AN AMAZING FEELING

"When I was a small child, in the choir in India, I just loved to sing. I didn't look upon it as a career, I never thought about it in those terms. Then I realised I could actually write songs and make my own music. It dawned on me that I could do it my way. Suddenly there was a little taste of success, and I liked it."

I have no set rules for writing a song. It's haphazard. Some songs come faster •I inn others. I never sit down at the piano and say, "Right, I've got to write a song now." No. I feel a few things out and get some ideas about them and then I begin. It's hard to explain but there are always various ideas going through my head. Certain things just come together, but others I have to work for. It rounds conceited, but something like Killer Queen came to me in just one day. It just fell into place, as some songs do. I scribbled down the words the dark on Saturday night, and the next morning I got them all together Worked all day Sunday, and that was it - I'd got it. Whereas, other songs I had to really work at to try and get the lyrics. The March Of The Black Queen (1974] for instance, on our second album, that was a song that took ages to complete. I wanted to give it everything, to be self-indulgent.

I’ve been known to scribble down lyrics in the middle of the night without Ш1п| the light on. I like to think that I write songs in lots of different ways, depending on my mood. Crazy Little Thing Called Love [1979] I wrote in the bath. It took me five or ten minutes to write. In the studio, I did that on the guitar - which I can't play for nuts, and in one way it was quite a good thing because I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. It's a good discipline because I simply had to write within a small framework. I couldn't work through too many chords because of that restriction, and as a result I wrote a good song -1 think. If I'd known too many guitar chords I might have ruined it.

I'm always thinking about the new songs I'm writing. I can't stop writing new songs. I have a lot of ideas bursting to get out. It comes instinctively. I just like to write nice little catchy tunes. It's just something that I have to keep doing, but I do enjoy it too. It's a kind of hobby in a funny way. It's so rewarding in the end that you just want to keep doing it and explore different aspects of it to see how they turn out. It's like painting a picture. You have to step away from it to see what it's like.

As far as lyrics go, they're very difficult. I find them quite a task. My strongest point is melody content. I concentrate on that first, then the song structure, then the lyrics come after. The structure of the melody comes easy to me, it's the lyrical content that I find difficult. I have to work on that part of it. I sometimes feel that my melodies are so much stronger than my lyrics, that the lyrics bring them down. I think my melodies are superior to the lyrics quite often. I hate writing lyrics. I wish somebody else could do it. I wish I had a Bernie Taupin. Mind you, I'm not like that, I like to do it all myself. I'm a greedy bitch.

When I'm writing songs I just have to be left alone on my own, locked up. I have to be left alone so I can concentrate. When I write a song I'm very strong about the whole content within it. If it works, it works. When I'm not thinking about it, that's when it happens best. I like to capture a song very quickly so that it's fresh, and then you can work on it afterwards. I hate trying to write a song if it's not coming easily. It either comes quickly, and you have it, and I say, "Yes, we have a song," or if it's not happening, I normally just say, "Look, forget it."

I write a song the way I feel it, and I'm always willing to learn. It's so much more interesting to write different types of songs rather than repeat the same formula. I seem to write songs that I don't think about much at the time, but which seem am to sort of to catch up on me, if you know what I mean, afterwards.

So I guess without knowing it, it's a sort of subconscious thing. I think most people write songs that are inside them. I'm not one of those writers that practices trends and says, "Ok, this is trendy today, let's write a song about that." I just like to do different things, and not repeat myself. I don't like to stay in one position for too long, so that comes out in my songs and lyrics. I like to try everything once and I'm not scared of pitfalls. I love the challenge and I like doing things that are not part of the mainstream. I'm not afraid to speak out and say certain things in my songs because I think in the end being natural is what wins.

I'm not blowing my own trumpet, but sometimes I do churn them out quite quickly. It can come easy if I put my mind to it. I turn songs out far quicker than the others I think. People ask me, "How prolific a writer are you?" I write a dozen a day, dears!

If you put them all into one bag, I think my songs are all under the label emotion. It's all to do with love and emotion and feeling. It's all about moods. mom of the songs I write are love ballads and things to do with sadness and torture and pain, but at the same time it's frivolous and tongue-in-cheek. I hat's basically my whole nature, I guess. I'm just a true romantic and though • i ll(nk everybody's written songs in that field, I write it in my own way, with llffrrent texture. Basically I'm not writing anything new, I'm not sitting here me lo eay, "Look, I've written a song that nobody else has written before!" • lift I do it from my point of view.

