Queen: The Complete Works (62 page)

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EXTRACTS FROM GARDEN LODGE

IF I WERE A CARPENTER
(Hardin)

Tim Hardin’s ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ was performed live by Smile in 1969, and was one of two tracks performed at The Cross’ Marquee Club Christmas concert in 1992, which saw a reunion of Smile for the first time in over twenty years.

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM
(Deacon)

• Album:
Jazz

This snarling rocker falls victim to a cliché set of lyrics, and is a rare fall from grace from the normally dependable John Deacon. The band’s recorded performance is superb, but after such classics as ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘You And I’ and ‘Spread Your Wings’, which challenged Freddie’s and Brian’s own songwriting abilities, ‘If You Can’t Beat Them’ is surprisingly rote, its melody akin to the MOR pap by Journey, Boston, or REO Speedwagon that was then clogging up the airwaves.

Live, however, the song was a different beast altogether, and became one of the standout tracks of the 1978 North American
Jazz
tour, where it was performed nightly. The song was retained for most of the following year’s shows, but was dropped in 1980 in favour of stronger material. Despite its weaknesses as a studio song, its transformation on stage was astonishing, and would have made for better listening on
Live Killers
than some of the other songs released in its stead.

IMAGINE
(Lennon)

The night after John Lennon’s assassination, the band were so devastated by this senseless act of insanity that they quickly learned the former Beatle’s 1971 plea for peace and performed it that night at Wembley Arena. Originally intended as a one-off, the band threw the song into their set list for a few more dates as a tribute, the most commonly bootlegged version being from Frankfurt on 14 December 1980. The song was revived by Queen + Paul Rodgers at the Hyde Park concert on 15 July 2005, as a panegyric to the innocent civilians killed in the suicide bombings in Tavistock Square and on the London Underground the week before, and was included as the sole bonus feature on the DVD version of
Return Of The Champions
.

IMMIGRANT SONG
(Page/Plant)

A one-off performance from Berlin on the
Magic
tour in 1986 of the classic Led Zeppelin rocker, this song was recorded for their third album, released in 1970.

IMPROMPTU
(Queen)

• Live:
Wembley

Ever since 1977, the band would perform a nightly improvised jam that would often go under different titles: ‘Instrumental Inferno’ was the most popular one, while ‘Tokyo Blues’ and ‘Rock In Rio Blues’ were not uncommon. The most widely known version exists on the
Live At Wembley Stadium
album and DVD releases, and comes right before Brian’s guitar solo, and was based on Freddie’s 1985 solo song, ‘Foolin’ Around’.

IN CHARGE OF MY HEART
(Taylor)

• German B-side (The Cross): 8/90

One of the more curious non-album tracks to surface from the
Mad: Bad: And Dangerous to Know
sessions is this Roger-penned track, released as the B-side of ‘Liar’ in August 1990 and a concert favourite, serving as the set opener on the 1990 tour. The original version lasts barely more than two minutes, but the extended version is the one to seek out, with a suitably atmospheric opening of keyboards and pounding drums.

It was rumoured that Queen recorded their own version of ‘In Charge Of My Heart’ during sessions for
The Miracle
– indeed, Freddie interpolates the line into his own composition ‘Stealin” – but these rumours are unfounded, and remain unconfirmed by any official source.

IN MY DEFENCE
(Clark/Soames/Daniels)

• Soundtrack (Freddie):
Time
• Compilations (Freddie):
Pretender, FM Album, The Solo Collection
• A-side: 11/92 [8]

In the summer of 1985, Dave Clark – formerly the drummer and leader of The Dave Clark Five – asked Freddie to take part in a charity soundtrack album for the then-popular West End musical
Time
. He agreed, but on condition that John, Roger and Brian be involved in the sessions. As Dave had already booked studio time with his own group of session musicians, he convinced Freddie with the caveat that, if he was displeased with the results, Dave would finance a re-recording of the song as a Queen performance. As it turned out, Freddie was satisfied, and, unfortunately, no Queen versions of any material for
Time
were attempted. As Freddie was preparing for the
A Kind Of Magic
album in London with the others, he would occasionally nip off to Abbey Road Studios to provide the vocals for both this song and the title track. While both performances were stellar and tested the limits of Freddie’s vocal power, it was on the latter track that he shone, capturing the definitive take, according to Dave, in one pass.

