Why John was "deprived" at Live Aid?

Don't know if this was discussed...

Long time ago I got this question about Live Aid setlist. As we know every bandmember top ten hit (except ITTWWC? which was No. 21 at the time, but was very suitable for the occasion) was performed at Queen's setlist. But, all of a sudden, John's was omitted.

Though I think I Want To Break Free, Top Ten Hit worldwide and very popular in South Africa, was very appropriate for the festival.

So, how you guys think, why John was "deprived" at the moment?

I suppose the pop part had been covered with 'Ga Ga', and 'Hammer to Fall' was more necessary to remind the world they were a rock band. Had the setlist included Break Free in its place, they'd have looked more like Culture Club and less like The Who... not that those ones had a good day then, anyway.

Because "Another One Bites the Dust" would've been completely inappropriate.

Never gave this a thought before.  Good observation and a pretty good question. 

Perhaps they could have squeezed a minute of IWTBF into their set after Radio, if it was their intention to make everyone happy.  YMBF was dated.  As to AOBTD, Thunderbolt's response is the only correct answer.

Well,  John was such an easy going guy who struck me as having a zero rated ego, so i'm sure he would'nt of objected to his songs not being included if it was for the common good.
What do you think of 'hammer to fall' being included, was it in because the lyrics gave an appropriate lesson for the day, or it was 'current'. Either way i would have loved it if they had 're-discovered' 'seven seas of rhye' and belted it out , in it's entirety, But there you have it, this could be debated forever.When alls said and done, i think we're all chuffed at how it turned out !.

Master Marathon Runner.

Indeed...let's not start second-guessing Queen's singularly GREATEST world-wide moment.

They only had 20 minutes...they needed to show depth and breadth to a worldwide audience.

for me the set list was perfect

They dropped it because it's an average song that never translated very well Live.

Did they get any royalties from the Live Aid performance?

Zebonka12 wrote: They dropped it because it's an average song that never translated very well Live.

Agreed. Freddie couldn't sing it very well live, and Brian's guitar sounds like a giraffe farting.

I always thought that Tie Your Mother Down would have been a good song for the Live Aid setlist.

Holly2003 wrote: Zebonka12 wrote: They dropped it because it's an average song that never translated very well Live.

Agreed. Freddie couldn't sing it very well live, and Brian's guitar sounds like a giraffe farting.
   I agree with you both. That song was always mediocre at best. I will say its a better live song than studio song, but not good enough to be part of that 20 minute set.

The Live Aid set was perfect as-is. TYMD would probably not have translated as well. For one, it's not a huge hit outside of Queendom, and two, it was an older song at the time.

Hammer to Fall was perfect. It's a good, hard rocker to balance out the pop songs dominating the set, and while it wasn't a huge hit, it was a recent-enough song to be in the public's memory.

As cool as SSOR would've been to hear, remember that the guys weren't playing to an audience of Queen fans who would've remembered the older tracks. They were playing to an audience of casual fans and fans of other bands for the most part, and those situations call for songs that are either instantly-recognizable mainstream hits *or* songs off the most recent album that people will remember from radio play.

MercuryArts wrote: Holly2003 wrote: Zebonka12 wrote: They dropped it because it's an average song that never translated very well Live.

Agreed. Freddie couldn't sing it very well live, and Brian's guitar sounds like a giraffe farting.
   I agree with you both. That song was always mediocre at best. I will say its a better live song than studio song, but not good enough to be part of that 20 minute set.
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While I agree that Freddie sings that song better in the studio, there are live versions that are very good performances of the song. Brussels 1984 is probably the best version--it's as close to the record you can get! Stuttgart 1984 is another good version.

Bohemian Rhapsody segueing into Radio GaGa is one of Queen finest live moments, in my opinion. It's simply perfect.