A Kind Of Magic (1986)

I thought the A Kind of Magic album a little patchy when I first heard it, and more than a little disappointing, too. I wasn't alone in that view. I can remember Radio City (Liverpool) DJ Kevin Keating refer to Queen's profoundly 'underwhelming' new album. He knew his music and I trusted his judgement. Live Aid had raised our expectations through the roof, and we expected something of similarly world-shaking importance from the band. 'A Kind of Magic' didn't seem a very coherent album, it was full of songs that sounded like they either originated or belonged somewhere else (the songs, we learned, were connected with the movie 'Highlander') and songs that didn't fit well together at all. 'A Kind of Magic' is probably the least coherent of all Queen albums. Queen had always been diverse in their music, but had at the same always managed to hold things together around a cohering theme. This album struck me as disjointed in terms of the music and uneven in its quality. The great singles 'One Vision' and 'A Kind of Magic' had already been released and raised expectations. Upon hearing the album, it became clear that these were the standout tracks bar one ('Who Wants to Live Forever'). I wasn't convinced by the pop and ballads, and found the rock clunky. I loved 'Gimme the Prize' for being so loud and guitar heavy, though. The album is something of a mixed bag.

'A Kind of Magic' is in some ways comparable to 'Flash' in that many of the songs formed the soundtrack to Russell Mulcahy's 'Highlander' movie. That gives the album a certain mood and sound, quite unlike a standard album. At the same time, the tracks which are associated with the movie here are proper songs, and not merely tunes conceived for a soundtrack. The album is entertaining, packed with anthems that afford the opportunity for some glorious grand-standing. It just struggles to cohere when songs which are explicitly pop come into collision with the guitar heavy songs from the movie. That said, there are a number of highlights, 'One Vision,' 'A Kind of Magic,' and 'Who Wants to Live Forever' in particular.

A Kind of Magic (1986)

"One Vision"

This song will be forever associated with the aftermath of Queen's triumph at Live Aid. It's impossible not to be immediately taken by the striking guitar riff. OK, it's obvious and in-your-face; but it's irresistible all the same. Then there is the dream of world peace: 'A glimpse of hope and unity, and visions of one sweet union.' It reminds me of Dante, and the fact that Dante's dream lies deep in the heart of all people. 'One Vision' is a song of unity in another respect: it is the first song to be released credited to the entire band. The song was clearly inspired by the band's show-stealing performance at Live Aid. Other than that, we have Brian May's distinctive guitar sound and Freddie Mercury's powerhouse vocal. In terms of its construction, the song is rather obvious, lacking the nuance, intelligence, and dynamics of a typical Queen song (it savours a little of The Rolling Stones in that respect, 'Start Me Up,' basic for Queen but OK for others). But the musical qualities of the band members transcend any limitations in that regard. The track is a great opener, both on disc and on stage. I expected an album along these lines.

A Kind of Magic

This song really is a kind of magic. Like 'Radio Ga Ga,' 'A Kind of Magic' was written by drummer Roger Taylor, giving expression to his utopian vision of a world transformed for the better. It might take some real magic - or proper politics - to effect such a transformation. Failing that - and both continue to fail - we can fall back on yet another Queen classic, laden with hooks so great as to draw all things and everyone into its net. I love the bass line here, too. As much as the song is driven by May and Taylor, I can't help but hear a little funk and disco in Deacon's bass line (listen to Donna Summer's 'Try Me' and see if you can hear a similarity too). Then there is the pure molten alchemy of Mr Mercury's vocals. It's a super song. Written by Taylor as a more rock oriented song, in line with the Highlander film, Freddie Mercury worked his magic and introduced the livelier, more pop and disco, feel. The result is a magical song, one that would make my Queen top ten (I think. The problem is Queen is that my favourite song changes as I move from one to another).

"One Year of Love"

This is a really great soul ballad which could so easily have become a bona fide Queen classic. I just think Freddie strains a little too much and tries a little too hard on the vocal. A lighter touch, and it could have been a genuine classic. As it is, it is nearly there. With the combination of saxophone and strings and saxophone, this is one of the most romantic songs in the Queen catalogue. I think it may have been influenced by George Michael. On this track, John Deacon and Freddie Mercury show themselves to be the heart and soul of Queen. It's a beautiful song, that's for sure. Just listen to the way the strings sweep you away at the end. It doesn't remotely fit the 'Highlander' rock theme, though.

