From that album’s release, Queen had soared, with the resulting world tour being massive, and then followed by their appearance at Live Aid in 1985, a set that has been coined as the greatest 20 minutes of live music in history. The band then wrote the soundtrack for the sci-fi adventure film “Highlander” which starred Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery, and produced the follow up album “A Kind of Magic”. Another world tour followed, and indeed became the final live performances of the band’s career which were commemorated with the “Live Magic” single LP, and down the track the “Live at Wembley 1986” double live album that showcased that entire performance.
Down the track this was revealed to be caused by Freddie’s illness in having contracted the AIDS virus, but at the time Freddie and the band had done a convincing job of hiding that diagnosis from the world, and of course it was not known at the time that the previous world tour would indeed be the band’s final one.
Three years was a long time between albums for the band, but on top of the long tour and Freddie’s illness, which was first diagnosed in 1987, Brian May had been going through a painful separation and subsequent divorce from his first wife, about which he had suffered feelings of failure as both a husband and father. While the band had begun the writing process for their new album in January of 1988, the process of writing and then recording eventually took up the whole of the next 12 months. It was also the first time that a Queen album had all of the songs credited to the band as a whole, rather than the individuals who were the composers. Given the collaboration that was always a part of their songwriting, it did seem as though it was a fair way of not only crediting all four members for their art, but sharing the song writing royalties.
Like all Queen albums, this really is a journey, where the music moves from different styles and genres all the way through, incorporating all four members and their contributions musically, in composition and vocally. As the band reached the end of the 80’s decade, there is a smooth combination of all of the band’s strengths instrumentally – the guitars, drums and piano/keyboards. Add to this great songs lyrically, and then sung as amazingly as always, and you have the basis of a great album.
The opening two tracks more or less meld together to make one song. The opening of “Party” sounds exactly like that, from Freddie’s opening spiel into Brian’s electrifying guitar riffs, John’s jutting bassline and Roger’s drumbeat, you can see in your mind the party going on as the band plays along. And as the song, and the party, winds down, suddenly we segue straight into the second track “Khashoggi’s Ship”, where ‘no one stops my party’, and the journey continues onward. It is a terrific energetic opening to the album. Then comes the less outlandish and more down to earth sound of the title track, “The Miracle”, certainly one of the most profound, beautiful and amazing songs from the band’s catalogue, and showcases the best of the Mercury/Deacon writing partnership. Lyrically it takes its own journey, poignant and heartfelt, strong and uplifting, a positive spin on everything that the world has to offer, before breaking out in a musical cacophony towards the end of the track. Just to quote the whole song is to read a list of what the world should be like – “We’re having a miracle on earth, Mother Nature does it all for us” – “If every child on every street, had clothes to wear and food to eat” – “If all God’s people could be free, to live in perfect harmony” – and most telling, “The one thing we’re all waiting for, is peace on earth, and an end to war”. This song is a masterpiece, one of Queen’s defining moments. I love how Brian May has been quoted as saying it is one of his favourite songs.
This is then followed by “I Want it All” which is quite simply one of the best songs ever written. It’s an anthem, an inspirational song on a musical level as well as a lyrical level. A Brian May blockbuster, with that guitar riff and drum beat at the very forefront of the track. Freddie’s vocals here are supreme, and I love the shared moments with Brian in the middle break. But then there is that middle solo section, where everything is contributing to the brilliance of what comes out. Yes, it is Brian’s amazing guitar solo, perfectly nuanced all the way through, but Roger’s drumming in this piece is also the element that is driving it, galloping the song along with its beat (apparently the only time he ever used a double kick drum), and then John’s superb bassline, jutting at the start, before running up and down the fretboard in the middle of the section – it truly is one of the best solo sections of any Queen song.
The magnificence of “The Invisible Man” follows, with great motion throughout and the rise and surge of the music and vocals along the way. The combination of Roger’s vocals alongside Freddie is terrific, as is the name checking of each of the four members of the band.
