TALON'S TAKE:
Body LanguageWritten by: Freddie Mercury
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, synthesizer, drum machine, synth bass
Brian May - sporadic guitar
Roger Taylor - electronic drums
- Issued as a single in the US where it hit #11 and in the UK where it hit #25. Around the world it hit #28 in Australia and # 6 in The Netherlands. It did not chart in Japan. It is unclear where it charted for Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, and Mexico although it was released there.
- Some point this out to be the start of the end of the band in America at the time. This was the lead single and it did hit #11 but a new single from a rock band would start to climb quickly. It is notable that no other single from the album did very well and the album sank as well.
- Played live sporadically in 1982 then dropped.
QUOTES:
- "Some of the tracks on the album, like 'Body Language', were Freddie on keyboard bass." - John Deacon - 1982
- "There are some things on the album which I felt came out too light, that's all. Like 'Body Language'. There's a lot of things where I felt that we became so obsessed with the rhythm side that we were afraid to turn up the guitars. Afraid to use the guitar as a force." - Brian May - 1982
- "I can remember having a go at Freddie because some of the stuff he was writing was very definitely on the gay side. I remember saying, 'It would be nice if this stuff could be universally applicable, because we have friends out there of every persuasion.' It's nice to involve people. What it's not nice to do is rope people out. And I felt kind of roped out by something that was very overtly a gay anthem, like 'Body Language'. I thought it was very hard to take that in the other way. It's hard to talk about this. But there you go." - Brian May - 1998
- "This is very much a Freddie thing. He was immersed in the gay world. I think it's very well constructed, it's deliberately away from the Queen concept." - Brian May - 2003
- "Not really us but not a bad record." - Roger Taylor - 2003
ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSION:
1991 HOLLYWOOD REMIX- As ESSENTIAL as this song can be.
- Adds more background piano which actually makes the track more palatable in my opinion
UNRELEASED LIVE VERSION:
LIVE IN NEW JERSEY 1982- Like most of the
Hot Space material it is better live with more Brian and more organic bass/drums.
PERSONAL NOTES:
- I can't say I hate ANY Queen song. But this is one I never choose to listen to. It does have a few things going for it. They lyrics are humorous, the video is a riot. Overall though? Meh.
CHANCES:
Body Language......0% -- Can I go less than 0%? It just simply won't happen...and I'm QUITE alright with that
SUPPLEMENTAL:
You Don't Fool MeWritten by: Freddie Mercury/Brian May/Roger Taylor/John Deacon (with assist from producer David Richards)
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - guitars
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, keyboards, backing vocals
- Issued as a single throughout all the clubs especially in Europe where it hit #17.
- Reportedly the whole song was taken from a very little bit of snippets and Dave Richards convinced the other three they could make a whole song out of it.
- Remixed...a lot for the clubs.
- Some liner notes for Greatest Hits 3 stated it harkened back to the Hot Space era misleading many Queen fans to think the demo came from those sessions which is not the case.
QUOTE:
"As I remember, the bare bones of this song (and they were VERY Bare!) were put down in the last sessions we did with Freddie in Montreux. When it came to piecing together Made In Heaven, David Richards was keen to make the fragments into a finished song. I wasn’t sure there was enough to work on! He got a long way with weaving textures, around the vocal sections we had, stretching things out a little. I think both Roger and John, who had a lot to do with those original fragments in the beginning, went in and added some ideas. There came a point where finally I got enthusiastic, and I spent a day or so, with Dave, putting down a lot of riffy ideas that came to me while listening to the rough so far. Dave then moved a lot of things around, and worked his magic…and then we all sat around and said, ‘Didn’t we just play that perfectly!’” – Brian May
Alternate:
DANCING DIVAZ MIXESRHYTHM MIX HAS NO YT VID
- Some Spanish guitar added (not Brian) and a faster tempo
LATE MIXDUB DANCE SINGLE HAS NO YT VID
- Remixed by David Richards, also contains live snippets from Live Aid
FREDDY BASTONE MIXESQUEEN FOREVER HAS NO YT VID
- Some clips from Live Aid as well as White Man
- Freddy previously remixed Seven Seas of Rhye for the Queen II Hollywood remaster.
JAM & SPOOON MIXES- There is also a mis-edit which chopped off the beginning.
DUTCH EDIT- Chops off a bit of the track but works well as a single edit
FRENCH EDIT/VINYL EDITNO YT VID
- A better edit than the Dutch one but similar.
BS PROJECT REMIXES- A repetitive remix with a lot of droney keyboard/electronic vocals
PERSONAL NOTES:
Well I could certainly do without the remixes. BUT the original version of the song is quite a feat given the lack of actual material and many fans will tell you that this is their favorite Brian solo of latterday Queen and I'd be hard pressed to argue. It's a great burst of energy in the middle of the track. Well done overall. It took a bit to grow on me but now it is one of my favorite tracks on the album!
CHANCES:
You Don't Fool Me......0% -- I figured it was a good song to pair up with Body Language. This one though definitely grew on me...mostly due to Brian!
Anyway, I thought about it and... here we go:
Thirsty, hungry, tired and sleepy (it was almost midnight), but totally happy. 