| The Game |
 |
| The Game, 1980 |
| Released |
30 June 1980 (UK & US) |
| Recorded |
June - July 1979 and February - May 1980 at Musicland Studios |
| Length |
35:34 |
| Label |
EMI |
| Producer(s) |
Queen and Mack |
| Queen chronology |
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After the relatively cool reception to the Jazz album, the band again parted ways with Roy Thomas Baker, this time for good, and set their visions on a new method of recording. Unsatisfied with how their previous album had turned out, the band teamed up with Mack, who had previously worked with ELO, at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany. The decision to record abroad had not been made lightly: because of their massive earnings from worldwide record sales and tours, the band had been advised to set up a temporary base outside the United Kingdom. Though they purchased Mountain Studios in Montreux, they wouldn't make it their main studio until later in the 1980s; for the time, the peace and tranquility that Switzerland afforded them was not conducive to their work environment, which made the far more exciting Munich more desirous to the band.
Despite their new surroundings, the band weren't in any rush to begin recording again, and used the initial sessions as a means of testing out the working methods between band and producer. In June 1979, the band started work on their new album, and so laid-back were the sessions that only four usable tracks were created: Coming Soon (which had been started during the Jazz sessions), Sail Away Sweet Sister, Save Me, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. An instant click was felt, and Mack was willing to explore more experimental methods of recording as opposed to Roy Thomas Baker's more tried-and-trusted approach. At the end of the month-long sessions, the band called a halt to the proceedings in order to take some time off and prepare for an upcoming tour of the United Kingdom.
During rehearsals, two of the new songs - Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Save Me - were integrated into the repertoire, and instantly became crowd favorites. It comes as no surprise that these two songs were issued as the next two Queen singles, in October 1979 and January 1980, respectively. With rockabilly now back in style (due in no small part to the passing of Elvis Presley in 1977), Crazy Little Thing Called Love was the perfect opportunity to introduce Queen's new image and sound to their adoring fans, who ate it up and sent the single to #2 in their home country, while becoming the band's first Stateside #1 single in December. Save Me followed suit as a UK-only release, reaching a respectable #11.
Sessions recommenced in February after a considerable holiday break. The band had more ideas this time, with Roger once reporting that forty songs had been submitted for the album - certainly enough for a double album, once all the decent material had been separated from the sub-par. Yet, surprisingly, only ten songs appeared on the album - the least amount on any new release since A Day At The Races - with the running time clocking in at just over 35 minutes. The presence of Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Save Me, by the time of the album's release (June 1980) nine and six months old, respectively, were seen to be cop-outs; thus, only eight "new" songs were presented. One known outtake from the sessions, Roger's A Human Body, was rejected from the final running order because it was deemed "too melodic"; instead, it appeared on the B-side of Play The Game in May 1980. Another song, Soul Brother, has been thought to have originated from these sessions; though it appeared as the B-side of Under Pressure in October 1981, it's likely that the rhythm track was recorded during sessions for The Game, while the vocal track was recorded (or re-recorded) to tie in with Under Pressure.
One aspect that critics were quick to point out (and, occasionally, praise) was the obvious desire to focus more on rhythmically-charged songs instead of lengthy epics. There weren't any Bohemian Rhapsodys or The Prophets Songs; the drums and bass were brought up further in the mix, while guitars were reduced to providing rhythm and an occasional solo, thus eliminating the famed orchestrations that made Queen's music in the 1970s so appealing. Another new factor was the introduction of the synthesizer, which would upset a small percentage of the fans. The band themselves were unsure of the shift, but the music world was evolving, and it would have been career suicide to have not evolved as well. Synthesizers were used liberally on several songs throughout the album: Play The Game, Rock It (Prime Jive), Sail Away Sweet Sister, Coming Soon, and Save Me all featured the offending instrument, and most have debated its success, with varying results. Also, more mundanely, fans were introduced to the startling image of Freddie with a bushy mustache, which he had grown to self-consciously hide his protruding teeth (according to legend, during the North American tour in 1980, Freddie was bombarded with disposable razors and pleas from the audience to shave the offending facial hair).
