TALON'S TAKE
InnuendoWritten by: Freddie Mercury/Roger Taylor (with some help from Brian May)
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, keyboards
Brian May - guitars
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, percussion
Steve Howe - Spanish guitar solo
David Richards - keyboard programming
- Issued as a single backed with ‘Bijou’ and ‘Under Pressure’ in the UK (where it hit #1). Issued as a single backed with ‘Bijou’ in January 1991 in Australia (where it hit #27), The Netherlands (where it hit #4), and Italy. Issued as a single backed with ‘Bijou’ and ‘Under Pressure’ in January 1991 in Brazil, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan (where it did not chart), Mexico, and Spain.
- Steve How from Yes is a friend of the band's and that's how he ended up on the track.
- Played live only at the Freddie Mercury Tribute (with Robert Plant).
- There is a demo in the vaults with Roger on lead vocals.
QUOTES:
“Big, long and pretentious! It goes through a lot of changes." - Roger Taylor - 1991
"I think 'Innuendo' was one of those things which could either be big – or nothing. We had the same feelings about Bohemian Rhapsody. It's a risk, because a lot of people say, 'It's too long, it's too involved, and we don't want to play it on the radio.' I think that could be a problem in which case it will die. Or it could happen that people say, 'This is interesting and new and different,' and we'll take a chance." - Brian May - 1991
"[The song] started off as most things do, with us just messing around and finding a groove that sounded nice. All of us worked on the arrangement. Freddie started off the theme of the words as he was singing along, then Roger worked on the rest of them. I worked on some of the arrangement, particularly the middle bit, then there was an extra part that Freddie did for the middle as well. It basically came together like a jigsaw puzzle." - Brian May - 1991
"It's got the bolero-type rhythm, a very strange track. That's going to be the first single here. It's a bit of a risk, but it's different, and you either win it all or you lose it all. It had a nice sound and feel, and we stuck with that. The Spanish motif is suggested from the start: those little riffs at the beginning are sort of Bolero-esque. It seemed like the natural thing to explore those ideas on an acoustic guitar, and it just gradually evolved. Steve Howe helped out and did a fantastic job. We love all that stuff – it's like a little fantasy land adventure." - Brian May - 1991 - Guitar World
"[Steve] just happened to be around in Switzerland, when we were working and he just dropped in. We were working on this little Spanish guitar piece in the middle. He's very good at that sort of stuff, so instantly it seemed like a good idea to get him in to play all the stuff that I can't play." - Brian May - 1991 - Guitar Magazine
"'Innuendo' was an improvisation type song where they actually recorded it here in the big concert hall, it's just next door, and we set up like a live performance, and they just started playing, and sort of got into a nice rhythm and a groove, and some chords and then Freddie said, 'Oh, I like that,' and rushed downstairs into the concert hall and started singing along with it. Obviously then, once that initial idea was down on tape, then there was a lot of rearranging and putting extra things on, but the actual beginning of it was like a live thing. It just happened. It was wonderful. [Freddie] played a strong role in the writing of ['Innuendo']. Steve just happened to drop in one day to say hello to me. He had been recording at Mountain some ten years before with the group Yes. As soon as he popped his head round the door Freddie recognized him and said, 'Come on in and play some guitar!' He had no guitar with him so he used Brian's Dan Armstrong acoustic guitar with a direct output and tone control. Brian played the rhythm guitar and then echoed the solo afterwards on the Red Special." - David Richards - 2001
"It was a group collaboration, but I wrote the lyrics. I think the lyrics were mine, and the rest of it was the band. It was a group effort." - Roger Taylor 2002
"They played me 'Innuendo' and I go, 'Yeah, heavy metal flamenco!' And then Brian says, 'Look, I'd like you play on this,' and I said, 'You're joking, it sounds great, leave it like it is,' and he said, 'No no no, I want you to play on it, I want to you to play really fast, I want you to run around the guitar a lot.' So within a couple of hours I tested some of his Gibsons, Chet Atkins classical solid body guitars, and found one that I helped balance the strings because he wasn't sure how to balance the volume between the different strings which is the important thing to do on those guitars. So I got up and running, we did a few takes, we edited it a little bit, we fixed up a few things, then we went and had dinner. So we went back to the studio and they said we really really like this and I said, 'Fine, let's go with it.' So I left very happy. I'd worked with people who were diehard Queen people, and a funny thing happened a little while later, I was on a ferry going to The Netherlands and on this ferry which takes a long time, five hours, were the Queen fan club, all going to Rotterdam to a Queen event, and a couple of them saw me and they came racing over and they said, 'You're Steve Howe! You're on "Innuendo"!' And they all came out of the room, sitting around talking and things... and my memories of Queen will always be emotional because they were a great band and it was just great, it really was a thrill to be part of that, and thanks for asking me." - Steve Howe
ALTERNATE RELEASED PERFORMANCES
VIDEO VERSION- NOT essential - some added wind noise in the beginning
EXPLOSIVE VERSIONEXPLOSIVE VERSION- NOT essential - the end trails out into this explosion.
