168-426: " We Will Rock You " is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1977 album News of the World , written by guitarist Brian May . Rolling Stone ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time " in 2004, and it placed at number 146 on the Songs of the Century list in 2001. In 2009, "We Will Rock You" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame . Other than the last 30 seconds, which contains
336-448: A Baltic German and his grandmother's French-Swiss roots had an intellectual influence on him. He was a precocious, if not difficult child, who shared a passion for poetry and music with his mother, and was especially well-read and cultured, due in part to the influence of his polyglot grandfather. As a youth he studied briefly at a seminary, struggled with bouts of depression and even once attempted suicide, which temporarily landed him in
504-740: A "mesmerising performance". Highlights from both nights were released on VHS as Queen: Live in Rio , which was broadcast on MTV in the US. In April and May 1985, Queen completed the Works Tour with sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. Queen were absolutely the best band of the day ... they just went and smashed one hit after another ... it was the perfect stage for Freddie: the whole world. — Bob Geldof , on Queen's performance at Live Aid . At Live Aid , held at Wembley on 13 July 1985, in front of
672-675: A Queen concert in Los Angeles, Michael Jackson suggested to Mercury backstage that "Another One Bites the Dust" be released as a single, and in October 1980 it spent three weeks at number one. The album topped the Billboard 200 for five weeks, and sold over four million copies in the US. It was also the first appearance of a synthesiser on a Queen album. Heretofore, their albums featured a distinctive "No Synthesisers!" sleeve note. The note
840-603: A brazenly gay rock & roll hero—and they wanted him to shed it." The group finished the year with a Japanese tour. After the Hot Space Tour concluded with a concert at Seibu Lions Stadium in Tokorozawa , Japan in November 1982, Queen decided they would take a significant amount of time off. May later said at that point, "we hated each other for a while". The band reconvened nine months later to begin recording
1008-580: A castle-like building, the Casa Camuzzi. Here, he explored his writing projects further; he began to paint, an activity reflected in his next major story, " Klingsor's Last Summer ", published in 1920. This new beginning in different surroundings brought him happiness, and Hesse later called his first year in Ticino "the fullest, most prolific, most industrious and most passionate time of my life". In 1922, Hesse's novella Siddhartha appeared, which showed
1176-557: A centuries-old leather-working industry, and during Hesse's childhood the tanneries' influence on the town was still very much in evidence. Hesse's favourite place in Calw was the St. Nicholas Bridge ( Nikolausbrücke ), which is why a Hesse monument was built there in 2002. Hermann Hesse's grandfather Hermann Gundert , a doctor of philosophy and fluent in multiple languages, encouraged the boy to read widely, giving him access to his library, which
1344-623: A century. Estimates of their record sales range from 250 million to 300 million, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists . In 1990, Queen received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music . They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and with each member having composed hit singles, all four were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2005, they received
1512-464: A chorus of children under the name Forever Young, was released in a series of animated Evian adverts which aired in France, Germany and Belgium. The remix was later released as a single and entered the local charts. American rapper Megan Thee Stallion covered "We Will Rock You" in a September 2024 Pepsi television advertisement . On September 5, 2024, the song, sampling the original chorus,
1680-549: A correspondence with Chilean author, diplomat and Nazi sympathizer Miguel Serrano , who detailed his relationship with both figures in the book C. G. Jung & Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships . During a three-week period in September and October 1917, Hesse penned his novel Demian , which would be published following the armistice in 1919 under the pseudonym Emil Sinclair. By the time Hesse returned to civilian life in 1919, his marriage had fallen apart. His wife had
1848-537: A family, eventually having three sons. In Gaienhofen, he wrote his second novel, Beneath the Wheel , which was published in 1906. In the following time, he composed primarily short stories and poems. His story "The Wolf", written in 1906–07, was "quite possibly" a foreshadowing of Steppenwolf . His next novel, Gertrude , published in 1910, revealed a production crisis. He had to struggle through writing it, and he later would describe it as "a miscarriage". Gaienhofen
