'Innuendo' (1991)

'Innuendo' should really have been titled 'The Miracle,' given the extremely poor state of Freddie Mercury's health during its writing and recording. The fact that sufficient songs were recorded for an album is miraculous enough, but that tracks had to be cut from the album, and many of those included edited for length, is even more remarkable. Most remarkable of all is the overall quality of the material, with the album boasting at least three all-time Queen classics. It is impossible now to hear the album without thinking of Freddie's death shortly after. At the time of release, I remember songs like 'Headlong' and 'All God's Children' being played, recalling the seventies rock and 'Somebody to Love' gospel/opera heyday of the band. There is something of that spirit flowing the album, but something more, a depth and maturity as well as complexity. The title track set the perfect tone for the entire set.

Innuendo (1991)

"Innuendo"

Just how unbelievably good is this track?!! This is such an unusual track, and for many reasons. First of all, it is long and ambitious, like 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' In many ways, it sounds like an attempt by the band to finish with a new 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' The remarkable thing is that they very probably did it. The song is long, complex and dark, has unusual dynamics, and at 6 minutes 31 seconds is the longest #1 hit single since 'Bohemian Rhapsody' itself (and is forty five seconds longer if memory serves). The song boasts a flamenco guitar middle section, performed by Steve Howe of Yes and Brian May, an operatic interlude in which Freddie comes into his own, and sections of hard rock. Here is Queen at the end harking back to the Queen of early days, going out as they came in - hugely ambitious. Freddie Mercury would be dead just ten months after the song was released. I think the impact of the song rather got clouded in the shock surrounding Freddie Mercury's death, with the song fading from view, particularly in light of the re-release of 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It is an epic song which addresses the inability of humankind to live harmoniously with one another, entertaining hopes that the day of peace and unity may yet come. It's all in here, rock, opera, balladry, flamenco. The deeper you delve into this band, the more you come to appreciate the sheer uniqueness of its musical profile. All comparisons are invidious. So all I will say is that I am sure the band decided to go out with an attempt to top "Bohemian Rhapsody." Impossible, of course. Such over-sized ambition is madness. But the truly crazy thing is - they might well have pulled it off. You will rarely hear a song that combines so many different styles, taking us in a continuous flow from one to another in one seamless whole. People rave about Steve Howe's superb solo on Spanish guitar, but miss a) that Brian May played on that and b) May's second solo on electric guitar is electrifying. Brian May played with Steve Howe on the flamenco section:

"The Spanish motif is suggested from the start; those little rifts 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 fantasyland adventure." (Brian May, The Life Of Brian, Guitar World magazine, August 1991). Then there are the lyrics ... 'Innuendo' is a masterpiece on all levels. In the tribute concert to Freddie Mercury in 1992, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin took on the lead vocals. Only a genuine heavyweight could handle material as strong as this. The song, indeed, savours a little of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir in parts - as Plant made clear by singing a line from the Zeppelin classic in his performance - and thus takes Queen back to their prog rock roots in the early seventies. 'As it began ...'

"I'm Going Slightly Mad"

Upon the release of the album, this was considered something of a witty track in the manner of Noel Coward. In retrospect, it is impossible not to hear the darker and more serious tones to the witticisms. The song is seriously funny, with a heavy undertow concerning the madness that afflicts those in the last stages of terminal illness. Freddie knew what to expect, and turned it into darkly comic autobiographical material. 'It finally happened,' he says, sending up the image his detractors had always had of him.

"Headlong"

This is just an uncomplicated, straight ahead rocker, direct and catchy. It was written by Brian May for his solo album 'Back to the Light' (1992), but decided to record it with Queen when he heard Freddie sing it. It's an up-tempo guitar-ready rocker which lightens the mood of the album and ups the pace. With a great pumping rhythm, the band sounds like it didn't have a care in the world. It makes a great, harder, follow-up to 'breakthru.' It was an obvious single release, peaking at a creditable UK #14.

"I Can't Live with You"

Energetic and inspirational rock, showing that Queen's pop sensibilities were working in peak condition right to the very the end. Frenetic and joyous, with scorching guitar from Brian May (its writer), the song was released as a single in the US, hitting a decent #28 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. It was another song written for May's solo album, 'Back to the Light,' but turned into a Queen song after other band members declared a liking for it. It's easy to see what they liked about it. That said, it is Freddie's inspirational vocals that really raise the song above the norm.