GREATEST HITS II EDITGH II EDIT- NOT essential - a slight early fade out.
WE WILL ROCK YOU VERSION- ESSENTIAL
- A short snippet used to introduce the Musical but it takes a different vocal take from Freddie.
UNRELEASED
1989 DEMO- NOT essential but interesting to see.
LIVE
QUEEN + ROBERT PLANT - 1992 - FREDDIE TRIBUTE- The only time the band ever attempted this track. It is not the best performance as Robert flubs the word and it doesn't *QUITE* work. Interestingly though Robert does throw a few lines of Kashmir in the middle (as a song that was an inspiration to this one)
- At the end he also sings part of Led Zep's Thank You as well before going into Crazy Little Thing (a segue that worked, unfortunately cut off here)
PERSONAL NOTES:
I LOVE this song. After a decade of more simpler, poppy songs, this track really hearkens back to their pomp and epic tracks of the 70s. Great tempo changing, beautiful lyrics, and some great vocals and guitar work. One of my favorites. During the QAL tour, when I first heard the band go into the drum duet, I thought momentarily that Roger was doing the opening of Innuendo....*sigh*.
CHANCES:
Innuendo......15% -- It's one Queen fans have been clamoring for although it is a complicated song and there probably wasn't enough time to get a proper arrangement unfortunately.
SUPPLEMENTAL:
QPR TRACKS FROM COSMOS ROCKS (A SMALL OVERVIEW)
Cosmos Rockin'Written by: Roger Taylor
Musicians:
Paul Rodgers - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - guitars, bass guitar (?), backing vocals
Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, keyboards (?), bass guitar (?) backing vocals
I CAN'T FIND AN UNBLOCKED YT LINK :(
- Played live on the 2008 tour with a live version featuring on Live in Ukraine and 2008 Official Downloads (two versions). It became a live favorite with the band adding whatever city/country they were in to the title...we've got Moscow Rockin' etc.
- Roger initially demoed this and it was called
Whole House Rockin' This demo was slightly different in arrangement. It was eventually released as a bonus track of the Lot box set version of
Fun On Earth. This version was also played live by Roger with the SAS Band in 2009. BUT we'll get there later on.
QUOTES
Can you tell us about other songs [on the new album]?
"There's one called 'Whole House Rocking', which is fairly basic and jolly." - Brian May - 2008 - Classic Rock Magazine
"Roger had this song called “The Whole World’s Rockin’” and it’s on there now. It starts off with “the whole house rockin’”, and then “the whole town rockin’”, “the whole world rockin’” and then I went, “Well, why don’t we have ‘the whole Universe rockin’’?” So that’s kind of, and it’s just for fun, you know. It’s not a serious comment on cosmology, you know, but it just fun to think, yeah, you can get the whole cosmos rockin’, you know. So that’s kind of how the thing took shape and there’s a few little allusions in thereto the - to the Cosmos." - Brian May - 2008 - Bob & Tom, US Radio
OFFICIALLY RELEASED LIVE VERSION
LIVE IN UKRAINE- During the first part of the 2008 tour very little of the Cosmos Rocks album was played. As the tour went on more and more tracks were added. BUT this one was there from the beginning.
