| Queen – Dragon Attack Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I like the way dengeist laid this out... so then maybe the black and white stuff is related to what someone else said, it sounds like a black funk band, so the band likes to mix up black and white styles... but even more importantly, Black and White were what they called the two sides of Queen II, which was made way back in the day when a lot of their songs were about dragons, ogres, etc. So maybe this is Brian winking and letting off a little steam about being seen that way, when he really would prefer more funk and guitar solos. It also fits with his previous style of making songs that seem lewd/edgy actually be more innocent, like "Fat Bottomed Girls" actually being about his set of guitars... | |
| Queen – Mustapha Lyrics | 17 years ago |
|
I've read that this song was actually written in three languages - English, Arabic, and Parsi. It's kind of a prayer, and the main message of the song is played out in the Parsi portions, which tell someone they need to reform or face the consequences-- as encapsulated in the last two lines.. "Sinner, come and follow the way of Mustapha (Muhammed), and peace will be with you!" Personally I just like the mood of the song, and that even lyrics like this can sound like classic Queen. |
|
| Billy Joel – Scandinavian Skies Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| On second glance, seems like it's all about drug-filled European tour/trip with the verses being little snippets of memories. Also maybe a slight parody of 'Ballad of John and Yoko', further pushing the Lennon correlation. | |
| Creedence Clearwater Revival – Someday Never Comes Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I thought it was about death-- not war death, just death from old age or whatever. The person left thinks they have to be "the man" now because their dad died, and that somewhere along the way they'll learn and understand how to do that. But what they finally "understand" is that no one really ever knows how, including their dad, and they just have to do the best they can. | |
| Steve Miller Band – Take The Money And Run Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| ...or Texas related (el paso) | |
| Steve Miller Band – Take The Money And Run Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I've heard the clapping is a nod to "Deep in the Heart of Texas", and that's why it only happens when the lyric is Texas... | |
| Queen – Seven Seas Of Rhye Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
crazychimps you are totally correct-- in addition to being at the seaside at the beginning of Brighton Rock, you can actually hear someone whistling the same tune before the guitars come in. the bridge is like a god-Bible type relationship too... the "I am in you and you are in me" sort of a deal. So maybe this is the Creator talking. This song for me is as others have said about a powerful King coming down and routing every piece of a sodom-and-gomorrah type world... but it feels a little more personal than that, since he addresses every group one at a time, and he feels like he has a claim on their land... |
|
| Queen – Sheer Heart Attack Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This song is a strike back at punk bands (such as the Sex Pistols, whose singer had a funny publicized exchange with Freddie one day) who said that Queen was passe and not true rock and roll. My favorite line is the "inar..."s-- basically saying that unintelligible lyrics don't necessarily make better rock n roll, and making fun of punk's dark view of the world. And using an SAT word to do it. A similar-meaning song is Billy Joel's "It's still rock and roll to me", even though, while Queen DID punk on this song, Joel turned the clock back to show how it's all the same (a la Crazy Little Thing). Another cool allusion to the same concept of rock being rock whenever is the beginning... the first and third lines are "Well you're just seventeen" and "you know what I mean"... the beginning of the Beatles "I saw her standing there". That link might repeat what I just said, if so I apologize. Awesome song! |
|
| The Mamas & the Papas – Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Great music-- I agree, possibly their best. I'm not sure what this is about... it seems so happy and sad at the same time. My guess is about someone who traveled from the East to CA to be part of the Hippie/free love movement, realized that it wasn't going anywhere, but still was grateful for the experience. There is something so tragic in it, but I can't tell whether it's the words or music that bring it out more... |
|
| Fleetwood Mac – Tusk Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
That description of the love triangle is what I've heard too. Lindsey could get a little insane sometimes but he sure knew how to call down the thunder! I think the tusk was used not only as a symbol for certain male... equipment but also because it and the other jungle effects allowed Lindsey to show Stevie and Mick as nothing more than sex-crazed savages-- the best line is after the first "climax" when Lindsey says "reeeeeal savage like!" in a sort of safari British accent... Mick is British... I've heard the other two didn't let him say that line in concert. A great F.U. song, and really dark and mysterious too, which I like. My one question... what is the line at the beginning? I hear "where are the tenements, Tony?"-- someone told me it was "tenors"... any clue? |
