I don’t know where these interpretations are coming for as I thought it was common knowledge amongst Queen fans that it’s very much about one of the band members, presumably Brian. It’s off of Hot Space which was the album John’s influence touched the most and Brian and Roger were both reluctant about it and argued a lot. A level of tension grew, and it’s palpable in interviews, particularly between John and Brian. They did an entire press conference sat next to each other and Brian didn’t look at John even once during the whole thing, even when John spoke. Reading their statements about the era and watching the interviews you can see that Brian was angry during the time, and John was incredibly smug, as one might be after one of your best friends demands to have a guitar solo on a track that you wrote to retaliate against him.
Additionally, John wrote AND PLAYED most of the guitar in the song, which isn’t true for pretty much any of the other songs they’ve done. Brian only played the solo.
I don’t know where these interpretations are coming for as I thought it was common knowledge amongst Queen fans that it’s very much about one of the band members, presumably Brian. It’s off of Hot Space which was the album John’s influence touched the most and Brian and Roger were both reluctant about it and argued a lot. A level of tension grew, and it’s palpable in interviews, particularly between John and Brian. They did an entire press conference sat next to each other and Brian didn’t look at John even once during the whole thing, even when John spoke. Reading their statements about the era and watching the interviews you can see that Brian was angry during the time, and John was incredibly smug, as one might be after one of your best friends demands to have a guitar solo on a track that you wrote to retaliate against him.
Additionally, John wrote AND PLAYED most of the guitar in the song, which isn’t true for pretty much any of the other songs they’ve done. Brian only played the solo.