Everything that took place in the world of the band Queen between the release of their thirteenth album “The Miracle” in May of 1989, and the release of their fourteenth album “Innuendo” in February of 1991 is something that has been documented in books, articles and documentaries for the last 35 years. Interviews with all of the band members, close friends, producers and management – all of them have offered just what that time was like for everyone involved, and of course mainly for the frail and failing of body of Freddie Mercury himself. But though his body may have been slowly wasting away, his mind and desire to work continue to burn brightly. Following the release of “The Miracle”, it was the first time the band had not toured to promote a new album. In an interview at the time on BBC Radio, Mercury had said that he wanted to break from the "album – tour – album – tour" routine. That assessment of course could have held water, given the amazing live schedule the band had kept over the preceding 16 years. What was not yet known at that time though was that Mercury had privately been diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1987, and at the time of the interview had been diagnosed with AIDS, which was also not yet publicised. Rumours abounded of course, because it was impossible to ignore the changing physique of the once athletically strong and bounding lead singer. His gaunt appearance and obvious weight loss led speculation that he was ill, and on the best knowledge basis it was probably AIDS related. While Mercury moved out of the public spotlight, his bandmates continued to deny anything was wrong. In February 1990, Queen won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. At the ceremony, Mercury was handed the award, but it was Brian May who spoke for the band. Freddie was gaunt and colourless, a shadow of his former self, and only further fuelled discussion of his possible illness. It was the final time he appeared in public.
Behind the scenes, the band and its close circle tried to keep him safe from the wolves, while also acceding to his own wishes. He was determined to continue working on music with Queen for as long as he could, saying that he would "keep working until I fucking drop". The media, as is their want, were persistent in staking out his home in London, making it impossible for anyone to enter without being known, or for Freddie to leave of his own accord. This led to the band relocating to Mountain Studios in Montreux, which gave Freddie and the band the space and comfort to work at their own pace. Mercury had his own retreat which enabled him to rest as much as he needed to during the writing and recording process.
As had occurred with “The Miracle”, all of the tracks on the album were credited to Queen rather than the main composers. May was quoted as saying that this decision helped the recording process and the compilation of the songs as a whole, while Roger Taylor believed that it eliminated the egotistic arguments that had sometimes cropped up when it came to whose songs would be released as singles, or would even make the completed album.
Through all of this turmoil, Queen’s fourteenth studio album was released without a barrage of publicity, but in the pomp and style that only Freddie Mercury and Queen could provide, on the back of the title track whihc had been released as a single three weeks earlier, which fuelled a demand and interest that hadn’t accompanied a Queen album in over a decade, the magnificent and truly incredible album called “Innuendo”.
“Innuendo” is the opening title track and lead single, partially inspired and written as a tribute to Led Zeppelin’s song Kashmir, deals with mankind’s inability to live with each other and constant search for meaning. It began as a jam session amongst May, Taylor and Deacon, which was overheard by Freddie and who then turned it into a song, creating the melody and starting off the lyrics before they were completed by Taylor. Roger Taylor’s drum roll and drum beat to enter the track marks an epic storm arising. May’s guitar backed by the keys, and John’s beautiful bass thump along the way, as Freddie and his vocal rises like the hero entering the throng, that incredible voice booming through the speakers.
And then the magnificent interlude of flamenco guitar, played exorbitantly and magnificently by Steve Howe, guitarist from the band Yes. And then comes the fait accompli, the powerful amazing solo from Brian, backing by the full overblown synth orchestra. Shivers down the spine stuff, before we crash back into the storm of the track, and the fullness of the band that comes through, of guitar and drums and bass, it fills the room and your ears. Epic doesn’t even begin to describe this song.
The opening synth of “I’m Going Slightly Mad” follows, as Freddie captures your attention immediately, and are the lyrics he is singing autobiographical? The song started composition in Mercury's London house, after he had the idea of writing a song about madness, inspired by Noël Coward's camp one-liners. Most of the lyrics like "I think I’m a banana tree" or "knitting with only one needle", came from both him and his friend Peter Straker, who stayed up all night in Mercury's kitchen. My favourite lines include: “I'm one card short of a full deck, I'm not quite the shilling, One wave short of a shipwreck, I'm not at my usual top billing”.
When “Headlong”, it is immediately a Brian May song, it has his guitar and the hard and heavy feel about it from the outset. Roger’s drums sonically are louder and hit harder. The bass sound from John rumbles in a more meaningful way, and of course Brian’s guitar is at the forefront. Freddie sings with great purpose, and with your eyes closed I can see him in his pomp, that black and white chequered tight pants phase when he is brandishing that microphone and stand with feeling, singing this song. It is how I see him doing it, despite the time difference between the two eras. This song has such a great tempo and jump about the track. I’m sure Freddie would have loved to have performed this on stage, revving up the crowd and getting them to join in. You get the feeling Brian thought so too, because he was apparently actually writing this song for his own solo album that became “Back to the Light”, but changed his mind after hearing Freddie sing it. And it works perfectly in that regard. He was quoted saying: “‘Headlong’ came from me, at our studio in Montreux, a home recording studio for us that’s very state-of-the-art, lovely for creating. The ideas came in a couple of days. At first I thought about it as a song for my solo album (Back To The Light) but, as always, the band is the best vehicle. As soon as I heard Freddie sing it, I said, ‘That’s it!’ Sometimes it’s painful to give the baby away, but what you gain is much more. It became a Queen song.”
