Queen – The Show Must Go On

How many copies are of this? I have one but i cant find how many copies there are....

With the driving violins from the very opening seconds, The Show Must Go On takes you up the biggest escalator ever; tying together the two threads of life: the question of life and the answer of life. When Freddie sings out the “show must go on”, he does it with so much pleading strength, and yes, makes the answer stronger than the question. And he was in the best life-position to unshakingly sing such a testament.

It’s alchemy in music, an extraordinary song. Extraordinary lyrics, voice, (life), band, guitar and string work, all of it, extraordinary.

All, forever pressed on this little, plastic 7”. One of my favourite singles, certainly the most moving. I also like the choice for the B side, “Keep Yourself Alive”. Listening to B after A, it sounds phenomenally light in comparison, but that’s not bad, (it makes you think of the lightness of life when there aren’t worries pressing down on you . . . ). Brian May’s signature guitar work is in fine form, a direct musical link, it’s a lovely companion tune.

[The video is a great memory capture of the mercurial life ed. Too eye-soppingly beautiful.]

https://www.discogs.sie.com/Queen-The-Show-Must-Go-On/release/764694 is the same record (European release) but does not come in a gatefold sleeve and comes also not with the etched autographs. I have this record however I can not add the record in my Discogs collection.

Oh, good grief, Queen, you fucking fossils – what are you doing in my collection? How anyone can adore this troupe, I’ve never been able to figure out – a personal low point; going back home from a messy weekend in Glasgow, only to discover that the airport express coach company, in an act of pure evil, had decided to entertain their engers with a DVD containing one of Queen's concerts from the 80's. Meaning I had to endure Freddie’s antics and Brian May’s hair on three screens simultaneously, for 2 hours, while I was in the most wretched state imaginable. I’m not sure I’ll ever recover. And those asinine records; “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the sentimental reissue of which kept the KLF off the #1 spot on the UK singles chart in 1991 – an unbelievably tedious music-as-theatresports monstrosity which does what Queen does best: an awful lot of nothing. Or “Radio Ga Ga” – how to ruin a nice verse and a cool body-poppin’ break with a chorus that comprises all the subtle nuances of a football terrace and a West End musical. Someone still loves yoooouuuuuu? I somehow don’t think so!

And then there’s “The Show Must Go On”, the final song on the last album they released while Freddie was still with us, and the pompousness to end all pompousness, Queen at their most ridiculously grandiose – and yet, it’s their finest moment, the ONLY moment in their discography I can be bothered with. Apparently penned by May partly as a therapeutical exercise during his divorce, it becomes a hell of a lot more when Freddie sings it – barely hanging on to his life, body ravaged by disease, he nevertheless delivers an unbelievable performance – done in one take, or so the legend goes. It’s the song where Queen briefly captures something greater than itself, something truly larger than life in fact – and “I’ll top the bill, I’ll overkill” is the most perfect line that their singer ever recorded. A few months later, he was no more. Rest in peace, you lunatic. I never liked your band. But I liked you. And I love this song.