"Don't Try so Hard"

A delicate, reflective, introspective ballad, with a hint of tragedy. It has that old message that runs throughout the Queen career, a message for all those in some way different. 'If you're searching out for something, don't try so hard.' 'It's only fools who make these rules.' 'Screaming out your bloody orders, polish all your shiny buttons, but you never had to try to stand out from the crowd.' Such pain, power, and poignancy in that voice. Then there is the guitar that bleeds. This is a contender for Freddie's greatest vocal performance, and Brian May is not too far behind on guitar. The voice of a dying man, capable of lifting you up whenever you are down. A masterpiece, then.

"Ride the Wild Wind"

This sounds a lot like Roger Taylor singing about his love of mechanical objects. With its great driving beat, it beats David Essex's 'Silver Dream Machine' into a cocked-hat. The song hit #1 in Poland owing to the radio airplay chart.

This fast-paced song encourages us to embrace the thrill and danger of life lived 'on the razor's edge' - 'Push the envelope don't sit on the fence.' The beating drums and rhythmic bass line create the sensation of speed and engine's roar, with May's guitar solo heightening the sense of high velocity whilst adding a heavier sound. I don't care for cars, motorbikes, unnatural speed, and mechanical toys, hence 'I'm in Love with My Car' is nowhere to be found in my list of favourites. But I like 'Ride the Wild Wind.'

"All God's People"

Apart from the title track, this was the first track I heard from the Innuendo album. My first thoughts were of the gospel choir on "Somebody to Love." It sounded like classic Queen of the seventies. But the overtly religious message, sang as the plea of a dying man, give it a distinctly unique flavour. I've never remotely seen Queen as a religious band. On the contrary, I detect an explicit rejection of rules and constraints on individuals hell bent on having a good time. Spiritual, possibly, humanist, certainly, but not religious. But references to God do crop up here and there in the tracks. And I always think of "Is This the World We Created?" as a damnation of human conceit and arrogance.

Is this the world we created?

We made it on our own

Is this the world we devastated, right to the bone?

If there's a God in the sky, looking down

What can he think of what we've done

To the world that He created?

Self-made man and his undoing. The self-destruction of the humanist ethic? Or a demand that humans get better at being human? As God surely intended. If there is a God. If there is a God.

Either way, "All God's People" is a quite remarkable song, both vocally and lyrically. Freddie sings with real power, and the harmonious blending of different vocal parts is truly incredible. Musically, the song is quintessential Queen, with Roger's precision drumming, Brian's intermittent guitar riffs, and John's understated but insistent bass backing Freddie's incredibly forceful vocals perfectly. The harmonies are warmly mysterious and compelling.

The song was actually an old one, written by Freddie and Mike Moran for Barcelona and entitled "Africa at Night." It fits the musical atmosphere of that album well. Freddie obviously retained a liking for it, retrieved it, and reworked it for Innuendo.

As for the lyrics, they are inclusive - 'we're all God's people' - and exude a generosity of spirit. To those who equate religion with rules and regulations and say that the humanist ethos of Queen runs in a contrary direction (and I have heard Roger Taylor more than a few times say that he loathes the 'overly religious'), then these lyrics do come with certain rules and injunctions, urging people to 'give freely' and 'make welcome inside your homes.' 'Open your eyes', 'rule with your heart,' 'live with your conscience': 'Don't turn your back on the lesson of the Lord.'

Gotta face up

Better grow up

Gotta stand tall and be strong

It sounds religious to me, albeit relating the rules and injunctions to the living God, preparing to receive God's unconditional love, mercy, and grace. Or it could simply be that Freddie was taking one last opportunity to be Aretha Franklin (his great ambition, I heard Brian May say in an interview). Gospel is the root of Aretha's music, for sure. I really don't know, knowing only Freddie's songs and lyrics. Words like "Let us be thankful, He's so incredible" seem overtly religious to me. And then we have "My life has been saved" on the Made in Heaven album.

Putting all speculation to one side, this is a powerful song with a real emotional pull concerning one's relationship with the living and loving God. It is about the universal Love that embraces and unites all people, and the need to tend to the relations between all people on Earth. The song urges us to help one another since we really are all one people with the God of Love. I'll leave the proper formulation of that ethic to other work. Humanists think it possible without the need to invoke God; I am nowhere near so sure of that. Things that are equal to the one thing - God - are equal to one another. We are all God's people, at one with God and hence with one another.

This is a wonderfully joyous song affirming the unity of each and all in the Love embrace of the universe.

"These Are the Days of Our Lives"

This is such a poignant ballad, with Freddie Mercury taking the opportunity to say goodbye to all those he kept royally entertained over the years. Which is all of us. And we all said goodbye in return. It's a beautiful song. I don't have much more to say than that. I said goodbye to my youth the day the video was released, but not to my youthful ideals. Those ideals burn as bright as ever, and I can hear them in the songs that Freddie sang. Thanks Freddie. 

