The Works - Queenpedia.com - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, Discography, Bibliography, Charts

	The Works
	The Works, 1984
Released	27 February 1984 (UK), 28 February 1984 (US)
Recorded	August 1983 - January 1984 at The Record Plant and Musicland Studios
Length	37:28
Label	EMI
Producer(s)	Queen and Mack
Queen chronology

From Queenpedia.com

(Difference between revisions)

Jump to: navigation, search

Revision as of 20:03, 9 September 2007

Following the disappointing reception to Hot Space and the lengthy and often grueling world tour, the band decided to take a break from each other and either work on their own or take some time to relax with their families. For three-quarters of the band, 1983 started off peacefully enough, until their own creative juices started to flow again, and solo work became the priority for the year: in April, Brian worked with a group of four friends on what would become Star Fleet Project, while Freddie and Roger worked on their first ( Mr. Bad Guy) and second solo albums ( Strange Frontier), respectively. John, meanwhile, did some light session work, but spent his time mostly not playing any music whatsoever.

In the summer of 1983, the band's manager, Jim Beach, was in discussions with director Tony Richardson, who was working on a film adaptation of John Irving's 1981 novel, The Hotel New Hampshire. The band were approached to provide a soundtrack to the film, and, despite (or perhaps in spite) of the experiences endured while working on Flash Gordon in 1980, the band agreed. However, at the same time, they had also agreed to work on their next studio album, meaning that they would be recording two projects simultaneously. The band reconvened in August at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, becoming the first (and only) time that the band would record in the United States; sessions commenced with stunning productivity, though it became apparent that working on two major projects at the same time was exhausting and time-consuming. Richardson, using the excuse of an insufficient budget, let the band go of the project; one known song, Freddie's Keep Passing The Open Windows, had been written and recorded for the film before Richardson's decision.

Hardly losing any sleep over the loss, the band continued working on their album, switching midway through the sessions from Los Angeles to Munich. Ten known songs - all that ended up on the album, as well as the non-album B-side I Go Crazy - were recorded, though additional outtakes include songs that ended up on Freddie's first solo album (There Must Be More To Life Than This and Man Made Paradise) as well as his first single (Love Kills), while Freddie explained that Roger had written about four or five songs for the album before coming up with Radio Ga Ga (it's likely these songs were ultimately released on Roger's second solo album). Brian, too, was writing more, and reportedly submitted Let Me In Your Heart Again for the sessions, which was recorded but remained unreleased; the song would later be given to his girlfriend Anita Dobson, who recorded it in 1987 on her debut album, Talking Of Love. More mundanely, the foundation of Let Me Live was recorded in Los Angeles as Another Piece Of My Heart, a brief jam with Rod Stewart on additional vocals and Jeff Beck on guitar.

If the sour taste of Hot Space had affected the band's productivity, they didn't show it. Instead of advancing on the sounds of their previous album, they instead fell back into a system of using whatever works best; as a result, most of the songs hark back to other eras of the band's illustrious history. Tear It Up recalls the crunching beat of We Will Rock You, while Man On The Prowl was written as a latter-day Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Unfortunately, rock songs (the aforementioned Tear It Up, and Hammer To Fall, both tracks, incidentally, written by Brian) took a back seat to more pop-oriented material like Roger's Radio Ga Ga and John's I Want To Break Free, both of which featured extensive arrangement involvement from Freddie. On a lighter note, synthesizers and drum machines were finally integrated successfully into Queen's music; for the purist fans, this was hardly resounding news, but it should be remembered that this was 1984, and that synthesizers and drum machines were the latest trend.

The album was released in February 1984, a mere fortnight after Radio Ga Ga (which reached #2 in the UK and a respectable #16 in the US), going on to peak at #2 in the UK and a disappointing #23 in the US. Subsequent singles all reached the Top Twenty in the band's home country (I Want To Break Free, #3; It's A Hard Life, #6; and Hammer To Fall, #13; a fourth single, Man On The Prowl, was slated for release in November 1984, but was withdrawn and instead replaced with the seasonal Thank God It's Christmas), though these same singles performed poorly in the US, reaching #45, #72, and not charting at all, respectively. There are many factors to this: the band had just switched record companies, from Elektra to Capitol, and while initial sales of Radio Ga Ga were promising, a scandal erupted, which Brian explained: "Capitol got themselves into trouble with a dispute that raged in the early 1980s over the alleged corruption of independent record promoters in the US. It was basically the ring of bribery that went on to get records played on US radio. There was a government enquiry into it, and everybody shut down very, very fast. Without going into it too deeply, Capitol got rid of all their 'independent' guys - and the reprisals from the whole network were aimed directly at all the artists who had records out at that time. We had Radio Ga Ga which I think was Top Twenty and rising, but the week after that it disappeared from the charts." This soured relations between band and record company, and the band's Stateside popularity would never recover. At the same time, Freddie's personal manager, Paul Prenter, was doing his part in damaging the band's reputation by being nasty and dismissive toward media outlets who were generally interested in talking to the band, Freddie in particular. (Contrary to popular belief, the video of I Want To Break Free did not damage Queen's reputation in the United States; though there were areas - particularly the deep south - who didn't find the video amusing, the video was well-received in the more populous areas of the coasts.) Consequently, the band refused to tour the United States again, instead focusing their energies on other countries.

