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Queen FAQ -
Lyrics
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Last Update 10 Feb 2006 |
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Backward Masking:
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Backward Masking is the term given to a song that is supposed to contain a message heard when played backwards. To play a song backwards, you can physically spin vinyl. With audio tapes and CD's this method isn't possible. CD tracks can be converted to mp3 files, and using a sound editor, such as GoldWave a whole song or a specific section can be reversed and played in seconds.
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The most famous Queen song that is supposed to employ the backward masking technique is Another One Bites The Dust. When the the phrase "another one bites the dust" is played backwards we're supposed to hear "it's fun to smoke marajuana". It actually sound similar in part once you've been told what to expect, but it is very vague and I personally hear "noel there" at the end rather than "marajuana".
You can dowldoad a backwards file of the phrase
here.
Brian was asked the above claim in an issue of Q magazine in the mid-ninties and denied any deliberate backward masking in any Queen song.
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Other songs that have backwards passages in them are Ogre Battle and the Intro and Outro from A Day At The Races which use the same pieces where the outro is intro backwards - no lyrics involved though.
There are a number of songs where backwards music or words are used such as A Kind of Magic and Headlong, but those places are very obvious and not attempts to hide subliminal messages.
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The only other song that features manipulated lyrics is One Vision where the intro vocals are slowed down. When played faster (using a music editor), Freddie sings "God moves in mysterious ways".
Dowldoad the speeded up 8 second intro here. |
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| Later Song Credits: |
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From The Miracle onwards, all songs were credited to Queen rather than individual members. So we don't know for certain who wrote what. Elisabeth Riba, a former QMS (Queen Mailing List) member has compiled a list of the tracks on The Miracle and Innuendo along with verifiable quotes indicating which member came up with the original idea for some of the songs. Along with this, the RV (Royal Vision) fan club has confirmed a bunch of the songs through interviews and through the OIQFC.
Due to the question being asked so many times here is a brief listing with no details. For details, check the archives and web pages at QMS. Remember, they did work together on these songs - these credits indicate who did the majority of the lyrics.
(Also, if you disagree, I did not write this list, I am just passing it on.)
Party - All four / Roger?
Days of Our Lives - Roger
Ride the Wild Wind - Roger
Invisible Man - Roger
Breakthru - Roger
Rain Must Fall - Roger
Kashoggi's Ship - One source says all, another Freddie)
The Miracle - All,
My Baby Does Me - John and Freddie
Innuendo - Roger (most of lyrics), but all four put a lot into it
Slightly Mad - Freddie
All God's People - Freddie and Mike Moran
Headlong - Brian
Hitman - Brian
I Can't Live With You - Brian
Bijou - Brian
The Show Must Go On - Brian
I Want it All - Brian
Scandal - Brian
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| What does "rhye" mean? |
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Rhye (Seven Seas of Rhye) is not a real word in English language, but may mean something in a non-English language. It has been suggested that it means "heaven" in a foreign language, but I'm not aware of any evidence for this theory, nor which language it is supposed to refer to.
The word 'rye' word in English language and is a cereal crop (rye bread & rye whiskey). |
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| Lyrics at the end of Believe In Yourself (spoken ending) |
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| People with problems, people on streets
People down your way, people you meet
Bus conductors, people on trams
Welshmen & sheep, clams
Lepidoptorists, collectors of stamps
Leopards with spots on, tramps
Space wasting journalists, people in far flung posts
Unpleasant neighbours, ghosts
Duane Eddy, Lawyers with fees
Elvis, deciduous trees
Bosses, pets, nurses, vets
People in big homes... |
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| The spoken words at the start of Roger's C'Mon Down (London Town)' |
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| | From 'London Fantasy' - a poem by Mervyn Peake.
"But for the fact that the eye can cease to respond,
The brain to absorb, the heart to miss a beat,
The spirit to launch itself on a hazard of speculation
Then, surely, in the weird creatures that make up this dark hive called London,
Or for that matter the world
There would lie spread before us every day such a scene
As haunts the brains of madmen
A delirium of heads and frames and hands,
A cavalcade hardly to be suffered
For the very endlessness of its inventive fantasy
Clay miracles float by in a hundred lights
The eyes in constellations swarm through London
Sight becomes cluttered
There is no end to it
Beneath the electric glare
In fog; in downpour; in sunlight; in firelight
In wind; at sunrise or at dusk
There is no end"
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