Despite the drawbacks of the album, it went on to achieve great success, reaching #1 on both sides of the pond, becoming Queen's first (and only) #1 album in the United States. The singles drawn from the album, too, were big hits: all were Top Twenty in the United Kingdom, while the album scored two #1 hits in the United States - the aforementioned Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and Another One Bites The Dust in August 1980. Play The Game reached #14 in the UK, but only managed a disappointing #42 in the US, while Need Your Loving Tonight, issued only in the US in lieu of Flash in November 1980, peaked two places lower at #44. The Game was remastered and released on CD in 1991, with a dance-rap remix of Dragon Attack though, surprisingly, studio outtakes or even the non-album B-side A Human Body weren't featured.
Tracklists
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2011 Universal Records CD
- Play The Game
- Dragon Attack
- Another One Bites The Dust
- Need Your Loving Tonight
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- Rock It (Prime Jive)
- Don't Try Suicide
- Sail Away Sweet Sister
- Coming Soon
- Save Me
- Save Me (live version, Montreal Forum, November 1981)
- A Human Body (non-album B-side, May 1980)
- Sail Away Sweet Sister (take 1 with guide vocal, February 1980)
- It's A Beautiful Day (original spontaneous idea, April 1980)
- Dragon Attack (live version, Milton Keynes Bowl, June 1982)
- iTunes-exclusive bonus videos:
- Dragon Attack (live version, Morumbi Stadium, March 1981)
- Save Me (live version, Seibu Lions Stadium, November 1982)
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Saturday Night Live version, September 1982)
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Credits
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- John Deacon - bass guitar, rhythm guitar and piano on Another One Bites The Dust, acoustic rhythm guitar on Need Your Loving Tonight
- Brian May - guitars, vocals, synthesizer, piano on Save Me, lead vocals on Sail Away Sweet Sister
- Freddie Mercury - vocals, piano, synthesizer, acoustic rhythm guitar on Crazy Little Thing Called Love, intro vocals on Rock It (Prime Jive), bridge vocals on Sail Away Sweet Sister
- Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, vocals, synthesizer, rhythm guitar and co-lead vocals on Coming Soon, lead vocals on Rock It (Prime Jive)
- Mack - synthesizer
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Charts
| Country
| Release date
| First appearance in charts
| Peak position
| Chart run
| Weeks in chart
| Additional comments
|
| UK
| -
| 12 July 1980
| 1
| 2-1-1-5-11-14-18-22-33-30-27-21-20-25-34-51-62-75
| 18
| 4 weeks in Top 10, 2 weeks at #1
|
| USA
| -
| 19 July 1980
| 1
| 20-16-6-5-5-5-5-4-4-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-4-5-5-5-6-9-9-14-14-14-
18-19-30-30-34-51-52-56-56-67-74-81-87-126-124-124-164
| 43
| 21 weeks in Top 10, 5 weeks at #1
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| Japan
| -
| -
| 5
| -
| 17
| -
|
| Italy
| -
| -
| 9
| -
| 23
| -
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| Netherlands
| -
| -
| 2
| -
| -
| -
|
- Information supplied by Fedepeti, 24 August 2004
Singles
Queen talks
- Brian May, 1982 On The Record
- Yeah, that was when we started trying to get outside what was normal for us. Plus we had a new engineer in Mack and a new environment in Munich. Everything was different. We turned our whole studio technique around in a sense, because Mack had come from a different background from us. We thought there was only one way of doing things, like doing a backing tracks: We would just do it until we got it right. If there were some bits where it speeded up or slowed down, then we would do it again until it was right. We had done some of our old backing tracks so many times, they were too stiff. Mack's first contribution was to say, "Well you don't have to do that. I can drop the whole thing in. If it breaks down after half a minute, then we can edit in and carry on if you just play along with the tempo". We laughed and said "Don't be sily. You can't do that". But in facts, you can. What you gain is the freshness, because often a lot of the backing tracks is first time though. It really helped a lot. There was less guitar on that album, but that's really not going to be the same forever; that was just an experiment.
Reviews
- Rolling Stone, 1980
- With the usual fanfare–in this case, a "breakthrough" single released several months prior to the LP – Queen have shifted their sights from heavy-metal flash to stripped-down rock & roll. Maybe they realized that they'd come to a dead end, that it was time to ditch the cold, bombastic eclecticism and overweening arrogance that made News of the World and Jazz so offensive. Or maybe they just figured it'd be good to try fresh terrain. Whatever the reasons, it's nice to hear a Queen album with songs, not "anthems."
