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==Tracklists== | ==Tracklists== | ||
[[Image:Queen_game.jpg|thumb|175px|right|The Game, 1980]] | [[Image:Queen_game.jpg|thumb|175px|right|The Game, 1980]] | ||
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Revision as of 17:08, 6 June 2007
Tracklists
| Vinyl version | 1991 Hollywood Records CD |
| Side 1:
01. Play The Game (Mercury) - 3:32 02. Dragon Attack (May) - 4:18 03. Another One Bites The Dust (Deacon) - 3:37 04. Need Your Loving Tonight (Deacon) - 2:49 05. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury) - 2:44 Side 2: 01. Rock It (Prime Jive) (Taylor) - 4:32 02. Don't Try Suicide (Mercury) - 3:52 03. Sail Away Sweet Sister (To The Sister I Never Had) (May) - 3:32 04. Coming Soon (Taylor) - 2:50 05. Save Me (May) - 3:48 |
01. Play The Game (Mercury) - 3:32 02. Dragon Attack (May) - 4:18 03. Another One Bites The Dust (Deacon) - 3:37 04. Need Your Loving Tonight (Deacon) - 2:49 05. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury) - 2:44 06. Rock It (Prime Jive) (Taylor) - 4:32 07. Don't Try Suicide (Mercury) - 3:52 08. Sail Away Sweet Sister (To The Sister I Never Had) (May) - 3:32 09. Coming Soon (Taylor) - 2:50 10. Save Me (May) - 3:48 11. Dragon Attack (remix) (May) - 4:20 |
History
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.
Credits
- Musicians:
- John Deacon - bass guitar, rhythm guitar on Dragon Attack and Another One Bites The Dust, acoustic rhythm guitar on Need Your Loving Tonight, piano on Another One Bites The Dust
- 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
- Recorded: June - July 1979 (Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Sail Away Sweet Sister, Coming Soon, and Save Me) and February - May 1980 (all other tracks) at Musicland Studios, Munich.
Charts
- #1 (UK), #1 (US).
Queen talks
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Additional info
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