'Flash Gordon' (1980)

It's impossible not to smile at the mere mention of Queen's involvement in this movie. It helps to remind oneself that this was meant to be a high camp classic. I think that was the intention, anyway. The critics sniffed, but Queen set about their task in supplying a soundtrack to the sci-fi movie 'Flash Gordon' with a real relish. The people who judge 'Flash' harshly tend to forget that they are listening to a soundtrack and not a rock or pop album. The predictable criticisms that the music is less compelling without the visuals and the context is not criticism at all, merely a statement of the bleeding obvious. That said, with Queen going at it with all synths blaring, backed by a legion of guitars, the album is actually very entertaining. Way back when, until well into the 1980s, I never had a pair of headphones. I decided to experiment by putting on the 'Flash Gordon' soundtrack loud and jamming my head between the speakers. The effect was an other-worldly ecstasy. I would strongly recommend doing this at least once in every lifetime. Accept no substitutes: 'Flash Gordon' is the first and very probably the last, and by far and away the best attempt by a rock band to produce a soundtrack perfectly attuned to a movie's visuals, theme and style. It is as such that the album deserves to be properly appraised. (Whenever you read a 'critic' stating that the music makes little sense without the visuals, just move on).

Flash (1980)

"Flash"

This should be the number one, really. We all smiled when we heard that Queen were working on the soundtrack to the movie "Flash Gordon." We were still smiling when we heard it. A band that was known for going over the top were invited to go over the top. Just remember to do all the dialogue when you sing along. In fact, you don't need to do the singing, just the 'a-ah' will do. I can't really say much more than with "Flash" Queen took the hyper-reality of a camp sci-fi classic to a different dimension entirely. For the two minutes that it plays, it's the greatest song ever. Love the way the bass line throbs throughout.

"The Hero"

I'm going to go big on this one. In fact, I am going to go HUGE. Because as hugeness goes, this is the Mount Olympus of songs. We could, of course, be a bit more level headed and say bombastic, preposterous, and ludicrous. We could just as well abandon Queen for the safe, tempered, and tasteful. But life wouldn't be anything like as exciting. "The Hero" is an invitation into immensity, as ludicrous and as noble as that. This track is peak Queen, and yet is hardly known. It is from the "Flash" movie and soundtrack album, which tends to get overlooked in the Queen retrospectives as not a 'proper' album. It's a lost classic, a very vigorous update of "Seven Seas of Rhye" in being an immense blast of electric guitar and electrifying words. It is a huge burst of energy, a release from constraint, as big and as ecstatic an explosion of upward motion as Mr. Fahrenheit himself promised in "Don't Stop Me Now." It's inspiring and unstoppable and encapsulates perfectly in two minutes everything heroic about Queen. Which is to say that it is a little over-the-top, exaggerated, and preposterous. But that's what we loved about the band from the first. I mean, Freddie, he isn't to be taken seriously, is he?

Lift your head to the stars

And the World's for your taking

(All you have to do is save the world)

Brian May is on electrifying form on this, coming in loud and quick and just letting rip from there. Ming the Merciless himself is sent packing, with Flash himself being made redundant as Freddie goes at it in full heroic mode, invoking us all to become the heroes we are capable of being. This made for a superb ending, a battle hymn call to a heroism much greater than cartoon stories of good and evil. This is how it all ends. Actually, this ought to be how it all begins - flailing guitars, soaring strings, surging synths, and rampant passions, a sustained yell at the end of the universe, all colliding before all that remains weave together for one final epic epic burst of energy. Of course, it all ends in one almighty bang. In fact, being Queen, it ends with a lot of bangs.

In truth, it doesn't end at all, but invites us all to become heroes in the continuation. It's this bit that really speaks to all that Sammy's that populate the Queendom.

So you feel like it's end of story

Find it all pretty satisfactory

Well I tell you my friend

This might seem like the end

But the continuation is

Yours for the making.........

(Yes you're a hero)

The references is to the hero each and all could be, not to the hero, the one and only. I love that call to heroism. The diehard Queen fans among us have always known that Queen spoke to the odds out there, encouraging us to defy the odds that were often accumulating against us, beckoning us on a journey. And in this story, "Flash" simply becomes an irrelevance, a big American dope so stupid that he has to have his name written in huge letters across his stupid T-shirt. Queen's take on this is that being a hero is a job for everyone, and a job for life. A simple idea, maybe, and a bombastic claim to boot, but it is a noble ideal all the same. It's one I've always taken to heart, especially when tackling some terribly 'important' project that has incited my interest and captured my attention, working far too long on something of seemingly no importance whatsoever, but carrying on in the belief that I'm within sight of the end. Ludicrous, of course. But put on this track and inject a little heroism into proceedings, and you never know, great things may manifest themselves. You'll feel like a hero, regardless.

