Queen for a Day - Gimme the Prize (Kurgen's Theme)

Deacon, Mercury and Highlander director Russell Mulcahy all hate this song.

Replete with snippets of dialogue and echoing the chords of "Princes of the Universe", Gimme the Prize is the sludge metal cousin of "Tear it Up". Which, in and of itself, renders it redundant.

Revolving around the title, it's not much of a song as it is background music to images, much like "Who Wants....", also written by May.

About midway, after Kurgen's "Better to burn out" speech, the guitars ring out with a melodic, almost royal solo, which gives way to a more chaotic and improvisational sounding one, before circling back to the vocals, which aren't so much a song as it is Freddie wailing emphatically to give him the prize....

Ho hum.

Grade: D+

Queen for a Day - Who Wants to Live Forever?

"Impetuous boy! Ah, well... who wants to live forever? DIVE!" Prince Vultan. Flash Gordon. 1980

I've always wondered why no one seems to make the allusion that this song's title and chorus comes directly from the script of the previous movie Queen scored.
Sure, it can be applied to Highlander but, still. I have to wonder...

"There's no time for us...there's no place for us..."

Isn't that Sondheim?

Obviousness has never been alien to Queen. They've always managed to appropriate and, with tongue firmly in cheek, make something their own.

And Brian does that here.

Soaring strings, elegiac vocals, WWTLF is not quite a ballad as a song set to images of a sweeping epic. I can see immortals trudging across ice floes and climbing mountains in search of destiny.

It succeeds in that respect and also as a bloated love song for the 80s.

It's a gigantic track with a modulation that, inexplicably, works in heightening the desperation and despair. And it feels less like an album track, which it ended up being, and more like part of a score, which was the intent.

Grade: A

Bonus versions!

Queen for a Day - Friends Will Be Friends

It's been a long while since Queen came up with a bona fide Anthem!. In fact, for years their shows ended with "We WIll Rock You" and "We are the Champions" and by 1986, they had been around for about 8 years.
So, I guess it was time for a big stadium piece, although it could be argued that "Radio Gaga" was sort of anthemic. But, not in the fist pumping, esteem building way.

Enter "Friends Will Be Friends", the worst titled song in the entire catalog, as far as I'm concerned. Queen was never afraid of hitting the nail on the nose but this is so pandering to the Bar Mitzvah set that it's embarrassing.

It's schmaltzy in it's mid-tempo Vegas-ism. It wastes NO time getting to that chorus, because that's really all the song is: a chorus.

But it's piffle. Written by....ready?
Deacon and Mercury.

Surprised? These two are not at their best when they write together. Everything comes out treacly and wimpy and useless.

Even Brian's power chording and melodic solo seems bored and uninspired. Shoehorned into the sets as a singalong, "Friends" is one of the most obnoxious tracks Queen ever recorded. But it's right in line with Mark III.

Grade: C

Queen for a Day - Pain is So Close to Pleasure

Ah, so now we're back in "Body Language" territory. Only this time it sounds more like an MOR, easy listening R&B jam. In other words, it's about as generic as generic can be. Any teeth that the band have had once upon a time are long gone.

This is as dull as 90% of the acts at Live Aid. (Don't believe me? Watch Live Aid again) And just because you repeat the words "pain" & "Pleasure" at the end don't make it lyrics, Fred. Even BRian's guitar sounds like any session man sat in and laid down the tracks.

The sing-songy bridge is sort of catchy but for the most part, this is a falsetto ridden piece of tripe.

Grade: C-

Queen for a Day - One Year of Love

Right where it belongs, historically speaking, is the requisite treacly John Deacon I-love-you ditty. John doesn't seem to have anything else going on in his life save his exclamations of affection for his "best friend", cuz it's just "you & I", etc, etc.

This time it's almost as bad as "In Only 7 Days". An 80s saxophone accompanies the ballad in every bad, cliche way.

The ballad is much much more insidious than the aforementioned "7 days" because it's well crafted and hooky. I could see it covered in earnest, strings and all, and scoring for whomever does so.

