compilation (Freddie):
Solo Collection

Recorded entirely by David Richards, without any contribution whatsoever from Freddie, on 11 February 1987 (during sessions for
Barcelona
in London), ‘Horns Of Doom’ is a compelling and sinister song, with synthesized horns, drum-machine, keyboards and percussion, but why it was released on
The Solo Collection
is anyone’s guess. Even Greg Brooks’ liner notes fail to mention the logic of its inclusion.

HOT PATOOTIE
: see
WHATEVER

HAPPENED TO SATURDAY NIGHT?

HOW CAN I GO ON
(Mercury/Moran)

• Album (Freddie):
Barcelona
• A-side (Freddie): 1/89 [95] • A-side (Freddie): 10/92 • Compilation (Freddie):
Solo Collection

Undoubtedly one of Freddie’s most gorgeous songs, ‘How Can I Go On’ is a highlight, not only of
Barcelona
, but of his entire latter-day oeuvre. Segueing from ‘Guide Me Home’, the song expresses similar sentiments, of a man searching for inspiration and guidance in the midst of emotional uncertainty: “Is anybody there to believe in me / To hear my plea and take care of me?” At a time when Freddie was thrown into inner turmoil and having to face his mortality, ‘How Can I Go On’ is especially poignant.

Several versions of the song were recorded during the
Barcelona
sessions and ultimately released on
The Solo Collection
. With an alternate recorded on 2 March 1988, this was an attempt to create a passable take, with Freddie ad-libbing vocals, indicating the lyrics had yet to be finalized, and vocalizing (like most of the other
Barcelona
outtakes) where Montserrat was to fill in. Two early takes were also captured – the first, on 9 April 1987, is stunning, with piano accompaniment for the first half before diverting to an orchestrated tangent that would be omitted in the released version; the second, on 24 June 1987, finds the recording starting halfway through the song already in progress, much to the audible disappointment of Freddie when told by David Richards that not all his vocal performance was recorded. An instrumental version was also created for the box set, and shows just how complex and breathtaking the original backing track really was.