Queen: The Complete Works (24 page)

Most of the album’s trouble stems from its production, a key factor that had plagued Queen’s albums since
Jazz
over a decade earlier. Synthesizers are still heavily featured, though the technology had been advanced so greatly by this point that their integration was only natural (remember, all of Freddie’s
Barcelona
had been performed by Mike Moran on keyboards). Despite Roger’s above claim that no synthesizers had been integrated into the sessions, they fell back into their old ways, overloading the songs with drum machines, programming and synthesizers, coming up with an album that was crystal clear and sparkling, but any depth and subtleties were overshadowed by technology. Brian was still pleased with the album,
telling
Hard ‘n’ Heavy
that year, “The way it came out very guitar oriented just happened, as far as I can see. It’s very strange. It may have come about because we were actually doing more playing together. There’s a lot of live takes on there, so, you know, whereas we had got fairly machine oriented for a while, this isn’t. There’s a lot of technology, but it’s kind of after the event. It’s basically us playing as a band. So I guess it sounds like it. And no one’s more happy than I am. Having decided that we were going to credit every track to the four of us, as opposed to just one, everybody argued over every note, which is very healthy, and it’s much more of a cohesive group effort than we’ve done for a long time.”

For the first time in a long while, the sessions proved fruitful enough to include non-album tracks as the B-sides of most of Queen’s singles from
The Miracle
; reportedly thirty tracks were recorded during the sessions, though only ten would make the final cut. ‘Chinese Torture’ was a short experiment with Brian’s guitar and delay effects, and would have been a slight (though interesting) inclusion. ‘Hang On In There’, ‘Hijack My Heart’, ‘Stealin” and ‘My Life Has Been Saved’ (the B-sides of ‘I Want It All’, ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘Breakthru’ and ‘Scandal’ respectively) would have been far superior inclusions in place of the lesser material, bringing the total up to fifteen known, released tracks. Taking into consideration the rejected ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You’ and unfinished ‘A New Life Is Born’ and ‘I Guess We’re Falling Out’, twelve unaccounted-for tracks or ideas remain. Several tracks started during the sessions for
The Miracle
were held over for
Innuendo
, but it isn’t known what songs these were or even if they were released.

The cover was created by Richard Gray using a chromakey (known as bluescreening or greenscreening, as typically used for weather map presentations on TV) and an early variation of Adobe™ Photoshop (called Quantel graphic paintbox). It depicts an alarmingly creepy amalgamation of the four Queen faces to create a gigantic, one-headed, six-eyed creature. In a strange but subtle way, this was the band’s way of graphically affirming that they were now a more cohesive unit than ever, a visual representation of the new, more democratic writing approach they so thoroughly enjoyed. “Two or three weeks before we finished,” John said in 1989, “it was gonna be called
The Invisible Men
, but we changed it to
The Miracle
, which is a very heavy title in a way. It was from one song, and I think the sentiment is quite nice in a way, a bit naïve in some way, but it’s reasonably genuine. Mainly it’s entertainment, and if people get pleasure out of it and enjoy it, then that’s the point.”

Unfortunately, the band members explained from the beginning that no live dates would be forthcoming: “To get into the whole cycle of making an album, going on tour, then going home and making an album again – we want to get out of that,” Roger said, which Freddie echoed almost verbatim in a separate interview: “I want to change the cycle of album, world tour, album, world tour. Maybe we will tour, but it will be for totally different reasons. I’ve personally had it with these bombastic lights and staging effects. I don’t think a forty-two-year-old man should be running around in his leotard anymore.” It’s strange for Freddie to have said something like that, a man who built his reputation as a showman upon the foundation of entertaining thousands and thousands of fans every night. Yet people accepted his explanation, though not wholly without accusations: rumours originated from the tabloids that Freddie was seriously ill, causing a backlash from the band members against such innuendoes. At the time, the band had no idea that Freddie
was
ill, but had been told by Freddie that something was definitely afoot and that he didn’t foresee a tour in support of the album.

“I badly want to play live, with or without Queen,” Brian exclaimed in 1989. “If we can’t come to some kind of arrangement within the band, I’ll get my own project together, but I can’t stand it much longer. I want to go back on stage as fast as possible!” Brian would explain the next year that “We’re at something of a crossroads at the moment. We’re still very much alive in the studio – perhaps more so now than ever before – but this will be the first time we’ve released an album without promoting it with a tour. You see, at the moment Freddie just doesn’t want to tour. He doesn’t feel that he can, so the touring part of my life has come to a complete stop. It’s a terrible shame because Roger, John and myself all love playing live and feel that part of the reason for making an album is to be able to take it out on the road and have fun. So, taking the touring side of things away messed up my life, really – without exaggeration. I feel it’s taken the whole balance out of my life. If [Freddie] doesn’t enjoy it or feel happy with it then I guess you can’t do anything about it.”

