What's DRAGON ATTACK about?

IMHO - I am gonna go with the drug/heroin interpretation.

You pointed out the obvious dragon and "on my back" references.  Maybe these other things are coincidental, but together they point to heroin and other drugs:

Reds and Green- both a possible drug reference (Reds - common name for pills in the 70's (barbiturates or speed, I think) and Green, pot.

"Take me out of my head" - obvious drug reference

"Gonna use my stack" - 10 folds of heroin are called a "stack" by users and dealers.  Could be a reference to using a stack of money to buy drugs, too.

"Gonna get me on the track" - Track marks?  The telltale marks/scars left behind by IV drug use.  Could also be getting on the fast track to inebriation.

"Beats all around, gonna eat that sound" - LSD/acid trip, anyone?  Ozzy even says "Swallowing colours of the sounds I hear".  Close enough to tripping in both cases.

"She don't take no prisoners" - Cocaine is often referenced to as "girl" by speed-ballers, heroin as "boy".  Death is the eventual outcome in both cases.  No prisoners.

"Got a dragon on my back, it's a dragon attack" - Two heroin terms twined together - Monkey on my back= A heroin addiction and as you stated, Chasing the "dragon" is smoking heroin.

"Go find another customer" - Drug dealer...

Hey, I don't see conspiracies in many things at all.  Just not the way I am.  All these little innuendos strung together kinda makes you think there may be something here.

Or maybe I'm nuts.  :P

It's about dragons!

On the "In The Studio with Red Beard: The Game", Brian talked about the making of this song, which, in short, entailed taking the best parts of an in-studio jam and editing them together, then adding the finishing touches, which might have included the lyrics and Freddie's final vocal. I think some of the vocals might have been present from the original jam, probably in the form of random-sounding, made up on the spot lyrics.

The band has been known to incorporate those vocals into the finished songs, such as on tracks like "Stealin'" and "Hang On In There",  where listening to the demos, you can here they incorporated some of the vocals from the early stages of the so-called "Fiddley Jam". The "Stealin'" demo has all the vocals present, just re-editted down from 12 minutes, with some removed.

All of that may mean nothing to "Dragon Attack", but it sounds to me that given that the song came out of a jam, Brian probably kept the non-sensical bits and may have even built off them. The references may be veiled comments on various shenanigins, but I don't think they're meant to be taken very seriously.

I put this song in "Fat Bottomed Girls" territory, just an excuse to make some noise and have some fun.

As for the "gonna use my stack", never thought of heroin.  Especially as a row of amps are referred to as a stack, and if "it's gotta be Mack", I'd assume Mack is going to help Brian use his stack of AC 30's to "get me on the (music) track.  Or, to help him sell heroin to the Triad to finance the WWRY musical, one of the two.

I thought it was about a drug overdose...

V.

Gregsynth wrote: It's about dragons!
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Now THAT's a stretch! haha :)

Funny how nobody pointed that out until many posts later.

Kaedin would say its about dragons

then say 'got to eat that sound yea yea yea' and shake his finger at you.....

somone could ask the man... be sure to praise WWRY and SM and just maybe..... *LOL*

You are all wrong. Dragon Attack is about 4:18.

Holly2003 wrote: You are all wrong. Dragon Attack is about 4:18.

LOL!  It only took me about 5 minutes and 3 internet searches to figure that one out!

Nice...

Drugs: Google chasing the dragon!

I saw a clip once of queen behind the scenes playing an Atari 2600 and doubtless I'll be ridiculed for my nerdy madness but Ive thought for years that the dragon attack was atari's adventure game which had several rooms some red some green and some which were colour inverted white on black or black on white etc and of course there were dragons on the loose (dragon on my back). Also, to win you had to get back to your castle ("shack"?) to win.

Honestly I've never thought too much about the lyrics for this one. I'm always too distracted by the badass bassplaying  and Brian's shredding.

Basically Dragon Attack is saying "Bohemian Rhapsody is NOT about AIDS but I AM". :-)

Really? An Atari 2600 game? That sounds like something to be researched and added to a wiki note.

I always thought it was about music production, Gerry Stickells was name called in LMEY so why not Rhein...hardt? Hold? MACK be mentioned?


Great discussion.


At least nobody said it was a sequel to Ogre Battle

Dragon Attack is the coolest Queen song title.