Brian May – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Queen – You’re My Best Friend

I like Queen every once in a while, but I have to take them in doses. Queen is over the top, and they went out of their way to do that, which is fine, but in this song, they keep it more simple. I first got into them when my friend Paul, brought the News Of The World album cover to school, as we all loved the cool robot. Before he did that, I do remember this song on the radio. Out of all of their well-known hits, this one is a little different, more pure pop-sounding.

In the hands of another band, this song could have turned into a bland pop song. The harmonies and the arrangement by Queen lifted this song up. It was written by the bass player John Deacon. All members of Queen encouraged each other to write, and each one of them wrote at least one hit. Deacon wrote this one, I Want To Break Free, and the huge Another One Bites The Dust.

It was written for his wife, Veronica, while the couple were newly married. That explains the warmth in the lyrics, which never dip into rock-star bombast. Musically, it stands out in Queen’s catalog because of that Wurlitzer electric piano. Deacon played it and made it the song’s signature sound, even though Freddie Mercury didn’t like that instrument at all. Well, Freddie was wrong here because it fit the song perfectly. You cannot get that sound from a grand piano.

The song came off the A Night at the Opera album. This is one of the two albums that Queen named after Marx Brothers movies…the other one is Day at the Races. They were watching the A Night at the Opera movie while making the album. They became friends with Groucho Marx in the mid-seventies.

It peaked at #16 on the Billboard 100, #7 in the UK, and #2 in Canada in 1976.

Freddie Mercury: I refused to play that damn thing, It’s tiny and horrible and I don’t like them. Why play those when you have a lovely superb piano.

You’re My Best Friend

Ooh you make me live
Whatever this world can give to me
It’s you you’re all I see
Ooh you make me live now honey
Ooh you make me live

Ooh you’re the best friend that I ever had
I’ve been with you such a long time
You’re my sunshine and I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you
Oh you’re my best friend

Ooh you make me live

Ooh I’ve been wandering round
But I still come back to you
In rain or shine
You’ve stood by me girl
I’m happy at home
You’re my best friend

Ooh you make me live
Whenever this world is cruel to me
I got you to help me forgive
Ooh you make me live now honey
Ooh you make me live

You’re the first one
When things turn out bad
You know I’ll never be lonely
You’re my only one
And I love the things
I really love the things that you do
Ooh you’re my best friend

Ooh you make me live

I’m happy at home
You’re my best friend
Oh you’re my best friend
Ooh you make me live
You’re my best friend

Queen – We Will Rock You

I just saw a post about the album cover for News Of The World at The Press Music Reviews. It made me think of the first time I saw the cover of this album and when I heard this song.

In 3rd or maybe 4th-grade recess we were all going outside playing kickball. A friend of mine named Paul brought this album to school. We all looked at it and couldn’t stop talking about that cool robot cover. That was before I listened to it.

When I first heard We Will Rock You… the guitar solo is what stood out to me. It’s so simple yet catchy like many of Brian May’s solos…it was more like a hook. It turned into an anthem with We Are The Champions. I made a vow that if I learned how to play guitar one day I would learn that solo. I forgot about that vow until a few years ago and I finally kept that promise to myself.

We Will Rock You was released as a double A-side single with We Are The Champions. Since the songs were released, the band has almost always used “Rock You” and “Champions” as a back-to-back encore number. The album peaked at #3 in the Billboard Album charts, #2 in Canada, #15 in New Zealand, and #4 in the UK in 1977.

On Queen’s next album, they had another set of songs disc jockeys played together. “Bicycle Race” and “Fat Bottomed Girls” were segued together on their album Jazz. Those songs were also released as a double A-side single.

While in the studio they had a visit from no other than Sid Vicious. He berated Freddie Mercury and asked him if he had brought ballet to the masses yet…referring to an earlier Mercury interview. Freddie said “I called him, I dunno, Simon Ferocious or something, and just pushed him out. I think… yeah, I think we passed that test.” Roger Taylor later called Vicious a moron and idiot.

