Today, on April 22nd, 1989 - Queen Story!
Queen filmed promo video for “I Want It All” at Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, UK, director David Mallet
🔸Roger Taylor: Yes, it is our first studio album since 1986, I think that the reason for, for the delay, no, not the delay, for the long wait in between was that we wanted to sort of go away, and just recharge our batteries, quite logical really, and er, and just sort of generate some, some new energy and enthusiasm for, for being Queen
John Deacon: After we did the, the tour in 1986, which was a very big European tour, we were all absolutely exhausted, and shattered, and basically we didn't want to really work together or see each other for a while
Roger Taylor: To get into the whole cycle of er, just making an album, then going on tour, then coming back home and making an album again, we wanted to get out of that
Brian May: We said right, we'll take a little break, we're not, we're not going to split up, but we just er, we need some space for ourselves, and when the time is right, we'll make the album, rather than, you know, somebody says you've got to make one so we make one, so we waited, and we did some, did various other things, you know, Freddie and Roger both did solo projects, and I'm half way through one, and did a lot of producing
John Deacon: That took at least a year to a year and a half, and then towards the end of that second year, er, we sort of met up, and Freddie suggested, I think it was Freddie, perhaps we'd try a little time in the studio
Roger Taylor: So we went into the studio, saw what it was like, and we enjoyed it very much, and we still didn't have any material, so then we decided to go in for the long, for a long, longer time
John Deacon: You know, the third year was spent making the album, so the, in a way it was a two year gap to us, rather than three years, and er, and what was the, I've forgotten the second part of the question already
Interviewer: Did it help you to return to the studios feeling refreshed?
John Deacon: Yes (laughter) yes
The first few weeks of the recording we did a lot of live, er, material, a lot of songs um, ideas came up, some jamming, we had a few ideas that were already prepared, er, 'I Want It All' was one of the, one of the few songs that was actually, written before we went in
- From 'The Miracle' Interviews
Various and separate interviews recorded with Brian, Roger and John on the set of the 'Breakthru' promotional video, May 1989
👉"We were heading into the period where we decided to share the credit for all the songs, and John has said that [the song] was pretty much a finished song when we went into the studios – that's true, it was just this riff that I was obsessed with for months. The actual title was a favorite phrase of Anita's, a very ambitious girl: 'I want it all, and I want it now '... We were never able to perform this song live. It would have become something of the staple core of the Queen show, I'm sure, very participatory. It was designed for the audience to sing along to, very anthemic."
- Brian May, interview 2003, from Greatest Video Hits 2
