More than the battle of life with death, and perhaps the whole world! The true story of the Immortal…
Film Director Russell Mulcahy asked the band to write the theme music for their debut feature film, under the working title Highlander, and in early 1986 the band Queen finally gathered in the studio. The musicians watched the working version of the film and lit up so much that they decided to record the full "soundtrack". The director gladly agreed, because he thought that if anyone could do it, it would be "Queen", because they wrote powerful hymn songs, and this was exactly what was needed for the film.
The first song recorded was "A Kind Of Magic", which he composed Roger Taylor and for whom at the BBC Studio Russell Mulcahy shot a video clip. The action captured the musicians, as it was not clear what they were doing - participating in the creation of a film or recording their next album.
More powerful tracks were recorded for the film
Brian May was inspired by the scene in which the immortal Connor MacLeod picks up his dying wife. On the way home, he made the first sketches of the future hit. It is worth noting that it sounds in the same episode of the picture (later the song was included in some parts of the TV series "Highlander").
Brian took the title "Who Wants to Live Forever" from the movie "Flash Gordon", for which Queen composed the entire soundtrack. The song was recorded with the participation of a symphony orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen, who also worked on the music for The Highlander. In the picture, Freddie Mercury sings the whole song, but on the record the first verse and a few more lines are performed by May.
When Freddie died, the song "Who Wants to Live Forever" acquired a special meaning for his fans. Rumors immediately spread that it was originally dedicated to Mercury, that he sang it, anticipating an imminent death, and so on. However, researchers of the Queen band claim that Mercury did not yet know about the terrible disease when he recorded the song. Therefore, it is unlikely that he could seriously think about death, even if he did not feel well.
According to Roger Taylor, he was so drunk during the filming of the video that he did not remember his parts: "It was a long, boring shoot, and terribly serious. She seemed a little religious, so I can't say I was attracted to her. I really like the song in the context of the movie "Highlander", with all the filming of the highlander and his wife, how she gets old, and all this is filmed in the mountains, it seemed to me very beautiful and touching."
Of course, the message song, the testament song "The Show Must Go On" is one of the greatest songs in the history of rock music. The composition "Who Wants to Live Forever" can be considered a kind of prologue or preface to this immortal work.
7 notes
·
View notes