Brian May: There were two occasions that inspired it. One I’ve spoken about a lot, which was at Bingley Hall [near Birmingham, England] where the audience sang every song and then we went off stage and they carried on singing and then they sang [the de facto Liverpool F.C. football anthem] “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” It was a transitional time in rock. You went to see Led Zeppelin and The Who, you’d bang your head but you didn’t sing along, that wasn’t cool. This was an invitation to sing along.

A light went off and I thought, “We shouldn’t fight this, we should embrace it!” People didn’t do that at the time at rock concerts. I thought, “How interesting — if I wrote something, the audience could participate it to the point that they could lead the band?” I went to sleep and woke up with “We Will Rock You” in my head. When you’re at a show you can hardly move, but you can stomp your feet and chant and clap and lead us.

Roger Taylor: “It only has one instrument apart from the voice: There’s no bass, no real drums — just feet and handclaps and only that guitar at the very end. It’s quite an odd song. It was designed as a sort of song for the audience, a joining-in song. But we never really envisioned that it would be taken up by sports. It’s one of delights of… I’ve spent my life being in a band, so it sidelined all sports. I reckoned I could meet more girls being in a band than playing soccer.”

The single was accompanied by a promo video that saw Queen perform the song in Roger Taylor’s back garden and We Will Rock You quickly became the opening number on the band’s winter tour.

We Will Rock You

Buddy, you’re a boy, make a big noise
Playing in the street, gonna be a big man someday
You got mud on your face, you big disgrace
Kicking your can all over the place, singin’

We will, we will rock you
We will, we will rock you

Buddy, you’re a young man, hard man
Shouting in the street, gonna take on the world someday
You got blood on your face, you big disgrace
Waving your banner all over the place

We will, we will rock you, sing it
We will, we will rock you

Buddy, you’re an old man, poor man
Pleading with your eyes, gonna make you some peace someday
You got mud on your face, big disgrace
Somebody better put you back into your place

We will, we will rock you, sing it
We will, we will rock you, everybody
We will, we will rock you
We will, we will rock you
Alright

Queen – Killer Queen

This is one of the first Queen songs I heard. I saw Queen’s popularity in America peak in with The Game. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing Another One Bites the Dust. After that album, I didn’t hear as much from there here. Now they are peaking again after the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.

The first single from Queen’s third album, Sheer Heart Attack was released in 1974. The song peaked at #12 in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK, #15 in Canada.

Killer Queen was their first song to chart outside their native UK, where “Seven Seas of Rhye,” from their previous album Queen II. Their breakthrough to superstardom came with their next album, A Night At The Opera, which has the epic Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Sheer Heart Attack album cover was shot by Mick Rock, who did the famous cover of their previous album, Queen II. Freddie Mercury typically drove the visual direction of the band, but it was drummer Roger Taylor who came up with the concept for the Sheer Heart Attack cover.

Roger Taylor wanted them to look like they had been thrown up from a shipwreck on some distant shore,’ so that’s what ick Rock shot. He said they were soaking wet with a lot of spraying going on.

Freddie Mercury : “It’s about a high class call girl. I’m trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. That’s what the song is about, though I’d prefer people to put their interpretation upon it – to read into it what they like.”

Brian May: “This is a perfect pop record and one of Freddie’s greatest songs. It’s beautifully constructed and it’s also got one of the solos I’m most proud of.”
“Every slice of that record is pure pop perfection. Little things that visit once and come again, like the little bell in the second verse.”

From Songfacts

Regarding the line, “‘Let them eat cake’ she says, just like Marie Antoinette,” according to legend, Marie Antoinette (the Queen of France) said “Let them eat cake” after hearing how the peasants had no bread to eat. It’s more likely that the phrase was uttered by a French philosopher, not Antoinette.

The Marie Antoinette quote has gone down in history as justification for the French Revolution. It demonstrates how out of touch with the common folk the ruling class had become. According to legend, when informed that there was no bread for the people to eat, she replied, oblivious, “then let them eat cake!” It is said, that enraged by this incredibly ignorant response, the people revolted. In the song, it is used to demonstrate at what level this high priced prostitute sells her wares.

