The LOST potentials ( and the merits) of SCANDAL

Not too many songs carry the edge and raw emotion of a really wicked situation as Scandal does.
Written by May it also reflects heavily on Freddie's torments at the time, the equivalent of The Show Must Go On, two years later.
Scandal works like a punch and simulates great the repetitive intrusion feeling that it’s written for. Like constant scratches that are destined to wear one out.
A sophisticated track for a nasty autobiographical(s) scenario that involves the sum of Queen paralleled with May's, Mercury's (and to a degree Taylor's) individual stories at the time.

...and it could have been MORE

Here's why:

1) Sound
Scandal 12'' version is a true eye(or ear) opener of where this song could go if it had more air to breath and greater daring in the production where bass and drums (as shown in 12'') can really knock you off your shocks.
Also it builds up better like changing gears in a speed excelerating car.
A mix/blend between Scandal and Scandal-12'' could have been more of an artistic statement and a commercial hit since it demonstrates Freddie turning his voice into an electric guitar, Roger/John's sonic volcano on steroids, and May right on a stereo and belting frenzy.
Plus there is a lot of audio effects and layers going on in the background that totally add to a somehow dystopic future and 3D-audio feeling.


2) Visuals
Scandal's music video is a lost potential all the way through.
Better lighting, better use of the camera and a more involving script could have bring life into the song.
What he have today looks clinical and one-dimensional but if director(s) used more of that set and perhaps take the action out of it, it would have been much more modern and even have a short-film feeling.
Plus Mercury by that time looked and moved like a wounded leopard. They could have made more out of this. He was worn out and harden by his struggles, and i think the video could have captured his spirits more authentically. They are evident, but visually they could have been a statement of their own if treated with more attention.


3) Timing
This is a tricky one. If it was written for the Innuendo-album the meaning would have been more apparent since the vultures that hunted Freddie's life (and house) would reflect better the anger and meaning of the song. Even more if it was re-released after Freddie's passing because by then the world knew Freddie's torment by tabloids.
Perhaps if Michael Jackson's Leave Me Alone is the definitive song about journalism making up stories, Scandal could be the definitive song about journalism intruding into celebrities/artists lives making a real mess of difficult situations in the first place.

4) Gravitas
By 1989 Freddie's betrayal by former assistant had already led to All the Queen's Men, Sun's article. Sexuality was exposed and hung in newsstands. Mercury, a very private and giving man, had lost his privacy and trust. Once and for good.
Although the AIDS related thing was perhaps not that apparent, the press had already shown its claws. Soon Freddie's life would turn into a “prisoner in his own home” scenario. Given the circumstances May, who wrote the song and Freddie delivering that edgy bitter and rugged vocal line, were at some point aware of what was about to come. And it did.
As for May, he was never your typical rock star. His marriage obviously meant a lot and to be exposed for having an affair with another person was out of plan. It’s not the end of the world but one does have his own limits in certain circumstances.



All in all, Scandal deals with a lot of issues. They even had greater impact at the time it was written. It's a snapshot of an era were media were changing drastically and homosexuality / AIDS stigma did hold a fair ground in damaging people’s lives.
Had it been treated more carefully it would have turned into a true classic, especially reflecting a certain decade and the pitfalls of celebrity life as we know it today.

Or as our fellow Queenies had putted it ... "And in the end the story deeper must hide, deeper and deeper and deeper inside."

Yeah I never liked that song. :)

I love this song, but i agree with you

Great Song!

Scandal is a Brian break up song rather than a Freddie dying song....

^^^ I never said it was Freddie dying song. But lets be honest. Brian by 1989 knew what the situation might be for Freddie and therefore for the group.Not talking about death per se, but having a singer with the far most stigmatised disease.

May's break up was one thing, but there were things going on that escalated the pressure, and i am not judging in retrospective just common sence.
Queen were talking about "the press having a field day" in the past for things tottaly insignificant comparing to this.