Side Two of the album opens with “Breakthru”, the song that sounds so much like a train rumbling down the tracks that the video for the song incorporated exactly that. As someone who generally despises love songs… this is the greatest love song ever written. Once again the lyrics speak for themselves – “I wake up, I feel just fine, you’re face fills my mind” – “Make my feelings known towards you, turn my heart inside and out for you now” – “Honey, you're sparking something, this fire in me, I'm outta control, I wanna rush headlong into this ecstasy” – and of course, “If I could only reach you, If I could make you smile, If I could only reach you, That would really be a breakthrough”.
“Rain Must Fall” has a very Latin sound about it, and is very much a change from the songs that have come before it, something the Mercury/Deacon compositions have a way of doing. Then comes “Scandal”, the scathing attack by Brian on the scathing attacks the media made on him during his divorce and subsequent relationship. Freddie creates a lot of emotion in his vocals in the way he sings this song, really driving home just how Brian must have felt at this time, and to me it has always acted as a marvellous tribute by Freddie to his bandmate in the way that he emotes while performing it. And, by the way, makes it a stunning track. This emotion is brought back in by “My Baby Does Me”, another Mercury/Deacon track that reels in the tempo and utilises and almost R&B sound to the song. The album then concludes with the majestic “Was it All Worth It”, a song constructed by Mercury, and when listening to the lyrics seems like an early epitaph. Freddie was obviously aware of his diagnosis when he wrote the lyrics, and though it can be read as simply a song that looks back on the bands career, and the work they had put in over the years, and asking the question was it all worth it… you can’t help but think that perhaps Freddie was also exploring his own mortality as the song was being written.
The Queen of the 1980’s is my band. “The Works”, “A Kind of Magic”, “The Miracle”. These are the albums that created my love of the band, and no matter how much I love their entire catalogue, it is these three albums that is where my heart still resides. Each is different, each has its own charms and foibles, and yet each to me are basically perfect albums. Each had their moment to imprint themselves upon me. “The Works” did so with the radio airplay the singles received. “A Kind of Magic” did so through the movie “Highlander” that it acted as a soundtrack for. “The Miracle” did in a different way. It was one of the albums released at this time that was not the focus of thrash and heavy metal that I was so indulgent with during 1989. This album acted as one that could be listened to in all company, and it was. For the remainder of 1989 from May onwards, and into the next year, my three closest friends at the time and I would go on car trips to Sydney, just under two hours drive from where we lived, once a month on a Friday. We all found a way to either get out of work or avoid uni, and go to Sydney for the day, almost always in the same friend’s car. During this time, he had purchased “The Miracle” on cassette so we could listen to it in the car. Thing was, at some stage, the cassette got stuck, and so it was the ONLY album that we could listen to, inn his car, on these trips. So, we listened to this album, much as Freddie sings in “Scandal”, ‘over and over and over and over again’. So, I can assure you we knew every word of every song. Great times and great memories. And it was a good thing we loved this album, and that another album wasn’t the one that got caught in there, like the rubbish dance music he also liked at the time, such as New Order or Pet Shop Boys. Ugh.
I bought this album on vinyl on one of those Sydney trips, at Utopia Records in Sydney, not long after its release, and was enamoured with it from the start. Actually, I fell in love with it. The constant playing of the album in the car on any road trip was amplified by the number of times I listened to it at home, and the number of times I played air guitar on “I Want it All”. As with all Queen albums, the differences between each of the songs came with the writers involved, even if they didn’t actually have their name credited against it.
The other major memory I have of this album was later in 1989, prior to going out to bat in a cricket match where we were chasing a large total. I sat in my car for an hour before I was required to bat, listening to “I Want it All”, then fast forwarding to “Breakthru”, and then back. Just those two songs, over and over. Nerves were expunged, and I went out that day and scored my highest score in top grade cricket, and we won the game. Coincidence? Unlikely. Those two songs in particular are anthemic, and great motivators. For me, on that day, they did exactly that.
“The Miracle” was the soundtrack to my life for the second half of 1989, as my life changed from under-performing university student to first full time job, and also being asked to join my first band, where I could parley my love of music into... something that resembled playing music. All of these memories flood back to me every time I put this album on. Some are great, some are not, but one thing that never changes is my love of this album. One of the very great things I have ever had the pleasure of buying and listening to.
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