[Sarcastically] Brian's favourite!
It's a world-wide cast-iron 22 carat copper-bottom SMASH !! A song is not a scientific essay or dissertation; it is entertainment. It conveys emotion, dreams, excitement - it shares feelings. A songwriter can say “black is white” … or “I see three of you” … or “The World is Flat” … anything he likes - in the name of Art - if it WORKS! Art is not Science, and Science is not Art. The reason that this song has grown and grown in popularity over the years is precisely because everybody feels it expresses their OWN excitement, in the journey they are on. The words tumble out … all jumbled up, conflicting, metaphors all random, just like they do when we are excited, on a roller-coaster, on a ski slope, flying … jumping . … or .. in love. “Supersonic” … “Sex Machine” … “Rocket Ship” … all the things Freddie has put in here - beginning with “I'm a …” are completely nonsensical, viewed from a point of view of someone with no sense of humour, no understanding of spontaneity, excitement, dangerous passion … joi de vivre. Obviously he can't be a satellite, and a rocket ship, and a sex-machine all at the same time. That is why it's so brilliant!! The song is not just good .. it's a work of genius … because the words AND the music express these wonderful feelings so well … you will see in any wedding, party, hen-night, celebration, the effect this track has when it comes on. It's magic.
Freddie would be so happy now to realise how huge it's become, you know. It's so much part of people's hen nights and just a general kind of torch song for everybody, it's amazing. I remember because it's very much Freddie's pop side and I remember thinking, “I'm not quite sure if this is what we should be doing.” I think there was also a feeling that it lyrically represented something that was happening to Freddie which we kind of thought was threatening him, and probably it was in a sense. But having said that, it's full of joy and optimism and stuff and very witty as usual. A great driving piano.
Quite poppy and commercial but clever lyrics. Not Brian's favourite, this song. I think it's very joyous and, actually, I still think he had his tongue slightly in his cheek, you know - “I'm a rocket ship … I'm like an atom bomb” - they're great lines.
It wasn't one of our favourite tracks, and we never sort of held it in great regard, it was very much a Freddie thing. It was just a song that we did, and it was a hit, it wasn't a giant hit, but it became sort of more popular over the years. I think it sort of filtered into the public's consciousness somehow and actually I think it's a much better song than we'd realised at the time, it's very melodic, beginning and end.
Everybody gets so mixed up with all the other sides: the flash, the sexual ambiguity, the showmanship, the voice. It doesn't frustrate me, because I'm just pleased he's remembered. But it's when you delve deeper that you really get his musicality. Actually, at the bottom of it all was just a genius songwriter. We're re-releasing all the Queen albums at the moment, so we're being forced to listen hard to the remastering. And it's just staggering. His words got better quickly. There were some very overt lyrics. Don't Stop Me Now is a good example. He was having a good time, and that was very much a cri de coeur.
It wasn't a pretence, we actually did live the life of a rock band, sort of living on the edge in a sense. Don't Stop Me Now is a whole different trip, really, it's become one of the most popular Queen songs of all time. It's a song of sort of unfettered joy. I mean, I've been quoted to say I don't like the track - I kind of do like the track but I had mixed feelings because in a sense it represented a sort of separatism. It was very much Freddie's world and reflected what he was going through.
I thought it was a lot of fun but, yes, I did have an undercurrent feeling, we're talking about danger here, because we were worried about Freddie at this point, and I think that feeling lingers but it's become, I think, the most successful Queen track as regards what people play in their car or play at their weddings or whatever, you know, it's become massive, massive. It's a sort of anthem to people who want to just be hedonistic and I have to say, kind of a stroke of genius from Freddie.
Don't Stop Me Now is a phenomenon. It's not the kind of thing that I was most drawn to in the beginning - everybody knows that for various reasons - but it's become such a monster hit with everybody and it's everybody's stag party and hen party moment, so I've come to enjoy that again now.
It was a minor hit, but the life of that song is ever increasing. I think it's going to end up as the biggest song Queen ever did. It's lovely to see how people embrace it now. I guess it's the optimism of the lyrics. There was a definite feeling we were losing Freddie or afraid of losing Freddie, which affected the way I perceived it at the time. I probably thought it was a bit frivolous as well, but I've gotten over that now.
Don't Stop Me Now is the one that has surprised us all. It wasn't a big song at the time. Freddie wrote it on the piano and Brian had to find a way to insert himself in there. I don't necessarily think it's one of our best songs, but I love the sentiment – “Call me Mr Fahrenheit.” It's hilarious and it's become a sort of rallying cry.