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#17327942166392016-529: A fundraising event in Truro on 27 June 1970. Bulsara suggested the group should be renamed to "Queen". The others were uncertain at first, but he said, "it's wonderful, dear, people will love it". At the same time, he decided to change his surname to Mercury, inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in the song " My Fairy King ". The group played their first London gig on 18 July. The early set consisted of material that later appeared on
2184-480: A gig at Bedford College , London where only six people turned up. After a few more shows, they stopped live performances for eight months to work on the album with Anthony and Baker. During the sessions at Trident, they saw David Bowie with the Spiders from Mars live and realised they needed to make an impact with the album, otherwise they would be left behind. Co-producers Anthony and Baker initially clashed with
2352-580: A government report on payola ), the cross-dressing video for "I Want to Break Free", a spoof of the British soap opera Coronation Street , proved controversial and was banned by MTV . The concept of the video came from Roger Taylor via a suggestion from his girlfriend. He told Q magazine: "We had done some really serious, epic videos in the past, and we just thought we'd have some fun. We wanted people to know that we didn't take ourselves too seriously, that we could still laugh at ourselves." Director of
2520-476: A great shock" when his mother disapproved of "Romantic Songs" on the grounds that they were too secular and even "vaguely sinful". From late 1899, Hesse worked in a distinguished antique bookshop in Basel. Through family contacts, he stayed with the intellectual families of Basel. In this environment with rich stimuli for his pursuits, he further developed spiritually and artistically. At the same time, Basel offered
2688-477: A group to test out the equipment and recording rooms. He tried asking the Kinks but couldn't get hold of them. Therefore, he told Queen they could record some demos in exchange for the studio's acoustic tests. They recorded five of their own songs, " Liar ", " Keep Yourself Alive ", " Great King Rat ", " The Night Comes Down " and " Jesus ". During the recording, producers John Anthony and Roy Thomas Baker visited
2856-627: A guitar solo by May, the song is generally set in a cappella form, using only stomping and clapping as a rhythmic body percussion beat. In 1977, "We Will Rock You" and " We Are the Champions " were issued together as a worldwide top 10 single. Soon after the album was released, many radio stations played the songs consecutively, without interruption. Since its release, "We Will Rock You" has been covered , remixed , sampled , parodied , referred to, and used by multiple recording artists, TV shows, films and other media worldwide. It has also become
3024-499: A harp and overdubbed vocal harmonies. He knew exactly what he was doing. It was Freddie's baby. We just helped him bring it to life. We realized we'd look odd trying to mime such a hugely complex thing on TV. It had to be presented in some other way. —Brian May on Mercury writing " Bohemian Rhapsody " and the groundbreaking music video. The best-known song on the album, " Bohemian Rhapsody ", originated from pieces of music that Mercury had written at Ealing College. Mercury played
3192-694: A keen fan of Smile. He asked if he could join the group as lead singer , but May felt Staffell would not give up that role. He also ran a stall in Kensington Market with Taylor. In 1970, Staffell quit Smile, feeling his interests in soul and R&B clashed with the group's hard rock sound and being fed up with the lack of success. He formed the group Humpy Bong with former Bee Gees drummer Colin Petersen . The remaining members accepted Bulsara as lead singer, and recruited Taylor's friend Mike Grose as bassist. The four played their first gig at
3360-486: A letter to his father: "I think it would be better for us both that I do not come, in spite of my love for my mother". Due to the good notices that Hesse received for Lauscher , the publisher Samuel Fischer became interested in Hesse and, with the novel Peter Camenzind , which appeared first as a pre-publication in 1903 and then as a regular printing by Fischer in 1904, came a breakthrough: from now on, Hesse could make
3528-506: A living as a writer. The novel became popular throughout Germany. Sigmund Freud "praised Peter Camenzind as one of his favourite readings". Having realised he could make a living as a writer, Hesse finally married Maria Bernoulli (of the famous family of mathematicians ) in 1904, while her father, who disapproved of their relationship, was away for the weekend. The couple settled down in Gaienhofen on Lake Constance , and began
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#17327942166393696-458: A mandatory tool in the marketing of music". Radio broadcaster Tommy Vance states, "It became the first record to be pushed into the forefront by virtue of a video. Queen were certainly the first band to create a 'concept' video. The video captured the musical imagery perfectly. You cannot hear that music without seeing the visuals in your mind's eye." A Night at the Opera was very successful in