While the demand – and desire – for Queen to play live had become feverish, few seemed thrilled with
The Miracle
. Kim Neely said in
Rolling Stone
, “If you’re a fan who’s been hankering for years to hear Queen get back to the bombast of its heyday, play your old copy of
A
Night at the Opera
or
News of the World
instead. But don’t give up hope. At least
The Miracle
offers little snippets of Queen’s former majesty.” She did offer praise for Freddie’s vocals – “indeed, Mercury – especially on the title track – has never sounded better” – and for Brian’s guitar, “when you can hear him, May’s role on
The Miracle
is, for the most part, limited to a quick, typically brilliant solo here and there.”
The Times
opined, “Musically, the synth-pop dabbling of ‘Radio Ga Ga’ and its ilk has been discarded in favour of the more familiar, grim amalgam of bubblegum metal power chords, mock symphonics and squiggly guitar solos. In its favour, it is difficult to imagine a collection more blithely out of step with the fashionably earnest Weltanschauung of contemporary rock. The miracles of which Freddie Mercury sings in the title track are everything from the longed-for Utopia of ‘peace on earth’ to the more mundane pleasures of ‘Sunday mornings with a cup of tea’. Such is the extent of the social commentary.”

Perversely, North American reviews were more positive.
The Dallas Morning News
wrote, “Queen’s musicianship often has taken a back seat to Freddie Mercury’s strutting histrionics. But Roger Taylor is one of rock’s fastest and most accurate drummers, and guitarist Brian May is a major talent. These two move toward center stage this time, as Queen muscles through a song list that’s remarkably varied for one album. Significantly, the music is all credited to the band as a whole, rather than to individuals members – with Mr. Mercury usually getting the lion’s share of the credits. The payoff is a record that rocks you, with a few twists ... Mr. Mercury, of course, does get to indulge his classical bent. The title song, a simple (perhaps simple-minded) celebration of life’s little triumphs, is not quite operatic, but it does offer lush orchestrations and celestial harmonies that duel intriguingly with Mr. Taylor’s rapid time-keeping. And with ‘Was It All Worth It’, Mr. Mercury takes a lofty look at the band’s lengthy career, ‘Living breathing rock ‘n’ roll’. The conclusion? Yes, it was worth it. But given the singer’s rather fiendish chortle at the end, you’re not sure if he means it.”
Newsday
agreed: “Led by Freddie Mercury’s raunchy vocals and Brian May’s guitar slinging, the Queen machine rolls on with
The Miracle
... Mercury’s voice is steady and solid, May’s runs are as flashy and supple as ever. Most of the ten songs, written collaboratively by the four members, stick pretty much to the band’s formula of mini-suites: edgy pop with tempos that change half-way into the number and some delicious hooks.” Astonishingly, the
Sun-Sentinel
lavished the album with praise: “Here’s an album (like so many of Queen’s others) that should be used as a pop music how-to for aspirants. Combining the forces of rock, pop, metal, clever melodies and cunning stylizations,
The Miracle
never lets down. From one track to the next there is, as usual, no telling which way this band will go, affording even the most jaded ear a challenge.”

Whether you agree with Roger’s statement that “It’s a very rounded album – I think it’s quite mature, it’s eclectic, and it’s got a lot of hard-ass, great guitar on it,” or are of the belief that Queen were merely coasting through their nineteenth year as a band together, a lot can be said for the fact that they almost instantly went back into the studios to record a follow-up. Even without taking Freddie’s illness into consideration, the difference between
The Miracle
and
Innuendo
is staggering, and it’s hard to believe that less than eighteen months elapsed between them.

INNUENDO

Parlophone PCSD 115, February 1991 [1]

Parlophone CDPCSD 115, February 1991 [1]

Hollywood HR-61020-2, February 1991 [30]

CD
: ‘Innuendo’ (6’31), ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’ (4’22), ‘Headlong’ (4’38), ‘I Can’t Live With You’ (4’33), ‘Don’t Try So Hard’ (3’39), ‘Ride The Wild Wind’ (4’42), ‘All God’s People’ (4’21), ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ (4’15), ‘Delilah’ (3’35), ‘The Hitman’ (4’56), ‘Bijou’ (3’36), ‘The Show Must Go On’ (4’32)

