Beyond the Bohemian: Queen’s Later Work

For most American fans, Queen’s story ended in 1981 with the release of Queen’s Greatest Hits. There were still a few hits to come – “Radio Ga Ga” and its music video evoking the classic film Metropolis – and some near misses, such as “I Want To Break Free” and the title track of A Kind of Magic, but for the most part the band ceased to be relevant after that point. Even their stunning performance at 1985’s Live Aid concert, which telegraphed a late-career renaissance, most likely inspired American fans to revisit the multi-million-selling compilation rather than explore anything more recent. This is unfortunate because the albums that came after Queen’s Greatest Hits contained some of their best work, with numerous songs that stand tall next to their more ubiquitous hits.

Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)

Among the musical tributes to the recently murdered John Lennon, this track from Queen’s 1982 album Hot Space is far less known than Elton John’s “Empty Garden,” George Harrison’s “All Those Years Ago” – both of which were hit singles – or even Paul McCartney’s “Here Today.” Freddie Mercury’s song is no less heartfelt, and in some ways more fitting. Though the declaration “Lennon is a genius” leaves no doubt about its subject matter, the lyrical heart of the song is a collision of images and ideas worthy of the late Beatle, like “waking up in a minefield” and “love is a roulette wheel.”

It’s a Hard Life

Hot Space’s emphasis on funk and disco elements displeased many fans, especially in the United States, and by most accounts making the album was a difficult time for the band. Those influences remained audible on Queen’s next album, The Works, but the album as a whole returned to the band’s trademark sound. “It’s A Hard Life” embodied this approach. Written by Freddie Mercury, the track foregrounds his dramatic piano playing and vocals while giving John Deacon, Brian May, and Roger Taylor room to share their voices, both instrumentally and via the group’s distinctive vocal harmonies.

Is This the World We Created…?

Though released as the B-side to “It’s A Hard Life,” this piece is among Queen’s most widely heard with Freddie Mercury and Brian May performing it at Live Aid, leading into the London portion of the concert’s grand finale. The song’s subject matter – encapsulated in the lyric “just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed” – made it a fitting choice for the event. Mercury and May were inspired to write it by reports about poverty in Africa, much as Bob Geldof would be later in 1984 when he got the idea for Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

One Vision

Live Aid has sometimes been suggested as a possible inspiration for Queen’s 1985 single “One Vision,” though, other sources point to the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the impetus. Whatever inspired the band, the result was one of their greatest rock anthems, one that they played as the opening song for each show on their final tour with Freddie Mercury in 1986. Though it conveys an undeniable sense of purpose, the track also displays a sense of whimsy, ending with Mercury’s insistent call to, “Gimme gimme gimme gimme fried chicken!”

Who Wants to Live Forever

Queen contributed several songs to the soundtrack for the film Highlander, which they also reworked for A Kind of Magic. Brian May wrote “Who Wants to Live Forever” after screening an early edit of the scenes from the movie where the immortal Connor MacLeod watches his wife grow old and die while he stays forever young. One key difference between the movie and album versions is that where Freddie Mercury sang the full song for the movie, he and May trade verses on the album. In addition to being featured in the television spin-off from Highlander, the song was used to great effect in the film Bohemian Rhapsody in the scene that depicts Mercury learning that he has AIDS.

Was It All Worth It

Between Brian May’s marital problems and Freddie Mercury’s AIDS diagnosis, Queen’s 1989 album The Miracle reflected a tumultuous time for the members of Queen. Despite those issues, the result was another #1 album in the UK and a respectable showing in the United States, helped perhaps by the single “I Want It All.” The record’s closing track, “Was It All Worth It,” found Mercury looking back, pondering both sides of the ledger for fame in lyrics like, “Am I a happy man; or is this sinking sand?”

These Are the Days of Our Lives

Innuendo was the last Queen album to be released during Freddie Mercury’s lifetime. The singer’s passing makes it difficult to separate Roger Taylor’s reflective “These Are the Days of Our Lives” from the band’s personal history. Nevertheless, even when divorced from the sad context, the song aptly demonstrated that Mercury’s vocals could be just as affecting when exercising restraint as when he let loose.

The Show Must Go On

At the other end of the spectrum, Innuendo’s final song, “The Show Must Go On”, contains one of Freddie Mercury’s most powerful vocals. Released as a single a little over a month before Mercury’s death, it wasn’t the last Queen song to feature his vocals, but lyrics like “I’ll face it with a grin; I’m never giving in” make it feel very much like parting words. According to Brian May, the singer had trouble walking when the song was recorded, and the guitarist was unsure if his friend was up to it. Nevertheless, May recalled, “He went, ‘I’ll fucking do it, darling’ – vodka down – and went in and killed it, completely lacerated that vocal.”

Made In Heaven

Freddie Mercury made a concerted effort to record vocal and piano parts before his death that his band mates could work with and develop into full-fledged Queen songs later. Many of these became the foundation of their 1995 album Made in Heaven, along with a number of pieces that melded vocal tracks from Mercury’s 1980s solo albums with new instrumentation from the band. The album’s title track was one of the latter, the vocals having been previously recorded for Mercury’s 1984 solo album Mr. Bad Guy. Hearing how well those earlier vocals mesh with the intensity of Brian May’s guitar and Roger Taylor’s drumming, the track sounds like it was always meant to be a Queen song.

Let Me In Your Heart Again

One of the highlights of the 2014 collection Queen Forever was the inclusion of three previously unreleased songs from the band. While the long-delayed release of their collaboration with Michael Jackson, “There Must Be More to Life Than This,” got more attention, the set’s opening track, “Let Me In Your Heart Again,” was far more compelling. A Brian May composition, the song was originally recorded for The Works but never quite finished. May’s future wife, actress Anita Dobson, released a version of her own in 1988, more than two decades before May and drummer Roger Taylor revisited the band’s rendition. “When I put the original tape on, it was so astonishingly real, like it had been recorded that morning,” said Taylor. “It’s like suddenly coming across recordings of your parents after they’re gone. And then it turns into something rather joyful.”

-Don Klees

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