|
| Styx – Lords Of The Ring Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
A wicked but creative attack on faith and its various religious manifestations, using imagery from the Lord of the Rings (which makes a slight bit of sense given that Tolkein was a devout Catholic). The song begins with prophesies of this great ring and powerful lords that can do anything. The heroes, awash in such beautiful stories travel to the ring during the (unbelievably cool) instrumental part, which ends majestically. They find out that the Ring doesn't really exist, anyone can become a Lord, but that the beliefs and legends are what's really important, to inspire people. |
|
| Styx – Light Up Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Almost sounds like a church song, except it's about smoking pot. If the lyrics aren't enough proof, listen to the sound just before the first sung words. | |
| Styx – Christopher, Mr. Christopher Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Written to protest the removing of the "St." title from St. Christopher | |
| Styx – A.D. 1928 Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I know why-- on the Paradise Theater album, this song goes right into the next one, "Rockin the Paradise", without stopping, right in the middle of the word "Paradise".... a word that seems to show up in a lot of Styx songs... Yeah, the year 1928 was when the Paradise theater was built in Chicago, designed to last forever (hence the sarcastic A.D.) but it only lasted thirty years. A Deyoung metaphor for America in the late 70s/early 80s. |
|
| The Offspring – One Fine Day Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I went to the Preakness Stakes last year... 130,000 people on the infield for ten hours-- drunk off their asses, fighting for no reason in the mud. Nothing reminds me more of that than this song. I love it. | |
| Styx – Queen Of Spades Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
It's about gambling I believe. Great imagery since the Queen of Spades is not your run of the mill poker card-- she's death in both hearts and murder (a poker variation), and of course, a woman, so a lover analogy (enhanced by the "Luck Be a Lady"/Guys and Dolls and black widow spider, which eat their male mates) fits nicely as well. The chorus sounds a little like Queen-- do you think it's possible this is a tongue-in-cheek homage to them? The two bands were very similar in ways. |
|
| Queen – Somebody To Love Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
"Ahhhh.... look at all the lonely people...." a gospel prayer up to god. the tragic hero backed by a third-person greek chorus. hell, I'm dating someone and I still totally relate to this song. What a virtuoso performance; one of Freddie's best and that is saying a LOT. I've heard that each of the songs on DATR has a partner on NATO... which one would you put with this? Bohemian Rhapsody? |
|
| Queen – We Are The Champions Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I think it's great how both sports teams and gay groups the world over could pick this song up and claim it as their own. For how many other songs by other groups would that be possible? Brian May has gone out of his way recently to say how the "we" in this song means everyone, not Queen. This song was written with audience participation in mind, as was WWRY. Loved how Freddie nodded to the audience at Wembley during "I thank you all". Dramatic with power. This got played a lot when my team won the Super Bowl this year. :P |
|
| Queen – In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
It's a great break up (freedom) song. He's telling her that, even though she thinks she's in control, he's stopped killing himself trying and left things up to fate (fate is what the old expression "lap of the gods" means)-- and apparently, at the end the gods answer, and detonate. sweet! I agree with Ben as well-- this song totally sowed the seeds for "Champions". |
|
| Queen – Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
The verses are my favorite part of this song-- the simple piano accompaniment (played by Brian), the slightly menacing guitars in the third verse, and Freddie's placid vocal. The last thing I expected after these was a great sing-along chorus. It fits perfectly. I'm wondering, is there an entire of song related to Japan similar to the verses? There's an old old song called "Japanese Sandman" that starts out in a very similar way before becoming more pop-sounding... maybe this and that came from the same influence. |
|
