I remember when Hot Space came out in the Spring of 1982. I was twelve years old, and already a huge Queen fan. Hot Space was funky, not so rock and roll, disco and more things that Queen have become in recent years as of then. I also remember not minding it too much.
As time has passed, I have since learned to appreciate Hot Space, for different reasons. Freddie's voice has adapted a new and different style which showcases a more overt dynamic. Roger has added a synthesized drum sound for his snare. Brian's heavy guitar was pushed to the background a bit more, and John Deacon's bass has taken center stage. A different Queen? Definitely. Sure, Hot Space is not one of the more listened to CDs of my Queen collection, but it is not as sacrilege as I once viewed it.
Anyway, during 1983 interviews, Queen could be read saying that the new Queen album coming out will be a more heavy, back to the Queen sound we love, no disco sound that the 'old Queen fans' will enjoy.
1983 of course was a year that Queen has not put out any music as a group. Brian May was the only Queen output that year with Brian May & Friends: Starfleet Project.
That was rock and roll. Maybe Queen was telling the truth about this.
When Queen released The Works in 1984,(their first album released on Capitol Records in the US), I went to buy it on the first day and put the needle to the vinyl and listened to Radio Ga Ga. Well, Ga Ga is not the same as the funk disco from Hot Space and some of The Game, but it's also lightyears from the majestic rock of Queen's distant yesteryear. It reached number 12 here in the States, which surprised me and pleased me at the time. Penned by drummer Roger Taylor, it is a tribute to radio and an opposition to music video TV, which is why it still puzzles me why it was named Radio Ga Ga, instead of Video Ga Ga.
Anyway, in a very recent time in my life I have come to love and appreciate Radio Ga Ga for the great song that it is. Sure it does not sound like Queen did in 1977, but for 1984, this is very good.
Tear It Up is written by Brian May. This song still makes me wince a tiny bit. This song has the stench of effort to be heavy Queen, and what it lacks is authenticity. This is not what Queen sounds like when they write and perform a heavy rock song, this is how Queen sounds when they pretend to write and perform a heavy rock song (see Gimme The Prize or Princes Of The Universe from Queen's 1986 effort A Kind Of Magic).
Let's look at some of the lyrics of the chorus:
We gonna Tear it up, Stir it up, Break it up - baby
You gonna Tear it up, Shake it up, Make it up - as you go along
Tear it up, Square it up, Wake it up - baby
Tear it up! Stir it up! Stake it out - and you can't go wrong
If you think that's bad, you have to listen to the music they are sung to to get the full effect.
It's A Hard Life is written by Freddie Mercury, and for me, the first song that sounds like the Queen I love. It sounds a bit too familiar as well. It seems Freddie transposed some of the notes from Bohemian Rhapsody, and called it It's A Hard Life. Now it sounds like a song that could easily be included on News Of The World or Jazz quite nicely. I feel that Freddie got the idea to include the melody of Vesti la giubba from the opera Pagliacci as the intro, because the piano is so close to his own Bohemian Rhapsody. His song is a kind of mock-opera, and therefore it seems almost natural to include some real opera elements in this song.
The lyrics are very poignant, especially for Freddie, whereas I usually find John Deacon's lyrics a bit more deep and personal.
You win - you lose
It's a chance you have to take with love
Oh yeah - I fell in love
And now you say it's over and I'm falling apart
Man On The Prowl is another song written by Freddie. To me, even though it is a song that I do like a lot, has a stench of "quick buck" in the way that it is too much in the same vein and music genre as Crazy Little Thing Called Love. This song is a little different with the fact that it has piano as the main instrument instead of Freddie's acoustic guitar in Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Brian's guitar is there in the far background accenting the drum beats with a single distorted strum. Fred Mandell, the band's extra musician when they are on the road is on the 'rip-roaring' piano. I guess it's pretty obvious that it's another Fred at the piano as the piano style is so unlike Freddie's. Anyway, when Queen play live he is used for piano mostly, when Fred wants to prance rather than sit, or sometimes they'll give him a guitar when the song may have sounded a little thin without him. He gives a great piano performance on this song, very nice. I think that this is the first appearance of an outside musician on any Queen record. They had a vocalist once before on A Day At The RacesGood Old-fashioned Loverboy for one line, then this song with Fred Mandell. They have guests on two more albums in the future and that is the extent of that. I like the song lots remember, I just thought that Freddie thought he could make that easy quick buck by duplicating success he had on two albums before (The Game) with this knock off. Although, I like this song better than Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Brian May and Roger Taylor collaborated on Machines (or 'Back To Humans'). This song used to begin side two on the old LP, now it's just track 5 on the lovely CD. This is my favorite of the CD. This song is not at all like the Queen of Majestic Yesteryear, and it has something that I usually detest, a synthesized computer sounding voice. You know, the kind that they used sometimes in the late 70's. The kind of voices that butchered She's Leaving Home in that wonderfully awful Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie from 1978 with Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees.
So yes, there are two points immediately against this track according to my tastes, yet the melody and lyrics and music are so addicting that it wins "World's Greatest Queen Song That Was Ever On The Works" award. It's so energetic, and the hook for me is the truly brilliant melody to the lyrics:
"Living in a new world
Thinking in the past
Living in a new world
How you gonna last?
Machine world, machine world-"
I mean there's more to this wonderful song, but this little segment of the song is a lucky stroke of melodious genius. It's perfect.
This song also has the longest word I have ever seen ever, I don't even know if it's real: parahumanoidarianised. So whatever, it's just such a cool song.