A lot of people have fallen in love and a lot of people have fallen out of love, and people are still doing it, so I'm still writing songs about that - in different atmospheres. I think love and the lack of love is always going to go on, and there are so many different ways that people fall in and out of love. I think most of my songs seem to follow that path, and I think to sing and write about love is actually limitless. I think I'm writing things that everyday people go through. I feel I've gone through all those things myself too, so basically I’m encompassing and actually gathering that research and putting them I. I'm a true romantic, just like Rudolph Valentine. 1 like writing romantic songs about love become there'в во much scope and also they have so much to do with me. I have always written those. I mean, since the early days, since the second album, and I think I will always write those things because they are part of me. I like to write all kinds of different songs, but the romantic ones will always be there. I can't help it, it's just automatic. I'd love to write songs about something totally different, but they all seem to end up in a very emotional and tragic way. I don't know why. But still there's an element of humour in the end. So that's basically what my songs are all about.

It's quite funny, actually; my lyrics and songs are mainly fantasies. I make them up. They are not down to earth, they're kind of airy-fairy, really. I'm not one of those writers who walks out onto the street and is suddenly inspired by a vision, and I'm not one of those people that wants to go on safari to get inspiration from wild animals around me, or go up onto mountain tops, and things like that. No, I can get inspiration just sitting in the bath. I am one of those people. I don't need wildlife for inspiration. I'm not the kind of person who is generally inspired by a particular scene, or by art, as such, although there was one example on Queen П, with the song The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke, where I was inspired by a painting I saw. That is very, very unusual for me. Being arty, or whatever, I go to art galleries a lot and I saw in the Tate Gallery this picture by Richard Dadd, who was a Victorian artist I liked. I was thoroughly inspired. I did a lot of research on it and what I tried to do was to put the words into my own kind of rhyme, but I was using his text, as it were, to depict the painting - what I thought I saw in it.

Inspiration strikes anywhere. It strikes when I'm least expecting it and it plays havoc with my sex life. Some of my songs have even come to me in bed. But I have to write it down there and then otherwise it's gone by morning. One night, when Mary [Austin] and I lived together, I woke up in the middle of the night and a song just wouldn't go away. I just had to lit down and write it, so I got up and dragged my piano over to the bedside »o I could reach the keyboard. That didn't last long - she wouldn't put up with it. And I can't say I'm surprised.

There are many things that influence you to make music, you know, almost all that surround you. In my case, it might he that I'm going somewhere and I have an idea, and I keep it in mind, but basically I sit at the piano and tinkle and tinker away. A few ideas might come to me and I try to remember them, and then I come back to it at a later stage and try to put it all together. Sometimes I will simply sit at the piano and I suddenly get an idea and then I try to work the song out. Maybe I force myself to get ideas in a sort of direction sometimes, or I leave them alone and come back to them a month later and suddenly they fall into place. But there's not some big inspiration. They are all different. It sounds like such a come-down to some people, because they hear the fantasy content and they think, "Wow! I wonder what inspired that?" They've probably got some great vision in mind. There is no strict format that I stick to. Sorry to disappoint you.

We all have our own ideas on how a song should be, because a song can be done in so many different ways, depending on who is doing it. Sometimes you can see something else in other peoples' songs. We will sometimes all help each other, so that's what takes a lot of time. Most of the songs are developed 1 the studio these days, whereas before we used to have 'routine' time. These days there is no time for anything, so we just book studio time and we go in there. Sometimes that takes a while because we spend studio time writing songs when we should be recording.

There's a different way of writing now. Before, I used to sit at the piano and really work my arse off to get all the chords and the whole construction before I turned a theme into a song. Now it's a different way of thinking. Lately I've written songs on the spur of the moment. In fact I go into the studio totally unprepared and I think, "Oh, what am I going to do this time?" And suddenly the basic idea comes out and I think, "Let's do it." It might be totally atrocious, it might be abysmal, or there might be one or four bars I think are nice, and I can pick up on that. Or, I'll just leave it there and k and work on it later.

I compose on the piano, or I can compose in my head as well. I write the song the melody most of the time, although sometimes a lyric will get me started. Life Is Real [1982] was one of those, because the words came first in that instance. I just really got into it; pages after pages, all kinds of words. Then I just put it to a song. I felt that it could be a Lennon-type thing. That song is an ode to John Lennon, in my limited way. Very seldom do my lyrics come up first but I just had this pattern of lyrical ideas and I wanted a surreal sort of feel in that. They came to me in Houston, believe it or not, when I had a few days off from my Mexican stint - on the Queen tour. I thought, "Why not? I can do it. I'm a musician." Listening to a lot of John Lennon songs, I just thought I could try and create a kind of atmosphere that he created. So therefore I actually fought to get that kind of oriental violin sound on that - a sort of weepy feel - which I love doing. I tried to put across the surreal kind of lyrics, which is what, to me, John Lennon was. He was larger than life, I think, and an absolute genius. Even at a very early stage when they were the Beatles I always preferred John Lennon's things. I don't know why. He just had that magic.

