Queen: The Complete Works (85 page)

It was fitting, then, that the song was chosen as the final proper single from
Innuendo
, released in October 1991 to minimal fanfare. Backed by Queen’s first single, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, the synchronization of the situation is clearer with hindsight: the band were aware that the end of their career was coming, and it made sense to put their first single as the flipside of their last single. The single peaked no higher than No. 16 in the UK charts, but was coupled with the reissue of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the US when released in January 1992, promptly shooting up the charts to No. 2, their highest position there (and first Top Ten single) since ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ in 1980.

Since Freddie was too ill to film a video for the single (he had already made his final film performance in May 1991 with ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’), the band left the task of assembling one in the hands of The Torpedo Twins, who constructed a touching remembrance of Queen over the years, pulling clips from all the officially released videos as well as a few previously unissued moments. This video was later issued on the
Greatest Flix II
and
Classic Queen
videos in the UK and US respectively.

Live performances of the song were initially limited to two with Brian, Roger and John, both of them with
Elton John on lead vocals. The flamboyant vocalist/ pianist, a close friend of Freddie’s, declared at the Concert for Life in April 1992 that the song was his favourite from
Innuendo
, and proceeded to hoarsely deliver his own touching performance, which may have been one of the highlights of the evening. Elton later included the song in subsequent solo performances as a memorial for his friend, and even made it a part of his 1992 video release,
Elton John – Live World Tour 1992
. The second performance came in January 1997 at the Bejart Ballet for Life in Paris, France, which was inexplicably issued on
Greatest Hits III
and
Greatest Flix III
in 1999.

Brian included the song in his 1998 set lists, and Roger and Brian performed the song in several
We Will Rock You
musical one-offs, the most notable being at the 30 April 2002 concert in Amsterdam, as well as the 46664 concert in Cape Town in November 2003. Most recently, the song was incorporated into the 2005/2006 Queen + Paul Rodgers tour, and again on the 2008
Rock The Cosmos
tour, with stirring renditions issued on
Return Of The Champions
and
Live In Ukraine
; however, none of the live versions can match the drama and passion the band produced on the studio version.

SILVER SALMON

Long rumoured not to exist, ‘Silver Salmon’ is a raucous, Black Sabbath-style rocker originating from the 1972 sessions for the debut album, though some have argued that it’s an outtake from
News Of The World
(the drums, including timbales, and Freddie’s vocal strength are the main arguing points). The song was apparently written by Tim Staffell, though Queen give it a different treatment than may have originally been intended. With explosive drum fills and a crunching guitar riff, Freddie practically screams the lyrics over the din, though there appear to be times when the band are unsure in which direction to take the song. Nevertheless, it’s a curious recording and, for the casual fan, a revelation.

SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE
(Ballard)

• Live (Brian):
Brixton

In 1975, following the break-up of Deep Purple, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore formed the rock group Rainbow, which employed a revolving cast of musicians. The following year, Cozy Powell joined the group and remained its drummer until 1980; their most well-known album came in 1979 with
Down To Earth
. Easily ranking as one of the best rock albums of the late 1970s, one of its two hit singles was ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, written by Russ Ballard, charting at No. 6 in September 1979.

When forming his touring band for the upcoming
Back To The Light
world tour in 1992, Brian asked Cozy Powell to be the drummer in the group, and duly inserted ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ into the set list. A live version appeared on the 1994 album
Live At The Brixton Academy
, and is a particularly hard-rocking track, with Brian attempting to mimic the vocals of Graham Bonnet. While it may have been more interesting to have heard an obscure Queen track, it’s an enjoyable performance, though it comes nowhere near surpassing the original. The song was later incorporated into the 1998
Another World
tour, this time as a tribute to Cozy, who had died in a car accident on 5 April of that year.

SISTER BLUE
(Noone)

• Album (The Cross):
MBADTK
• Live:
Bootleg

Written by Peter Noone, ‘Sister Blue’ is a rollicking rocker from
Mad: Bad: And Dangerous To Know
, and ties with ‘Liar’ as the highlight of Noone’s three contributions to the album. While the lyric matter is ambiguous, Roger turns in a fine vocal delivery, imploring the main character to “lose that ball and chain, shake it loose” as The Cross form a dense backing, full of chugging guitars and thick drums. The song was performed live during the 1990 tour in support of the album, with a live version appearing on the Fan Club-only album,
The Official Bootleg
, in early 1991.

