Was It All Worth It -- Queen's last great song?

Here's what it says on Wiki:

"Was It All Worth It" was composed by Mercury. The song harks back to the band's intricately-produced sound in the 1970s. Though the bulk of the song was masterminded by Mercury, all members contributed ideas and lyrics (for example - Taylor contributed the line "we love you madly!"). Deacon later cited the song as his favourite on the album. Taylor uses a gong and Timpani.

Not sure how acurate any of that is but it sounds like a Mercury composition to me. I love this song. There are only two great songs on The Miracle, Scandal and this one. Was It All Worth It is a great big celebration of life and a retrospective comment on their career as a group. It has some excellent riffing by Brian (who had rediscovered some of his gunslinger attitude -- now sadly gone again) and some interesting, if at times, silly lyrics. But I love most of all Fred's understated conclusion -- 'Yes, it was a worthwhile experience!' -- which is a  very 'English' way of doing things (e.g. no American 'awesomes' or 'it was like totally worth it man) ;) Too many Bristih bands slip into that mid-Atlantic drawl/phrasing, and Queen occasionally did it too (Bicycle Race), but here it's just ... nice. Queen's last great song imo.

In my opinion innuendo also offers some great songs, but was it all worth it is one of my alltime favorites and clearly the best song on the miracle TO ME and the best song queen did in the 80s. I think it would have been kind of freddies bequest if they would not have recorded innuendo.

Last great song ? Have you ever heard about a masterpiece song called "Innuendo" ?

Last great song of the 80's.  Put it this way; if he'd died an even more untimely death and never completed the Innuendo album, this would be the one people would remember as his 'farewell'.

pittrek wrote: Last great song ? Have you ever heard about a masterpiece song called "Innuendo" ?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I don't rate Innuendo that highly. It is certainly interesting and different, but not great. The main guitar riff is a simple 3-chord flamenco riff, for example, and not on a par with Bo Rap, MotBQ etc. Of course, simple doesn't always equal lesser quality, and it's mostly a matter of opinion. If you think innuendo is great, good for you. It's certainly ambitious, but the bridge in the middle sounds a litle too much like figure skating music for my tastes :)

It's a great, indeed fabulous, song, and one of only a few more 'traditional' Queen songs of the later years (if there is such a thing). Strong, brilliantly played, well thought out, and lyrically tongue in cheek.  The Show Must Go On has to be their last truly great 'epic' though??

These Are The Days Of Our Lives is a great song (as is A Winter's Tale), but in different ways, but unfortunately the material on the last couple of albums is difficult to judge objectively sometimes due to the circumstances we know existed at teh time of the writing and recording.

Was it all worth it queen's last great song?.....The answer is obviously no for most queen fans.   have you ever heard Innuendo?......the show must go on?........These are the day's of our lives?....shit, even I'm going slightly mad is great IMO.   The song itself is great, love the middle section.  The lryics?.....well,  a bit silly in parts, but not horrible.   The best song on the miracle, but that's not saying much.   Other songs that compete with this great (but not the last great) song on that album are scandal,  Breakthru, I want it all.  Maybe the title track.

It is a great song and I like the arrangement.  However, I think the lyrics resemble those of "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" a little too closely to really consider them a retrospective of their career.  The main line I can think of is the use of the trumpet:  "We bought a drumkit, I blew my own trumpet" and "He took me to a room without a table, said 'blow your trumpet into here'.  Musically and lyrically, I think Scandal is a better track but, like you said, they kind of went back to their arranging and recording roots on this one.

Blew my own trumpet is a saying we english use to mean sing my own praises Ie Freddie telling everybody how Good Queen were.

I never realized that.  Thanks for clearing it up.

Don't Try So Hard is a masterpiece. I like it more than Innuendo.

It's definitely Queen's best song of the 1980's, kind of a final farewell to the '70s sound which was absent on Innuendo (the album).

That said, Innuendo was a great album with some great songs on it, and I'm not sure Worth It was their *last* great one...strong cases could be made for Innuendo (the song) and The Show Must Go On. Personally, I'd rate TSMGO as their last great song, with Worth It being their last great rocker.

No, I don't consider WIWI to be Queen's last great song. Innuendo had several great songs; These are the Days of our Lives, The Show Must Go On, Bijou (I don't consider Innuendo to be great), while Made In Heaven also had several great songs; Let Me Live, Heaven For Everyone, TMLWKY. No-one But You was also IMO a fantastic song.


Zebonka12 wrote: "Last great song of the 80's. Put it this way; if he'd died an even more untimely death and never completed the Innuendo album, this would be the one people would remember as his 'farewell'."

I would agree with that, if only because as WIAWI was the last song on The Miracle and I do consider it to be a great song.

It's an amazing song, and it is certainly one of Queen's most underappreciated songs. Is it their best song off The Miracle? I don't think so. I would argue that I Want It All was. Scandal, Breakthru, the title track, and even Rain Must Fall were also terrific. On that note, am I the only person who considers The Miracle to be among Queen's most underrated albums? :D

I don't know about The Miracle being underrated, everything after A Kind of Magic gets a lot less spin time in my stereo mostly because it just stopped feeling like Queen to me, give or take a few songs. Considering the circumstances I guess it's bittersweet to listen to anything from that time period. When I'm listening News of the World or A Day at the Races, I'm in my own little world where Freddie is very much alive and in his prime.

'Was It All Worth It' seemed so hypocrital on an album of non 'rock' songs.  Get rid of a few, throw on the b-sides, and it would have been more 'epic'.  Does that make sense?

As to 'wiki'.....as to 'The Miracle' LP, it's listed that the original title was planned as 'The Invisible Man'.  I was right next to Jackie Smith this summer during a bit of trivia, and she and most of us laughed at that suggestion.  As for the band, it's listed that BoRhap was the first 6 minute plus song to make it to #1.  A)  It was less than 6 minutes.  B)  Ever heard of 'Hey Jude'?  C)  BoRhap was a ground breaking video.  How was that?  The Beatles did Paperback Writer and Rain in '66 as promo videos, when they quit appearing on various TV shows.  What about Strawberry Fields and Pennylane a year later?  Hell, go to youtube and check out Alice Cooper's 'Elected'.  Aired originally on ABC TV's 'In Concert' (blacked out in many markets due to the fear factor of many station managers........I watched it on a UHF station because of this),  the night Alice performed 'School's Out', 'Gutter Cats vs. The Jets', and 'Killer', ...if that ain't a promo video, and if that ain't before BoRhap was released, well..........

Also, I always thought that WIAWI was a Brian/Freddie collaboration.  Sounds more Brian to me.

Moving on.....Other than 'Delilah', all of 'Innuendo' is superb.  'The Show Must Go On' far outshines The Miracle closer.

As to MIH, 'Let Me Live' still blows my socks off.  Guitar, BVs, and Freddie, Brian, and Roger doing LVs.  Finally !!!!

Now, to answer the question, their last great song was MIH, Track 12.  Succinct, to the point, easy to karaoke, air guitar and drum, positive lyrics,  and totally unforgettable.  Can't get the lyrics out  of my head.  Track 13 lingers on about 15 minutes too long.