385. Queen / Flash Gordon. 1981. 3/5

It is an interesting prospect for a band that, at the time, could quite rightly be heralded as one of the biggest bands in the world, to go down the road of recording music for a movie soundtrack, let alone becoming one of the main composers of the music for the entire film. And yet, this is a role that Queen took on at a time when they already had their hands full with not only current top ten singles and world tours, but also trying to compose and create their own next studio album in the process.
The band had been courted by producer Dino De Laurentiis’ people to ask whether Queen would be interested in scoring a film they were beginning to work on in late 1979 (although De Laurentiis wasn’t actually aware of the band at all as he apparently never listened to rock music). In an interview following the movie’s release, Brian May spoke about being brought in to a projection room and being shown a lengthy clip of the movie. “We wanted to do something that was a real soundtrack”, he said. “It’s a first in many ways because a rock group has not done this type of thing before, or else it’s been toned down, and they’ve been asked to write mushy background music. Whereas we were given the license to do what we liked, as long as it complimented the picture”. Once the band had agreed enthusiastically to becoming involved, apart from the their inner circle, and the higher echelons of their record company, Queen’s work on the “Flash Gordon” project was kept under wraps so as not to dilute the impact of their influence upon the movie’s soundtrack.
Like the band other album released in 1980, “The Game”, the recordings took place in two distinct batches. In fact, during the session in early 1980, the band was working on both albums almost at the same time, and the similarity of songs such as “Play the Game” to those that appear in “Flash Gordon” cannot be dismissed. Still, they remain two completely different albums because one is a typical Queen album, and the other is written for the purposes of a movie soundtrack. After initial recordings early in 1980, the band completed “The Game” and on its release began an extensive touring cycle to promote it. It wasn’t until October that the band returned to complete work on the soundtrack, with the release date of the movie looming. This they did, with the Queen album release straddling that of the movie itself, and with both playing off against each other, the success of either or both could be said to be tied into the other, in a gamble that played out in real time.

The band maintained an extremely hands-on approach when it came to creating and recording the soundtrack for Flash Gordon. It was the band’s idea to use snippets of dialogue throughout songs on the album in order to give a sense of telling the story itself. If they had just provided the musical pieces that they composed for certain scenes without the dialogue, then this would have been less an album than a movie music score. To be fair, that is really what this anyway. This is very little vocals, only coming in two songs. Freddie Mercury was still very involved in the writing and creating and playing of the tracks, it is just that his iconic vocals only make an appearance in a very limited way. He did however utilise his graphic design skills to create the distinctive Flash Gordon logo.
The majority of Flash Gordon is though mostly instrumental along with the intakes of the dialogue from the movie, but it still quintessentially Queen. The introduction of synthesisers is incorporated a lot along with the layered Brian May guitar as always, and that is the key important point about this album. The band had to design and create tracks that not only complemented the mood of the scenes they are designed for, but to bring out the emotion and fire when necessary. And this is when Queen is at its best, creating compositions that do exactly that. So although we don’t have Freddie bursting at the seams with his amazing vocals, we still have the band itself creating these moments. And yes, moments of these songs do cross into others (the obvious one being “Battle Theme” and “The Hero”, along with “Flash’s Theme” and “Flash to the Rescue”), but that is what designing a soundtrack requires. “Battle Theme” is uplifting and fist pumpingly great, interspersed with the movie’s dialogue, as is “Football Fight” in the same way. “Flash to the Rescue” incorporates the mood of his rescue bid, and along with “Voltan’s Theme” showcase the way the band has been able to write music that interprets and enhances the scene’s they are written for. Indeed, here on this album, the build in mood through the middle of the album, from “Escape from the Swamp”, through “Flash to the Rescue”, “Voltan’s Theme”, “Battle Theme” to “The Wedding March”, wonderfully adapted by Brian May, is very well done. “Crash Dive on Mingo City” increases the tension and power of the moment, before the concluding epic finish of “Flash’s Theme Reprise” and “The Hero”.
The two outstanding moments on this album are the bookending tracks, because they are the two true Queen songs of the album. “Flash’s Theme”, known better just as Flash when it was released as the single from the album, is the best known of the album. There isn’t a Queen fan out there that doesn’t know the song, nor doesn’t quote along with the lines from the movie that are a part of its structure. Brian May’s fingers are all over its composition, the hard rock anthem that the movie needs, and it is still a beauty to this day. But perhaps it is bettered by the concluding anthem of “The Hero”. Incorporating the same moments from the opening track, this is an even better example of prime Brian May, but also the band in toto. John Deacon’s bass line through the song is outstanding, as is Roger Taylor’s hammering drum work. They both set up this as an almost heavy metal classic, which then incorporates orchestration in the middle of the track. Brian’s riffing and beautiful solo still steal the scene here, but how about Freddie’s vocals? Just. Freaking. Outstanding. Wonderfully backed by Brian and those amazing high notes from Roger as well. It is the star attraction here, and completes this album on as high a note as you could possibly create. I’m still pumped up having just finished listening to the album again.

My word I love Queen. Their discography remains an amazing one, with so many twists and turns and just plain hard work put into them. As you will no doubt have already heard if you have listened to any of my other Queen related episodes, or indeed checked out the very informative Queen Retrospective episode I did with my good friend Anthony earlier in Season 1, then you will know that it was “The Works” that became my first Queen album purchase, and it was the “Greatest Hits” and “Live Killers” albums that filled in a lot of the holes around that.
While I may not have had this album initially, I most definitely had seen the movie ”Flash Gordon”, and I have watched it many many times in the years since. If I haven’t watched this film 50 times then I am a bad judge. I just love it, every single B Grade moment of it. Watching Max Von Sydow, Brian Blessed, Topol and Timothy Dalton in particular, hamming it up on the screen, is just wonderful, and I never get tired of it. And the soundtrack music is a part of that, it adds the extra flavour. If it had just had a normal soundtrack added to it, the movie would never have worked as well.
That being said - as an album, is it one you are going to pull out and listen to very often? I know I don’t. I have had the album for years, but I would suggest that I have listened to it more often over the last week than I have at any other time in my life. And there are two major reasons for this. This first is the one that has already been made fairly clear. These are, for the most part, not songs rather than they are mood setters, instrumental passages that are designed to infuse and enhance a scene in a movie, that have been specifically written for that design. And while it is done amazingly well by these four terrific musicians, it doesn’t become what I want when I go to put on an album. Indeed, in the aforementioned Queen Retrospective I did with Anthony, I listed this album as #15 out of the 15 studio albums, for the sole reason that I don’t really consider it a Queen album, it is a movie score. It certainly isn't like the other movie album the band produced, “A Kind of Magic”, which doubled as the soundtrack for the movie “Highlander”. The other major reason to be nominated here as to why I dont listen to this album much is this – when I feel like listening to this album, it’s because I get a couple of songs in and think “wow, I’d really like to watch Flash Gordon again!” And so, instead, I go and watch the movie again, and enjoy it all over again, while also getting Queen providing the soundtrack.
Like I mentioned, I have listened to this again this past week, and moments of it are still brilliant. Others are just passing music moments where without the scene playing out in front of me I’d be quite happy not to listen to it at all.
Following this, 1981 was dominated by the “Greatest Hits” album the band released, which gave them a year off from producing their next album, and gave them the opportunity to decide just where they wanted to head in that regard. It was to be a decision that in many ways split their fan base considerably. But that story is for another episode a little ways down the track.