The album was remastered and reissued in 1991 on Hollywood Records, with three bonus tracks: the non-album B-side I Go Crazy, and extended remixes of Radio Ga Ga and I Want To Break Free. Further extended remixes of It's A Hard Life, Man On The Prowl, Keep Passing The Open Windows, and Hammer To Fall (dubbed the 'Headbangers mix') were also created, while an instrumental remix of Machines (Or 'Back To Humans') was also created for the US market, specially by Brian. These tracks appeared on the Hollywood Records box set, The 12" Collection, in 1991.

Tracklists

Vinyl version

Side 1:

Side 2:

1991 Hollywood Records CD

Credits

Musicians:

John Deacon - bass guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar on I Want To Break Free, synthesizer

Brian May - guitars, vocals, synthesizer

Freddie Mercury - vocals, piano, synthesizer

Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, vocals, synthesizer

Fred Mandel - piano finale on Man On The Prowl, synthesizers on Radio Ga Ga and I Want To Break Free, programming on Radio Ga Ga, and candy-floss on Hammer To Fall

Mack - Demolition Fairlight programming on Machines (Or 'Back To Humans')

Produced by: Queen and Mack.
Recorded: August 1983 - January 1984 at The Record Plant, Los Angeles, and Musicland Studios, Munich

Charts

#2 (UK), #23 (US).

Queen talks

Words.

Additional info

Info

Reviews

Rolling Stone, 1984

Radio Gaga, the single that opens up the new Queen album, is another instant jewel in Queen's Top Forty crown. It's one more anthemic lament to that overfamiliar icon, sung and played with Queenly overkill in "Deutschland Uber Alles" style by a group that did its share to corrupt the airwaves in the Seventies. This slab of false pomp aside, the rest of The Works – surprise, surprise – ain't half bad.

Disregarding a best-of, a soundtrack, one single made with David Bowie and the obligatory solo projects, this is the glitter-rock band's first real album in some time. And rather than move in ever-widening spirals of bombast, they've trimmed a lot of the excess – mainly, the fat vibrato of Brian May's multitracked guitars and Freddie Mercury's overdubbed tabernacle choir of vocal effects. What's left is a lean hard-rock sound, making The Works perhaps the first record to refute the maxim that the words Queen and listenable are, of necessity, mutually exclusive.

Granted, the messages have all been heard before and practically cancel each other out: love is all you need; let's get physical; machines have feelings, too; be an individual, stand your ground. Instead, the revelations are in the music. For the carnivorous, rewards are to be found in the thundering Led Zeppelinisms of "Tear It Up" and "Hammer to Fall"; for the doubters, the surprises are in the comely melody and (relative) restraint of "Keep Passing the Open Windows" and the straight-up Fifties rocking of "Man on the Prowl." And try this one our on the atheists: "Is This the World We Created...?" is an acoustic meditation on hunger and hate and generational responsibility, sung with conviction by Mercury.

This unanticipated humanitarianism is the perfect grace note to the preceding thrash-fest. The Works is a royal feast of hard rock without that awful metallic aftertaste; as such, it might turn out to be the Led Zeppelin II of the Eighties. Not so depressing a prospect at that.

Sounds, 25.02.84

3 stars

The nicest thing I can say about Queen is that they always seem to have a few surprises down their trousers, knoworrimean?

Although one of them admitted to Sounds last week that they pretty much blatantly try to give Queen fans what they want (a point in the band's favour - lots of groups do the same while persistently denying it), it was heartening to find that he neither knew nor cared what a Queen punter looked like, being more concerned with trying to experiment within the space available in a recognisable Queen LP.

Unstandardised, I calls it!

But like I said, Queen are oddly surprising at times: Freddie talking about the contrast between his macho image and the gay life to The Sun, the dire funk attempts of 'The game', the ditching of the old HM image for twitchy operetta-styles; tunes dribbling with crass 50's rock 'n' roll inflections; the dazzlingly apt (sez I) soundtrack for Flash Gordon...Which brings us to 'The Works'.

Or doesn't, which is the problem.

This time around, Queen have played it safe(r).

Pausing after the (relative) flop of 'The Game', the plan is a deft amalgam of the best-selling Queen moves backed by national press drool and a clever 45: 'Radio Ga Ga' is about the radio (airplay assured), critical of radio pap (controversy assured) and is a prime-slime example of the humming, annoyingly likeable baby-food pop music that the song itself is slating (more airplay and more controversy guaranteed).

Safety with a catch, ya see! Sly dogs...

The remainder of the album attempts nothing so bright, being little more than a reworked pile of cuttings from Queen's greatest tricks. Wasn't that a bit copped from the football-chant of 'We Will Rock You' zooming by? And doesn't 'Man On The Prowl' have the rockabilly echo quiven of 'Funny Lttle Thing Called Love' glued to its bum? 'The Works' has the works: everything is kitsch an' it stinks!

And that's how you make a hit album if you're wary of pushing your luck too far. the bank balance might not need a smash but the ego probably demands it.

It's all there, I assure you: spurious social comment in 'Machines(or Back To Humans)', slight Fred ballad via 'Is This The World We Created...?' and even a nip of the old Brian May metal with the (excellent actually) 'Hammer to Fall'.

Awful, mainly. So from the average Queen fan's point of viewpoint, awfully good! Another one bites the dust, suckers. (Sandy Robertson)

Additional Reviews