Too Much Love Will Kill You

Hi All. Just curious as to what you all thought about Brian's TMLWKY. I feel it deals with and portrays the emotions that go along with an extra-marital affair; and as much as society looks down on this, the songwriter shines a different light and the listener must empathize with him.
"I'm just the peices of the man I used to be"...admitting that something is dragging him down and tearing him up. "I'm far away from home and I've been facing this alone for much to long.." The songwriter longs to return to the way things were before the affair started and wishes he someone outside of it to talk to.
"In my tangled state of mind, I've been looking back to find where I went wrong.." Apparently, affairs make you think differently and you try to justify what you are doing, however in the grand scheme of things, the songwriter knows he is making a mistake.
The choras goes, "Torn between the lover, and the love you leave behind." Pretty obvious here.
Maybe I'm just really bored and over-analyzing. Let me know what you think!

Even though the song was written by Brian and it was before Freddie's death it doesn't take much to see the song fits way more to what was going on with Freddie and his fight with AIDS than anything else...."I'm just the pieces of the man I used to be, and it seem's like there's no way out of this for me"......"I'm just the shadow of the man I used to be, too many bitter tears are raining down on me"...."It will make you bleed, and scream, and crawl"....All those excerts paint a very vivid picture of what Freddie was going through which is why I think he did the song with his vocal's on it as well......Peace

No mhoman, your analysis is spot on, while lyricalassassin's is pretty much out in left field. That's why I feel Brian's version is infinitely superior to Queen's MIH version, I don't buy Freddie's emotional attachment to the song the way I do Brian's.

I love the song and I think it's by far among the best lyrics found on any Queen album. Still, most of the words aren't by Brian.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Sebastian wrote: [/QUOTENAME]I love the song and I think it's by far among the best lyrics found on any Queen album. .[/QUOTE]

Really??
I feel any song that rhymes 'shoes' with 'choose' is kinda hackneyed... some lines in TMLWKY do it for me, others feel same ol' same ol'...

I've always loved the song though, both versions work for me in different ways.

This song has nothing to do with Freddies illness. "Make you bleed and scream and crawl"?? I think this was written before Freddie had any bad AIDS symptoms ('87-'88?). Its obvious it deals with a love affair, "Torn between the lover, and the love you leave behind." "Too much love will kill you, if you can't make up your mind," obviously issues with a love an affair.

Way out in left field huh? LoL....Ok...I never said the song was MEAN'T to be about Freddie. All I'm saying is you can very easily make it to where it is. I can relate almost all the lyrics in that song to what Freddie was going through. I'm not going to get into a pissing contest on when it was written or if it was about Brian's personal troubles but I do very much believe Freddie sung the song because it ALSO very much fitted his struggles and problems. Myself I like to enjoy the music not break each level of it down like I'm discecting a frog, I'll leave that to you all......

Well,
the lyrics from TMLWKY is about how too much love hurts when it ends. Brian wrote it in a struggle moment of his own life and it's about his state of mind.

I love the bri's version and I think the song don't fit freddie's voice too much.
bye
Claudio

Both Sebastian and Zebonka have interesting accurate points about the lyrics, and that's where the value of honest singing pays off. In the hands of a lesser artist, it could be a Celine Dion cliche fest. But Brian sings it with such hurt in his voice he absolutely sells the song. And for the people who followed Queen long term and always perceived Brian as the caring vulnerable one in the band, lines like "I'm just a shadow of the man I used to be" and "I used to bring you flowers, now all I ever do is bring you down" are incredibly painful and revealing. Obviously, Freddie was a better singer than Brian but Brian sings this song way better than Freddie. TMLWKY is one of the few songs in the catalogue that I believe Freddie didn't have his heart in singing.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]Boy Thomas Raker wrote: [/QUOTENAME] Obviously, Freddie was a better singer than Brian but Brian sings this song way better than Freddie. TMLWKY is one of the few songs in the catalogue that I believe Freddie didn't have his heart in singing. [/QUOTE]

I've heard these comments many times and each time I'm stunned. Maybe there is emotion in Brian's version of this song, but in no way can I understand how anyone can say he sang it better. Of course, it's all a matter of opinion, but I feel beyond what I see as the inferior quality of Brian's voice, especially compared to Freddie's, the emotion and passion in Freddie's is palpable.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]claudiox wrote: [/QUOTENAME]Well,
the lyrics from TMLWKY is about how too much love hurts when it ends. Brian wrote it in a struggle moment of his own life and it's about his state of mind.
Claudio[/QUOTE]
no he didn't...he wrote the music..the lyrics were written by someone else
so there is no evidence to suggest it was about Brian's life

I never compare the two versions. But in all honesty, I choose the Queen version cause it feels like so much more than the BTTL version. And I had wished for many years that there'd been a Freddie sung version, and et voila, come 1995, there it was!

Adam.

Singing is emotion is singing!! It's down to the listeners to find their interpretation of who is more sincere in their singing of it.
If you are purely out for the better singer, then you're likely inclined to prefer the Queen version.
As for which is emotionally more valuable.. it's open to debate, because some people find emotions are brought up by the better singer! And some relate to it because it just sounds like Brian 'means it' more than Freddie did.

short and sweet
i prefer brians version,more heart and soul in it imho.
however....
i would of loved Johnny Cash to of done a version of it.

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]claudiox wrote: [/QUOTENAME]...
I think the song don't fit freddie's voice too much.
bye
Claudio[/QUOTE]

I think it does fit Freddie's voice perfectly. When I first heard it in 1992, by Brian, I thought: "What a beautiful song, you can hear clearly it was written to be sung by Freddie, but he couldn't make it.".

To my big surprise and joy, in 1995 I heard Freddie singing it, and thought that would prove my first impression, that it was written with his voice in mind. Now I am not quite sure about that, but I can certainly say that IMHO Freddie's voice does suit the song beautifully.

And I also have to say that I LOVE Brian's version, as I am a big fan of his vocals. Pitty he couldn't do justice to it live, except for the Pavarotti version, which is awesome.

Cheers,

Ogre-