Queen: The Complete Works (88 page)

Effectively telling the story of a nuclear holocaust, a major threat in the early to mid-1980s (indeed, bands like The Clash and even The Who’s final studio album,
It’s Hard
, dealt with similar issues), the song contains some of Roger’s most biting lyrics, though the final verse, surging into overdrive thanks to the introduction of some elaborate choral backing vocals, is particularly poignant: “Someday soon they’ll drop the big one / No more dad and no more mum.”

When asked by famed Los Angeles DJ Jim Ladd if he’d ever been involved with the ‘No Nukes’ movement, Roger responded in the affirmative, saying, “I’m involved in the English version ... it’s called the CND [Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament]. And I’m a member of it and I contribute and I believe what they’re doing is right, and, basically, a lot of the songs on [
Strange Frontier
] are directly or undirectly [
sic
] about that, because I think that’s the most important issue of the age, and that’s what I wanted to write about.”

‘Strange Frontier’, backed with a remixed version of ‘I Cry For You (Love, Hope & Confusion)’, was issued as the second single from the album in July 1984. Unfortunately, interest in the album and its related singles had started to wane, and the single barely limped into the Top 100, peaking at a dismal No. 98 in the UK. Not even one of Roger’s better videos could help. Directed by George Bloom and filmed in Malibu, California in July 1984, the video is an almost
scene-perfect reproduction of James Dean’s classic
Rebel Without A Cause
, in which Roger races up the side of a mountain to an inconclusive finale, all for the attention of a girl.

The song made a welcome appearance in both The Cross’ various set lists and during Roger’s 1999
Electric Fire
tour, and was well-received by the crowds. Surprisingly, it made a few other appearances, notably in 2000 at a gig with the SAS Band and at the tenth anniversary tribute concert for Freddie on 24 November 2001, with Brian guesting on guitar.

STUPID CUPID
(Sedaka)

Another favourite of Freddie’s, he would occasionally throw a few lines of this Neil Sedaka song, made popular by Connie Francis in 1958, into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Medley up until 1977. A live version from 11 December of that year was included on the 1989 video anthology, Rare Live.

SUBSTITUTE
(Townshend)

Perhaps The Who’s finest pop single, ‘Substitute’ was performed live by 1984, and was later performed by The Cross at the Fan Club’s first Christmas show at the Marquee, along with special guest Roger Daltrey on lead vocals.

SUMMERTIME BLUES
(Cochran/Capehart)

Originally recorded by Eddie Cochran but later covered to devastating effect by Blue Cheer and The Who in the late 1960s, ‘Summertime Blues’ was performed live by The Cross at the Gosport Festival on 30 July 1992.

SURF’S UP ... SCHOOL’S OUT!
(Taylor/Rodgers/May)

• Album (Q+PR):
Cosmos

For fans and casual observers alike, reading through the song titles of
The Cosmos Rocks
would be cause to sue Queen + Paul Rodgers for injuries due to whiplash: with a mishmash of fairly straightforward (‘Some Things That Glitter’, ‘Through The Night’, ‘Small’) and ludicrous (‘Cosmos Rockin”, ‘C-Lebrity’), nothing conjures up an image far better than ‘Surf’s Up ... School’s Out!’, though what kind of image this evokes is up to the listener. By slamming together two titles from The Beach Boys and Alice Cooper, the very nature of the song is thrown into question, with a hybrid of shock theatrical surf rock making for an alarming first impression. The reality is slightly more tame, if not as thrilling: ‘Surf’s Up ... School’s Out!’ is an epic rocker that throws all of the elements that the band didn’t employ on the first twelve tracks into one gigantic soup of experimentation. For this reason alone, the song is a success, with Paul finally perfecting the balance between tongue-in-cheek and straightforward deliveries, while Brian especially appears to have been rocked from his indifference, turning in an electrifying, over-the-top guitar performance. Roger is especially on top form, not only contributing thunderous drums and rollicking timpani but prominent vocals, to the point that he’s practically duetting with Paul. Twisting and turning through contrasting rhythms and arrangements, with a wailing harmonica and distorted bass added for good measure, the song brings
The Cosmos Rocks
to a bombastic close. It’s just a shame that the rest of the album couldn’t have been this left field, for the cheeky humor that often graced Queen’s albums was sorely missing up until now.