3864-498: A million Argentinians and Brazilians, starved of appearances of top British or American bands at their peak, gave Queen a heroic welcome which changed the course of pop history in this uncharted territory of the world rock map. The ecstatic young people saw eight Queen concerts at giant stadia, while many more millions saw the shows on TV and heard the radio broadcasts live. The tour included five shows in Argentina, one of which drew
4032-564: A music video directed by Bruce Gowers , who had already shot several of Queen's live concerts. The group wanted a video so they could avoid appearing on the BBC's Top of the Pops , which would clash with tour dates, and it would have looked strange miming to such a complex song. Filmed at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, the video cost £3,500, five times the typical promotional budget, and
4200-649: A new album at the Record Plant Studios , Los Angeles and Musicland Studios , Munich. Several members of the band also explored side projects and solo work. Taylor released his second solo album, Strange Frontier . May released the mini-album Star Fleet Project , collaborating with Eddie Van Halen . Queen left Elektra Records , their label in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and signed onto EMI / Capitol Records . In February 1984, Queen released their eleventh studio album, The Works . Hit singles included " Radio Ga Ga ", which makes
4368-579: A nostalgic defence of the radio format, " Hammer to Fall " and " I Want to Break Free ". Rolling Stone hailed the album as "the Led Zeppelin II of the eighties." In the UK The Works went triple platinum and remained in the albums chart for two years. The album failed to do well in the US, where, in addition to issues with their new record label Capitol Records (who had recently severed ties with their independent promotions teams due to
4536-633: A philanthropic gesture but were fined by the British Musicians' Union and placed on the United Nations' blacklisted artists. In 2021, Taylor voiced his regret for the decision to perform at Sun City, saying that "we went with the best intentions, but I still think it was kind of a mistake." In January 1985, Queen headlined two nights of the first Rock in Rio festival at Rio de Janeiro , Brazil, and played in front of over 300,000 people each night. The Boston Globe described it as
4704-451: A popular stadium anthem at sports events around the world, mostly due to its simple rhythm. On 7 October 2017, Queen released a Raw Sessions version of the track to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of News of the World . It features a radically different approach to the guitar solo and includes May's count-in immediately prior to the recording. "We Will Rock You" and " We Are
4872-689: A powerful will, and, for his four years of age, a truly astonishing mind. How can he express all that? It truly gnaws at my life, this internal fighting against his tyrannical temperament, his passionate turbulence [...] God must shape this proud spirit, then it will become something noble and magnificent – but I shudder to think what this young and passionate person might become should his upbringing be false or weak." Hesse showed signs of serious depression as early as his first year at school. In his juvenilia collection Gerbersau , Hesse vividly describes experiences and anecdotes from his childhood and youth in Calw:
5040-532: A published poem of his, "Grand Valse", drew him a fan letter. It was from Helene Voigt , who the next year married Eugen Diederichs , a young publisher. To please his wife, Diederichs agreed to publish Hesse's collection of prose entitled One Hour After Midnight in 1898 (although it is dated 1899). Neither work was a commercial success. In two years, only 54 of the 600 printed copies of Romantic Songs were sold, and One Hour After Midnight received only one printing and sold sluggishly. Furthermore, Hesse "suffered
5208-531: A record contract. In order to attract record company interest, Trident booked a "showcase" gig on 6 November at The Pheasantry , followed by a show at the Marquee Club on 20 December. Queen promoted the unreleased album in February 1973 on BBC Radio 1 , still unsigned. The following month, Trident managed to strike a deal with EMI Records . "Keep Yourself Alive" was released as a single on 6 July, with
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5376-399: A run-through of the track on piano in his flat to Baker, stopping suddenly to announce, "This is where the opera section comes in". When the rest of the band started recording the song they were unsure as to how it would be pieced together. After recording the backing track, Baker left a 30-second section of tape to add the operatic vocals. Reportedly, 180 overdubs were used, to the extent that
