Did Brian`s guitar play rescued "It`s a Hard Life " ?

Seriously I wouldn`t give much about that song without Brian`s lovely guitar play on it.
Was it in danger of beeing dropped from "The Works " ?
A more raw version of that song without Bri and his RS, would have been more suitable with one of Freddie`s half-baked Solo efforts in my opinion.

The guitar is a big part of its beauty, but I imagine Freddie had written that sweeping middle section before Brian did the guitars for it - he might have even arranged the guitar lines, as he did for Bo Rhap.

I think it would still be a good song, but those guitar sections are definitely the best thing about it. The chorus melodies are far from Freddie's best.

While the guitar tracks are indeed stellar, It' a Hard Life is still my favorite song from The Works and clearly in my top 10 80s songs.

Boring song with cringeworthy lyrics. Only good thing about it, the intro, is apparently ripped off from a piece in Pagliacci.

The beautiful lyrics of that song are somehow "eclipsed" by the video that was made for that song. Of course the solo is a plus value in the song but I don't think it "rescued" the song. It's a total package, but the video ruins the song.

I think the intro IS what ruins the song. Awful, cringeworthy, nearly dissonant.

It's one of the best and most recognized Queen ballads, hell, even Love Of My Life (which I rank higher than IAHL) seems to be forgotten when compared to It's A Hard Life. It's one of those tracks on The Works to which every band member contributed. John suggested the intro (from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci), I suppose that Freddie built the melody around the theme and generally composed and built in piano part and that specific piano theme before the guitar solo is one of a kind. I reckon that Freddie and Brian both worked on the intertwined parts of piano and guitar. Roger added nice drums here and there. It is sad that live arrangement had synths while the piano was lower in the live mix. In my opinion it made the track less "serious" and took away some of it's grandness.

Overall, the song has Freddie signature all over it. One could say that the track is very Freddie (as Brian says when he use "Freddie" as an adjective).

He did it to set the tone that "this is opera" even though it isn't really.

Forget the stupid video and take away the ridiculous overblown beginning and imagine it starting with just the piano and it is a brilliant song. Brian's guitar compliments the song, it doesn't make the song. The best track from The Works by far.

I love the track and Brian's solo in it is one of his best.

Brian's solo has more of the grandeur of classical music, so I think perhaps Freddie may have had a major part in the arrangement.

[QUOTE] [b]RafaelS wrote:[/b]

..., but the video ruins the song.[/QUOTE]

^
How is that possible when you listen to it on your CD Player or Vinyl ?

[QUOTE] [b]musicland munich wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]RafaelS wrote:[/b]

..., but the video ruins the song.[/QUOTE]

^
How is that possible when you listen to it on your CD Player or Vinyl ?
[/QUOTE]

The song brings up images of prawns.......

I've always liked the lyrics of the song.

It's A Hard Life is maybe the only good and "classic Queen" track on The Works, featuring real instruments, quality singing and arrangements and... piano like it's the 70's!

I don't give a sh*t if the video is bad. It looks OK to me, I don't care about videos, i grew tired of all this visual. If I was that much into videos, Katy Perry would probably be my favourite artist of all times. It's A Hard Life is a gem on an otherwise really poor album. As MercurialFreddie said, it's "very Freddie" and so is the guitar solo. So to answer the original question, I don't think Brian's guitar rescued the song because 1. it doesn't need any rescue and 2. it's one of these pieces where you can hear that Freddie composed the whole song, guitar part included. Of course, Brian is a virtuoso of extraordinary talent, but on this track, he gives his talent to Freddie's composition. The only really bad thing about this song is that it had to live with Tear It Up and Man On The Prowl as direct neighbours.

Wow... I just wrote lines in the defence of a Works track!