But, it takes Queen to another place entirely.

Middle age.

Grade: B-

Queen for a Day - A Kind of Magic

One this. One that.

Roger has stated that he was the genesis for "One Vision". And this is his track, the real opening to the album. A plodding, driving, catchy, sound-a-like for "Radio Gaga", this song is a perfect example of what Queen was.

Roger came up with the spine, but Freddie reworked it and pressed it into a hit single. That's two in a row for Roger.

The song itself is basically a bassline driven bit of hypnosis that seems much better than it is. The title and thrust of the song comes from the movie "Highlander", which Queen was providing music for. In actuality, much of the album "A Kind of Magic" is made up of songs for that movie. The opener is not, that was for ANOTHER movie, "Iron Eagle".

This is what Queen wanted to do, apparently.

All that said, "A Kind of Magic" is a catchy ditty and not something I run from when it comes on. It just has no direction. Fades away. As Queen seemed to be trying to do.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - One Vision

I really think of this as the 3rd wave of Queen. At this point they're just a group of guys who know how to push through and craft pop hits. Maybe they were always that way.

Like "Under Pressure", "One Vision" came out a group jam. And it sounds like it.

The Queen tropes are all there: Freddie's voice. The multi-layered vocals. Brian's Star Fleet guitar. An ENDLESS instrumental break that sounds like a guitar solo but is so overwhelmed by the electric drums, which do nothing inventive but keep time.

It's a bluesbreaker of the kind Queen could write in their sleep.

I'm really not sure how they could write a song about Martin Luther King and then coda it with replacing "One Vision" with "Fried Chicken" and get away from being called "racist!".

Maybe no one noticed.

Grade: B+

Queen for a Day - Is This the World We Created?

A slight ballad with just Freddie and Brian closes The Works and it's the saddest and most socially conscious song the band has come up with so far.
The world was awakening to the hunger problems in Africa and elsewhere so Freddie wrote some heartfelt lyrics that asked the title's question.

And then they would perform at Live Aid.

"Is this the world we devastated right to the bone?...If there's a god in the sky, what can he think of what we've done to the world that he created?"

Indeed.

Grade: A

Queen for a Day - Hammer to Fall

Thanks, Brian.

Not sure why "Hammer to Fall" comes so late on The Works, with it's big Red Special crunchy chords, the (long missed) multi-layered chorus, it's classic Queen.

Freddie is in full snarl, the voice that made him one of the singularly greatest singers in rock history. The band sounds like they're having a blast and then, after the bridge, a soaring guitar solo. One that sounds like it set the template for everything The Darkness tried to do. Then ANOTHER solo, a different one, a classically melodic one.

"Hammer to Fall" is a socially conscious song, very 80s in it's fear of the apocalypse but, it's a glorious trip. At about minute 3:05 "Louder and louder and louder..." as his voice trails off in surrender to the cynicism is nothing short of genius.

The rest of the song is a jam. About a minute plus. And, in contrast to just about every. other. song of the era it's a welcome cacophony.

Even the moments of false stops at the end....perfect.

In an album full of retread and lack of innovation or invention, the song stands out as one of their best in years.

Grade: A+

Queen for a Day - Keep Passing the Open Windows

Apparently Queen's obsession with Hollywood wasn't quenched with Flash Gordon. They hitched their wagon to another crapfest. This time it was the movie adaptation of "The Hotel New Hampshire". I have no idea how....what....why.....

The title of the song is an oft-repeated mantra in the book. The cynicism is astounding. Lots of opportunities to hurl yourself out of windows, just plod on.

Thing is, it's one of my favorite tracks on the record. It sounds like they were writing with some purpose. It's a driving piece of pop with each member highlighted in their own way. It's an uptempo rocker that would translate well live, I would imagine.

The chorus isn't very anthemic, but they don't all have to be.

Written by Freddie I think it actually works better as a solo piece for him. And maybe belonged on Mr. Bad Guy more than here.

Grade: A-