"Pain is so close to Pleasure"

This is another collaboration between John Deacon and Freddie Mercury, a more pop and less soul version of 'Cool Cat.' It's something of a lightweight on this album, but was nevertheless considered strong enough to be released as a single in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. It is a light and breezy song with prominent bass and keyboards, with Freddie singing high. The Deacon contribution is evident in the Motown stylings. I just think it lacks, dare I say, a little soul, with the new techniques of the 80s - drum machines, synthesizers, and electronic recording - accenting the soulless qualities of the Motown pop machine, diminishing the vital soul. "John is very organized and has a mathematical mind," co-producer Reinhold Mack said in a 1986 interview. "So when he comes into the studio, he has a fairly precise idea of what he wants to do." I detect the same quality at work on 'I Want to Break Free,' hence I tend not to rate that song as highly as others do. It makes for clean and clinical pop, but loses soul and spontaneity. As on 'Break Free,' Brian May's guitar is replaced. The song is slight, but could have been better had it been looser, less mechanical, more real. The song was something of a flop commercially and is not held in the highest regard by Queen fans. It has the makings of a catchy song, but the '80s sound and techniques kill it.

"Friends will be Friends"

Even though I had the album (and the B-side, 'Seven Seas of Rhye' from way back), I bought this single. It's a song for Queen fans, a kind of hymn to sing in celebration of the invisible Queendom (isolated oddballs joining together over time and space with the playing of a record). I've always found Queen fans to be genial company. The old rockers can be a bit cantankerous, forever hankering after the old days of 'no synthesizers' (and no dance and disco either). But a fun-loving, pleasure-seeking crowd in the main. The song is anthemic in the classical Queen manner. If, as such, it didn't break any new ground, it was good for bringing the survivors together in celebration of the band, a reminder of the Queen sound that was still the rock of the band's current fame and fortune. The video more or less makes that celebration explicit. 

The song itself is fairly standard fare for Queen, and not in the class of its glorious ancestor 'We are the Champions.' A collaboration between Deacon and Mercury, it is soft and reassuring in a way that 'Champions' was edgy and aspiring. The prominence of Brian May's superbly soaring guitar riffs conceals the fact that, in structure, the song is a piano ballad, very much in line with Mercury's "We Are the Champions" and "Play the Game." If you listen closely, too, you can also hear the same qualities in 'Don't Stop Me Now,' only at a much higher tempo. Freddie's vocal are powerful and soulful, bringing out the meaning of the life-affirming, solidaristic message. Life isn't easy, but 'you've got friends you can trust.' 'When you're in need of love they give you care and attention.'

Friends will be friends.

When you're through with life and all hope is lost,

Hold out your hands, cuz friends will be friends right till the end.

Queen always got me through. 'My only friend through teenage nights,' as they sung in praise of radio on 'Radio Ga Ga.'

"Who Wants to Live Forever"

Queen were a rock band who delivered stellar ballads of all kinds at every stage of their career. Some of the ballads were theatrical, some simple, and others dramatic, solemn, emotional, and poignant. Beyond the show and the spectacle, the band could deliver songs of real depth and meaning. This beautifully crafted song shows Queen at their most serious; the song is superbly arranged and perfectly delivered. There is a harrowing beauty, a solemnity, and a resignation running throughout the song, making it something quite sublime. There's nothing glib or facile about the song. 'The first time I heard this song, it made me cry,' says Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson. It takes something to melt hard-as-nails iron. Written by Brian May for the 'Highlander' soundtrack, this is a haunting ballad, with the band supported by Michael Kamen, the co-composer of the film's score. After watching the first cut of the film, Brian May wrote the line "Who wants to live forever" in a cab on his way home. The inspiration for the song came from the scene where Connor Macleod (Christopher Lambert) - the immortal superhero - takes his dying wife Heather (Biettie Edney) in his arms at the time of her death. This is also the scene where the song is played. It's one of the very best songs in the Queen catalogue, and hence a very great song.

There's no time for us

There's no place for us

What is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us?

Who wants to live forever?

Who dares to love forever?

The single peaked at UK #24. It's much better than that. In 2014, the song was voted the fifth best Queen song by Rolling Stone readers whilst in 2018 it was ranked at number 15 in "The top 20 Queen songs of all time" by Smooth Radio.

"Gimme the Prize"

'Gimme the Prize' was very much my favourite track when I bought 'A Kind of Magic,' the song I played over and again. I already knew - and loved - the singles 'One Vision' and 'A Kind of Magic' and was looking for a new favourite of that calibre from the album. 'Gimme the Prize' sounded like a return to the early Prog Rock Queen. The track is absolutely and awesomely hard and heavy. (I'm afraid that its loudness and toughness rather drowned the soft Motown qualities of 'Pain is so Close to Pleasure'). It even has bagpipe guitars halfway through! How more rock'n'roll could anything be!? 'It's better to burn out than to fade away. There can be only one.' Quite. 

