I've become more piano orientated anyway. Ogre Battle was written on a guitar but I've given that up. I'm getting into Love of My Life- and Lily of the Valley-type things. I've always listened to that kind of music.
I must confess that there was really nothing behind that lyric [“messenger from Seven Seas ... to tell the King of Rhye…”]. It was simply an easy way out for me, lyrically, to insert that into Lily of the Valley because it seemed to fit in nicely there. Sorry to disappoint anyone, but that's all it was really.
Freddie's stuff was so heavily cloaked, lyrically. But you could find out, just from little insights, that a lot of his private thoughts were in there, although a lot of the more meaningful stuff was not very accessible. Lily of the Valley was utterly heartfelt. It's about looking at his girlfriend and realising that his body needed to be somewhere else. It's a great piece of art, but it's the last song that would ever be a hit.