I don't want to change the world with our music. There are no hidden messages in our songs, except for some of Brian's. My songs are like Bic razors; they're for fun, for modern consumption. People can discard them like a used tissue afterwards. They can listen to it, like it, discard it, then turn on to the next. Disposable pop.

I don't like to write message songs because I'm not politically motivated -like John Lennon or Stevie Wonder. Politics enters into my thinking, yes, but I discard it because we are musicians. I don't like to be political and I don't believe that I have a talent to write deep messages. Music is very free. It just depends on who you are. I mean John Lennon can do that, but I can't. My songs are just like commercial love songs and I like to put my emotional talent into that. I don't want to change the world or talk about peace because I'm just not motivated that way. Politics isn't my thing at all. I'd ruin a country, Can you imagine it? I'd sing all my speeches!

As far as I'm concerned I write songs which I think are basically... fodder'. I've said this before. Songs are like buying a new dress or shirt; you just w»m it and then you discard it. Yes a certain few classics will always remain, but ss far as I'm concerned what I've written in the past is finished and done with. Okay, if I hear it on the radio or people talk about it, 1 feel that's great, but to me I'm thinking about what they arc going to say about my new stuff. I write them, and I leave them. If you asked me to play some of my older songs on the piano now, I couldn't I. I forget them. I learned them for the time. Before playing them again I have to go in a day earlier and try to work out all the chords... to my own songs. I forget them very quickly. For example, Love Of My Life is adapted on stage for guitar, but it was written on the piano. I've totally forgotten the original, and if you asked me to play that now I couldn't.

I think our music is pure escapism, like going to see a good film. It's for people who can go in there, listen to it, forget their problems for a little while, enjoy the two hours, and that's it. Come out again and go back to their problems, and come back for some more next time. Really, it should be like that. That's what theatre and entertainment should be. I don't like to infiltrate into the political areas. We don't have hidden political messages in our songs, it's just not the way we are. We are an international group and we like to play to every audience, anywhere. We don't go to different territories in a political way. We're just an English rock and roll band that plays music for everybody.

My music is not channelled into any one category. I don't want my songs to be heard by a certain intelligent quota, I want everybody to hear it because it for everybody. It's an international language. I don't write music just for Japanese or just the Germans, it's for all ears. Music is limitless. I'd like the whole world to listen to my music. I'm not an elitist.

I’m not here to announce, "Change your life through a Queen song!" I can’t up in the morning and say that I'm going to write a 'peace' song, that would’t be right because those sorts of things you actually have to believe in. t nut laying 1 don't believe in peace, I just don't feel that I am personally ill of writing peace messages. I don't want to put myself in that environment, I'm into writing songs about what I feel, and I feel very strongly I love and emotion. The John Lennons of this world are few and far between. Certain people can do that kind of message thing, but very few. Lennon was one. Because of his status he could do that kind of preaching, and affect people's thoughts. But to do that you have to have a certain amount of intellect and magic, together. People with mere talent, like me, have not got the ability or power. You could be sure John Lennon and Stevie Wonder it when they wrote a peace song, because they lived accordingly, hut I'm not that way. For me to write a peace message would be wrong and people wouldn't be able to relate to it - we suddenly writing about peace and saving the world. You have to go through a certain amount of history for people to know that you believe in what you are writing about, and as far as I'm concerned I hope that people do believe that I go through torture and pain in terms of love. I think that's my natural gift, so that's all I want to do in my songs.

To be honest, I would never like to put myself on a par with John Lennon at all, because he was the greatest as far as I'm concerned. It's not a matter of having less talent, just that some people are capable of doing certain things better than anybody else, and I feel that I'm not equipped to do the things that Lennon did. I don't think anybody should, because John Lennon was unique, a one off, and that's the way it is. I admire John Lennon very much and that's as far as I want to go. I just want to put myself across in my songs in the best way I can.

When I heard that Lennon was dead, I was shocked and dumbfounded. What do you do? Words fail me, to be honest. It was something that you think could always happen, to somebody else, or to you, or whatever, and then it did happen to somebody, and it was John Lennon. There was shock and disbelief.

When John passed away and I wrote that song in tribute, it was just from me to him, and there is no parallel between anything he did, and what I did. It was just a little gift, you know, because he passed away. Life Is Real wasn't a message song, it was just a song in tribute to the man, which is completely different from what John was doing.

If I were pushed, I could write a message song. I'm not going to say the» I have never written a message song, but it's not in the John Lennon idiom, not in that trend. I mean, I wrote a song called We Are The Champions, which is a kind of message anthem, but not for world peace. It's in a different direction.