This is one I played at volume 11, but not by choice - the song just is 11. I don't think Freddie cared for it too much, on account of its vocal demands. Freddie really tears up the vocals on this, not so much singing as screaming at the top of his register. It is a sustained rage in which Freddie hits some incredible notes. In an interview with a Japanese magazine in 1986, Brian May admitted that both Mercury and Deacon hated the song. 'Highlander' director Russell Mulcahy didn't like it, either, declaring in the DVD commentary that this was his least favourite of all the songs that Queen contributed to the film, on account of the fact that he doesn't like heavy metal. Those that do - and I am one - will love this track. I have spent many happy hours listening to Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and Iron Maiden. The po-faced simply dismiss it as music for teenage boys and demand that people grow up. And be like them? I don't think so.

I'm not sure if we should class this as hard rock rather than heavy metal, but I do like it when Brian May decides to 'tear it up' on the guitar. This is Queen headed in the direction of metal. (I'll leave it for obsessives to debate the differences between hard rock and heavy metal - this track is pretty damned heavy). So we see here the split between the loud, hard rock of the May-Taylor axis, and the disco/soul/funk groove of Mercury/Deacon. When the split was avoided and the multiple talents merged, we have a band like no other. As for this song, it is awesomeness overload.

"Don't Lose Your Head"

More Roger Taylor sci-fi rock. This is a dark and brooding number written for the movie Highlander. Ethereal electronica to a great driving rhythm, the song is a low-key 'Radio Ga Ga' (if that makes any sense). The drums are high in the mix, keeping the electronica in touch with the rock. The sound and techniques are very 80s - bass/electro bass and power beat backing. It was seen as ground-breaking at the time. I always thought it made very distinctive bands sound very similar to one another; it was 'dated' at the time, and became even more dated over time. But it offers sound advice for life.

"Princes of the Universe"

I really never cared for this song at the time, or for a long time after. It was so huge and overblown, full of theatrics and dramatics, that it barely counted as a song, with hardly any continuous thread in the music. Then it struck me, this is the Prog Rock Queen of 'Ogre Battle' and 'March of the Black Queen' revisited in the 80s pomp, incredibly immoderate and with remarkable tempo changes. You have to be very good or very sure of yourself - or both - to even attempt something like this, let alone carry it off. The song is a hard rock embellished with bombastic sound and lyrics, reminiscent of the songs on Queen I and II, with operatic flourishes. In the music video, Mercury re-enacts the film's sword-fighting scene with its main star, Christopher Lambert. And then it really gets going with Brian May's riffing. When Freddie shouts 'bring on the girls,' I expected to be entertained by scenes from 'Bicycle Race.' I wasn't alone. I once exchanged pleasantries with someone who shouted 'bring on the girls!' in the middle of class - and was promptly sent to see the headmaster. 

The song harks back to the early Queen, the Queen of hugely ambitious rock songs with strange themes and even stranger time signatures. My first instincts were right, this doesn't really sound like an ordinary pop song at all. I had become so used to the new pop sound of Queen that I needed a little time to readjust to the extraordinary qualities the band first showed in their pomp.

"Battle Scene"

This is an instrumental track recorded for the 'Highlander' movie, but not used. It is a very atmospheric track, featuring ethereal synths/strings and hinting at heavenly choirs, interspersed with cutting guitar. It is very reminiscent of the tracks on 'Flash,' in that it would work well with the visuals, but sounds a little strange on its own.

"Friends In Pain"

This is one of those 'rumoured' songs whose existence cannot be assured. It is said to be a John Deacon track originating from the 'A Kind Of Magic' sessions. That's about as much as we know, since there are no copies of the track to be found anywhere. We live in hope that the song has a counterpart in 'Friends in Pleasure.'

"You Are The Only One"

This is Freddie outlining the contours of a song at the piano, singing a few lyrics and improvising as he goes. It is very rough, but has the makings of a very fine Freddie piano ballad. The piano part is well-developed, the lyrics much less so, with Freddie ad-libbing. Who knows how good this one could have been. And who knows whether this was intended as a Queen track or a Freddie Mercury solo. What there is is haunting, with hints of the 1978 John Lennon demo 'Now and Then.'