SLEEPING ON THE SIDEWALK
(May)

• Album:
World

Opening side two of the
News Of The World
album, Brian’s excursion into cool blues comes as a surprise, especially considering that the last blues track to be recorded was ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ in 1973. However, with the eclectic diversions on
News Of The World
, it’s a welcome addition, allowing the guitarist a second opportunity to sing lead vocals.

Continuing Brian’s discomfort with becoming successful too quickly (see also ‘Good Company’, ‘Long Away’ and ‘Leaving Home Ain’t Easy’), he changes the story up, allowing a bit of humour as he relates his fame to a trumpeter in a jazz band. Coerced into
numerous contracts allowing him everything his heart desires, the protagonist enjoys his life on the road until he realizes that he’s not only become yesterday’s news, but that it’s also not all it’s cracked up to be, ultimately deciding that he prefers life on the sidewalk instead of in the spotlight.

Brian told BBC’s Radio One in 1983, “That was the quickest song I ever wrote in my life, I just wrote it down. It’s funny because it’s one of the ones I’m quite pleased with as well. It’s not trying too hard, it’s not highly subtle but I think it leaves me with quite a good feeling. It was sort of a one-take thing as well. Although I messed around with the take a lot and chopped it about and rearranged it, it was basically the first take, which we used. So it has that kind of sloppy feel that I think works with the song. Which we never would have dreamed [of doing] with the previous albums. We always used to work on the backing tracks until they were a million per cent perfect and if they weren’t we would splice together two which were. We’d go to great lengths, but for this album we wanted to get that spontaneity back in.” A legend was built up over the years that the band were recorded unaware that the tape was rolling, which Brian debunked in 2008 on his Soapbox: “We were fully aware that the tape was rolling – stories get a little modified over the years, I guess.”

‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’ was played once on the
News Of The World
US tour, on 11 November 1977, but was dropped because it didn’t work as well as planned. Brian has since revived it for his 1998 solo tours, and even performed it at some of the
We Will Rock You
musical after-parties.

SLEEPY BLUES

Though the origins of ‘Sleepy Blues’ (also known as ‘Drunken Blues’) are unknown, the song is a bit of a curio in that it features Brian recording an idea for a song, undoubtedly intended for
Back To The Light
, but features no instruments whatsoever. Instead, Brian provides vocal approximations of the instruments he envisions on the final version, which was apparently never recorded. Brian introduces the song by saying, “Right. Now, this is a song, some blues for the session upcoming, dated the fifth of March or something. Due for some sessions soon for my solo album ... This is a blues song.” Understandably, the demo remained unreleased, though it’s worth checking out for Brian’s distinctive ‘harmonica’ solo.

SLOW DOWN
(Williams)

• Album (Brian):
World

Originally written and recorded by Larry Williams in the late 1950s, ‘Slow Down’ was later popularized by The Beatles, who were aficionados of his work and covered several of his songs in their career. As recorded by The Brian May Band – indeed, the only track on all of
Another World
to feature a full band arrangement – the song is strong enough but comes off as filler, sounding like it was more fun to record than it is to listen to.

“The only track we really recorded live is ‘Slow Down’, which I have played with my old band,” Brian explained, though what old band he was referring to is anyone’s guess; Queen never performed the song live. “Otherwise I had a plan, a frame to which people should play. I found a friend and a fiend in the computer. It is a friend because you can write wonderfully with it. For the album I spent most of the time programming a good drum track. The track had, of course, not been used but instead of describing to Cozy Powell what he should play, he heard it directly. But a computer can also be terrible because you can become obsessed and spend your whole life with it.”

The song, originally part of Brian’s
Heroes
project (see the entry for
Another World
in Part Two for more information), was recorded in 1996 but would have been better suited as a non-album track. Surprisingly, given its obviously spontaneous recorded performance, the song was only performed twice during the Another World tour: the first time in Hamburg on 3 October 1998, with a second and final performance in Birmingham on 28 October.

