1991 Queen: Innuendo

Back in the early eighties and the days of Betamax VCR's, one of the few videos we had in the house was the original 'Queen's Greatest Hits' (the one with the Snowdon cover). And not exactly being spoiled for choice I used to watch it over and over again. Which is maybe why the songs on it are as familiar to me as the sound of my own voice. And yet it's interesting to note that for an act best known as a singles band, only one of them ('Bohemian Rhapsody') actually got to number one.

It's interesting too that this, their second number one, is not that familiar to me at all. Is it familiar to your average Queen fan? I don't know, but it doesn't strike me as the first thing that anybody would reach for when they 'fancied a bit of Queen' - for a band renowned for a knowing level of camp humour and self parody, 'Innuendo' is remarkably humour free. At six minutes thirty seconds it's also rather long. That's not to say that Queen have never done long and humour free before, because they have, but 'Innuendo' manages to trump all previous examples by coming across as the moment when the friendly vicar stops being cosy and jokey and starts preaching about Jesus in earnest. The initiated don't bat an eyelid, the rest of us start to fidget.

I see 'Innuendo' as Queen laying down a marker to remind the world that they are a serious rock act, and in so doing they go back to basics. Influences are obvious - the weight of the bombast and slight Eastern swing recall Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir', the flamenco led interlude recalls The Doors' 'Spanish Caravan' whilst the juxtaposition of the two (there's an operatic section too) is nod to their own 'Bohemian Rhapsody', a sly wink to acknowledge what it was that made them famous in the first place. And to compliment the music's aura of Armageddon dread, Mercury howls and blusters his message of perseverance with the voice of a man battling superior forces against his control ("Till the mountains crumble into the plain, oh yes we'll keep on trying").

Does it work? Well there's no doubt that like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' ,'Innuendo', is a monolith of a song that realises it epic ambitions through sheer force; if it's playing then it's a hard song to ignore. As I intimated in my opening paragraph though, there's very little about it six plus minutes that's memorable enough to linger afterwards - not the lyrics, not the riffs and not the solos. In playing it straight, there's nothing to parody, nothing to slacken the jaw just a faceless batter of prog metal styling that leaves precious little in its wake and it's bludgeon induces the concussion of the mugging victim who can remember no details of their attacker.

But then again maybe it's just me - maybe this un-Queen like song of Queen songs is a side dish too far for my own sensibilities; it wouldn't have been at home on my old video at all and, frankly, it makes me fidget. But I think on a more objective level, whilst I'll never castigate any band for trying something different, 'Innuendo' and its attempt at a 'classic rock' sound is more than one step backwards to a past era that Queen and their audacity always stood apart from. And it suffers accordingly.