The song was a natural for the live setting, and yet the band didn’t perform it until 21 September 2008, when it replaced ‘One Vision’ as a rightful show opener, where it remained for nine further performances. Unfortunately, Brian was less than thrilled with its prominent position, and insisted it be moved further back in the set, where it followed ‘C-Lebrity’ and preceded ‘Seagull’, and even then it was truncated further to excise the bridge.

SURRENDER
(Taylor)

• Album (Roger):
Electric
• A-side (Roger): 3/99 [38] • CD single (Roger): 3/99 [38]

‘Surrender’ starts off innocently enough, with Roger introducing the back-story of an abusive man (“He wants a punchbag / Not a wife”), after which Treana Morris takes the lead in the role of the battered wife. Roger said of the song on
Retro Countdown with Mark Dennison
, “‘Surrender’ is all about domestic violence. And it’s really sung from the woman’s point of view, the sort of point of view, I suppose, of the battered wife or girlfriend. Which is quite a poignant point of view. And I suppose it’s quite depressing, really! I think it’s a subject which is hardly touched, and it is a subject which does affect a lot of people all over the world, is rarely talked about and is very hard to deal with.” When
The Times
noted that the lyrics were largely autobiographical, the question was raised whether
‘Surrender’ was based on personal experience, to which Roger quietly responded, “I experienced some of that in my formative years, yes.”

Chosen as the second single release from
Electric Fire
, albeit six months after ‘Pressure On’, ‘Surrender’ (with an exclamation point added for its single release) nevertheless performed better, reaching No. 38 in the UK, due to its prominence in the set list. A radio remix rearranged the track slightly, while two live versions were presented on the second CD single of the release. Both were taken from the Cyberbarn performance, with the audio version preserving the full performance and the video version an edited take of the same rendition.

SURRENDER TO THE CITY:
see
DEEP RIDGE

SWEET LADY
(May)

• Album:
Opera

Within this extravagant rocker lies the only thing wrong with
A Night At The Opera
: “You call me sweet like I’m some kind of cheese.” Apart from that trite line, Brian’s ‘Sweet Lady’ is a decent song that rocks along with the best of them, but is ultimately somewhat faceless.

Freddie’s double-tracked vocals are performed in a slightly camp fashion, yet are effective alongside the 3/4 time signature and Brian’s multiple guitar parts. The song was performed live between 1975 and 1977, but never achieved any other recognition apart from Roger’s comment in 2002 that it was a particularly difficult track to play.

TAKE ANOTHER LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART:

see
LET ME LIVE

TAKE LOVE
(Rodgers)

The 2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers tour brought two new additions to the set list: the first was a revival of ‘Dragon Attack’, which hadn’t been played live since 1985, and the second was a brand-new song, titled ‘Take Love’. Written by Paul, the song was a live favourite on the US tour, and this led to speculation that it would be recorded on
The Cosmos Rocks
; yet, when the running order was revealed in the summer of 2008, ‘Take Love’ was nowhere to be found. The official reasoning was that, while the song was recorded during sessions, the band felt that it didn’t gel properly, and was dropped in a half-finished state.

TANGO: ‘CUESTA ABAJO’
(Gardel)

• Soundtrack (Brian):
Furia

Performed by Manuel Cedron and featuring no involvement whatsoever from Brian, this is a jaunty, upbeat piece in the tango style (obviously) with plenty of piano and accordion.

TAVASZI SZÉL VIZET ÁRASZT
(trad. arr. Mercury/May)

• Bonus:
Wembley

It was a gorgeous moment: Brian and Freddie, midway through their acoustic set at Nepstadion on 27 July 1986, took a lighthearted break between ‘Love Of My Life’ and ‘Is This The World We Created...?’ and performed a specially rehearsed interpretation of the Hungarian national anthem. An even more intimate gesture: Freddie sang the song in its native tongue; not an easy task, yet he took careful precautions and scrawled the lyrics phonetically on his hand. This touching tribute was bizarrely included on the 2003 reissue of
Live At Wembley Stadium
; it had previously been available only on the 1987 VHS release
Queen In Budapest
.

TEAR IT UP
(May)

• Album:
Works
• B-side: 9/84 [13] • Live:
Wembley

A traditional-sounding Queen rocker, written almost as an update of ‘We Will Rock You’, Brian’s ‘Tear It Up’ can be seen as a response to the critical reaction to
Hot Space
and Queen’s future as a rock band. Essentially a Toby Tall salute to the press, the song rocks along with some glorious crunching guitar riffs, but the overall effect doesn’t amount to much.