| Queen – Hammer To Fall Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I totally agree with JoeBaldwin-- This song was written in 83 or 84 during the last spike of real tensions between the US and USSR. The single cover of this song is red and gold and really "official" looking, reminiscent of Soviet stuff. The lyrics also totally fit in with this idea... "feel your muscles as your body decays"... the Soviet system died in part because Reagan and others forced them to throw all their money into the military, which US could afford and they couldn't... "baby now your struggle's all in vain" alluding to Marx's claim that there would always be a struggle between proletariat and the masses, a fundamental Soviet idea... there are probably ten more but this is probably boring people so I'll stop now. I also like how the very basic I-IV-V chords and beat (the roots Queen tried to get back to on the Works) is reminiscent of socially/politically conscious American artists of that time, like Springsteen and Mellencamp, like Brian is channeling them. The last verse is even more amazing-- "what the hell we fighting for?", "just have time to say your prayers", makes me think of Samantha Smith (remember her?) and has lots of resonance today too... this is maybe where Brian brought it back to something more basic and common, like, the Hammer of God could fall on the US (or anywhere else) just as easily as the Russians, we're just people too! I am such a fan of how Brian can be so true to classic rock and good guitar but still right songs just as poetic and interesting as Mercury. Queen wouldn't have been Queen without him. |
|
| Queen – Lily Of The Valley Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I agree with all of the previous meanings. Throughout the first two prog/experimental albums, there was a lot of medieval, Greek mythology ideas in Queen's work, especially in Freddie's stuff. Sheer Heart Attack was a huge change from this. Maybe they made that change to become more commercially successful. (Sure as hell worked!) You can tell this just by looking at the album covers of Queen and Queen II vs. SHA, which contains a basic picture of the band, a modern font, and (on the CD) broken glass. This song is Freddie's goodbye to that more fantasy type of music (maybe that's why it sounds like it belongs there), as he hits 28 and finally has to grow up. After this, he never wrote a pure fantasy song again. I think everyone feels this way a few times in their life. It reminds me especially of "Bridge to Terabithia" and its themes. |
|
| Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I agree-- no remakes. The Antigone Rising version on the Killer Queen compilation was ok but proved that only Queen can do this to perfection. Does anyone know what Brian's wife or wives looked like??? Specifically their lower half? That would get to the bottom of this. haha Actually, the guitar analogy sounds really good. I'd buy it. Just like with We Will Rock You, there are three verses: for kids, young adults, and old adults, but the guitars always stay the sure bet in his life (especially versus the roadies with their pounds of makeup). On the other hand, the joy and sleaziness makes the song. So go figure. |
|
| Queen – Funny How Love Is Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This is one of my favorite love songs ever. The beginning must be how it feels when you enter into heaven. It's unbelievably simple and toweringly majestic, all at the same time. | |
| Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
Awesome song. Amazing. Concocted from several little "mini-songs" that Mercury hadn't finished, then pieced together. A few years ago it was accepted as one of the first Western music songs to be allowed into Iran-- mainly because the theocracy there spun in into a story about a man who killed someone else, and only by calling the name of God (Allah) on the doorstep of hell was he saved. Who knows, maybe that meaning is partially true, some sort of crisis of faith Mercury had early in his life (NOT the killing part). By the end, he was seemingly back on board with his religion, guessing by the song "Mustapha" on Jazz and his Zoroastrian burial. One thing it is not about is AIDS. AIDS was first recognized in 1981, six years after this song came out and even longer after the time it was written. Lots of Queen songs have open-ended meanings and it's really romantic and poetic to think of it this way, so maybe that's why so many fans do. In interviews the band encouraged this kind of thing, so I guess every meaning is good in its own way. Someone wrote on the first page of comments a really great possible meaning, dealing with general feelings of judging, anger, etc. I believe the true meaning IS really vague, just a bunch of abstract thoughts-- powerful individually but don't really fit together. Maybe Freddie put them in the order he thought was most dramatic, interesting, and fitting of a story. There will never be another song like this (except perhaps MotBQ!), but hopefully someday another one will match it in both accessibility and complexity. |
|
