I wrote it, but there is some bits of Freddie in here. It's unusual that we do cooperate on a song but this is probably the closest we've got in recent times.
We wrote very separately in those days, and we never really talked about what the songs meant, we were quite shy about we were trying to say individually in the songs, we tend to talk about things more now. To cut a long story short, I wrote it about a friend, someone who was going through a bad time, and I imagined myself in their shoes, kind of telling the story. That's what it is, somebody whose relationship has totally fucked up and how sad that person was.
It was very seldom that my songs became singles, so I was leaping on the chance. The song is really in essence written through the eyes of someone else, in the eyes of the girl, and the girl is really the centre of the story, and it's she who is saying “save me”. I do like it - it wasn't the biggest hit in the world, it was kind of a medium hit, that was not one of the huge blockbusters in our career. And the video does look OK, it's a nice quality.
For the record, as far as I remember, I played piano on: Doin' All Right, Father to Son, Now I'm Here, Dear Friends, Teo Toriatte, All Dead All Dead. Notably NOT on Sail Away Sweet Sister - I got Freddie to learn it and play it with Roger and John for the backing track - I wanted his marvellous rhythm and percussive feel on piano - but yes on Save Me, Las Palabras de Amor, Flash and The Hero (plus organ on the Wedding). But from here on in we began using synthesisers and there were many excursions from us all into keyboard territory… The only pure piece of piano from this era from me is Forever - which was a doodle done live in the studio which I rescued for a bonus track later on.
Save Me is a one million per cent stand-out vocal from Freddie - the sound he makes is almost unbelievable - a most amazing instrument.
On this track, Freddie's vocal is exquisite.
Freddie makes such a wonderful job on Save Me. I can't believe it. You should see this. It's a real… I was shocked myself.