The song was issued as the B-side of ‘Hammer To Fall’ in September 1984, and was performed as the first proper opening song on the 1984 and 1985 Works! tours, albeit in a heavily truncated fashion. It was later incorporated into the medley for the 1986 Magic tour, but the song, in its entirety, has yet to be performed live.

A demo version with Brian on lead vocals exists, but has yet to see the light of day.

TEEN DREAMS:
see
TENEMENT FUNSTER

TENEMENT FUNSTER
(Taylor)

• Album:
SHA
• EP: First EP • CD Single: 11/88 • Bonus:
SHA

Roger’s exquisitely dark rocker is an unexpected early highlight on the
Sheer Heart Attack
album, and shows the drummer’s maturity as a songwriter. Even though the subject matter still centres around girls, cars and rock ‘n’ roll, the song is exceptionally well-written and arranged. Eluding the live setting during Queen’s career as a rock band, the song was finally introduced in 1994 during Roger’s solo
Happiness?
tour.

The song sounds undeniably like a Marc Bolan rocker; even the title seems like a combination of T. Rex’s ‘Jeepster’ and ‘Tenement Lady’. The working title was ‘Teen Dreams’ (itself an unmistakable echo of Bolan’s January 1974 hit ‘Teenage Dream’), and not ‘Tin Dreams’ as has been widely reported; later, it was recorded as ‘You’re Young And You’re Crazy’. When the track appeared on
Queen’s First EP
in May 1977, it finally featured a proper ending as opposed to the original segue into ‘Flick Of The Wrist’. An alternate version, recorded on 16 October 1974 for the BBC, used the same backing track as the album version but with more aggressive vocals from Roger. This version was finally officially released in 2011 on the deluxe edition of
Sheer Heart Attack
.

TEO TORRIATTE

(LET US CLING TOGETHER)
(May)

• Album:
Races
• Bonus:
Races

After Queen’s first appearance in Japan in the spring of 1975, the band were touched by the country’s civility and appreciation for everything Queen. Brian, in particular, was overjoyed at reaching a whole new level of Queen fans, especially considering that most of them didn’t speak much English. Upon the band’s return trip the following year, the guitarist was surprised to see that devotion for the band was still strong, so he wrote a song thanking the people of Japan. In 2007, he elaborated further: “[It] was the result of feeling ‘untimely ripped’ from our lovely Japanese fans. I had never experienced anything like the love that was showered upon on when we were a young Rock Group in Japan. So suddenly, I felt I wanted to say (on behalf of Queen) that I missed them, and we would not forget.”

‘Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)’ is an exquisite piano ballad that closes
A Day At The Races
in magnificent style. Written entirely by Brian, with lyrical translation assistance from Chika Kujiraoka, the song is emotively delivered by Freddie, turning in a touching vocal that allowed plenty of singalong opportunities when performed live.

With Brian on acoustic piano, Vox electric piano and harmonium, the song is adventurous and features a poignant bridge and multi-tracked concluding chorus. The song was reserved for only Japanese tours, and it was performed in 1979, 1981 and 1982 (but not, suspiciously, in 1985), and also issued as a Japanese-only single, shorn of the album’s closing “Escher guitar staircase”, in March 1977, with ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’ as the flipside. The song was remixed in 2005 for the Japanese compilation album
Jewels II
, while, more significantly, it was released on the awareness album
Songs For Japan
, compiled as a response to the aftermath of the devastating 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that destroyed parts of Japan on 11 March 2011.

THANK GOD IT’S CHRISTMAS
(Taylor/May)

• A-side: 11/85 [21] • Compilation:
Vision, Hits3
• B-side: 12/95 [6] • CD Single: 12/99 [6]

As if Queen hadn’t done enough in 1984, they ended the year with their first (and only) attempt at a Christmas single. The idea was conceived by Brian and Roger, which accounts for the joint composition credit. In fact, each had a go at writing a seasonal song separately; Brian’s far superior ‘I Dream Of Christmas’ was recorded but remained unreleased in favour of Roger’s ‘Thank God It’s Christmas’. With a hypnotic drum loop and pulsating bass guitar, the song was recorded in London in July 1984, just before the Works! tour started, with the lead vocal overdubbed by Freddie in Montreux.