Even if its hard to admit at the time, subconsciously they all knew how things might turn up.
That goes for Freddie's delivery also.

really like it but it would have been better with the main riff being played on guitar rather than keyboards

There's multi-layered guitar playing the riff simultaneously, just fairly buried in the mix. It's more prominent on one alternate version, and sounds much better, though I can't remember which.

To do what @Stelios suggests, which I agree would've been great, would've required a degree of "self outing". And wasn't going to happen.

As it is I think it's as perfect as it could be - and I rate the song rather highly, though find it painful: At the time it appeared really quite meaningful anyway.

One of my all-time favorite Queen songs.

And I love the original, as-is, and think the 12" mix is the best 12" mix of any song I've ever heard.

It still kinda gets me that the band themselves never really cared for it. I also love the video, and apparently they don't care for that either.

Very confusing to me. Friggin' love that track - both versions.

I used to like it but I went off it. I don't think it's Freddie's best performance either, it's set too high, it would have sounded better a tone down. There are, actually, many cases where I think Freddie works his voice too hard and too high in the 1980s. Made In Heaven is a notable example. Gimme The Prize is in the same category but for some reason I think it works out in that particular song's favour.

There is so much from the period 1989 to 1991 that could have gone better - could have been better mixed, better arranged, but we know it was a hard time.

Thinking about the performances on the 1970s albums, and the Game as well (which I know isn't a favourite amongst fans but I like it), it seems that Queen went too synthy in the later part of their career, but they weren't very innovative with it - a pad plastered on here or there to fill out the sound when, sometimes, it didn't actually need filled out.

Now, talking about Freddie stressing his voice - he also does it on Mother Love and A Winter's Tale, yet they sound eerily beautiful. You can hear the strength and fragility all in one.

It's too damn bad they didn't put the 12" version of Scandal on the 2011 bonus EP of The Miracle! When it was on the 91 remaster, at that........

[QUOTE] [b]miraclesteinway wrote:[/b]

I used to like it but I went off it. I don't think it's Freddie's best performance either, it's set too high, it would have sounded better a tone down. There are, actually, many cases where I think Freddie works his voice too hard and too high in the 1980s. Made In Heaven is a notable example. Gimme The Prize is in the same category but for some reason I think it works out in that particular song's favour.

[/QUOTE]

I agree, particularly the first two notes in Scandal sound quite flat to me.

I think he had some intonation problems in The Miracle era, perhaps he wasn't quite settled with his diminishing chest power. The long version of Stealin' for example sounds quite awful all through it.

As you say, songs that are set "too" high sometimes don't work (Body Language has som crap sounding lines IMO) but some work. Feelings, Feelings for example, has Freddie hitting loads of D5's, and you can really tell his voice is all worn out at the end of the take. Yet it fits the song IMO!

[QUOTE]

[b]Oscar J wrote: [/b] [QUOTE] [b]miraclesteinway wrote:[/b]

I used to like it but I went off it. I don't think it's Freddie's best performance either, it's set too high, it would have sounded better a tone down. There are, actually, many cases where I think Freddie works his voice too hard and too high in the 1980s. Made In Heaven is a notable example. Gimme The Prize is in the same category but for some reason I think it works out in that particular song's favour.

[/QUOTE]

As you say, songs that are set "too" high sometimes don't work (Body Language has som crap sounding lines IMO)[/QUOTE]

To me the high parts in Body Language sounded absolutely awesome.

I agree about the strain in Fredie's voice but i think it works great in the concept of the song. Its talking about abusing personal life- Freddie abuses his voice in revenge to scream Fuck You on them.Subconciously fits quite right.

For me the synths are better in 12" becouse the guitar layers blendings are more evident on them.Also the way it buids up gets your adrenaline's attention...Big Time!
I somehow find the original version a bit "plasticky" the recent years.
Or i was just so blown away with 12" since first heard it on 2005 so i never looked back...
I was even out and about to get a new sub-woofer because of it !!!