5544-1019: A sanatorium. Hesse eventually completed Gymnasium and passed his examinations in 1893, when his formal education ended. However, he remained an autodidact and voraciously read theological treatises, Greek mythology , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Friedrich Schiller , and Friedrich Nietzsche . His first works of poetry and prose were being published in the 1890s and early 1900s with his first novel, Peter Camenzind , appearing in 1904. In 1911, Hesse visited India, where he became acquainted with Indian mysticism. His experiences in India—combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis—affected his literary work, which emphasizes Eastern spiritual values. His best-known works include: Demian , Steppenwolf , Siddhartha , Narcissus and Goldmund , and The Glass Bead Game , each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity , self-knowledge, and spirituality . In 1946 , he received
5712-606: A severe episode of psychosis , but, even after her recovery, Hesse saw no possible future with her. Their home in Bern was divided, their children were accommodated in boarding houses and by relatives, and Hesse resettled alone in the middle of April in Ticino . He occupied a small farmhouse near Minusio (close to Locarno), living from 25 April to 11 May in Sorengo. On 11 May, he moved to the town Montagnola and rented four small rooms in
5880-540: A string of hits including " A Kind of Magic ", " Friends Will Be Friends ", " Princes of the Universe " and " Who Wants to Live Forever "; the latter featuring an orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen . The album was less successful in North America, reaching 46 in the US, and was described by biographer Mark Blake as "a so-so album" and "a somewhat uneven listening experience". In 2007, Classic Rock ranked it
6048-816: A strong and enduring influence on the generation returning home from the First World War . Similarly, The Glass Bead Game , with its disciplined intellectual world of Castalia and the powers of meditation and humanity, captivated Germans' longing for a new order amid the chaos of a broken nation following the loss in the Second World War . Towards the end of his life, German (born Bavarian) composer Richard Strauss (1864–1949) set three of Hesse's poems to music in his song cycle Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra (composed 1948, first performed posthumously in 1950): "Frühling" ("Spring"), "September", and "Beim Schlafengehen" ("On Going to Sleep"). In
6216-625: A translation of the Bible into Malayalam in South India . Hesse's mother, Marie Gundert, was born at such a mission in South India in 1842. In describing her own childhood, she said, "A happy child I was not...". As was usual among missionaries at the time, she was left behind in Europe at the age of four when her parents returned to India. Hesse's father, Johannes Hesse, the son of a doctor,
6384-413: A very polite, very foreign, lonely, little-understood guest". His father's tales from Estonia instilled a contrasting sense of religion in young Hermann. "[It was] an exceedingly cheerful, and, for all its Christianity, a merry world... We wished for nothing so longingly as to be allowed to see this Estonia... where life was so paradisiacal, so colourful and happy". Hermann Hesse's sense of estrangement from
6552-439: A warm fireplace while other young authors were dying on the front. He was found unfit for combat duty, but was assigned to service involving the care of prisoners of war. While most poets and authors of the warring countries quickly became embroiled in a tirade of mutual hate, Hesse, seemingly immune to the general war enthusiasm of the time, wrote an essay titled "O Friends, Not These Tones" ("O Freunde, nicht diese Töne"), which
6720-575: Is a literary prize associated with the city of Karlsruhe that has been awarded since 1957. Since 1990, the Calw Hermann Hesse Prize has been awarded every two years alternately to a German-language literary journal and a translator of Hesse's work. The Internationale Hermann-Hesse-Gesellschaft (unofficial English name: International Hermann Hesse Society ) was founded in 2002 on Hesse's 125th birthday and began awarding its Hermann Hesse prize in 2017. Musician Steve Adey adapted
6888-513: Is based on the album's liner notes Sales figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. British boy band Five released a cover of "We Will Rock You" on 17 July 2000. It was the fourth single released from their second studio album, Invincible (1999). The song contains rap verses from Five's members Jason "J" Brown and Richard "Abs" Breen , and features two members of Queen : Brian May on guitar and Roger Taylor on drums (only on
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7056-507: Is cited as the album's highlight, and in 2008 Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a single song". The album was certified gold in the UK and the US. The group began to record their second album, Queen II in August 1973. Now able to use regular studio time, they decided to make full use of
7224-455: Is probably the last time." There was all that time when we knew Freddie was on the way out, we kept our heads down. Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse ( German: [ˈhɛʁman ˈhɛsə] ; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. Although Hesse was born in Germany's Black Forest region of Swabia , his father's celebrated heritage as