Vinyl
: ‘Innuendo’ (6’31), ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’ (4’06), ‘Headlong’ (4’30), ‘I Can’t Live With You’ (4’05), ‘Ride The Wild Wind’ (4’42), ‘All God’s People’ (3’55), ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ (3’55), ‘Delilah’ (3’35), ‘Don’t Try So Hard’ (3’33), ‘The Hitman’ (3’43), ‘Bijou’ (1’19), ‘The Show Must Go On’ (4’27)

Musicians
: John Deacon (
bass guitar
), Brian May (
guitars, vocals, harmonies, drum programming and keyboards on ‘I Can’t Live With You’, keyboards on ‘The Show Must Go On’
), Freddie Mercury (
vocals, piano, harmonies, drum programming on ‘Delilah’, keyboards on ‘Innuendo’, ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’, ‘Don’t Try So Hard’, ‘Delilah’, ‘The Hitman’ and ‘Bijou’
), Roger Taylor (
drums, percussion, vocals, harmonies, co-lead vocals and keyboards on ‘Ride The Wild Wind’
), Steve Howe (
wandering minstrel guitar on ‘Innuendo’, Somewhere In The Middle
), Mike Moran (
piano and keyboards on ‘All God’s People’
),
David Richards (
programming, keyboards
)

Recorded
: March 1989–November 1990 at Metropolis Studios, London and Mountain Studios, Montreux

Producers
: Queen and David Richards

As soon as sessions for
The Miracle
concluded in January 1989, Freddie took a short break in his palatial London home; in March, however, he suddenly got the urge to start laying down demos for an as-yet-unspecified project and headed off to Mountain Studios. From those ideas came ‘Delilah’, a slight yet charming track dedicated to his favourite feline pet. Soon after, the band held a meeting and the vocalist insisted they get back into the studios to record the follow-up to
The Miracle
. Considering their recent lack of activity as a collective unit, Freddie’s burst of inspiration came as a breath of fresh air to the others, so they were more than willing to put other projects on hold (among these were Brian’s first solo album and a second record by The Cross).

Throughout 1989, the band kept busy with other minor projects: Roger worked with Sigue Sigue Sputnik on remixing their single ‘Dancerama’, while Brian became heavily involved in charity work, re-recording ‘Who Wants To Live Forever’ with child vocalists Ian Meeson and Belinda Gillett. He had also re-recorded Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke On The Water’ with a veritable all-star crew (among them, Roger on drums), the proceeds going to Rock Aid Armenia in support of the Armenian earthquake in December 1988.

Individually, then, it was quite a busy year but, as a unit, recording for the new album passed relatively slowly. It was a painstaking and laborious process, but the band felt they were well on their way to recording their finest album in years and didn’t want to jeopardise the outcome by rushing through it. Sessions were put on hold in the autumn of 1989; Roger stayed on in Switzerland to record new tracks with The Cross, while Freddie flew back to London to quietly celebrate his birthday. John and his wife went off on a skiing holiday to Biarritz, while Brian continued work on his solo album and kept busy with more charity work and guest appearances with musicians like Jerry Lee Lewis at the Hammersmith Odeon.

In the new year, the band reconvened at Metropolis Studios in London but, with John preferring to spend time with his family, they were suddenly reduced to a core trio of Brian, Roger and Freddie (which may explain why John didn’t contribute many songs to the new album). Brian had written several new tracks for his solo album but ultimately submitted them to this one, among them ‘Headlong’ and ‘I Can’t Live With You’ and an embryonic version of ‘The Hitman’, though this would later be reworked by Freddie and John. Roger, too, was prolific: in addition to his two tracks on the album, ‘Ride The Wild Wind’ and ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’, he also wrote the first draft of the ‘Innuendo’ lyric and submitted ‘New Dark Ages’, a track that was recorded but ultimately went unused; instead, the song appeared as the lead-off single from The Cross’ final album,
Blue Rock
.

After the productive
Barcelona
sessions, Freddie’s contributions to
The Miracle
had been sparse at best, and he acted more as an arranger than as a songwriter, but he regained control this time around. As mentioned above, he reworked ‘The Hitman’ and ‘Innuendo’ and submitted the aforementioned ‘Delilah’. ‘I’m Going Slightly Mad’ was a standout track from Freddie, who wrote it with assistance from Peter Straker, and the underrated ‘Don’t Try So Hard’ and ‘Bijou’ came out of collaborations with Brian. Only ‘All God’s People’ was drawn from a leftover demo from
Barcelona
; originally titled ‘Africa By Night’, the song was reworked from the original demo and retained its co-author credit for Mike Moran. Two songs often incorrectly accredited to Freddie are ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’ and ‘The Show Must Go On’, the latter a mournful elegy praising Freddie’s courage in the face of adversity. Written for the most part by Brian, the song captured the vocalist in fine form, and appropriately became the concluding track on the album.