The song was the first to be recorded in October 1985, with Mike Moran on piano, Paul Vincent (who had worked with Freddie on
Mr Bad Guy
) on guitars, Andy Pask on bass, Graham Jarvis on drums, and Peter Banks (not related to the former Yes guitarist of the same name) on keyboards. Despite his initial reluctance, the prearranged session proved fortunate in the end when Freddie met keyboardist Mike Moran, who would collaborate with Freddie on his next major project in 1987. Mike became a session musician following his graduation from the Royal College of Music in London, and provided music for films such as
Time Bandits
and
The Missionary
, though he gained his first major taste of fame with ‘Rock Bottom’, featured on the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977.

Unfortunately for Mike, the first day of recording would prove to be ominous since he was involved in a major traffic accident, breaking four ribs and bruising both wrists. Nevertheless, he soldiered on, asking Dave Clark not to mention to Freddie what had happened since they hadn’t yet met each other. When he arrived at Abbey Road, Freddie strode up to him and, noting his physical appearance, offered him a glass of Stolichnaya
vodka, which must have gone nicely with the painkillers Mike had taken earlier in the day, and a usable backing track was produced. Further work, including synths, guitars and additional Freddie overdubs, would be done in Munich at Musicland Studios.

The song became a highlight of the soundtrack for
Time
, among other contributions from Sir Laurence Olivier, Cliff Richard, Julian Lennon, Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach, Ashford and Simpson, Murray Head, Leo Sayer, Jimmy Helms, and John Christie and Stevie Wonder. It was remixed by Ron Nevison and issued posthumously as the sole single from
The Great Pretender
/
The Freddie Mercury Album
in November 1992, reaching a much-deserved No. 8 in the UK. Eight years later, Dave Clark himself remixed the track for inclusion on the three-disc Solo box set, giving the song a crisper feel while remaining mostly faithful to the original recording. Freddie performed the song only once on 14 April 1988 at London’s Dominion Theatre, when he appeared at a special gala charity performance, dubbed Give Time For AIDS, with all proceeds donated to the Terence Higgins Trust. His four-song set that night was ‘Born To Rock ‘n’ Roll’, ‘Time’, ‘In My Defence’ and ‘It’s In Every One Of Us’, all with Cliff Richard and Sir Laurence Olivier, but the clear highlight of Freddie’s final live performance remains ‘In My Defence’.

IN ONLY SEVEN DAYS
(Deacon)

• Album:
Jazz
• B-side: 1/79 [9]

John’s second contribution to
Jazz
is this simple, upbeat piano track, with some sublime acoustic guitar work from John himself. At a time when it was more accepted that a major rock band write songs about one night stands and eschewing the subject of a fleeting holiday romance, John refused to adapt to custom and delivered this sweet ballad, with lyrics that drift toward the gratingly naïve. With one of Freddie’s most understated piano contributions and a lovely orchestrated guitar solo, ‘In Only Seven Days’ was released as the flipside of ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ in the UK, but was understandably omitted from the live setting.

IN SEARCH OF LOVE
:

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EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY

IN THE DEATH CELL

(LOVE THEME REPRISE)
(Taylor)

• Album:
Flash

A variation on Roger’s earlier
Flash Gordon
composition, ‘In The Space Capsule (Love Theme Reprise)’, this piece features the same droning synthesizer with additional dialogue between Flash and Dale.

IN THE LAP OF THE GODS
(Mercury)

• Album:
SHA

Completely different from the similarly-titled conclusion of
Sheer Heart Attack
, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’ starts the second side of the album off with a cacophonous introduction, complete with astounding screams from Roger, before mellowing out with a distorted lead vocal from Freddie. With an arrangement more akin to the grandiose prog-rock of
Queen II
, this song was the most adventurous piece on the third album, which Freddie confirmed in a December 1977 interview on BBC Radio One: “I was beginning to learn a lot on
Sheer Heart Attack
. We were doing a lot of things which was to be used on future albums. Songs like ‘In The Lap Of The Gods’, yes, I suppose. Working out the harmonies and song structure did help on say something like ‘Bo Rhap’. Somebody said this sounds like Cecil B. De Mille meets Walt Disney or something. More to the point than The Beach Boys!”