"Delilah"

Freddie's tribute to his favourite cat. I don't think the band members had the heart to raise objections. My mum loved it, too. It adds a personal quality to the heavy proceedings. Nice guitar work and cat sounds, too. And, deep down, I'm sure Brian understood, having written 'All Dead, All Dead' about his recently deceased cat. Talking of whom ...

If pressured, I would be inclined to concede that 'Delilah' is a fairly weak track, but still wouldn't give way. It has a couple of redeeming features. First of all, Freddie wanted the track on the album, which is a good enough reason by any reckoning. Most of all, though, there is Brian May's ability to make his guitar sound like a room of meowing cats. I mean, seriously, how is that possible? How does Brian May do that with his guitar? He mimicked an entire trad jazz band on 'Good Company.' And now here he is mimicking meows. This must be what astrophysicists do when not applying their talents to deadly serious things.

"The Hitman"

Heavy rock. Indeed, very heavy rock. I would have guessed that the track was written by Brian May, given the prominent and very loud guitars, but it originated with Freddie Mercury. That reminds us that Freddie wrote some of the heaviest Queen songs, going back to 'Ogre Battle' and 'Great King Rat.' But the song was originally written on keyboards and only became so heavy when Brian May transferred it to guitar and added some new parts. Those with fond memories of Queen the hard rock band will love this.

"Bijou"

This song has received little attention, if any, since its release on Innuendo. The original version on that album was shortened in the attempt to cram everything in. The re-releases added Brian May's simply spine-tingling, heart wrenching guitar work. I think it is a precious jewel of a song, a hidden gem, crystalline in its perfection. The guitar sounds like it will be weeping for all eternity. Freddie's vocal attempts to put all sadness to rest, but the sorrows return with the guitar. One of the saddest sounds you will ever hear. It is the sound of goodbye.

"The Show Must Go On" 

What? Without Fred? I very much doubt it. It has all been a bit boring since Fred left us, his assurances about the show going on notwithstanding. This was the final Queen single release before the death of Freddie Mercury was announced. I couldn't help but speculate at the time whether the band knew the end was near, and tried to contrive a coincidence with this in the charts at the time. As the song idled its way to a moderate placing on the charts, I was struck by the fact that its overt message met with little recognition and response. Even without the context, however, I thought the song was of such immense quality - easily in the class of 'Innuendo' - that it should have been a huge hit regardless. I suspect it wasn't a much bigger hit for the reason that it is dark, deep, and foreboding. It was the final song on the final album Queen would release in Freddie Mercury's lifetime. It is a vocally - and emotionally - demanding piece. Lyrics like 'I'll soon be turning round the corner now' must have taken their toll on a singer who knew he was nearing the end. Brian May had concerns as to whether Freddie was physically capable of singing it. May recalls; "I said, 'Fred, I don't know if this is going to be possible to sing.' And he went, 'I'll f*%*!ng do it, darling'-vodka down-and went in and killed it, completely lacerated that vocal." What a pro! A pro to the end. And what a guitar from Brian May. Freddie Mercury was staring death in the face when he sang this song, a song that would be ridiculously hard even for a trained singer in the prime of life to sing. Just how many show-stopping masterpieces can you have on the one album? This one might well be the best of the lot.

"Lost Opportunity" (B-side to "I'm Going Slightly Mad"

Really nice piece of guitar based blues, sung by Brian May (with hints of Status Quo's 'Blue for You,' only much slower). It is a very good track, with a superb guitar solo, but a little unusual for Queen, who tended to steer clear of straight 12-bar blues. It's not that they couldn't do it. Tracks like this prove that they could, and very easily. It's just that Queen brought other things to the party, leaving the straight world to others. The track is easily good enough to have made an album cut. It just doesn't fit the mood of 'Innuendo,' though.

"Self-Made Man" (demo)

