I need help! Are you here Talon?! Anybody?! I accidentally sent my brother (we can't talk about Adam with each other
) the Here I Am and Stone Cold Crazy video I posted earlier and now he's asking just what does Stone Cold Crazy actually mean in the song!
Isn't it just a crazy dream they are singing about?
It is the oldest Queen song and predates Queen -- a version of it was played in the late 1960's by Freddie's band "Wreckage". The lyrics were changed, tempo increased and it was made heavier by Queen and so it became the first one they all wrote together.
It was the first song Queen performed live.
It has had various interpretations -- but it is a pretty simple headbanger song, about the attitude, an outlaw vs. the establishment song -- there are tons of them from 1968 - 1970. Mostly it is a theme with cool sounding words.
The song contains clear allusions to Saint Valentine's Day Massacre -- in which Al Capone's gang shot down a rival gang in Chicago in 1929. They used Tommy Guns -- Thompson submachine guns. [It was on a morning, Al Capone was asleep, but Feb 14, 1929 was a Thursday, so not too literal.] He was arrested many times and spent times in many prisons. On one occasion they police broke down his down and carried him away. Al Capone spent years in prison, and was not mentally competent due to the ravages of untreated syphilis compounded years of cocaine abuse.
The reference to "slide trombone" could be inspired by the song "Al Capone" [1964] by Jamaican singer-songwriter Prince Buster. It was a hit in the UK and spent 18 weeks on the chart and was mostly an instrumental with prominent brass instruments played by The Skatalites, a Jamaican ska band, including a prominent slide trombone. [Trombone also rhymes with Capone.]
Setting that aside, the lyrics on many Queen songs (example: "Tie Your Mother Down") were selected to have a sonic effect and be cool sounding nonsense. Stone(d), cold, crazy lyrics seemed to me to be in that category. Here are a few other bits.
"Stone Cold" is an old British express (back to the early 20th century) for radicals. It might be related but it could be on purpose.
Many people think "Stone" alludes to stoned. Seems sensible to me.
"Stone Cold" = is also an expression for being dead. And that ties to Freddie's consistent themes of heaven, hell, life, death, judgment.
"Crazy" is will crazy, you know. Another theme that Freddie returned to over and over.
The police language runs thru the song = establishment. (Similar to "I Shot the Sheriff") This is unusual for Queen but was common in the late 1960's and throughout the Punk era. It was later a core part of political Hip Hop.
A rubber tommy water gun = a toy machine gun which were commonly made of rubber in the 1940's and 1950's = useless, powerless. [Or rubber just sounded cool there.]
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More important than the lyrics IMO is the sound of this song. It is one of Queen most innovative and influential songs.
It is considered by some people to be the first punk song. It is Queen's heaviest song.
It is the song the closest Queen ever came to winning a Grammy -- because Metallica won on for "Best Rock Performance" for their cover of SCC in 1991. That award only goes to the performers.
) the Hear I Am and Stone Cold Crazy video I posted earlier and now he's asking just what does Stone Cold Crazy actually mean in the song!