I think it's safe to say that I kinda like this song. But the real clincher for me is its live performance. Whilst the song makes for a fantastically vibrant close to the "Flash" album, it also makes for a stunning opener live in concert. I can in all honesty say that I have never seen or heard a better opening to a concert than that of Queen at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1982. So I shall clinch a high ranking here by cheating slightly and counting the "Flash," "The Hero," and "We Will Rock You" entrance at the Milton Keynes Bowl as one. It's the greatest opening to a live concert by anyone ever. It's absolutely unreal! We go from the pulsating throb of "Flash" into Brian May's thunderous riffing, and then Freddie Mercury explodes onto stage as if shot out of a cannon, launching into "The Hero." I've never seen anyone do anything like that, anything like as exciting and as powerful, without gimmicks, just relying on natural human power and charisma. Inhuman. Freddie Mercury was the greatest front man of all time, no question; there is no-one who even comes close (see if you can name them, or name one). There's no doubt about, I'm not gonna lie, Queen were the best live band there ever was. They build the anticipation and then come straight out of the traps and bang into your face, no messing about. This, boys and girls and all other beings and bodies in between and beyond, this is how a rock concert should open - with a sustained explosion! In the opening at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 1982 Queen gave us a 1-2-3 of such force that they could have ended the concert there and then and everyone would have gone home in ecstasy. The Queen motto on concerts is to deafen and blind the audience at the beginning, capture people immediately, and then take them with you through the rest of the concert. That's shorthand for astonish, amaze, stupefy, daze, stun, shock, and overwhelm. Queen remained a huge live draw until the very end, packing out Wembley Stadium, with extra big stadium gigs having to be added to cater for demand. The reason is simple - people knew Queen delivered in concert. And this 1-2-3 power punch of "Flash," "The Hero," and "We Will Rock You" is just simply awesome, an opening salvo that leaves nothing standing in its way. Pure Pulsating Everlasting Electrical Energy. I'd better stop there, I'm getting a bit carried away. So much so someone might ask why a song this good doesn't make my top fifty. The simple answer to that question is that I am here waxing lyrical about the live performance of the song as part of an opening trilogy with "Flash" and "We Will Rock You." It's the greatest opening to any concert by anyone I have ever seen. So much so I can't even think of its nearest rival. Most acts open tentatively and find their feet as they go. Queen didn't hit the ground running, they hit it racing, like Mister Fahrenheit, 'travelling at the speed of light.' As Freddie says in that song, 'I wanna make a supersonic man out of you.' And here, he wants you to find the hero in yourself. Forget Flash the singular hero, Queen are singing about all of us.

So let's end with a bit of Queen's "Flash"

He's for every one of us

Stand for every one of us

He'll save with a mighty hand (he'll save with a mighty hand)

He'll save with a mighty hand (he'll save with a mighty hand)

He saved with a mighty hand (save us)

Every man every woman every child (man, woman, child)

He's the mighty (mighty)

[Outro]

Flash!

A-ah!!!

But it's "The Hero" at the end of the album that makes the moral clear:

So, you feel like it's the end of the story?

Find it all pretty satisfactory?

Well, I tell you, my friend

This might seem like the end

But the continuation is yours for the making

(Yes, you're a hero)

1. "Flash's Theme" Brian May Freddie Mercury, May 3:31

2. "In the Space Capsule (The Love Theme)" Roger Taylor 2:43

3. "Ming's Theme (In the Court of Ming the Merciless)" Freddie Mercury 2:41

4. "The Ring (Hypnotic Seduction of Dale)" Mercury 0:57

5. "Football Fight" Mercury 1:28

6. "In the Death Cell (Love Theme Reprise)" Taylor 2:25

7. "Execution of Flash" John Deacon 1:06

8. "The Kiss (Aura Resurrects Flash)" Mercury, Howard Blake 1:45

9. "Arboria (Planet of the Tree Men)" Deacon 1:42

10. "Escape from the Swamp" Taylor 1:43

11. "Flash to the Rescue" May Mercury 2:44

12. "Vultan's Theme (Attack of the Hawk Men)" Mercury 1:13

13. "Battle Theme" May 2:18

14. "The Wedding March" (based on "Bridal Chorus") Richard Wagner, arr. May 0:56

15. "Marriage of Dale and Ming (And Flash Approaching)" May, Taylor Mercury 2:04

16. "Crash Dive on Mingo City" May 1:00

17. "Flash's Theme Reprise (Victory Celebrations)" May Mercury, May 1:24

18. "The Hero"