Favorite Queen b-side song

I voted for See What A Fool I've Been and Mad The Swine. I don't think the former would have worked well on Queen II but the latter could have fitted in quite nicely on their debut album.

Ted

Ah I’ve come to appreciate Rain Must Fall over the years. It’s no great shakes compared to the Big Five on The Miracle (plus Was It All Worth It), but it’s a solid album track that’s fun, breezy, and playful. For me, Brian’s guitar work on the song alone redeems it from being barely listenable filler to a halfway decent album track, similar to some of the other “margin” tracks from past albums; I’m reminded specifically of Who Needs You, another “filler” track that’s fun, breezy, and playful.

From what I recall, the story goes that they couldn't find all of the multitracks for the original version, so used a different take for some of it.

And that's precisely the point and is its charm - Mercury is not taking himself that seriously in 1981. Like The Beatles' Glass Onion, it's self-parody at its best.

Nice to know.

Not a good look for a first post on a forum.

I do too – it’s not a classic but I love Brian’s slide guitar work (something lacking on the MIH version, though MIH has a more natural drum sound) and the piano. The production is a little echoey compared to the rest of the album; perhaps a somewhat drier mix might improve it.

Agreed with Dozen Red Roses – it’s far more interesting than it’s counterpart (and is another example of Freddie’s screeching, which he was doing quite a bit on that album).
edit: ah bollocks how the hell do you embed youtube videos on mobile

You can use [ video ] [/ video ] bbcode (without the spaces).

Alright, both of my picks are tied with A Human Body for 2nd place, but the winning choice seems to be edging further ahead.

I've always thought that 'My Life Has Been Saved' is at least partly inspired by Freddie's situation, media speculation about his health and the band, etc. It was the B-side to 'Scandal', so it would make sense.

"I read it in the papers, there's death on every page..." could refer to media coverage of HIV crisis, character assassination of Freddie and Brian, demise of Queen as a band, etc.

"Here we go, telling lies..." could refer to lies told by the media, or the lies the band were telling others and themselves about Freddie's health, etc.

"I thank the Lord above, my life has been saved..." could refer to John's gratitude that he's dodged the media character assassination and/or illness, etc.

The b-side of My life has been saved is my fave from Queen in the 80s. It had the lyricism in Brian's guitar and more robust playing than the MIH version did, which I found to be generic, keyboard padded pablum. Then again, I have a pathological hatred for the MIH album. So much so, it made me stop posting on QZ because I despised it so much I got into a heated thread with Adam Baboolal, who took me to task for saying that I thought the album was manipulative and contrived, and how dare I say that about "the boys" and their attempt to pay tribute to Freddie. I decided that arguing on QZ or anywhere about my opinions was a waste of my life so I posted 2-3 times a year there after that and much better as a result.