This is a Queen masterpiece where Freddie guides us to worship the musicians...Deaky steady on Bass, Roger unrelenting on percussions and Brian with his guitar riffs all framing Freddie, vocalist extraordinaire, as only 1/4th of 4 extraordinaire musicians who come to entertain, not letting anyone down.
Teamwork: John drives this song and even course corrects. Watch John over emphasizing the beat with his strumming hand as Brian crossed over to get him on the same page right before they have the trio moment on side of stage. Terrific.
This is a thumping song written by Brian. The bass on this song is powerful and carries the song. The guitar solo is wonderfully dirty and Roger is an engine pushing everything forward, pounding the skins in the background. This is an instrument forward song with Freddie being more an accent than the usual lead.
Oh I love the beginning of the video! Freddie’s singing with the audience, says something about getting it with the beat, so Roger comes in with some drums, then John catches onto the key he’s singing in and adds his own bass riffs and eventually Brian comes in and it becomes this whole jam! Then they stop for a couple of beats and start “Dragon Attack. What a concert!
Sexy and sassy .. “It’s hot, it’s mean” 🐉🔥 Bassist John Deacon commented that this was one of his favorite songs to play!! I bet .. Really love Brian’s fire-breathing Red Special .. that 5th member of Queen. 🎸🔥 Give the studio version a listen .. so worth it. Thank you 🙏🏻
I finally noticed your profile pic--love it so much! I don't recall seeing anyone else put together a photo of Freddie from his young teenage years at boarding school with a photo of the beautiful adult man Fred he grew up to be! I've spent a lot of time obsessing over what Freddie went through in that boarding school. In Freddie's first band, The Hectics, you probably know, he looked like that young photo. He played the piano but didn't yet sing. He had insulting nicknames at that school, because of his teeth. His bandmates, interviewed when they were adults, couldn't control their envy and jealousy of Freddie's success!
I really like your reactions very much. If I may, I have some thoughts about “crowd control” that so many people are talking about in connection to Freddie Mercury. I even heard some commenters saying that he could influence people to bad things only if he wanted to (like some kind of Mussolini). But he could not. I think what make people say these things are some associations to historic images of crowds in dictatorial countries and maybe some professional jargon. What Freddie was doing WHITH the crowd is creating. Yes, he is conducting, he is leading this fortunate people to be there, but it is not about power and not about control. My association is of a new “Music of the Spheres”, which you can hear (ho very loud) in your ears, in your body and in your heart. Freddie is harmonizing the audience with the band and creates energy of pure music, like praying, that unites all hearts to beat like one. This is not about controlling when all as one are tuned to joy and love of life under the dome of heaven.
(DAME, I also like your reactions.) I appreciate that you addressed this topic, Ofrah. Freddie's rapport with the audiences was remarkable, creative, uniting and about joy and love, as you said! I'm old and have been to many concerts, and most were great to hear, but I've never seen any bands except Queen and The Kinks really try to connect with their audience in a loving and fun way. Rolling Stone reviewer Dave Marsh hated Queen (he was an awful homophobe) and said that the singer couldn't sing and the band couldn't play, and called them creeps--hardly a music review! The magazine continued to let him do this, album after album, and he even called them a "fascist rock band," to insult Freddie's command over an audience as large as 250,000 people, while other reviewers were in awe of that skill! I wouldn't be surprised to find that besides being afraid of gay and bisexual people he also hated Indian people, British people or anyone who wasn't just like him. His idol was Bruce Springsteen--his wife had a connection to Springsteen, which should have been a conflict of interest to keep him from doing his album reviews!
Hey bro great reaction. You should check out the Milton Keynes version. You get to see the crowd up close your age group. The band members as well. I think John the bassist got good highlights in that one. I love it.
This song shows you how much of a foursome this group is, all four members contributed equally and the group was never the same without any one of them
This song is the result of a night spent drinking in Munich (where the band recorded the Game album) they returned to the studio and started jamming just for joy, this live version is far much better than the recorded one. Freddie was born to music: talent, soul, sense of rhythm, vocal range, eclectic taste and unparalleled perserverance. Pls, check out Save Me from the same concert.
Oh your thumbnail threw me. That’s Milton Keynes. Many believe it’s a better version than this one. If you check it out, make sure you get the intro. 👍 They all shine here.
