'All Dead, All Dead'

One of Brian May's most tragic and mournful compositions has to be 'All Dead, All Dead'. That being said I would like to ask the knowledgeable Queen fanatics a simple question. Why is it that on the lyric sheet for the 'News Of The World' album does it say "Memories, my memories. How long can you stay to haunt my days" right before getting into the first verse of 'All Dead, All Dead'? I'm guessing it was just a typo or simply something Brian May felt necessary to omit right before releasing the recording itself and forgetting or neglecting to delete it from the lyric sheet that came along with the album.

My belief is that the lyrics and sentiment were very meaningful to Brian, and he included those words as an indicator of what his thoughts were. Odd that he'd do it on only one song in the catalogue. Of course, it could be the line that inspired him to write the song, but it didn't fit in to the final version.

Sorry for the lack of help!

I could be wrong but I read somewhere that it was actually about Brian's cat that had died not long before the song was written.

That is in no way an answer to the question..



I think it's added because it's a great line which adds to the song. Although it wasn't song.


In the A Day at the Races booklet it also has the line 'Sheer bloody poetry'. But it isn't sung in Tie Your Mother Down.


Also, I believe the All dead all Dead intro words are in italics, so you can see it's not really part of the song

I always thought that this was put out on the lyric sheet because there was originally an intro to the song that was recorded but never used in the final release; the proof-readers simply missed the fact that a different version of the song was used. Perhaps this still lies gathering dust in the vaults.........?

The 'sheer bloody poetry' line is quoted to The London Times.

btw, doesn't 'It's Late' also have added comments in the lyrics? (since I don't have my LPs at work, I can't look any of this up)

Don't think so goodco. It has Act 1, 2 & 3, but that's more a guide to the story than the sentiment, if that's what you're referring to. IMHO, Queen's greatest rock song.

don't the opening bars of "all dead all dead" more or less match the "missing" lyrics?

[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]<font color=green>Bren<font color=orange>ski wrote: [/QUOTENAME]don't the opening bars of "all dead all dead" more or less match the "missing" lyrics?[/QUOTE]

That's what I always thought. Yet another small mystery that is seldom commented.

On a related subject, what about those yellow patterns in the MIH booklet (next to the lyrics)? They look like audio samples of some sort but I've never known for sure.

Has anyone read any comment or explanation about that?

Put down another vote for It's Late. I still think, on the basis of songs like that, and "Prophet's Song", that Brian could've written a kick-arse rock opera... though I guess that's really The Who territory. Hehe.

I used to wonder about the All Dead intro that never was. Could it have been sung over the piano intro, and Brian summarily thought it was a case of 'what you leave out'?

Who knows! (sotto Sean Connery).

Thank you everybody!