Brian May has been discussing not only his own songwriting journey with Queen, but also his creative relationships with Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
For the majority of the band’s career - up until 1989’s The Miracle, in fact - credits were assigned to specific band members. “It was Freddie’s idea that whoever wrote the lyrics would claim the song,” May tells MOJO. “None of us argued with that back then and it became the norm, but looking back, it wasn’t always very accurate.”
May says that, in fact, the writing process was “always interactive”. In the early days, either he or Mercury would come in with an idea and “it would get pulled apart, worked on and rebuilt by the whole group.”
As the band’s career progressed, both Deacon and Taylor started to receive more credits, too, which helped with inter-band relationships. “This is what creates the most ill-feeling in a band - the realisation that the guy who wrote the song is making all this money and everybody else is enabling him by going on tour and playing it,” May points out.
Fortunately, it seems like Queen were able to keep any quarrels in check, but May does acknowledge that he struggled with the “supreme injustice” of a Roger Taylor song, I’m In Love With My Car, “making as much money as Bohemian Rhapsody” by virtue of it being the B-side of the single when it was released in 1975.
“It was a real sticking point for the band and it’s good we got through it,” he admits. “I think our sense of humour saved us. How long did it take me to get over it?... Oh, quite a while.”
May also suggests that bassist John Deacon could be protective about his material: “Deacy normally wouldn’t let me in. He always wanted to play guitar on his tracks. I’d end up putting a bit of sherbet on his songs - a bit of extra fire.”
This was certainly the case on one of Deacon’s most famous Queen songs, Another One Bites The Dust. “In all honesty I thought it was very daring, different and catchy,” says May. “It was John’s song but Freddie was a fierce advocate for it. As soon as I heard Freddie torturing himself to sing those high passages I thought, ‘OK, I don’t quite know what it is but it is great’. John played the clean rhythmic guitar and I went in and did the filthy stuff, which I think helped the song a lot.”
Elsewhere in the interview, it’s revealed that it was Freddie who convinced May that it was OK to call a song Tie Your Mother Down - “Of course it works, Brian? Why wouldn’t you use it?” the lead singer told him - but that not all of Mercury’s ideas were great. Take the original title he came up with for the album that would end up being The Miracle, for example.
May recalls: “He came in one day and announced, ‘I’ve got this amazing idea. You know Michael Jackson has just put out this album called Bad? Well, listen… What do you think about us calling our next album Good?’
"We all looked at each other and said, ‘Well, maybe we should think about it, Freddie.'"
Probably wise.
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