“I Can’t Live with You” is another song Brian was writing for his sool album, but the other three were so enamoured with it that it became a Queen track instead. Brian’s original vision for the song was apparently a much harder heavier version, while this version drew more on keys and synths to soften it for a Queen audience. It is a powerful love lyric throughout, highlighted by the lines: “I can't live with you, But I can't live without you, 'Cause I'm in love with you, Ooh, and everything about you”. Once again the harder edge to the music is pure Brian May, while Freddie’s energetic vocal leads the emotion of the song.
“Don’t Try So Hard” is a beautiful Freddie Mercury ballad, one that channels moments of the Highlander soundtrack with its musical composition and soaring vocals, and even the way the lyrics tie together. May’s guitar also offers visions of that film and the music that came from it on the “A Kind of Magic” album. Brian May ranks it as one of his personal favourite Queen tracks and favourite Mercury performance. Freddie’s vocals are the absolute hero of the track, hauntingly mesmerising.
“Ride the Wild Wind”. Roger Taylor brings us his ever present classic track, and this is outstanding. His drumming here, that backs the guitar driven beauty from Brian, that perpetuates the song into a never ending race, is incredible. Brian’s guitaring and solo is top shelf, and the heavier emphasis in the middle is wonderfully coordinated, and of course Freddie and Roger both bring home this song with their glorious vocal contributions. The smooth interpretation of the lines “Get your head down baby (Yeah), We're gonna ride tonight, Your angel eyes are shining bright, I wanna take your hand, lead you from this place, gonna leave it all behind, check out of this rat race” are moodily mixed with car sounds throughout which accentuate the motion and velocity of the song. But the star turn of the track is John Deacon and his bass line throughout. Listen back to the track and just listen to what he is doing throughout the song underneath everything else you can hear. He is the Reason this track is so magnificent, fingers running up and down that fretboard, never understated and yet never trying to take the focus off the other three - but this song does not work without what he plays on his bass guitar. John’s contributions to Queen have been without question, and his genius is unquestioned, but for me this is his most remarkable achievement, the place where he explodes out of the speakers and demands attention. This is hands down one of my favourite ten songs ever by Queen. It is one of the greatest songs ever produced, and concludes arguably the best first half of a Queen album ever.
With such a rush, the second half of the album has a lot to live up to, and perhaps because of that, there is a slight letdown for me when I get into it. “All God’s People” is a gospel song, or certainly as close as Freddie Mercury could come to writing one. Coming as it does, after such a strong selection of tracks with high energy and tempo, this is one that takes some getting used to, especially for the larger number of keys and synths used, recorded by Mike Moran. Initially it was set to be on Mercury’s ‘Barcelona’ album, but came to be used here instead.
“These Are the Days of Our Lives” is perhaps better known and more significant through the music video, which was the final one made by the band. In it, an obviously gaunt and weight deprived Freddie Mercury appears. By the time the video was made, it had become impossible to disguise that Mercury was seriously ill. The video was filmed in colour, but converted to black and white to minimise Mercury's frail appearance. But it was the final act of the video, and the final line of the song that is most remembered, as Freddie looks directly at camera and says “I still love you”, before he disappears off screen with a flourish of his hand… and was never seen again. It is an emotional moment, both on video and in the song itself. This was composed by Roger Taylor, and one can actually hear him singing it in your head if you listen to the composition and imagine his voice. And the lines are his, that are so poignant: “Those were the days of our lives, the bad things in life were so few, Those days are all gone now, but one thing's still true, When I look and I find I still love you”.
When it comes to “Delilah”… well, I can only agree with Taylor, who in the years since has aired his own disappointment with the song. It’s a bit of an ‘Oh dear’ moment. Freddie wrote it about his favourite cat. It’s a bit too cutesy.
“The Hitman” surprises as it was started by Mercury himself, with the original version apparently on keyboards and in a different key. May took this and changed the key and recorded a demo of the heavy version. John Deacon then re-arranged the structure, and the band finished it off together. I love this song, solely for the sheer heavy metal guitar evident from Brian and the vocal to match from Freddie. There would be many Queen fans who would be less enamoured by the song’s tone and harshness, but for me it is a gem. A ripper. A beauty. Because I am the hitman!
"Bijou" was an idea Mercury and May had of making a song "inside-out", having guitar doing the verses and the vocal doing the break. Mercury put the chords, title and lyrics, and the two of them worked on the guitar parts. The song was finished without any input from Taylor or Deacon. It is the second of the beautiful tracks on the album, where Freddie and Brian gives us a performance for the ages.