7392-480: Is replaced by aesthetics". During this time, he was introduced to the home of Fräulein von Reutern, a friend of his family's. There he met with people his own age. His relationships with his contemporaries were "problematic", in that most of them were now at university. This usually left him feeling awkward in social situations. In 1896, his poem "Madonna" appeared in a Viennese periodical and Hesse released his first small volume of poetry, Romantic Songs . In 1897,
7560-409: Is widely assumed to reflect an anti-synth, pro-"hard"-rock stance by the band, but was later revealed by producer Roy Thomas Baker to be an attempt to clarify that those albums' multi-layered solos were created with guitars, not synths, as record company executives kept assuming at the time. In September 1980, Queen performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. In 1980, Queen also released
7728-573: The Billboard Hot 100 . The song was partly recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales. With Mercury playing the grand piano, it combines camp, vaudeville , and British music hall with May's guitar. "Now I'm Here" was released as the second single, reached number eleven. In 2006, Classic Rock ranked Sheer Heart Attack number 28 in "The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever", and in 2007, Mojo ranked it No.88 in "The 100 Records That Changed
7896-707: The Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 at the Népstadion in Budapest (released in the concert film Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest ), in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe. More than one million people saw Queen on the tour—400,000 in the UK alone, a record at the time. The Magic Tour's highlight was at Wembley Stadium and resulted in
8064-673: The Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors , and in 2018 were presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . The founding members of Queen met in west London during the late 1960s. Guitarist Brian May had built his own guitar with his father in 1963, and formed the group 1984 (named after Orwell's novel ) the following year with singer Tim Staffell . May left
8232-685: The Madison Square Garden Gold Ticket Award for passing more than 100,000 unit ticket sales at the venue. In 1978, Queen released Jazz , which reached number two in the UK and number six on the Billboard 200 in the US. The album included the hit singles " Fat Bottomed Girls " and " Bicycle Race " on a double-sided record. Critical reviews of the album in the years since its release have been more favourable than initial reviews. Another notable track from Jazz , " Don't Stop Me Now ", provides another example of
8400-740: The Milton Keynes Bowl and Elland Road , Leeds instead. The Milton Keynes concert was filmed by Tyne Tees Television and later released on DVD. On 14 and 15 September 1982, the band performed their last two gigs in the US with Mercury on lead vocals, playing at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Fisher was replaced as touring keyboardist by Fred Mandel for the North American shows. The band stopped touring North America after their Hot Space Tour, as their success there had waned, although they performed on American television for
8568-758: The Nobel Prize in Literature . Hermann Karl Hesse was born on 2 July 1877 in the Black Forest town of Calw , in Württemberg , German Empire . His grandparents served in India at a mission under the auspices of the Basel Mission , a Protestant Christian missionary society. His grandfather Hermann Gundert compiled a Malayalam grammar and a Malayalam-English dictionary, and also contributed to
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#17327942166398736-496: The Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II , and at the cost of £50,000 the band used a lighting rig in the shape of a crown for the first time. The band's sixth studio album News of the World was released in 1977, which has gone four times platinum in the US, and twice in the UK. The album contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including two of rock's most recognisable anthems, " We Will Rock You " and
8904-535: The Sunbury Pop Festival in Australia. They arrived late, and were jeered and taunted by the audience who expected to see home grown acts. Before leaving, Mercury announced, "when we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!" Queen II was released in March, and features Mick Rock 's iconic Dietrich -inspired image of the band on the cover. This image would later be used as
9072-428: The 1950s, Hesse's popularity began to wane, while literature critics and intellectuals turned their attention to other subjects. In 1955, the sales of Hesse's books by his publisher Suhrkamp reached an all-time low. However, after Hesse's death in 1962, posthumously published writings, including letters and previously unknown pieces of prose, contributed to a new level of understanding and appreciation of his works. By
9240-460: The 20th century. Hesse was especially popular among young readers, a tendency which continues today. There is a quote from Demian on the cover of Santana 's 1970 album Abraxas , revealing the source of the album's title. Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the most popular Western novels set in India. An authorised translation of Siddhartha was published in the Malayalam language in 1990,
