stars of lovingness in her hair

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “I’m the only one in the band from the artistic field. The others are all scientists; Roger from biology, John from electronics, and Brian from physics. Never in my wildest dreams, by the way, would I have imagined someone like Brian, an infrared astronomer, would pick up a guitar and be a rock’n’roller—so there you are!” (4)

“We’ve all had offers to join other bands, but while, say, Roger and I would tell them to piss off, Brian takes his time about being nice to people, so they sometimes get the wrong idea. Brian is really too much of a gentleman […] but not for any moment did he consider leaving us. The only reason Brian would leave Queen is to become an astronomer, not to join another band like Sparks. My God!” (16)

[About his voice going out on stage]

“There were a few phrases where I opened my mouth and nothing came out. The others were very sympathetic, but what can they do? They can’t scream and shout at me and say, “You have to have a voice.” They helped me a lot. Sometimes when it came to a high note, I just opened my mouth and Roger sang it. Roger sings very well and Brian does too. They were my crutches when I needed them.” (42-43)

“Having talent is one thing, but to actually use it and feed it to the masses, is another part of it. […] You’ve got to go in there and ram it down their throats and say, “Here I am! I’m creative! I’m wonderful! Here…EAT IT!” You have to do that. If there are other ways of doing it, then my God, you tell me.” (59)

“Now then…Death On Two Legs was the most vicious lyric I ever wrote. It was so vindictive that Brian felt bad singing backing vocals on it.” (69)

[About The Millionaire Waltz]

“Actually, I’d like to say that Brian did a very good job on the guitars. He really took his guitar orchestration to its limits. I don’t know how he’s ever going to out-do that one. And John played very nice bass on it. I think it’s very good” (72)

“Drowse is a very interesting song of Roger’s. Roger is very rock’n’roll. It’s got great slide guitar from Brian and Roger’s done octave vocals. It’s a very hummable tune, actually. I sing it all the time.” (73)

[About Jim Hutton. I know we all know this one but I had to include it with what I think are additions iirc]

“I’m very happy with my relationship at the moment and I honestly couldn’t ask for better. It’s a kind of…solace. Yes that’s a good word for it. There is this kind of solace that I’ve got now. I don’t have to try so hard. I don’t have to prove myself now. I’ve got a very understanding relationship. It sounds so boring, but it’s wonderful. […] Now I have a hairdresser husband, dear! I’ve finally found that niche I was looking for all my life and no fucker in this universe is going to upset it.” (88)

“People in the media were always asking when I would go it alone. But I was very happy with Queen, and therefore I didn’t need to give my ego a boost by suddenly leaving them and becoming a solo artist. It’s a very tempting area for me, but why ruin the damn thing? I feel a loyalty towards the band and I’d hate to let them down. That, to me, is too high a price.” (101)

[About Live Aid]

“What I felt was sheer sorrow and a deep upset that something like this was going on in our world, and I felt for a time quite, quite helpless. The point of this concert is to wake people up to the starvation and famine—to make everyone realize just what is going on, and to do something positive that will hopefully touch people and make them dig into their pockets. […] Some people have money and they want to help the ones in need. I don’t think that people should think in terms of the British helping Africa, as it were, or, “Why don’t we look on our own doorstep first?” I think something as large as this should be universal. We shouldn’t have any kind of parallels. We shouldn’t be looking at it in terms of us and them. It should be all of us. I think when people are starving, we are all humans, and we should be looked upon as such.” (116-117)