Keep Yourself Alive Lyrics
Hey, I like it. I think the idea isn't that you can't change, but that there's no real point. No matter what you do, no matter how much "better" you become, you're still the same person. So what's the point in going through all that work to get ahead in the competition, when you're competing for something that doesn't really matter? The only thing that really does matter is the basic things, or rather, basic thing, which is, in the end, keeping yourself alive. So live simply, because nothing you achieve is going to make you any better. So it's not that you can't change, but that you don't have to.
It's a simple song conveying the complicated philosophy of living simply. Or maybe I'm completely wrong, and it's the opposite...
I asked BM about this in an email and this what he said:
"Keep yourself Alive ? well, I don't think we thought success would be easy. When the record struggled to be heard, we just thought ... it'll take a bit more work until people understand what we have to offer. We were not offering normal "Pop" music of the time, so it was not going to be easy to turn the attention of Radio around. We believed!!! Also the whole hit record thing was not perceived by us as the only important thing , or indeed a thing of much importance at all. Our heroes were Led Zeppelin, after all, who NEVER had a hit single!! I think we wondered if having a hit would disqualify us from being taken seriously! By some stroke of good fortune, we were able to have hits later, but still develop ourselves as an Album-Oriented touring band ..... we carved out our own destiny, by great persistence and much work, and some good tunes, I think! But I feel we were very fortunate too."
so this is how Queen kept going through the early days. Now we know...
how exactly did you email him? i wanna email him too ^_^ his guitar skillz own
Got to his website - brianmay.com
I am sooooooooooo happy no one (incorrectly) linked this to AIDS... Almost all of the other Queen songs I have seen have a mention somewhere. All this song is saying is, "Do what you want to, and become better at it!"
I read somewhere that when Brian originally penned "Keep Yourself Alive", he had intended it to be kind of negative and ironic, but when the band actually played the song it took on a whole new atmosphere. Maybe Brian was frustrated with people telling him over and over again about how important it was that he and his band get famous, when what he really wanted to focus on was making good music. I heard that Queen released it as their very first single, but it was a total failiure in that respect and never got any airplay. Brilliant song regardless, especially the surreal, "fantasy-ish" air about it.
I love this song with reservations. Maybe I'm misunderstanding it but it seems to be an essentially negative thread running through the lyrics here
Something erie....
Similar to in "We Will Rock You", when after the first stomp stomp clap we can hear freddy (or someone) moan, in "keep yourself alive", exactly 27 seconds into the song after the rift, you can hear him say something fairly quick which sounds like "single" or "signu" or something. i suggest slowing it down
I like this song... it just means that no matter what you do, it doesn't really matter anyway, so just do what you want. It's a "what's the point?" kind of song.
He is saying "Sing it!"