9408-578: The 28th greatest soundtrack album of all time. In mid-1986, Queen went on the Magic Tour , their final tour with Mercury. They once again hired Spike Edney. Queen began the tour at the Råsunda Stadium in Stockholm, Sweden, and later performed a concert at Slane Castle , Ireland, in front of an audience of 95,000, which broke the venue's attendance record. The band also played behind
9576-463: The Atlantic. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including British music hall , heavy metal , ballads, ragtime, and Caribbean . May's " Now I'm Here " documented the group's curtailed American tour, and "Brighton Rock" served as a vehicle for his regular on-stage solo guitar spot. Deacon wrote his first song for the group, "Misfire", while the live favourite " Stone Cold Crazy "
9744-404: The Casa Camuzzi and moved with Ninon to a larger house, also near Montagnola, which was built for him to use for the rest of his life, by his friend and patron Hans C. Bodmer. In the same year, Hesse formally married Ninon, and began planning what would become his last major work, The Glass Bead Game (a.k.a. Magister Ludi ). In 1932, as a preliminary study, he released the novella Journey to
9912-545: The Champions " were written in response to an event that occurred during the A Day at the Races Tour . The band played at Stafford 's Bingley Hall , and, according to Brian May: We did an encore and then went off, and instead of just keeping clapping, they sang " You'll Never Walk Alone " to us, and we were just completely knocked out and taken aback – it was quite an emotional experience really, and I think these chant things are in some way connected with that. One version
10080-451: The Champions", as they were designed to run together. The songs are often paired on the radio and at sporting events, where they are frequently played. They were the last two songs Queen performed at Live Aid in 1985. Queen also performed an alternative version of "We Will Rock You" known as the "fast version", featuring a faster-feeling tempo and a full band arrangement. The band would frequently use this version to open their live sets in
10248-468: The East . Hesse observed the rise to power of Nazism in Germany with concern. In 1933, Bertolt Brecht and Thomas Mann made their travels into exile, each aided by Hesse. In this way, Hesse attempted to work against Hitler 's suppression of art and literature that protested Nazi ideology. Hesse's third wife was Jewish, and he had publicly expressed his opposition to anti-Semitism long before then. Hesse
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#173279421663910416-549: The Hammersmith Odeon which was broadcast live on the BBC show The Old Grey Whistle Test , with the audio being later broadcast on BBC Radio 1. It became one of the band's most popular bootleg recordings for decades before being officially released in 2015. By 1976, Queen were back in the studio recording A Day at the Races , which is often regarded as a sequel album to A Night at the Opera . It again borrowed
10584-631: The Hesse boom in the United States can be traced back to enthusiastic writings by two influential counter-culture figures: Colin Wilson and Timothy Leary . From the United States, the Hesse renaissance spread to other parts of the world and even back to Germany: more than 800,000 copies were sold in the German-speaking world from 1972 to 1973. In a space of just a few years, Hesse became the most widely read and translated European author of
10752-694: The Latin School in Göppingen , Hesse entered the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Maulbronn Abbey in 1891. The pupils lived and studied at the abbey, one of Germany's most beautiful and well-preserved, attending 41 hours of classes a week. Although Hesse did well during the first months, writing in a letter that he particularly enjoyed writing essays and translating classic Greek poetry into German, his time in Maulbronn
10920-407: The Munich sessions, Mercury spent time with Mack and his family, becoming godfather to Mack's first child. Q magazine would list Hot Space as one of the top fifteen albums where great rock acts lost the plot. Though the album confused some fans with the change of musical direction, it still reached number 4 in the UK. Queen toured to promote Hot Space , but found some audience unreceptive to
11088-443: The Races was by both fans' and critics' standards a strong effort, reaching number one in the UK and Japan, and number five in the US. Queen played a landmark gig on 18 September 1976, a free concert in Hyde Park , London, organised by the entrepreneur Richard Branson . It set an attendance record at the park, with 150,000 people confirmed in the audience. Queen were late arriving onstage and ran out of time to play an encore;