| Queen – The March Of The Black Queen Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I have an idea about the "fie fo"-- it's a play on "fee fi fo fum", from the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk. The Black Queen is another mythical creature and inexorable force, just like the giant, and fits in with Freddie's earlier song on the album, "Ogre Battle". The lurid imagery in this song clashes so well with the pure and idealised White Queen, almost a manifestation of the differences in Freddie's and Brian's personalities, which might have been what they were going for with their white side/black side stuff. Don't forget Freddie used to wear black polish up until the first knuckle on his left hand-- which fits with the white/black dichotomy as well as a few lines in this song.. "Black on every fingernail and toe..." and "I reign with my left hand, I rule with my right". I always thought this last example was also a sly way of telling us that he's part "Queen" and part loyal subject guy, since reign is close to the word for Queen in a lot of European languages. This so is right up there with BR for me. You just never know where it's going next. I don't think the use of the N-word was anything other than an adjective for the sugar, which I think must have been an American Southern expression for brown sugar at some point. I think, overall, as many of you have said, and that website laid out perfectly, the Black Queen is a decadent, dominating personality that the author loves in spite of the hell she causes in her wake. It could be about Mary Austin, it could be about the "other" side of Freddie, or most likely, it could be just imagination. I love it. This and FHLI are my two favorite songs on Queen II by far. |
|
| Queen – Innuendo Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
This song was a tribute to Led Zeppelin. They were one of Queen's influences from Queen I right up through the end. It's interesting that in interviews and such they said the lyrics were the tribute to Led Zep, but I think the music also reminds me quite a bit of them too, with it's middle eastern flavor. This was the last great Queen epic, with a great and dramatic story, and multiple seemingly random motifs and key changes. The neapolitan chords in the versus give it a Middle Eastern (zoroastrian?) epic feel. I wasn't a fan of Queen in 1991 (was only 12) but I've read that this album did quite well on the charts, and this is before the Wayne's World revival (by a year) so it did so on its own merit. This is cool to me because everyone always thought Queen's "era" was over after The Game in '80, but as soon as they went back and did music similar to that of their golden era (Miracle, somewhat, then Innuendo) they did almost as well in 1991. I think this song is Freddie, and the others, asking the eternal questions as his life comes to an end. Here we are on earth, doing (mostly) what we're supposed to, and what for? Do we really know what we came from and where we are? But the human spirit is to keep on trying, even though we don't know-- a much more optimistic take on "hanging on in quiet desperation..." (which I like). The middle interlude, aside from being amazing musically, is also great lyrically as a break from this.. "Fuck it. Time is short. Do what you want!" -- a little piece of young Freddie that still existed even at the end. The solos are a genius touch-- one in flamenco, which fits the progression, and the other in trademark electric guitar. The tempo varies from 6 beats to 4 in the flamenco part, which makes it seem even more authentic against the constant 6 of the electric echo section. Chord sequence here is traditional flamenco too-- and also traditional pop (Hazy Shade of Winter and Dream On, for example). Finally, having just read the book "Wicked" a few months ago, I can't think of a song that better encapsulates what that book is about than this one. So weird. |
|
| Procol Harum – A Salty Dog Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| reminds me of the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader". if you've never read it it will probably be a movie in about three years. | |
| Joan Jett – I Love Rock N' Roll Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I heard that she made this after hearing Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" and deciding there wasn't enough rock and roll feel to it. Not wild enough. True or not, I love Joan Jett regardless. | |
| Queen – The Show Must Go On Lyrics | 18 years ago |
|
I've heard it said that this song has a double meaning-- first, the obvious one about Freddie and his impending death, and second, about Brian trying to make it through both a tough divorce and the death of one of his bandmates of 30 years, all in a period of a few months. I feel like the lyrics amazingly capture things from both perspectives-- from the protagonist as well as the audience. As proof of its power, this was voted in a British poll as the song people would most like to be played at their funeral. Personally I don't think quite that far ahead, but it is definitely my favorite Queen song. The metaphor of the show is amazing in that it applies particularly to Queen in a way, but also relates to everyone else who has to paint a smile on while going through difficult times. It also gives a nod to the classic theater axiom-- the show is a magical moment, so do whatever you can to keep it alive as long as possible. Interestingly the verses 1 and 2 seem to contradict this idea-- they are the truth that the singer is facing, but in the end he defies it by saying that he needs the show to get him through the end, too. Freddie was always transformed this way when he got on stage. The music is pure genius. The funereal opening Deacon/Taylor chord sequence plays nearly throughout, and is something that Freddie almost fights against as he makes his runs at the end. How he managed to hit a D5 or two after needing vodka just to make it through each take is astounding. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.