Why Did Rodger sing hijack my heart?

Stealin' has always sucked as a queen track. It's nothing more than a bare bones skeleton of a song. Right down to the simple "octave pedal"sounding acoustic guitar bits (could even be a "glassy sounding acoustic pedal" on an electric)


Way underdeveloped.

But it's a curio for the queen enthusiast.

And unless I'm crazy. The "air" of affairs in the late 80's was comfortably positive and optimistic unless you were in Guatemala.

The music was at least positive.

This curio is interesting.

As for hijack my heart. Who knows. If I asked him he'd probably get mad at me for being "not what he expected" as per aging distant rock stars snooding down.

But if there's a journalist here. Why not ask it?


Maybe it was a last minute decision to add his DEMO version to a b side. Maybe it hasn't advanced to the mercury line.


That's my guess.


It IS very interesting though as it's a post THE GAME Roger solo vocal.


I think it's fun, casually risqué, 80's-ily infectious with the electronic percussion and synth bass. That's been my favorite Roger solo spot just for the cheesy outro.


Stole my heart. .. threw away the keeeyy.


Etc.


It's just a generation thing for me honestly. Just like enjoying parts of ROCKY IV (a prolonged 80's music video)

Particularly "no easy way out"


80's cheese power synth.


Somehow the GREAT artists managed to express themselves through a sampled music database. (Eurythmics, Devo, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, etc) while others faltered.


It's a cheesy song but it's cheery and I love it.

Someone ask Roger

matt z wrote:

Maybe it was a last minute decision to add his DEMO version to a b side. Maybe it hasn't advanced to the mercury line.

That's indeed an interesting theory. It could also, alternatively, have been a 'Shove It' reject which may or may not have had some input from other Queen members.

I suspect "Shove It" reject is about right.

I think calling it a Shove It "reject" is unfair, it's actually a really good song and one of my favourite Queen songs (and I'm not ashamed to admit that). It might well have been left over from those sessions, but in my opinion, it's unlikely (no evidence to back that theory up, of course) - sounds more like a Miracle reject.

I'd say that Brian played on the song alongside Roger, because the guitar solo is definitely a Brian solo - same goes for the fills in the song. Not sure if Freddie or John had any input though, it's not 100% obvious - although any four of them could have played any of the keyboards/synth bass on the song. It's highly debatable but we have no evidence to say for sure who did what.

I agree "reject" is unnecessarily pejorative: I rather like the song, having been reminded of it in recent days (and having had it on the original CD single from when it came out).

As for the solo I was undecided on that. But I'd defer to the experts.

And as for Freddie not singing on it, it's got a lovely vocal from Roger. :-)

Khizzy wrote:

I think calling it a Shove It "reject" is unfair

To be fair, we didn't call it that. All I suggested is that it might have been. And yeah, it might have been.

Khizzy wrote:

it's actually a really good song and one of my favourite Queen songs

Being a reject doesn't exclude a song from being potentially good, and being good doesn't exclude it from being rejected. 'Brighton Rock' was a 'Queen II' reject, and it doesn't make it any less excellent than it is; 'Stone Cold Crazy' is a 'Queen' and 'Queen II' reject, and 'We Are the Champions' is an 'A Night at the Opera' reject, and all those songs are really good.

Khizzy wrote:

It might well have been left over from those sessions

In which case it was submitted for inclusion, considered, and ultimately ... guess which word goes there: rejected!

Khizzy wrote:

Not sure if Freddie or John had any input though

If the bass is a synth then the possibility of Freddie or John having played it is less than 0.1% in my opinion. It's far more likely that it was Roger, David Richards or even Spike.

Martin Packer wrote:

I agree "reject" is unnecessarily pejorative

Not really. It can be used derogatorily but in essence it simply means it was submitted and then declined. Which it probably was (for either 'Shove It' or 'The Miracle' or both).

'Too Much Love' was also a 'Miracle' reject. Not for quality reasons, but for copyright. But still: it was submitted, considered and then rejected. It's, therefore, a 'Miracle' reject, as are 'Hang on in There', 'Chinese Torture', 'My Life Has Been Saved', 'All God's People' and many others.

You're on dodgy ground with the tracks that ended up on (my at least) CD version of The Miracle. :-)

Well, rejected from the vinyl :D

As unimportant as it is, this topic's been on my mind.

3 possible reasons.

1) a demo from sessions that was just touched up a bit and didn't cross Freddie's path
2) a reject from SHOVE IT
3) in owing to the new "band as a whole unit; with songwriting credits going to all.... it's just possible that this was a means of celebrating that spirit.

After all. .. each band member got a pretty basic demo b- side on the MIRACLE run.

Hang on in there
My life has been saved
hijack my heart
Stealin


A better question might be why did he sing lead on A Human Body in 80-81?

matt z wrote:


A better question might be why did he sing lead on A Human Body in 80-81?

The real question should be why wasn't it included on The Game?

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Roger wasn't happy with the drum sound on the song....

The King Of Rhye wrote:

matt z wrote:


A better question might be why did he sing lead on A Human Body in 80-81?

The real question should be why wasn't it included on The Game?

Mack said that while Roger was proud of the song, Freddie and Brian deemed it "too melodic" (pish posh!) and it was relegated to the B-side. Coming Soon was originally supposed to be the B-side, with A Human Body on the album, but because Rock It already had Roger singing lead vocals (mostly), there couldn't be two songs with Roger singing lead... even though Coming Soon features Roger practically singing co-lead with Freddie.

I much prefer A Human Body to Coming Soon, and much prefer Hijack My Heart to a lot of stuff on The Miracle. That's the beauty of iTunes: I can make those decisions the band should have made ;-)

It's not that 'Coming Soon' was 'originally' gonna be the B-Side as much as simply having been suggested so by its author. While, reportedly, Freddie and Brian suggested 'A Human Body' would've represented one ballad too many, hindsight is 20/20.

Myself, I like 'Coming Soon' and I think it's a very nice breather sandwiched in between the album's two best pieces. The guitar solo's wonderful, as are Freddie's vocals. Probably further reasons why it got their votes.

The Ghost of Lester Burnham wrote:


Mack said that while Roger was proud of the song, Freddie and Brian deemed it "too melodic" (pish posh!)

LOL........what a crime! Your song is too melodic.....(I thought a good song was supposed to be melodic......)

Maybe they didn't want Coming Soon as a b side because they thought it would sound too much like a commercial or something......("Play The Game! Coming Soon!") :P

Now I can't imagine them AVOIDING the "Play The Game / Coming Soon" commercial gag. :-)

Someone mentioned on here just recently that a version of 'Hijack' was recorded with a rough vocal demo by Freddie. Perhaps they decided Roger's voice just suited the song better?

Another question concerns the piano outro on the demo: could this be Freddie?