Today!
I'm In Love With My CarWritten by: Roger Taylor
Musicians:
Roger Taylor - lead and backing vocals, drums
Freddie Mercury - piano, backing vocals
Brian May - guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
- A boy and his car! Dedicated to Jonathan Harris - boy racer til the end. Harris was a roadie with the band who really was in love with this car he owned a TR4.
- Played in a very strange time signature for pop/rock a 6/8 which is really more of a waltz.
- Played live until 1981 with Queen, then played during Roger's time with The Cross (usually the only Queen song they'd play for quite awhile -- and with Roger on guitar instead of drums), and brought back for Roger's solo tours of 1994/95 and 1998/99. Again brought back for all of the QPR gigs...and quite honestly I was shocked he didn't play it with QAL.
- It was initially taken as a joke by Brian when he heard the demo.
- The revving sounds are from Roger's car at the time, an Alfa Romero.
- It was used in a commercial for Jaguar in 2004ish which led to Hollywood Records adding it to a re-release of Greatest Hits as it became a cult popular song.
- It created much controversy within the band as you'll read in a quote. At the time Roger was adamant that it was the B-Side to
Bohemian Rhapsody. He fought and fought. Now when Bo-Rhap suddenly exploded and sold millions and millions of copies, Roger was getting writing royalty credits for being the B-Side. Brian was not happy with that. But they soldiered on
QUOTES:
- "I wish it would have been a single in its time. Of course, I made just as much money on it. It was the backside of
Bohemian Rhapsody, so I probably made more money that way." - Roger Taylor - 1982 - Detroit Free Press
-"I remember my car at the time, because I think we've got the exhaust on the record, and that was a little Alfa Romeo. But I think it was more about people in general, for instance boy racers. In particular we had a sound guy/roadie at the time called Jonathan Harris, who was in love with his car, and that inspired that. I think he had a TR4, Triumph TR4."
- Roger Taylor - November 1997 - Pop On The Line
- "We always rowed about money. A lot of terrible injustices would take place over songwriting. The major one is B-sides. Like
Bohemian Rhapsody sells a million and Roger gets the same writing royalties as Freddie because he did
I'm In Love With My Car. There was contention about that for years." - Brian May
ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:
SINGLE VERSION- NOT essential listening. Basically, it takes the revving sound at the end and puts it at the beginning and fades out at the end.
1991 HOLLYWOOD REMIX- NOT essential listening but nice. An intro is added with phased vocals of the chorus.
QUEEN ROCKS REMIX- NOT essential listening but nice. Combines the album version with the single version - added revving included.
GUITAR AND VOCAL MIX 2011- ESSENTIAL listening. Added as a bonus track to the 2011 reissue of
A Night At The Opera Deluxe Edition, this is just Rog's rawking voice (with help from Freddie on backing vocals) and Brian's guitar. Works well together
Just a cool stripped back version.
UNRELEASED AND UNHEARD VERSIONS:
ROGER DEMO 1 &2- Rumored to exist as Roger began laying down tracks for a solo project. This would have Roger on guitar and these also would include some alternate lyrics.
OFFICIALLY RELEASED LIVE VERSIONS:
LIVE KILLERS- Audio only. A decent verison.
ROCKS MONTREAL VERSION- A much better version imo.
QPR - RETURN OF THE CHAMPIONS VERSION- Older Roger doesn't go for the higher notes as much - he was a bit out of shape as this tour began
QPR - LIVE IN UKRAINE- NO YT VID
UNRELEASED LIVE PERFORMANCES
LIVE IN GLASGOW - 1979- NOT essential but FUNNY. Roger completely forgets the words and blanks...Freddie tries to help him out!
THE CROSS - LIVE IN LONDON- Unfortunately cut off as the TV show was ending but it is the best quality of Roger on guitar instead of drums doing his song
ROGER TAYLOR LIVE IN MILAN - 1994- Also includes part of the solo song,
Happiness?ROGER TAYLOR LIVE IN GENOVA - 1995- Audio only but the complete song.
ROGER TAYLOR LIVE IN MANCHESTER - 1999- Audio only but good version.
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS - LIVE IN MILAN - 2008- Nice version that includes the "bass" solo Roger did on Danny's upright bass.
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS - LIVE IN SANTIAGO - 2008- GREAT version including the drum solo (without the bass part)
DOCUMENTARY- GREAT view including Roger singing while strumming acoustically. LOVE this.
PERSONAL NOTES:
One of my favorite Roger songs because it's plain ludicrous but hilarious and fun and rawking all in one :D
NEXT...John's first HIT!
You're My Best Friend
Just a cool stripped back version.