John Deacon wrote I Want To Break Free that was a huge hit worldwide and yet broke Queen's relationship with the States sadly for many years. I personally love this song. I prefer the video version of the song with the added instrumental in the middle, but that's just personal preference.
Because of the video that was made for this song, which had the British rolling on the floor laughing and whom enjoyed it profusely, it left the Americans scratching their heads as they thought that Queen has publicly announced what Americans had thought and feared for years, gay. You see, the video is a parody of a famous British soap opera, and that's why they were dressed in drag. They looked like the stars on TV, and it was very funny I imagine to the people familiar with the television show.
People in the States, who are partly homophobic especially at this period of US history, the mid 80's. Television was a lot different back then, Family Ties, Growing Pains, Cosby Show..etc. It was not like today, where everybody on American TV is quite gay. America was still a Conservative family oriented viewing audience during Reagan's presidency. Today, even though a Conservative Republican
is finally back in office, the country has turned very liberal, which equals non-family-oriented shows, homosexually invasive TV.
Now remember that I am not in any way putting down America in any way, I am very much a patriot.
But who knows what America would say to the I Want To Break Free video today in late 2003, maybe it would be embraced or even promoted as most things of the like are here.
But the fact is, this song is not a gay song, and the video is not gay-themed. It is a parody and that's all.
Actually, that is Brian May's theory of why Queen had lost America. Maybe he's right. All I know is that I was a lot less enthusiastic about Queen in the mid 80's until 1989's release of The Miracle, which is the beginning of Queen returning to The Majestic Queen sound of Yesteryear, that sadly ended very soon after with their next release Innuendo.
Freddie wrote the beautiful Keep Passing The Open Windows, also a very piano oriented song. The bass line in this song added to the piano style present is very very reminiscent of what was happening musically in the mid 80's, like Joe Jackson's Steppin' Out or Bruce Hornsby & The Range's That's Just The Way It Is. Again, this song has some very moving lyrics to me, that surprises me they come from Freddie:
"Do you know what it's like to be alone in this world
When you're down and out on your luck and you're a failure?
Wake up screaming in the middle of the night
You think it's all been a waste of time
It's been a bad year
You start believing everything's gonna be alright
Next minute you're down and you're flat on your back
A brand new day is beginning
Get that sunny feeling and you're on your way
Just believe - just keep passing the open windows
Do you know how it feels when you don't have a friend
Without a job and no money to spend?
You're a stranger
All you think about is suicide
One of these days you're gonna lose the fight
You'd better keep out of danger - yeah!
That same old feeling just keeps burning deep inside
Keep telling yourself it's gonna be the end
Oh get yourself together
Things are looking better everyday
Just believe - just keep passing the open windows"
Hammer To Fall is written by Brian May. It is barely catchy at best, and has few shining moments. But, it does sound and feel authentic. It has heavy guitars and bass yet it is still very thin sounding, maybe because of Roger's synthesized drum sound. Freddie sounds great vocally. During the concerts Mike Mandell would play guitar on this song too.
This song also has a mention in the Stephen King novel The Tommyknockers. He quotes the lyrics:
"Oh every night and every day
A little piece of you is falling away
But lift your face the Western Way
Build your muscles as your body decays"
If you know the story of The Tommyknockers the lyrics would make sense to you from Stephen King's point of view.
Brian May and Freddie Mercury collaborate for the first time ever in their career (but not the last) on the song Is This The World We Created?. This is written in the same vein as Love Of My Life was performed live, a duet with Brian and Freddie, just Freddie singing to a single acoustic guitar accompaniment. It is a relatively short track on The Works. The song is lyrically moving and sung beautifully. One could easily say that the lyrics are Live Aid inspired, but that didn't happen until July 1985, a year later. Then maybe possibly We Are The World or Band Aid inspired. Here are the lyrics:
" Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed
Take a look at all the suffering we breed
So many lonely faces scattered all around
Searching for what they need
Is this the world we created?
What did we do it for?
Is this the world we invaded
Against the law?
So it seems in the end
Is this what we're all living for today?
The world that we created
You know that every day a helpless child is born
Who needs some loving care inside a happy home
Somewhere a wealthy man is sitting on his throne
Waiting for life to go by
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?"
THE BONUS TRACKS:
Well, the first is a rare B-Side of Radio Ga Ga. It is written by guitarist Brian May. It is, in my opinion, a little bit better a track than Tear It Up. The lyrics portray a fictional (?) account of Brian's ladyfriend dumping him for a member of The Rolling Stones. A bit silly, it seems that most of these rare B-sides are bluesy songs written by Brian May (ex. See What A Fool I've Been 1974, Lost Opportunity 1991...etc..).
It is an interesting song mainly because of it's rarity factor.
Radio Ga Ga is a bonus track because it is extended by about 2 minutes. It's OK. The instrumental parts of the song are extended a little and that's where you really hear the extended parts.
I Want To Break Free is also extended here. It is extended by about 4 minutes than the original. Included here in the extended parts is a tiny melody of all of the Queen songs from this album. It reminds me of the melody included on the Queen JAZZ album within the song More Of That Jazz, although it is nowhere as fluid or as good.
It's almost 20 years since the original release date of this album, and like I said not until very recently I have not appreciated the art contained in this CD.
The album art work is very boring, unlike Queen's other albums. This is just a black and white pic on the cover with large shadows. The back has small color pics of the band with a bunch of gears and cogs "working" in the background.
The Hollywood release in 1991 jazzed up the artwork a little by adding pics of the boring single covers as well.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.