Seven Reasons This Semi-Obscure Queen Album Track Is Better Than The Robbie Williams Hit Of The Same Name

1. Mental lyrics
The lyrics to this song are pretty ridiculous, even by Queen’s standards. They somehow managed to include phrases like “grounds for divorce,” “rock a la carte,” and “pleasure chest,” and use “Cruella de Vil” as a verb. It must be heard to be believed.

2. Self-referential
They make various references to themselves and their career, including their US and UK record labels (Elektra and EMI), as the song is essentially about them preparing for a gig, and warning that it’s going to be phenomenal (which it almost certainly was). They suggest going to their tour manager, [Gerry] Stickells, if you are in need of a fix or a high, and offer/threaten to “sing to you in Japanese.”

3. Mental rhymes
“But Freddie, nothing rhymes with Japanese.”
“Nothing, except ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’.”
”But Freddie, that still doesn’t really rhyme, and it doesn’t make any sense.”
These are certainly valid concerns, but if you sing it with enough power and confidence, it doesn’t matter at all. See Exhibit A, above.

4. Mental music
The guitar riff that kicks in at around 15 seconds is one of my very favourites, and there’s some top drumming in there as well. The lyrics are what make this song, but without the music underneath, it would just be a pretty strange poem. This song is typical of what made Queen great in the 70s, and exactly the kind of thing they more or less stopped doing after ‘The Game.’

5. They don’t take themselves too seriously
A lot of Queen’s music (particularly in the 70s) is quite silly as well as being quite brilliant at the same time. This song is a prime example, as is ‘Tie Your Mother Down,’ which originally came from a line Brian sang just to demonstrate the riff, and Freddie insisted that it had to become the song. Despite the silliness of the lyrics, both of these are punchy hard rock tunes. There are plenty more tracks you could point to (especially on their first four albums) that have some pretty odd words to them, but this doesn’t subtract anything at all from the enjoyment, and arguably adds a couple of levels.

6. They delivered on it
They sure did entertain us. Queen remain among the top-selling artists of all time, despite not really having released anything new in 20 years, and their Live Aid performance is one of the most famous in musical history, for good reason. Not everything they did was for everyone, but we all have at least two or three Queen songs that we like. (And if you tell me otherwise, I won’t believe you, so don’t bother lying to me.)

7. It gets better every time you hear it
When I first bought the album in 2004, I was rather disappointed to learn that it was not in fact the original version of a song later made famous by Robbie Williams. Several hundred listens later, though, and I much prefer this song. For me, it’s a far better anthem for Queen than ‘We Will Rock You,’ although that may be due to WWRY being one of the most overplayed songs in existence (but still a great song). I get the impression that the band were hoping it would take off, and they could open all future shows with it, but for some reason it’s not one of their more popular songs (probably because it was never released as a single).
I listened to it on my big headphones for the first time very recently, and it sounded incredible. It benefits from repeated listens, which is true of plenty of songs, but not all, and I think it applies to this song more than most.

Plus, they did it all with no synthesisers. Badass.