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Review
by Collectors
music
reviews
Life Is Real documents the August 9th, 1982 show the Brendan
Byrne Arena in New Jersey. Queen played two nights at the Garden in
New York on July 27th and July 28th. This is one of the longest Hot
Space concerts on the U.S. tour and, as it would turn out, the final
Queen concert (with Freddie Mercury) in the New York metropolitan area
(their appearance on Saturday Night Live that September
excepted). The taped used for this release is fair to good but
thin recording with an emphasis upon the high end. There is slight
distortion in the upper frequencies during louder parts of the
music and several slights cuts including a painful one three minutes and
forty-five seconds into the guitar solo, one before “Body Language”
and one at 2:59 in “Under Pressure.”
After the “Flash” taped introduction they start
with Roger Taylor’s “Rock It (Prime Jive).” It is rather
unusual since Queen liked to start the show off with a fast paced number,
but this one starts slow and laid back. In the previous year
“Rock It (Prime Jive)” would be segued with the fast arrangement of
“We Will Rock You” but they are played separately. “Somebody
To Love” makes a rare appearance in the set. They play “Now
I’m Here” with “Dragon Attack,” a clunky arrangement they debut
several years before and they seemed to enjoy. Afterwards Freddie
says, “most of you know, who have been following our music the past ten
years, this is the first time we’ve played here at Meadowlands.
It’s not such a bad place after all, huh girls? This next song
features Mr. Brian May on the piano.”
“Save Me” is a tender song with an explosive middle
section and a creative video for MTM. One wonders why it never
became a big hit for the band. Freddie exhorts the cool New
Jersey crowd to sing afterwards, saying, “I’m gonna make you sing
like Aretha Franklin.” With only a lukewarm reception he quips,
“I knew you were from New Jersey. I’ve been listening to Gilda
Radner. She was right.” The following song “Calling
All Girls” is another of the Hot Space songs that sound better
live than in the studio with a much heavier arrangement.
The middle section of “Get Down, Make Love” segues
into Brian May’s solo directly. There is a cut about three
and a half minutes into the track when May breaks a string on
the guitar. According to eyewitnesses, he actually threw the guitar
in frustration. He is given another guitar which, two minutes
later, also get a broken string. May throws this one again in frustration
and has to use the Gibson Flying V for the rest of the solo and for the
next couple of songs. His main guitar is fixed in time for the
hard rock finale of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Many years later May was asked about this on the soapbox section of
his website, and he recalls: “You evidently saw a special
night … the only night when I ever threw a guitar off stage in despair !
And, yes, I did hit the ground behind the stage - I’m pretty sure I
thought I was throwing to someone, but evidently I misjudged it. And, yes,
its neck snapped clean through. I kept it for a while, intending to get it
fixed. But we decided it would probably never be good at staying in tune,
because it wasn’t a very rigid instrument. And not being able to get it
tune was what drove me to distraction that night, and this was what led to
its demise ! As I remember, this was on top of having problems with the
Red Special in the beginning - in the heat of the moment, this was the
final straw! I imagine your bootleg of the show will reveal the problems I
was having. These things usually make me feel ashamed, frustrated, angry,
in the moment … I don’t like giving people less than the best.”
After “Under Pressure” May says, “People of
New Jersey, we seem like good friends. I tell you, we’ve seen you a lot
of times. We’ve been around quite a while and we’ve done some strange
things here and there. And now and again we’ve done a song which
actually means something, and I think this is one of them. This is a song
Freddie wrote for the last album. This is called ‘Life Is Real.’”
Written several years after Lennon’s assassination, it resembles both
“Mother” from Plastic Ono Band and “Imagine” from the
follow up. This song was rarely played and the only other live
version is on the tape for the August 13th Chicago show. Afterwards
Freddie jokes, “How are we doing with the guitars?” He tells the
audience, “I think tonight’s the night we’re gonna break as many
guitars as we’ve got. If anyone in the audience has a spare guitar,
bring it over here!” Somebody close to the taper brags “I’ve
got three!”
“For the next song we’d like to…what is that
fucking noise? It’s been driving me crazy all fucking night.” He goes
on to introduce Fred Mandel on keyboards before playing ”Crazy
Little Thing Called Love.” “Bohemian Rhapsody” closes the set
and they play four encores, including an energetic “Another One
Bites The Dust.” Some enthusiasm seems to be lost on ”We
Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” as the band
were feeling the effects of playing in front of an arena that is far
from a sell out. Hot Space was a misjudgement that, in the
United States, they never recovered from and never returned.
The misjudgement was not in writing more dance/funk numbers, but in
underestimating how personally their fans would take it.
Nevertheless Life Is Real is the only silver pressed edition
of this interesting show which is good, but a version without the cuts and
a fatter sound would be much more desired. |