Having said all that, on my solo album, Mr Bad Guy (198S], I wrote a song called There Must Be More To Life Than This, and that is probably the nearest thing I could cite to a message song – and that’s not as such. It's the nearest I want to go to in terms of talking about world politics or the disasters that are happening in the world. I don't really like writing songs in that sphere, but there comes a time when I feel emotional in that way and it's just a very small part of what John Lennon actually did. I'm being very modest, but very true.

I hate trying to analyse my songs to the full. You should never ask me that. My lyrics are basically for people's interpretations. I will say as much as I can about certain songs I write, but in the end I don't like to pull a song apart because I don't even analyse them myself -1 just sing them. I write them and I record and produce them and it is up to the buyer to take it the way that he or she feels, otherwise I ruin a kind of mystique that might portray that track. I hate doing that.

People say, "Why did you write that lyric and what does it mean?" I don't like to explain what I was thinking when I wrote a song. Does it mean this? Does it mean that? is all anybody wants to know. Fuck them, darlings! I will sa у no more than what any decent poet would tell you if you dared ask him to analyse his work. If you see it, dears, then it's there. You interpret it how want to. There's no great big message. I try to conjure up something I’d get that into a song, and then I hope that people will try to make up (heir own minds about it - which is a good thing. That's what I like to feel I when I listen to somebody's album.

I like people to put their own interpretation on my songs. Really they are little fairy stories. I've forgotten what they were all about. It's just fictious - fantasies. I know it's like bowing out, or the easy way out, but what it is. It's just a figment of my imagination. I think if I were to »e every word, it would be very boring for the listeners and it might even shatter a few illusions.

A lot of people are creative, in their own way. It doesn't have to be just in music, That’s part of talent as well - do you see dears? I've always maintained that, that you can't just sit at home and say, "Look, I'm so wonderful, I’m so creative, I'll just wait." No. You've got to go out there and actually grab it, and utilize it, and make it work. That is part of talent.

Having talent is one thing, but to actually use it and feed it to the masses, is another part of talent. It goes hand in hand. It's called Hard Sell I think. You've really got to sell your arse. You've got to go in there and ram it down their throats and say, "Here I am! I'm creative! I'm wonderful! Here... EAT IT!" You have to do that. If there are other ways of doing it, then my God, you tell me.

Is it still possible to write good and original songs? Oh I should bloody well think so! I should hope so. Oh yes. No matter how great the competition, there is still room for originality and good songs. Of course. I think there will never be an end to good song writing. There'll always be good writers and people writing good songs - depending upon how the media takes them and how they look upon it. I think there is still room, but it's getting more difficult. There's still room for originality and writing good stuff, yes. There's lots of room for classics - and I do my best.

I can't go on forever writing and scrambling out totally different ideas, because you can go neurotic. It's always in the back of my mind. I write a passage and I think, "Oh! This sounds a bit similar to this one." But that's the wrong way to look at it, although it's there. Take for example from a harmonising point of view, the harmonies; we've done them backwards, inside out, every way, and there's not many areas left, so it gets harder and harder to be original all the time, but we are constantly striving for that.

I know people can actually dry up, in terms of writing songs. I know people who have. I think about that sometimes. I think maybe one day I'm just not going to be able to write as well as I do now, but it hasn't happened yet in what can I do? I want to write better songs. It's my career, it's my project in life. I don't wake up every morning and think, "Oh, have I dried up?" At the moment... I've been very prolific. And you know, He's looking after me, so I'm OK. That doesn't worry me. It's just something I don't think about. Other people think about that. When it happens, I'll deal with it. It won't happen. That's all there is to it. I don't think it'll ever happen. I'll die first.

One of the things I want to do is to try and spend time writing a musical. I think the time has come. In terms of solo projects, I did one solo album, Mr Bad Guy, in 1985, and the project with Montserrat Caballe, in 1988, but now I want it to be more than an album, so I'm going to try to do a musical. I know it will take a while but it would be my solo project so I can get involved in the actual script and the whole thing. I can write songs that are sung in the actual storyline rather than just seeing a film then writing a song that fits it, afterwards. So it's a big project and I'm thinking about it quite a lot at the moment.

Also, I have visions of actually having a film made of my life story, one day, which I would have a key part in. I might not play the lead myself. My dears, the things I've done in my lifetime... it'll be totally triple X-rated, I'll tell you!

There's no way to tell if someone writes a better song than you, because in the end it's up to the public. The only way you realise it's good, is if it's received well.

You don't know what it means when you write a song that people actually appreciate and they say it's a good song. It's a wonderful feeling!

j my music makes people happy, that's a wonderful thing. That makes me у happy. If some of that, even if just a little trickle of it comes across to | people, then that's fine. And if people hate it... tough shit! They can go • buy somebody else's record. I'm not going to lose sleep or come up in rash if somebody says, "Oh my God, that's terrible!" I'm too long in the tooth dears.

Chapter five; part two

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 976