- Yet this doesn't mean they can actually play the new stuff. Stiffness was the most distinctive characteristic of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," once you got past the obligatory "Gee whiz, is this Queen?" feeling. And the incessant airplay got a lot of us past that feeling pretty quickly. It's the same with the rest of The Game. Freddie Mercury sings, "It swings (Woo Woo)/It jives (Woo Woo)/It shakes all over like a jelly fish," but the band can merely plod through material that demands some suppleness. Even "Need Your Loving Tonight," the finest of the rock & roll numbers here, keeps tripping over its sluggish power chords.
- Sad to say, Queen seemed more comfortable with the brazen hodgepodge of "Bohemian Rhapsody," the martial madness of "We Will Rock You" and the pointless frenzy of "Bicycle Race." Black leather jackets, echo chambers, funky handclaps, prominent bass lines and sparse instrumentation – these guys know how this music should sound and feel, but they can't bend enough to get with it. Which is probably why some of the current record consists of the same inflated ballads and metallic shuffles that have padded every previous Queen disc.
- Certainly, The Game is less obnoxious than Queen's last few outings, simply because it's harder to get annoyed with a group that's plugging away at bad rockabilly than with one blasting out crypto-Nazi marching tunes. The future doesn't look bright, however. No matter how much Queen may try to hide it, they're still egomaniacs. Take "Don't Try Suicide," for example. It's a basic rocker in which the singer has to sound worried and concerned. Mercury brandishes a full array of mid-Fifties vocal hiccups, but the best he can do is seem a bit pissed off–as if the biggest crime of the impending suicide is that it's going to bug Freddie. Moments like this make you wonder if the old Queen are really dead after all.
- Record Mirror, 21.06.80
- 4 stars
- I like Queen. I like Queen. I like Queen. I like Queen. I like Queen.
- So there you are, you bunch of jerks making your cute little sideswipes at one of Britain's leading attractions. Go and slap on the next Willie Nile record and leave me in peace.
- I was converted to Queen the last time I saw them live. It's that big production that I've always gone for, that Hollywood babylon stage show, those lights and that dry ice. After Zeppelin and even before the Scorpions, Queen are the most exciting band I'vr ever seen or heard. And I'm sure all you lovers of quality music will agree.
- This album is a straight kick into the goal (Christ what a pun). It's like winning the men's singles at Wimbledon. It's a pity though that Queen have seen fit to include two recent singles in the running order. Considering the price of albums these days, would it not have been worthwhile to slap on some new material?
- This album isn't exactly high camp Queen either. Gone, nearly forever, are those halcyon over the top days of fruit cake harmonies. Nowadays Queen have cut down considerably on such ploys, but there's still enough left for their brandmark. the title track is couched in the grand style. Fred, high on lung power, while May is invited in for the odd guitar burst and Taylor gets fondly engaged in his heavy 'stripper theme' drum work.
- On 'Dragon Attack' you perhaps expect some more of the same style setting, a pattern for side one. 'Fraid not, 'Dragon Attack', despite the title, crawls and sprawls in what sounds like the development of a simple Jam, complete with a brief bass solo - one of the few look ins that Deacon seems to be allowed these days and what a pity.
- What's all this then, eh? 'Bites The Dust' merely comes over as a bit of disco wrapping. Maybe the bass isn't meant to be taken that seriously, but i'm not sure. Sorry but this is the weak point of side one plundering from a well flogged idea.
- But hold on, here comes 'Need Your Loving Tonight' which isn't at all awful despite the mundane title. Queen emerse themselves in the rock pile on a neat piece of toe tapping, only equalled in force by 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love'. This track is the perfect counterpoint with those blue eyed harmonies.
- 'Rock It' could really have done without that Alvin Stardust overtoned intro, but fortunately it develops into a fine flash, bang, wallop and should be good for videos.
- Meanwhile 'Suicide' is black comedy. Fred wields the flick knife and leathers to a quirky chorus and lines that fit together like a tight fitting jigsaw.
- Ah ha, it's here at last. One of those Queen lump in the throat epics on 'Sweet Sister'. Let it all go with baroque guitar and sweet vocal refrains on this track for romantic fools. 'Coming Soon' features the headlights blazing again as th elads glide through the chords for an eternity.
- 'Save Me' finds Fred clinging to the rock of desperation once again. More plaintive vocals, more desperate soul searching. My, don't you just love it. Oh yes, in case you've forgotten, I LIKE QUEEN. (Robin Smith)
- Additional Reviews
Sleeves
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|  USA Mobile Fidelity LP, 1995 |
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 Ecuador red LP (official?), 1980 |
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Promotional Material
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