who said fried chicken?

Obviously it has nothing to do with anything

I've always considered this line in extremely poor taste. If the song is "about" Martin Luther King, Jr (per Roger) what then is to be made of them including such a derogatory racist stereotype at the end of the song?

I don't think the finished song really resembles Roger's original idea about Martin Luther King very much.
In my view the final version is more generally related to peoples wants and ambitions.
If anything I think the "Fried Chicken" line was probably kept in as a reference to the rampant consumerism / excess of society in the UK and West during the mid 80s, as a contrast to what was happening in Africa at the time, to illustrate that people were basically just self indulgent and ignoring what else was going on in the world.

Maybe I am reading too much into it. :-)

If it was about anything (and i dont think it was anything but a throw away lineleft over from the various food type improvisations, that defended john deacon infact, contray to popular belief)

so .........it would be about cannibalism, as the world freddie was talking about cannot exist and would lead to starvation, and seemingly human flesh tastes like fried chicken.
But seriously.. it refers to Chicken Kapone.

Personally, I think they were just dicking about and it stuck.

[QUOTE] [b]bobbyo wrote:[/b]

Personally, I think they were just dicking about and it stuck. [/QUOTE]

Bullseye!!!

Dont really think it was a racial slur, just random crap, which stuck!

Yeah, me too! They might not even have been aware of the "fried chicken - watermelon" stereotype. In fact its something I've only become aware of more recently, so I have no idea how long its been around. Maybe Queen didn't know about it either then, and if so the whole idea that is a slur thing is completely misplaced.