‘In The Lap Of The Gods’ was performed live as part of the medley between late 1974 and early 1975, but was omitted later that year in favour of newer material.

IN THE LAP OF THE GODS...Revisited
(Mercury)

• Album:
SHA
• Live:
Wembley
• Bonus:
SHA

This touching power ballad is a direct precursor to ‘We Are The Champions’, and became a fitting conclusion to not only
Sheer Heart Attack
but Queen’s live shows, starting on the tour in support of that album. Freddie takes to task his critics’ charges of delusional grandeur, who were humour-impaired even in the early 1970s, not realizing that the vocalist’s act was exactly that: “There’s no meaning in my pretending”. The crass reference to finances notwithstanding (the band’s maxim of the day was to give off the impression that they were far richer than their bank accounts would have them believe), ‘In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited’ is a superb example of Freddie’s ability to craft an anthem, even when he’s on the defensive.

By the time ‘We Are The Champions’ became a hit single, ‘In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited’ was deemed obsolete, and dropped from the set list, only to return
in 1986 at Brian’s insistence that the repertoire needed more light and shade.

IN THE SPACE CAPSULE

(THE LOVE THEME)
(Taylor)

• Album:
Flash

Written by Roger for the
Flash Gordon
album, this composition features John on Telecaster guitar and Roger on synthesizer and timpani. Written to accompany Flash’s ascent to Ming’s palace, the song also includes appropriate dialogue leading into Freddie’s ‘Ming’s Theme (In The Court Of Ming The Merciless)’.

INNUENDO
(Queen)

• A-side: 1/91 [1] • Album:
Innuendo

Going by its title alone, ‘
Innuendo
’ promises to be a grandiose epic, unlike anything Queen had done before and guaranteeing an exploration of musical territories not previously navigated. But by 1991, did Queen really need to reinvent themselves? Was it necessary to go into uncharted areas of music? They had done it all before – it would have been easier to just stick with the pop-rock excursions from their albums of the 1980s.

In fact, the band had been channelling their separate creative energies into solo projects throughout the 1980s, and while Queen’s albums all had been commercially successful, from a creative standpoint, they were unchallenging, by-numbers radio-friendly material, with the occasional diversion thrown in for good measure. Compare the worst of
Barcelona
to the worst of
A Kind Of Magic
or
The Miracle
, and the result is staggering: Freddie was invigorated enough to experiment with an unconventional (to average rock enthusiasts) genre, and yet appeared complacent with his own contributions to the mid-1980s albums. Shaken of their ennui, and jolted back into action by the vocalist’s ailing health, the band knew they were running out of time and made a conscious decision to abandon the trends of the day and deliver an album that could stand up against their earlier albums.

While some songs were carefully calculated, others were spontaneous and developed through jamming, such is the case of the title track: during a jam session at Mountain Studios between Brian, Roger and John, Freddie, perched in the control booth with producer David Richards, suddenly felt inspired and rushed into the studio to take part, improvising lyrics as quickly as he could. With the basic germ of an idea in hand, the song was then fleshed out, with Roger taking control of the lyrics as Freddie became the arranger. “It was a group collaboration, but I wrote the lyrics,” Roger explained in 2002, while Brian told
Guitarist
magazine in 1994 that the song “started off as most things do, with us just messing around and finding a groove that sounded nice. All of us worked on the arrangement. Freddie started off the theme of the words as he was singing along, then Roger worked on the rest of them. I worked on some of the arrangement, particularly the middle bit, then there was an extra part that Freddie did for the middle as well. It basically came together like a jigsaw puzzle.”

“It’s got the bolero-type rhythm, a very strange track,” Brian said in a 1991 interview with
Guitar World
. “That’s going to be the first single here. It’s a bit of a risk, but it’s different, and you either win it all or you lose it all. It had a nice sound and feel, and we stuck with that. The Spanish motif is suggested from the start: those little riffs at the beginning are sort of Bolero-esque. It seemed like the natural thing to explore those ideas on an acoustic guitar, and it just gradually evolved. Steve Howe helped out and did a fantastic job. We love all that stuff – it’s like a little fantasy land adventure.”