This was one of the first songs recorded at The Quadrangle, a studio opened at the Rockfield Studios complex in Wales in 1973. The following year, Queen recorded much of their Sheer Heart Attack album at Rockfield, and in 1975 they did the bulk of “Bohemian Rhapsody” there.

In Ben Elton’s musical We Will Rock You, Killer Queen is an evil matriarch who controls the music industry.
Nevertheless, he was a little reticent at first about releasing it: “I was a little hesitant; I was thinking are we setting ourselves as something very light?” He relates this back to how initially the band were very heavy and rock-orientated, and “Killer Queen” was a major departure from that sound.

Californian pop princess Katy Perry named one of her fragrances after this tune. She told Women’s Wear Daily the song’s lyrics really spoke to her when she was a teenager. “Killer Queen has been in my vocabulary since I was 15,” Perry said. “Freddie Mercury painted the lyrics of this woman who I wanted to be. She seemed very powerful, and she captivated a room when she walked in.”

This song was covered by Sum 41 for the 2005 Queen tribute album Killer Queen.

In the video game Guitar Hero 3, one of the unlockable guitars called the “Card Sharp Special” can have a finish called “Killer Queen.” In the description it says: ” Something about dynamite and laser beams? what’s that all about? and who am I to deny it?”, which is a reference to the song lyrics.

Killer Queen

She keeps her Moet et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
“Let them eat cake”, she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Kruschev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can’t decline

Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice

She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?

To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah
Then again incidentally
If you’re that way inclined

Perfume came naturally from Paris (naturally)
For cars she couldn’t care less
Fastidious and precise

She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Drop of a hat she’s as willing as
Playful as a pussy cat
Then momentarily out of action
Temporarily out of gas
To absolutely drive you wild, wild
She’s all out to get you

She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
You wanna try

Famous Rock Guitars Part 1

I love guitars…I own 12 of them. It’s something about them that draws me in. Each one has its own sound and vibe. My family made guitars in the 60’s and 70’s so I do remember as a small kid walking into the guitar shop smelling the wood and glue. Some guitars are just as famous as their former or current owners.

I will include 2 guitars per post…this week we have two famous guitars from two completely different artists.

Brian May’s “Red Special”

Brian May’s sound was as a big part of Queen as Mercury’s voice. Brian May designed and built the Red Special with his father, in 1963, using any parts they could find. The neck of the guitar was fashioned from an 18th-century fireplace mantel, the inlays on the neck from a mother-of-pearl button. For the body, they used wood from an old oak table. Then the bricoleurs combined a bike saddlebag holder, a plastic knitting needle tip, and motorbike valve springs to create a tremolo arm.

Brian May: I remembered that at the time we finished the topcoat of varnish, my Dad had wanted to christen her as the Brian May Special, and I had poo-pooed the idea; now I realized that it wasn’t so uncool to give her a proper name. So one day in a radio interview, when someone asked me what I called the guitar, the words Red Special just tumbled out before I’d had time to think.

The Red Special is not in a museum it’s with Brian and it’s still his number 1 guitar.

Willie Nelson’s ‘Trigger’

I have a couple of guitars that has some cracking in the finish but nothing I’ve had or seen compares with this one.

For more than 40 years Willie Nelson has been playing a Martin N-20 nylon-string acoustic guitar he named “Trigger,” after Roy Rogers’ horse. A classical guitar designed with no pick-guard, the famous relic has developed a gaping hole in the body.

Willie got this guitar in 1969 after a drunk stepped on his Baldwin guitar. The same year he bought Trigger his house caught fire and Willie braved the blaze to pull it out.

Willie Nelson has said….“When Trigger goes, I’ll quit.”

Trigger sees a guitar technician at least twice a year, and despite everything the instrument has been through it has no major cracks, the back is whole, and the headstock has never been broken.

Willie still plays this guitar…and yes it has a distinctive sound all its own.

