Queen: The Complete Works (83 page)

SAY IT’S NOT TRUE
(Taylor/Rodgers/May)

• Live:
46664
• Download/CD Single: 12/07 [90] • Album (Q+PR):
Cosmos
• Live (Q+PR):
Return, Ukraine

Written and recorded for the 46664 project in 2003, Roger’s stunning ‘Say It’s Not True’ was performed at the charity concert held in Cape Town, South Africa, on 29 November 2003. With Dave Stewart and Brian on acoustic guitars front stage, and a hidden accordion player, Roger sang the lead vocals of a song gently chastising ignorance and naïveté; the result was an early highlight of the show, even though it was incorporated merely to allow a set change from Bob Geldof to Paul Oakenfold. This live version was released on the 46664 companion album,
Part One: African Prayer
, with “Magic potions for lives” changed to “Magic cocktails”. The song was retained for the 2005 Queen + Paul Rodgers tour, with Roger taking lead vocals centre stage accompanied by Danny Miranda and Jamie Moses on acoustic guitars and Spike Edney on keyboards. A live acoustic version was released on
Return Of The Champions
, though it lacks the spontaneous energy of the live 46664 version.

While the 2003 studio version has yet to be released, the song was returned to in 2007 during sessions for
The Cosmos Rocks
. As the first official single to be released from the sessions, expectations were high for a return to form, and with critics (and vocal fan opponents) ready to lambaste the song should it underperform. Replacing the delicate acoustic guitar bed with a synthetic drone, the first verse and chorus are sung by Roger, with Brian joining in for the second verse, before the two founding members of Queen duetting beautifully on the second chorus. The song, driven by a simple acoustic guitar melody
and subdued drums, then kicks into high gear for the final chorus, with The Red Special screaming alongside Paul’s arresting vocal delivery, turning the song into a fully-fledged power ballad.

Fans and critics were placated for the time being, raising expectations even further for the full album, which wouldn’t be released until nine months later. ‘Say It’s Not True’ was released as a free download-only single on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2007, with a physical CD single (due to popular demand) released at the end of the month. Unfortunately, the reception to the song had softened by that point: those who wanted the song already had it, and the CD single offered nothing else new to entice fans to purchase it (despite the promise of all proceeds going to the 46664 project), and so the single stalled at an abysmal No. 90 in the UK charts.

The song was performed live throughout the 2008
Rock The Cosmos
tour, one of the three mainstays from
The Cosmos Rocks
in the set (the others were ‘Cosmos Rockin” and ‘C-lebrity’), this time in the arrangement of the 2007 studio version. A touching and slightly out-of-breath rendition was duly released in June 2009 on
Live In Ukraine
.

SCANDAL
(Queen)

• Album:
Miracle
• A-side: 10/89 [25] • Bonus:
Miracle

A rare highlight on the second side of
The Miracle
, ‘Scandal’ is a vicious attack on the tabloids of which Brian and Freddie (and, to a lesser extent, Roger) were victims. Written in 1988, around the time that Brian’s first marriage was falling apart, tabloid reporters published photographs of Brian and his new girlfriend, Anita Dobson. Brian, typically, was outraged and disappointed that his children had to hear of private matters through the press.

“It’s something which has affected us, individually, as members of the group recently,” Brian told
Hard ‘n’ Heavy
in 1989. “It’s very strange, ‘cause we were fairly famous for a long time in England, you know, the last fifteen years or whatever, but we didn’t become a prey to these kind of scummy papers until recently. And it’s not related to what you are doing, you know. They are not interested what music you play, or anything. They just want the dirt, and if they can’t find any they’ll invent it if they choose to pick on you. So we were all going through a lot of changes in our lives and suddenly it became a big problem, you know, in a similar way ... you’ve heard about what they did to Elton, you know? These stories about Elton, and everything, which he sued them for and got a million quid off ’em. You know, great. Well they did very similar things to me particularly, and to a certain extent to Roger, and Freddie also had been through it a little while before. But this thing is total ... you know, steam in and destroy someone’s life. They really are the scum of the earth. You can’t exaggerate it too much.”