The album concludes with the piece de resistance, “The Show Must Go On”. Is there a more poignant, more emotional, more incredibly sad yet exhilarating song ever written than “The Show Must Go On”?. Freddie was ill, so ill that Brian feared he would be unable to sing the song in the studio with the energy and sheer velocity that it required. And yet, he appeared, and gave us the vocal that is apparent on this track. How do you come out and sing this song, suffering as he must have been, with the lyrics as they are, obviously expressing the fear that Brian and his bandmates had for their closest of friends and the struggle he was going through? It seems like a bridge too far. And instead, Freddie made it an anthem, and a sheer fist pumping anthemic track like he had done in the past, and took Brian’s song and made it about him, but not in a despondent or sad or tragic way – he made it the positive and uplifting song that he did with most Queen tracks, one that he could have been singing for the next 35 years. Instead, we got this performance, that will still live forever.
Unlike a proportion of Queen’s fandom of the time this album was released, I loved the Queen albums of the mid-to-late 1980’s. My first album experience of the band had been “The Works”, which I loved and love. Then had come the film ‘Highlander’ and the album that it is married to, “A Kind of Magic”, which I loved and love. And then came “The Miracle”, that created yet another obsession within me, and an album I loved and love. The music of those three albums covered three different eras of my existence – the start of high school, the latter years of high school, and the early years of life out of school. Each played a significant part in the soundtrack to those years for me.
My first time listening to this album came at my friend’s house, another Queen fan in Anthony who was on our Queen Retrospective episode on this podcast in Season 1. It is still there if you are interested. Five of us gathered to sit around the stereo and listen to the album – my first time, definitely not theirs given they were all unemployed. And what I heard was PRETTY much everything that I could have expected of the release. Even on first listen, the heavy hitters of the album were immediately obvious, as were the songs that perhaps don’t quite reach the heights one may have wanted. You’ve heard all of those thoughts already. And they haven’t really changed that much over the years. I remember that first time though, looking around at my firends and marvelling at the title track, and “Headlong”, and “I Can’t Live with You”, and the closing epic of “The Show Must Go On”. And while those immediately jumped out as the main songs to be heard here, it was the cacophony of the entire album that drew breath from that moment. Unlike some other bands and albums, I had not even thought of perhaps hyping this up too much to the point that I would dislike it. This was Queen. There just didn’t feel as though there could be any way they would stuff this up. And they did not.
1991 was an interesting year in the albums and bands that I listened to, in that the first five months of the year had almost nothing released that came into my field of vision. I was still dining out on those amazing albums released in the last bit of 1990, and that is what I remember still being in love with. Which meant that “Innuendo” had a lot of free space to capture my imagination and get played to death in. Which is exactly what happened. It was always in my CD player at home, the taped cassette version was always in the car. I bombed my senses with this album over and over again, and just never seemed to grow tired of it. This continued for most of 1991, right through until the final throes of the band as we knew it with the passing of Freddie in October 1991. And then it just went back into heavy rotation as a result, through until the Tribute concert at Wembley in April 1992, and further. Indeed, apart from “The Miracle”, this would be the Queen album that I have listened to the most, And it would not be overplaying the statement to say that I would have listened to this album over a thousand times.
So. This anniversary comes up. And, it is one of those big moment albums for me. I can’t afford to stuff up this review. I have to be able to express exactly what this album means to me without just gushing over it endlessly. I need to be able to explain WHY I love it so much, and why some of these songs still mean so much to me. And once again, I know even as I say this that I probably haven’t done it. The emotion I feel when I listen to and try to sing along with songs like “Innuendo”, “The Show Must Go On” and “Ride the Wild Wind” can really only be experienced by being here with me when I listen to this album. And yes, that mostly comes from knowing it was Freddie’s last hurrah, and that while he was performing these songs in the studio he knew they would be his last. And that his band mates knew it would be their last times together as well. That’s a huge emotional burden to carry. And it does weigh upon me at times when listening to the album.
On this review I have tried to be candid and honest. No, not all of the tracks hit me in the same spot. But that is true of most Queen albums. There is almost always a couple of tracks that I am not as excited about as the majority, and that comes from the fact that all four members of the band have different loves when it comes to listening to and composing music, and that comes through in their tracks when they are involved at that level. So not everything is 100% here for me. But listening to it again over the last few days, what gets me most is the musicianship of all four members. The quality of their playing is so outstanding that it is hard to believe they have done so little since the release of this album. The recording of the instruments is somewhat amazing. Roger’s drumming, Brian licks and solos, Joh’s simply incredible bass lines, and the other instruments they utilise along the way. And of course those voices, brought together one last time. That’s what still gets me to this day. Perhaps not every song is, as my son would say, a banger, but there is no question of the quality of the four men and their musical magnificence.
As a closing chapter, “Innuendo” could hardly have been better presented. Yes, “Made in Heaven” was to come, but this was truly where the band came to the finish line, and it is an album worthy of finishing on. At least they got the chance to be able to produce this. The fact that they were together for just 20 years and 14 (or 15) albums draws comparisons with The Beatles in regard to the number of albums and quality of the discography they produced in a significantly short career space. 35 years on – and just saying that out loud makes me realise how old I have gotten, more than a decade older than Freddie himself walked this earth – and this album still resonates with all of the epic grandeur it did on its release. And it remains as one of their most beloved releases.
I’ll face it with a grin, I’m never giving in, on with the show.
