Illegal Foreign Object

The history of rock ‘n’ roll is loaded with bigger-than-life frontmen who pushed boundaries, kicked out the jams, and made the masses shake their asses. 

There’s the brooding poet swagger of Jim Morrison and Eddie Vedder and the frenetic screaming howl of Roger Daltrey and Chris Cornell.

There’s the rattlesnake slither of Axl Rose and Steven Tyler and the hysterics-inducing showmanship of Robert Plant, David Lee Roth, and Mick Jagger.

All of these men belong near the top of any “greatest frontmen in rock history” lists, but for my money, the best any of them could finish is 2nd place.

I started my morning with Queen’s 1974 release Sheer Heart Attack, cranking up the volume for “Stone Cold Crazy”. I then jumped over to the band’s 1980 masterpiece, The Game. If “Dragon Attack” doesn’t improve your day, listen to it again.

I finished my Queen-intensive listening session with Innuendo, the 14th (and final) studio album the band released with the mighty Freddie Mercury. Recorded between March 1989 and November 1990, the album was fraught with delays due to the declining health of Mercury. In 1987, doctors told the singer he was HIV positive — two years later, Freddie was diagnosed with AIDS. During the Innuendo sessions, the band released The Miracle, its 13th studio album. Though the band couldn’t tour, Freddie remained committed to writing and recording, saying he’d “keep working until I fucking drop”.

Innuendo is a roller coaster ride throughout — filled with soaring highs, crushing lows, and an overarching melancholy that sometimes reduces me to tears. The title track is one of the strongest songs on the record and was born out of a jam session at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. Freddie heard the jam from an upstairs room and wrote a melody and some scratch lyrics. Then, all four members pieced the song together, with drummer Roger Taylor finishing the lyrics. The groovy flamenco piece in the middle of the song that seemingly pops out of nowhere — that’s Yes’ Steve Howe, who ended up on the song after visiting the studio.

“Headlong” is a song that Brian May wrote for his solo record Back To The Light, but he loved how Freddie sang it and decided to include it on Innuendo. It was the third single released from the album.

“Don’t Try So Hard” showcases Freddie’s powerful vocals. You can hear touches of exhaustion in his voice, which only serves to make the performance that much more impressive. Brian May’s solo on the song is quintessential Queen — a slow burn that builds into a raging inferno of an outro.

You need only be a casual fan of Queen to know that “Ride The Wild Wind” is a Roger Taylor song through and through. Written as a sequel to “I’m In Love With My Car”, the pounding drums and May’s searing guitar make it one of the heaviest songs on Innuendo.

“These Are The Days Of Our Lives” is one of those songs that always worms its way into my heart and tears me in half. Like Phil Collins’ “I Wish It Would Rain Down” or Richie Sambora’s “Father Time”, I don’t recall a time when I heard the song without crying. The video, in particular, will break your heart as a gaunt, frail Freddie says his goodbyes before closing the song with a whispered, “I still love you.” One of my all-time favorite Brian May solos shows up on this track — a touching bit of dexterous acrobatics played so beautifully that it never feels like he’s showing off.

Freddie Mercury owned eleven cats, but Delilah was special to him. So special that he wrote a song for her, “Delilah”. It’s a silly little love song, but all my fellow cat dads with a penchant for singing to their kitties relate so hard to Freddie.

The one full-on barn-burner on Innuendo is “The Hitman”, a song that started as a keyboard-driven, Freddie-penned song before Brian May took his demo and added power chords galore. It is the one song on the album where May dispenses with all his standard class and style and rips the listener’s ears off.

“Bijou” is a stunning exercise in songwriting, with May and Mercury consciously turning the song inside-out. May’s guitar work sounds like it’s climbing towards the heavens. It perfectly brackets Mercury’s tearjerking vocals about Brian’s mother’s pet budgie, a companion she was gifted after her husband passed.

 “The Show Must Go On” closes out Innuendo. It’s one of the most gut-wrenching, powerful album closers ever recorded. The song is also a beautiful example of true friendship — Brian May wrote most of the lyrics about Freddie’s private battle and the toll his refusal to bend to the inevitable was taking on his body. May wasn’t sure Freddie was physically capable of pulling off the vocal but said he responded in typical Freddie fashion. “I said, ‘Fred, I don’t know if this is going to be possible to sing.’ And he went, ‘I’ll fucking do it, darling’—vodka down—and went in and killed it, completely lacerated that vocal”. You can hear every last bit of anguish, hope, faith, and resignation in his voice. It’s the perfect farewell.

There are countless stories about Freddie Mercury’s final years. He ascended with dignity and grace (as if there was any other way for him). What isn’t mentioned, however, is the permanent scarring his suffering must have left on the other members of Queen. Losing someone is always tragic — watching someone you love waste away is horrific. With no backstory at your disposal, Innuendo is a good album. There are amazing songs, some okay ones, and a few that were maybe best left where they found them, but in this instance, songs don’t tell the tale. Innuendo isn’t just a farewell record — it’s an exhibition of how you honor and celebrate the life (and death) of someone you love.

Tracklist:

1. Innuendo 9/10
2. I’m Going Slightly Mad 7/10
3. Headlong 7/10
4. I Can’t Live Without You 4/10
5. Don’t Try So Hard 7/10
6. Ride The Wild Wind 6/10
7. All God’s People 6/10
8. These Are The Days Of Our Lives 9/10
9. Delilah 6/10
10. The Hitman 7/10
11. Bijou 9/10
12. The Show Must Go On 10/10

Grade: 73