Though the song hardly makes a statement, it’s a powerful rocker with a bubbling synthesizer and some great guitar work from Brian. Released as the fourth single from
The Miracle
, it was the least successful release from that album, peaking at No. 25 in the UK, despite the inclusion of John’s non-album ‘My Life Has Been Saved’ as the flipside. In the US, it became the second single release but failed to make any impact on the charts. An extended remix, adding nearly two minutes to the original running time, was released on 12” versions of the single as well as on CD versions of
The Miracle
, with a completely new intro.

A video, filmed in October 1989 by Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossascher at Pinewood Studios, turned out to be less than stellar. The band basically ran through the song on a soundstage with newspaper clippings plastered randomly, and with a big painted banner in the background declaring, “We Want It All!” “I don’t think it’s totally successful, this video, as a portrayal of what’s in the song,” Brian explained. “It’s a kind of brave attempt, but it’s a little cold, and you don’t really see the band interacting as a band. It’s a bit stagey. But at least it makes you think of what the song’s really about.” Unspectacular at best, the single’s lack of success accounted for its exclusion from
Greatest Hits II
(as well as its counterpart,
Greatest Flix II
), but nothing could justify its exclusion from the third instalment. The video was eventually released on
Greatest Video Hits 2
in 2003.

SEAGULL
(Ralphs/Rodgers)

• Live (Q+PR):
Ukraine

The closing track from Bad Company’s 1974 self-titled debut album was performed on the 2005 Queen + Paul Rodgers tour, with Paul on acoustic guitar and vocals and Roger accompanying him on conga drums. While the song was removed from the set after a few performances, it was returned to on the 2008
Rock The Cosmos
tour, gaining a permanent spot in the repertoire and, subsequently, on
Live In Ukraine
.

SEASIDE RENDEZVOUS
(Mercury)

• Album: Opera

Closing the first side of
A Night At The Opera
in tongue-in-cheek manner, Freddie’s delightful ‘Seaside Rendezvous’ shows the vocalist’s love of music hall as he sings about a romantic getaway for two by the water. Driven by piano, and containing no guitar whatsoever, the most intriguing features of the song are the orchestrations of brass and woodwind, as vocalized by Roger and Freddie respectively. The songwriter rather coyly told
NME
in 1975 that “[It] has a 1920s feel to it, and Roger does a tuba and clarinet on it vocally, if you see what I mean. I’m going to make him tap dance too; I’ll have to buy him some Ginger Rogers tap shoes.” In actuality, the tapping was done by the drummer with thimbles on a washboard.

SEE WHAT A FOOL I’VE BEEN
(May)

• B-side: 2/74 [10] • CD Single: 11/88 • Bonus:
Queen2

Written by Brian in the late 1960s and included in Smile’s set lists at the time, this blues pastiche was dusted off and polished up for inclusion in early Queen set lists. The song was first recorded at Trident Studios during sessions for the first album in 1972 but remained unreleased; a second version was recorded the following August while the band was recording
Queen II
, and was released as the B-side of ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ in February 1974.

Live versions would include alternate lyrics, but the studio version features a camped-up vocal performance by Freddie. Upon first listen, this can be a bit off-putting, but the result is a fine slice of blues that the band would never attempt again. ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ was performed between 1970 and 1976, and revisited in 1977 during Queen’s improvised gig for the fans who attended the ‘We Are The Champions’ video shoot.

Though the song was derived from ‘That’s How I Feel’ by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, it was credited solely to Brian since it’s an entirely traditional blues scale – the Terry/McGhee version is hardly unique.

SELF-MADE MAN

At the 2000 Fan Club Convention, Greg Brooks unveiled a slew of previously unreleased and unknown Queen tracks. Though he played tracks mainly from the
Miracle
/
Innuendo
sessions, Brooks showed that the band had then been at a songwriting peak. A perfect example is ‘Self-Made Man’, appearing in demo form with Brian providing the lead vocals while Freddie sings the bridge (similar to ‘Sail Away Sweet Sister’). An exemplary track, the demo appears to be nearly complete and would have been an ideal inclusion on
Innuendo
, during sessions for which the song was recorded. Had it been released, it would have been credited to Queen though it’s likely that the song was written by Brian.

SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE
(Mercury)

• A-side: 2/74 [10] • Album:
Queen2
• Live:
Magic
,
Wembley
• CD Single: 11/88 • Bonus:
Queen2
• CD Single: 10/95 [2]

Queen’s breakthrough hit began life as a slower instrumental on the debut album (see next song entry) but what finally emerged in February 1974 was a delicious slice of glam rock that summed up Freddie’s early writing style perfectly. With a mesmerizing piano intro, sped up for effect, the band give the song everything they’ve got – even now, over thirty years after its original release, the band still sound as if they’re trying to prove something to the world. What was eventually proven, of course, was Freddie’s mastery of words, and everyone else’s difficulty in interpreting and analyzing them. The words for ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ are ambiguous and defy any explanation; Roger himself told
Mojo
in 1999, “I never understood a word of it, and I don’t think Freddie did either, but it was just sort of gestures really, but it was a fine song.” The words work well together and create an aural painting of mythology, something which fascinated Freddie at this time (consider his other compositions, especially from the first three albums). Freddie himself later said in a 1977 BBC Radio One documentary, “My lyrics are basically for people’s interpretations, really. I’ve forgotten what they were all about. It’s really factitious, I know it’s like bowing out or the easy way out, but that’s what it is. It’s just a figment of your imagination. It all depends on what kind of song really. At that time I was learning about a lot of things. Like song structure and as far as lyrics go, they’re very difficult as far as I’m concerned. I find them quite a task and my strongest point is actually melody content. I concentrate on that first; melody, then the song structure, then the lyrics come after actually.”

The song was recorded during sessions for
Queen II
in August 1973 at Trident Studios, but wasn’t
included in the set list until it became a bona-fide hit the following year. It stayed in the set list until 1975, then was revived in 1984 for the
Queen Works!
tour and remained in the live setting until 1986. An absurd dance remix of the song was included as a bonus track on the 1991 remaster of Queen II; while this may represent the dregs of the remix and remaster programme kick-started by Hollywood Records, rumour has it that the song’s original composer was fairly smitten with the new recording.

As well as bearing the distinction of being Queen’s first true hit, peaking at No. 10 in the UK in February 1974, the song is also noted for being Queen’s first appearance on
Top Of The Pops
that same month. When David Bowie, riding high on the success of ‘Rebel, Rebel’, had to bow out of an appearance, Queen were approached, even though they hadn’t technically had a hit single yet. The band were duly shuffled into Pete Townshend’s Eel Pie Studios (ostensibly to record a new backing but actually pretending to do so to pacify the Musician Union representative) the day before their appearance, which marked the first time the band were seen on British television. This footage was long believed to have been destroyed, until second generation copies showed up in 2007, ultimately appearing on YouTube and related video sites.

SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE...
(Mercury)

• Album:
Queen

A taster of what went on to become Queen’s first true hit in February 1974, ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye...’ (note the ellipsis) is taken at a slower pace and is devoid of any lyrics. Closing the debut album, the song’s presence is questionable, and doesn’t offer too much insight into what would eventually become a completed song. And, at a mere 1’15, it fades out just as it gets going.

Roger said in 1977, “I think Freddie had half written the song and we thought it was a nice ‘tail out’ to the first album, with the idea of starting the second album with the song.”

SEX SHOW

On the commentary track on the 2007 DVD
Queen Rock Montreal
, Brian mentions this title as one that Freddie was working on during the summer 1981 recording sessions in Montreux. Freddie improvises some words just prior to the proper start of ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ (“Ooh, ha ha / We’re gonna shake it out / Shake it out”), but whether this was a completed song or just a fragment rightfully abandoned in its early stages remains to be seen.

SHA-LA-LA-LA-LEE
(Lynch/Shuman)

This is another Small Faces hit performed live by 1984.

SHAG OUT:
see
HANGMAN

SHAKE
(Cooke)

Sam Cooke’s ‘Shake’ was performed live by 1984.

SHAKE, RATTLE & ROLL
(Turner)