Queen – Somebody To Love

This may be my favorite Queen song. I loved to play this in my car when I was a teen with a stereo that could blow your hair back.

This song is sung with a gospel feel, with the voices of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, and Roger Taylor multitracked to sound like a choir. According to Brian May, the gospel sound was inspired by the music of Aretha Franklin.

Freddie Mercury wrote Somebody To Love. In interviews Freddie has said the lyrics reflect a man calling out to God, asking why he works so hard, but can’t find love. At the end of the song, he finds hope and decides he will not accept defeat

The song peaked at #13 in the Billboard 100, #2 in the UK, and #5 in Canada in 1977. The song was on the album A Day At The Races.

The band was super talented and it wasn’t just Freddie’s voice that made it… All the members contributed. Brian May’s guitar playing and sound was just as much part of Queen. John Deacon’s bass playing and songwriting that produced some of their big hits. Roger Taylor who is an excellent drummer also wrote some of their bigger songs.

From Songfacts

.Peter Hince, the head of Queen’s road crew, recalled to Mojo magazine September 2009 that “among the road crew there were songs you liked and songs you didn’t like.” He added that this was, “always one of Queen’s best. The studio version was very polished, but on-stage there was so much more guts to it.”

Hince recalled to Mojo the video was “filmed at Wessex Studios while they were making the A Day at the Races album.” He added: “Aesthetically, you had to have all four around the microphone, but John (Deacon) didn’t sing on the records. By his own admission he didn’t have the voice. He did sing on-stage but the crew always knew to keep the fader very low.”

Several bootleg recordings and live videos exist where evidently John’s mic was not turned down, and it becomes painfully obvious that the above statement is true – one particular live performance of “In The Lap Of The Gods” is wince-inducing!

In October 2009 a remake by the cast of the Fox TV musical comedy Glee returned this song to #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #26 on the UK singles chart. Their version was featured in the episode “The Rhodes Not Taken.”

Frank Turner covered this for the B-side to his vinyl release of “I Still Believe” in 2011.

The Voice contestant Jordan Smith’s rendition took the song back into the upper reaches of the Hot 100. The week after his performance of the song on the December 7, 2015 episode of the singing competition, Smith’s version debuted at #21 on the chart.

This was used in a commercial for the Honda Ridgeline that debuted during the 2016 Super Bowl. In the spot, a flock of sheep sing this song, having heard it when they were transported in a Ridgeline with a truck-bed audio system, which we’re sure is quite handy for teaching songs to sheep.

Somebody To Love

Each morning I get up I die a little
Can barely stand on my feet (take a look at yourself)
Take a look in the mirror and cry
Lord, what you’re doing to me
I have spent all my years in believing you
But I just can’t get no relief, Lord
Somebody uh (somebody) somebody (somebody)
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

I work (he works hard) hard every day of my life
I work ’til I ache my bones
At the end (at the end of the day) I take home my hard earned pay all on my own
I go down on my knees
And I start to pray (praise the Lord)
‘Til the tears run down from my eyes
Lord, somebody uh (somebody) somebody (somebody)
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

(He works hard) everyday (everyday)
I try and I try and I try
But everybody wants to put me down
They say I’m goin’ crazy
They say I got a lot of water in my brain
I got no common sense
I got nobody left to believe
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Oh, Lord
Somebody uh (somebody) somebody (somebody)
Can anybody find me somebody to love?

(Can anybody find me somebody to love?)
Got no feel, I got no rhythm
I just keep losing my beat
I’m alright, I’m alright (he’s alright)
I ain’t gonna face no defeat
I just gotta get out of this prison cell
Someday I’m gonna be free, Lord

Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Somebody (somebody) somebody (somebody)
Somebody find me, somebody find me somebody to love
Can anybody find me
Somebody to come on, love, yeah

Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody, somebody, somebody to love (find me somebody to love)
Find me, find me, find me, find me uh somebody to love
Find me somebody to love
Find me somebody to love (anybody, anywhere)
Somebody, somebody to love yeah yeah oh (find me somebody to love)