Since the death of its leader, Freddie Mercury, in 1991, Queen have done an outstanding job in continuing their legacy. They still celebrate their work worldwide with live performances and tours, bringing in guest singers to honour Mercury’s work. Brian May especially seems to still deeply value the band’s discography and his ability to bring it to life, with one song in particular standing out.
After forming in 1970, Queen quickly rose to dizzying heights. Thanks to their theatrical style and the vocals provided by Mercury, they gathered global acclaim and success. They were a pioneering force in rock, helping to expand the sound to new and exciting places by mixing in elements of camp, melodrama and outright pop, but all still with an edge.
Their lyricism is one of the things that really sets them apart at Mercury and May shared the duty. Queen songs are rich with storytelling, often playing characters and bringing new textures and voices to the tracks. Albums like Night At The Opera and Sheer Heart Attack have become so timelessly loved, in part due to the variety of stories and sounds the songwriting brings them.
Without their frontman, the band still celebrate all of this. In their current live shows, with Adam Lambert providing vocals, they perform ‘Another One Bites The Dust’, ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and beyond as if they were released yesterday, still with the same high energy. There is one moment in the set, however, that the band’s guitarist, Brian May, especially treasures.
“I still love playing them all, I have to be honest,” he said when asked which was his favourite Queen track to play live. “I would have to say ‘We Will Rock You’.”
Written by May in 1977 for the band’s sixth album, News At The World, the track is without a doubt one of the band’s most defining and well-known. It’s the title of the musical using the group’s music and easily contains one of the most recognisable chants in music history. It’s a song that’s sure to get the crowd going as everyone stomps their feet and claps as directed.
It makes sense why May still loves to play it, adding, “It always gives me a good feeling.”
“‘[We Will] Rock You’ and ‘[We Are The] Champions’ are kind of the staple for the end of the show and you know it’s going to score,” he continued. The two tracks serve as the band’s encore during their live shows.
It’s a classic case of giving the people what they want, as May loves the track for its feel-good, crowd-pleaser energy. He added, “You know people will be happy, so it is lovely and you get the feeling you could just do it with the audience without instruments and they would get it.”