SMALL
(Taylor/May/Rodgers)

• Album (Q+PR):
Cosmos

Roger’s songwriting on
The Cosmos Rocks
was a surprise to fans; not only was it consistently strong, with clever arrangements and a diversity of styles, but the lyrics were mostly decent, with only a few true Rogerisms (“I’ve got a criminal urge to twist and shout”, “Some may say I’m lackadasical”, “There’s a rock‘n’roll fever in every place / Next thing you know they’ll be rockin’ out in space”) thrown in for good measure. But Roger has a tendency to surprise the listener with a beautiful, reflective song that is so at odds with his usual style that, upon first listen, one would be forgiven for mistaking it as someone else’s song – ‘These Are The
Days Of Our Lives’, for example. Such was the case with ‘Small’, a sublime acoustic rocker that seemingly had Brian’s fingerprints all over it, but was actually largely the work of Roger.

With a superficial message of the joys of relaxing in the country, there’s an introspective and philosophical sense that this simple escape be allowed to everyone when the pressures and stresses of reality become too much; when surrounded by nature, these problems appear insignificant compared to the majesty of the environment. While Paul was given a fair amount of questionable lyrics to sing on
The Cosmos Rocks
(some his own fault), he sounds comfortable on ‘Small’, with a nod to Free’s ‘Lying In The Sunshine’ – which also explores similar sentiments to this song (“I’d rather sit right here and think about the world”, “If you could only feel the same / Your world would be a peaceful place”) – not going unnoticed. Still, despite Paul’s superb delivery, it would be intriguing to hear Roger tackle this song. While most of the album would be mired in either fun but meaningless songs or bloated sociopolitical statements, ‘Small’ is a true highlight, and an indicator that, beneath the sarcastic diatribes and questionable rhyming schemes, Roger could still deliver the goods.

SMALL (REPRISE)
(Taylor/May/Rodgers)

• Album (Q+PR):
Cosmos

This brief, two minute reprise of standout track ‘Small’ is, like most reprises, nice but inessential listening. But after the manic rush of ‘Surf’s Up ... School’s Out!’, ‘Small (reprise)’ is a perfect way to bow out, the vocal harmonies and The Red Special gently breaking against seagull caws.

SMILE

This delicate ballad, opening with multi-tracked Rogers representing an angelic chorus before giving way to a lovely piano melody, was recorded at the same time as ‘The Unblinking Eye (Everything Is Broken)’, and was premiered at the 2010 Queen Fan Club convention. Destined for Roger’s still-untitled (and uncompleted) fifth solo album, the song got the rumour mill churning among fans as being an ode to Roger and Brian’s pre-Queen band of the same name, but its lyric is an optimistic paean to the simple joys in life, and is reminiscent to ‘Small’, easily a highlight of
The Cosmos Rocks
. The song was played again at the following year’s convention, with an intriguing segue into Roger’s other new solo song, ‘I Am The Drummer In A Rock ‘n’ Roll Band’.

SO SAD
(Everly)

The Everly Brothers’ ‘So Sad’ was performed live by 1984.

SO SWEET

Authorship of this track is unknown, but it’s a fairly standard blues rocker, with the unofficial title of ‘So Sweet (Got To Get Away)’. An Ibex recording from The Sink Club, Liverpool on 9 September 1969 exists, albeit of poor quality.

SOMEBODY TO LOVE
(Mercury)

• A-side: 11/76 [2] • Album:
Races
• CD Single: 11/88 • Bonus:
Races
• A-side: 4/93 [1] • CD Single: 12/95 [6] • Compilation:
Hits3
• Live:
On Fire, Montreal

Queen, and Freddie particularly, were feeling adventurous. After proving they could tackle opera – successfully! – with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, it was anyone’s guess what they would attempt next. It came as no surprise, then, when ‘Somebody To Love’ was released as the precursor to
A Day At The Races
. The band’s first excursion into gospel, incorporating the backing vocals of Brian, Freddie and Roger as a gospel choir, was a success upon its release as a single in November 1976, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 13 in the US.