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Today, The Grandma has been reading about I Want to Break Free, the song sung by Queen, and written by John Deacon.
I Want to Break Free is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by their bassist John Deacon.
It appears on the album The Works (1984), and was released in three versions: album, single and extended. The track became a staple of the bands during their 1984-85 The Works Tour and their 1986 Magic Tour.
The song is largely known for its music video for which all the band members dressed in drag, a concept proposed by drummer Roger Taylor, which parodied the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
The second part of the video included a composition rehearsed and performed with the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Wayne Eagling. Whereas the parody was acclaimed in the United Kingdom, where cross-dressing is a popular trope in British comedy, it caused controversy in the United States.
After its release in 1984, the song was well received in Europe and South America and is regarded as an anthem of the fight against oppression.
The single reached only number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but reached number three in the UK and was certified silver with over 200,000 copies sold. It also topped the charts of Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The song features on the band's compilation album, Greatest Hits II.
The song was written in 1983 by John Deacon and released in April 1984. Most of the song follows a traditional 12 bar blues progression in E major. It has three verses with one bridge, no chorus, and relatively little section repetition.
More information: Queen
The song features session musician Fred Mandel, who plays all of the keyboard parts; he was involved with the song when it featured only a drum machine and a guitar part. The keyboard solo at the end was done in one take on a Roland Jupiter-8 synthesizer, except the last note with a portamento down one octave, which was captured via punching in.
Besides the album version, a single version and an extended version were released.
The single version lasts 4 minutes 21 seconds and differs from the album version by the 40-second introduction and a longer synthesizer solo which starts at 2:33. The introduction is played on an electronic keyboard and is assisted by cymbals, drums and a guitar (Red Special). For the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack the single introduction is added to the album version creating a 3 minutes 43 seconds edit.
The extended version lasts 7 minutes 16 seconds and features a longer introduction and ending. It lasts until 6:04, and the remaining minute contains fragments of other songs from The Works. The extended version was mostly distributed as 12-inch vinyl records and then reissued on the CD of The Works in 1991.
Besides The Works, the song was featured in the albums Greatest Hits II, Box of Tricks, Greatest Hits (1992 US Red edition) and Absolute Greatest and in the box-sets The Complete Works and The Platinum Collection.
More information: Story of Song
Following in the tradition of cross-dressing in British comedy, the music video for I Want to Break Free sees the members of Queen in a suburban house dressed as women, a parody of the characters from the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
The video opens with a scene of typical British residential streets in the morning, intercut with shots of a teasmade waking Brian May's character up. The terraced houses are located in Leeds, in the neighbourhood Harehills. The roof of a terrace, most likely between Sandhurst Terrace and Dorset Rd, can be seen in the opening shot.
In the second scene the camera pans along a terrace and stops at the house where the action supposedly happens. It is located on 41 Dorset Mount in real life and has a slightly different floor plan than the set used in the video. A part of the Dorset Mount street name plate can be seen on its wall just a second before Brian May gets out of bed.
Mercury vacuums the floor and sings the first verse. He opens a door leading to a dark space, where the group appear surrounded by figures wearing miner's helmets. Mercury dances to a glowing box and reappears with several dancers dressed in spotted leotards, and perform a dance. In the house, Mercury sings and goes upstairs. The group appear in the dark space again.
More information: Radio X
I can't get used to living without, living without
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own
So, baby, can't you see I've got to break free?
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