This is a fantastic demo track that always has me doing a double take whenever I hear it. For all the world, it sounds like a Genesis track, dominated by keyboards and drums. Written and mainly sung by Brian May, it is a high tempo number, with hints of 'I Can't Live With You' in places. Freddie sings the bridge, to remind us that this is indeed a Queen track. But, gee, as a big Genesis fan, I can't get the Genesis comparison out of my head, especially with that organ in the background, most unusual for Queen. I know Brian May is quite friendly with Rick Wakeman, and there is also something of a Yes flavour to the track, too. I'm just left wondering about the added dimension that keyboards could have given to the Prog Rock Queen of the early days. I'm also left wondering how much else Queen had within them, because this is quite a different sound for the band. We can live in hope that these little scraps lying around in the vaults could one day be picked up and completed in the studio, as happened with the superb 'You Don't Fool Me.' It's just a pity that this track was not developed further and finished, because it has the makings of a fantastic - and different - number. And does anyone really need to say that this track would have made for a better selection than 'Delilah'? That's an idle game, since 'Delilah' made the cut for personal rather than artistic reasons. Plus, whereas Brian and Roger regularly sang lead on tracks on the seventies albums, this tended not to happen after 1982 (Roger Taylor was the last on 'Action this Day.') It needs development. Who knows what the story is. Perhaps the band tried and couldn't finish it and moved onto more productive work that was leading somewhere. It is much less developed than 'Lost Opportunity' but much more musically interesting.

"Face it Alone"

'Face it Alone' is yet another contender in the long list for Queen's best unfinished song. It's another of those tracks that fans say 'could have been a classic.' We have to recognize that fans, facing a future without any new Queen songs, have a tendency to overrate the unreleased songs and demos they come across. But this really is good. Dark and brooding, exotic, even, with its slowly winding guitar, this has real potential. It is basically a duet between guitar and vocal, and even then with the lyrics few and far between, supplemented by Freddie's ad-libs. It has been speculated that the track was recorded in the same week as 'Khashoggi's Ship' and 'Rain Must Fall,' placing it back in 1988 during 'The Miracle' sessions. The band also worked on it for the 'Innuendo' album. There isn't, in truth, much of a vocal part there, but the tune is memorable and the guitar part incredibly haunting. Once heard, it stays with you. Sadly, it is unlikely that the track will ever finished, for the simple reason that the vocals are rudimentary, clearly in their early stages. It's a realm shame, because what there is is so haunting and atmospheric, sounding like a much slower 'Flick of the Wrist.' As to why the band didn't finish this, we can only speculate that they did and couldn't. It's a very memorable piece of music as it is now. Who knows? Maybe the time has passed. If Brian and Roger fill in the missing parts in order to finish the song, maybe something of the haunting quality will be lost. At the moment, the hints are so evocative that we are free to let our imaginations fill the gaps. I'd let it stand as it is, the unfinished and unfinishable song, both haunting and beautiful, hinting at a universe where Queen play on forever. You will have to die before you will be able to hear this song. It has been called 'Queen's best unfinished song.'

When something so dear near (and so far)

And dear to life (tonight)

Explodes inside (falls down inside)

You feel your soul (you cry till you hurt)

Is set on fire (go out and clear)

There's something

De-de-de-de-oh

De-de-de-ay-oh-oh-oh-oh-ohh

When the moon has lost it's clothes

And the sun begins to go down

(Unknown lyric)

'Different Mix' Additional Verse Lyrics:

Your earth is your own

You're in charge of your day

Master of your home

In the end

In the end

You'll have to face it alone

"Gran Dame"

Some consider that this track originates from 'The Miracle' sessions, others say the early 'Innuendo' sessions. This is a high tempo instrumental dominated by drums and guitars. It's a fine number which, developed further, could have made the 'Innuendo' album. This is heavy blues rock, fitting easily alongside 'Headlong' and 'Hitman,' but recalling also 'One Vision.' This another of those demos of which we are entitled to say 'could have been a classic.' The value of such observations is precisely zero, tantamount to saying that Queen were a great band of musicians who were capable of writing and recording great tracks. We know. On these demos, we hear them in the process.

"Affairs

Like 'Grand Dame,' some believe that this track originates in 'The Miracle' sessions, some from the early 'Innuendo' sessions. We are talking 1989 here. The entire band is present on this track. Musically, the track is complete, lyrically, not so, with Freddie ad-libbing around the missing lyrics. That the song wasn't worked on for the 'Made In Heaven' album suggests that the band left the track in its undeveloped state.

"Assassin"

'Assassin' is a much sought after out-take from 'Innuendo,' said to be an early version of the title track. That similarity may explain why it wasn't worked on for 'Made In Heaven,' or maybe the song was just unfinishable, or simply not good enough. There are fake demos of the song doing the rounds, which are awful and plainly not Queen. Other than that, nothing is known about the track.

"My Secret Fantasy"

Recorded in 1990, the track is associated with the 'Innuendo' sessions, but sounds nothing like the material on that album. It sounds like a Deacon and Mercury number, a chunkier, funkier, and more rhythmic version of 'My Baby Does Me.' The lyrics are rudimentary, but it certainly has the makings of a song. It sounds more like something left over from 'The Miracle' sessions, and doesn't remotely fit 'Innuendo.'