F

or the rock galacticos of the 70s, the transition into a new

decade proved a difficult gearshift. By the end of 1980, Led

Zeppelin had been sunk by the death of talismanic drummer

John Bonham. Unravelling alongside them were The Who, and

while the Stones and Pink Floyd continued to play to packed

stadia, the crowds increasingly called out for the old songs.

In this age of stumbling giants, Queen hit the 80s like a train.

Already, the band had kissed off the 70s with their biggest US hit to date, in the

form of rockabilly pastiche Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Dreamt up by Mercury

in a Munich bathtub and captured by incoming producer Reinhold Mack at

that city’s Musicland Studios, the single seemed the launchpad to an imperious

decade – even if Brian May told Guitar World that the lineup operated less

through design as dumb luck: “Everyone thought we had this huge monster

plan, the Queen Machine, but it’s an illusion.”

Happy accident or otherwise, by February 1980, the band were keen to

capitalise, returning to the same Bavarian studio for a four-month hot-streak,

where the four members’ prolific output was underlined by the 40-odd songs

pitched for inclusion on that year’s The Game. “For me, the band was

functioning well at this point,” noted Roger Taylor in Mark Blake’s definitive

biography of the band, Is This The Real Life? “The Game was much more of a piece

than Jazz. Our songwriting was much better.”

It was the decade when Queen had it all, lost

it and then clawed it back again. But behind

the strut and sparkle of the band in the 80s,

storm clouds were gathering...

Words: Henry Yates

By Royal

Appo ntment

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