Which is Queen's most tragic lyrics?

Your Fairy King wrote:

STELIOS wrote:
My vote goes to the "Mama Please Let Me Back Inside" verse of Mother Love.
I find it to be highly tragic to the extent of slightly disturbing. In the fear of death as Freddie lets go he pleads for a returning back to the womb. Back to the safety of mama to take him in again. This is heavy, very heavy stuff from a man looking directly to the abyss.

this entire song is the nadir of cornball Queen lyrics to me.

Cornball? Come on!!!Give Freddie ( and Brian) a brake.
He tried to be the hero for quite a lot of time. Its noble and human that in the very end he chose to express without a mask his heavy sad road to the end.

waunakonor wrote:
As mentioned above, it's from the untitled track 13 of Made in Heaven, you know, the one that just goes on and on and on and on...it's kind of a pretty thing that I believe is supposed to represent the afterlife, though I don't know if "Are you running?" is as simple as what brENsKI is suggesting or if there's more backstory to it. Anyway, I kind of like it, even though it makes me kind of sad.
.

the track 13 "arrangement" and the freddie "are you running" sample were NOT recorded at the same time...
track 13 was (we assume) Brian/Roger/John's musical impression of the journey into the afterlife.

the freddie "are we running" snippet came (i believe) from the innuendo and post-innuendo sessions - where they would record anything and everything whenever Freddie felt well enough to sing. There are other similar "Freddie snippets" similar to "are we running" - on ei recall is his self-mocking when he knew he was very ill - he said soemthing like "oh! get on with it, before i forget my name"...

"are we running" logically - from Freddie's perspective has nothing more than him checking the tape was rolling...

however, if you were to enquire with Brian as to his/John/Roger's reasons for putting it into track 13 they may well say that the track symbolized a journey into the afterlife and they used that bit of freddie for atmospheric and symbollic effect. in much the same way that they used "one vision" "wembley adlibs" "goin' back", and baby noises at the end of mother love.

imo there shouldn't have been a track 13. esp as i seem to recall a reference to the "fab" at the end as being only right and fitting that the final words on a queen recording would be by freddie...
didn't happen did it?
i think motherlove was the natural ending, and should've been the final track

plumrach wrote:
Mother love where he sings
I long for peace before i die

spot on. cos many will interpret this about world peace and melting pots and some blue-sky aspirational bollox about a brotherhood of man...
but the reality is about freddie with respect to himself and those around him...his friends, bandmates and family...
ie - inner peace and the (impossible) adjustment and acceptance of what was happening and living with it graciously til his time was up. and his friends and family coming to terms with it and living with it also

there may have been another caustic edge to the "long for peace" line ...still about freddie and his friends and family, and still impossible to achieve. a dig at the media - a "for heaven's sake, leave us alone"

STELIOS wrote:
Tragic as in heartbreaking.That is what the original poster meant by 'tragic'.I think it was pretty obvious through my first post via "mama pls let me back inside" intepretation.

What? I am only interested in what Aristotle meant by 'tragic', all other definitions and the uses of 'tragic' are hereby outlawed as abominations.

pma wrote:

STELIOS wrote:
Tragic as in heartbreaking.That is what the original poster meant by 'tragic'.I think it was pretty obvious through my first post via "mama pls let me back inside" intepretation.

What? I am only interested in what Aristotle meant by 'tragic', all other definitions and the uses of 'tragic' are hereby outlawed as abominations.

Well since i am Greek myshelf the word tragic came easy to my mind (instead of very sad for example)but not thinking actually the Aristotle definition. In modern Greek we use the term to define either heartbeaking or ridiculous. I went with the first.

brENsKi wrote:

plumrach wrote:
Mother love where he sings
I long for peace before i die

spot on. cos many will interpret this about world peace and melting pots and some blue-sky aspirational bollox about a brotherhood of man...
but the reality is about freddie with respect to himself and those around him...his friends, bandmates and family...
ie - inner peace and the (impossible) adjustment and acceptance of what was happening and living with it graciously til his time was up. and his friends and family coming to terms with it and living with it also
there may have been another caustic edge to the "long for peace" line ...still about freddie and his friends and family, and still impossible to achieve. a dig at the media - a "for heaven's sake, leave us alone"

Well not so many brENsKi.Its just me who tries to dig a little deeper here. At least i give it a try.

The lyrics to "Sweet Lady".

It's an utter tragedy that they decided to release those.

Sweet Lady is great. There is sweet cheese. Freddie's delivery is tongue in cheek and honest.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned All Dead, All Dead. Anyone who is an animal lover and has a pet they love (and knowing the back story of the song) must be moved by this. The only Queen song that can reduce me to tears (depending on how fragile I'm feeling!)

Hard to beat the Mother Love lyric. I would also suggest:
"I used to bring you sunshine, now all I ever do is bring you down"

There's no chance for us,
It's all decided for us
...
Who dares to love forever?
When love must die

brENsKi wrote:

waunakonor wrote:
As mentioned above, it's from the untitled track 13 of Made in Heaven, you know, the one that just goes on and on and on and on...it's kind of a pretty thing that I believe is supposed to represent the afterlife, though I don't know if "Are you running?" is as simple as what brENsKI is suggesting or if there's more backstory to it. Anyway, I kind of like it, even though it makes me kind of sad.
.

the track 13 "arrangement" and the freddie "are you running" sample were NOT recorded at the same time...
track 13 was (we assume) Brian/Roger/John's musical impression of the journey into the afterlife.
the freddie "are we running" snippet came (i believe) from the innuendo and post-innuendo sessions - where they would record anything and everything whenever Freddie felt well enough to sing. There are other similar "Freddie snippets" similar to "are we running" - on ei recall is his self-mocking when he knew he was very ill - he said soemthing like "oh! get on with it, before i forget my name"...
"are we running" logically - from Freddie's perspective has nothing more than him checking the tape was rolling...
however, if you were to enquire with Brian as to his/John/Roger's reasons for putting it into track 13 they may well say that the track symbolized a journey into the afterlife and they used that bit of freddie for atmospheric and symbollic effect. in much the same way that they used "one vision" "wembley adlibs" "goin' back", and baby noises at the end of mother love.
imo there shouldn't have been a track 13. esp as i seem to recall a reference to the "fab" at the end as being only right and fitting that the final words on a queen recording would be by freddie...
didn't happen did it?
i think motherlove was the natural ending, and should've been the final track

Thanks, I figured it was something like that.

I kind of like Track 13, though, it actually does mean something to me, and it's quite soothing to listen to (besides one bit in the middle that sounds like something hitting the ground, and makes me jump every time)

DaveyLane wrote:
I can't believe no-one has mentioned All Dead, All Dead. Anyone who is an animal lover and has a pet they love (and knowing the back story of the song) must be moved by this. The only Queen song that can reduce me to tears (depending on how fragile I'm feeling!)

Good point, never even thought about that.

All Dead, I forgot about that. While it's about a cat, 'please you must forgive me, I am old but still a child' is still quite touching/depressing.

Toe your line and play their game yeah
Let the anaesthetic cover it all
Till one day they call your name
You know it's time for the hammer to fall

Yeah, can't deny My Melancholy Blues and All Dead, All Dead... my bad.