The Show Must Go On

Someone's probably mentioned this before, but I'll add it anyway since it's pure awesomeness:

"When Brian May presented the final demo to Mercury, he had doubts that Mercury would be physically capable of singing the song's highly demanding vocal line, due to the extent of his illness at the time. To May's surprise, when the time came to record the vocals, Mercury consumed a measure of vodka and said "I'll fucking do it, darling!" then proceeded to nail the vocal line in one take without problems."

Freddie was seriously amazing. He managed to live more in 45 years than a lot of people do in twice that. I love this song: it just captures how he lived perfectly.

Also, I think "I'll fucking do it, darling!" is going to be my catchphrase from now on.

Its about life. Replace the word 'show' with 'life'. Its saying that there are hard times in life but we should carry on and still aim high. Freddie Mercury was very optimistic, even when he found out he had aids, this was his outlook on life and if we all think about it it should be true. Its telling us that life goes on regardless fo what happens. Very meaningful.

The song meaning is obvious, but this is just on of those songs that transcends the meaning of the words. Listening to to Freddie Mercury sing this one is beyond any other Queen song; he lifts it up from sappy to spiritual.

It carries the weight of Mozart's Requiem. Many writers sing about dying, but very few (Roy Orbison comes to mind) have a chance to write about it when they know it's coming. Mercury conquers death with this song ("Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die/I can fly my friend" "I'll face it with a grin/I'm never giving in"). The song was beautiful when I first heard it as a child; when I found out the circumstances it was truly haunting.

I like to think that this song was about Freddie's attitude in the face of his final stages of AIDS. He knew he was dying, but he fought up to the very end. I think he felt that he couldn't give up. Life is a battle, but despite whatver comes our way, the show must go on. Also, I think that it was a way for Freddie to tell the world that despite his illness, he continued to make music up until the very end. He loved his fans, and I think he wanted to please them as long as it was humanly possible for him to do so.

It's probably their most powerful song. To me, it means that whatever you do, don't give up !

This is one of the most frighteningly honest songs I have ever encountered. Freddie is almost defiant in his acceptance of his fate, but in true Queen style, he infuses it with his love for all things theatrical. Social comment, regret, acceptance and optimism: this song manages to balance it all. A fitting tribute to one of the world's best lead singers.

Magnifique!!!

Actually, I read that song was written by Brian May. I think he's expressing his fear: Freddie's illness was a tremendous shock for his friends. Brian is asking himself how can he cope with that. These feelings match Freddie's feelings, that's why the song is so powerful.

I was six when Freddie died, & ironically had never even heard of Queen, when it was announced he had died of his illness. I then realised that Queens music had been the background music to my life, what I heard blasting out of my elder brothers bedroom & suddenly, at six years old, it all clicked & i was hooked. I watched every tv program dedicated in Freddies' honour & as i grew older gradually bought the albums & then I heard this song, & I cried. It overpowered me, the beauty of the lyrics spoke to me & told me what Freddie had been going through & I couldn't believe how much this song called out to me. It made me understand how he felt inside & for this made me feel as though I knew this man, although at one point I never knew who he was.

Now I'm young and had only really known the queen songs that were obvious through the media, but after a ew years started getting into it more and more. I actually only found that this was Queen's song when I was watching "Moulin Rouge" and fell in love with the power of it. After hearing I started looking for dates to see if it was at all related to Freddy's aids. I found that Brian May wrote it, and that he did it before he really knew anything about the aids (they're pretty sure anyway). So I dunno. Still a great song though. I'm gonna keep resaerching (cuz that's what I do) and I'll write what I find later.