UNOFFICIAL LIVE VERSION
LIVE IN CHILE 2008- Another great version towards the end of the 2008 tour.
PERSONAL NOTES: It's tough to say. On record this wasn't much of an opening. It's kind of harkening back to old school rock and roll but not what I expected. However I have to admit that in concert it REALLY picks up and sounds like a really really fun live tune. So a decent beginning to the pairing outside of some ridiculous lyrics...but in fairness I think they are supposed to be ridiculous!
SmallWritten by: Roger Taylor
Musicians:
Paul Rodgers - lead vocals
Brian May - guitars, bass guitar (?), backing vocals
Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, keyboards (?), bass guitar (?), backing vocals
SADLY ANOTHER BLOCKED YT VID :(
- A gentle acoustic number that most thought initially was a Brian instigated track.
- A reprise was done at the end of the album so as to fade off on a nice note.
- Never attempted live
- Roger would re-record his own solo version for his 2013 album
Fun On Earth - to be detailed later.
ALTERNATE
ROGER 2013 VERSION
- Much different with Roger on vocal/guitar and without Brian. I prefer Rog's vocals with Brian's guitar but at least this gives you an idea....
PERSONAL NOTES: This is a great Roger song. In his latter days he has become the master of the melancholy, low key ballad (Days of Our Lives, Old Friends, etc.) and this is just one of those perfect strum along songs. Beautiful sentiment.
We BelieveWritten by: Brian May
Musicians:
Paul Rodgers - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - guitars, bass guitar (?), keyboards (?), backing vocals
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
- Played live on the 2008 tour – the first few times Brian sang the first verse with live versions featuring on 2008 Official Downloads (two versions).
- Released as a single in Italy where it hit #4.
QUOTES:
Can you tell us about other songs [on the new album]?
"This is very much Brian's song, that one, in which I think he sort of puts his views on everything, you know - on the state of everything according to him ... It's very, it's very well meant, you know. 'There's no evil that we didn't have a hand in', I think is quite well put and, yeah, it's a sort of statement."
- Roger Taylor - 2008 - BBC Radio 2
"There's also another called 'We Believe', which is fairly upbeat."
- Brian May - 2008 - Classic Rock Magazine
“This is something that was close to my heart. I wrote it for the Queen + Paul Rodgers collaboration, but these things kind of get swept away with the passage of time, and I was really thrilled when Martha (Rossi) said she wanted to do a special version of it for the Italian audience. Raffaella Roll has done an excellent translation and this work has been going on for some time and I’ve taken a little part in it, but not a very big part. Anyway I wanted to congratulate Martha on a fantastic piece of work, which means a lot to me, and I hope we have a great success out there.” – Brian May
ALTERNATIVE VERSIONS
SINGLE PROMO EDITSINGLE EDIT- NOT ESSENTIAL but nice
- A ton of instrumental bits were chopped off but it made it an effective radio edit.
UNOFFICIAL LIVE VERSIONS
LIVE IN ROTTERDAM 2008-ESSENTIAL
- This is one of the first times they did the song and during the first few times, Brian actually sang the first verse allowing Paul to come in on the chorus and for the remainder of the track. After a few times, this would revert to the normal Paul taking on the whole song.
LIVE IN SANTIAGO 2008SANTIAGO - 2008- The far more traditional version.
PERSONAL NOTES:
As it can be at times Queen can write some really maudlin, sappy and naive lyrics but I don't mind. It really reads like Obama's campaign promises of that year...and reads a bit like Brian's soapbox. BUT it is also one of the more "Queen"-like tracks on the album with the full on power ballad moments.
CHANCES:
COSMOS ROCKIN......2% -- It is a RT song so he may choose to do his version of it during his section but I HIGHLY doubt it.
WE BELIEVE.......2% -- Again doubtful, but it is a Brian soapbox song and he loves his soapbox and he likes corralling songs for different singers but nah.
SMALL......5% -- Important to RT to record again on his own...wouldn't be absolutely shocked if he pulled it out during his section....