11256-405: The Swabian petite bourgeoisie grew further through his relationship with his maternal grandmother Julie Gundert, née Dubois, whose French-Swiss heritage kept her from ever quite fitting in among that milieu. From childhood, Hesse was headstrong and hard for his family to handle. In a letter to her husband, Hermann's mother Marie wrote: "The little fellow has a life in him, an unbelievable strength,
11424-413: The UK charts. In October, Queen released their first compilation album, titled Greatest Hits , which showcased the group's highlights from 1974 to 1981. The best-selling album in UK chart history, it is the only album to sell over seven million copies in the UK. As of July 2022, it has spent over 1000 weeks in the UK Album Chart . According to The Telegraph , approximately one in three families in
11592-455: The UK own a copy. The album is certified nine times platinum in the US. As of August 2024, it has spent over 600 weeks on the US Billboard 200 . Greatest Hits has sold over 25 million copies worldwide. We moved out to Munich to isolate ourselves from normal life so we could focus on the music. We all ended up in a place that was rather unhealthy. A difficult period. We weren't getting along together. We all had different agendas. It
11760-449: The UK, and went triple platinum in the United States. The British public voted it the 13th-greatest album of all time in a 2004 Channel 4 poll. It has also ranked highly in international polls; in a worldwide Guinness poll, it was voted the 19th-greatest of all time, while an ABC poll saw the Australian public vote it the 28th-greatest of all time. A Night at the Opera has frequently appeared in "greatest albums" lists reflecting
11928-416: The UK. It also reached number nine in the US (a 1992 re-release reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks). It is the only single ever to sell a million copies on two separate occasions, and became the Christmas number one twice in the UK, the only single ever to do so. It has also been voted the greatest song of all time in three different polls. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was promoted with
12096-593: The US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert is ranked among the greatest in rock history by various publications. In August 1986, Mercury gave his last performance with Queen at Knebworth , England. Though he kept his condition private, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. The band released two more albums, The Miracle in 1989 and Innuendo in 1991. On 23 November 1991, Mercury publicly revealed that he had AIDS, and
12264-637: The Wheel . On 17 October 1895, Hesse began working in the bookshop in Tübingen, which had a specialized collection in theology, philology, and law. Hesse's tasks consisted of organizing, packing, and archiving the books. After the end of each twelve-hour workday, Hesse pursued his own work, and he spent his long, idle Sundays with books rather than friends. Hesse studied theological writings and later Goethe, Lessing, Schiller, and Greek mythology. He also began reading Nietzsche in 1895, and that philosopher's ideas of "dual…impulses of passion and order" in humankind
12432-428: The World contained " We Will Rock You " and " We Are the Champions ", which have become anthems at sporting events. By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. " Another One Bites the Dust " from The Game (1980) became their best-selling single, while their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in the UK and is certified nine times platinum in
12600-565: The World". It is also the second of three Queen albums to feature in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . In January 1975, Queen left for a world tour with an upgraded light show. They toured the US as headliners, and played in Canada for the first time. Several dates were cancelled after Mercury contracted laryngitis . The band then toured Japan from mid-April to the beginning of May. They were greeted by thousands of screaming fans, and played eight times in seven cities. Despite
12768-507: The album Queen appearing a week later. The front cover showed a shot of Mercury live on stage taken by Taylor's friend Douglass Puddifoot. Deacon was credited as "Deacon John" while Taylor used his full name, Roger Meddows-Taylor. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone called it "superb", and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above-average debut". However, it drew little mainstream attention, and "Keep Yourself Alive" sold poorly. Retrospectively, it
12936-529: The album also included the song " The March of the Black Queen ", a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus. Critical reaction was mixed; the Winnipeg Free Press , while praising the band's debut album, described Queen II as an "over-produced monstrosity". AllMusic has described the album as a favourite among the band's hardcore fans, and it is the first of three Queen albums to feature in
13104-502: The atmosphere and adventures by the river, the bridge, the chapel, the houses leaning closely together, hidden nooks and crannies, as well as the inhabitants with their admirable qualities, their oddities, and their idiosyncrasies. The fictional town of Gerbersau is pseudonymous for Calw, imitating the real name of the nearby town of Hirsau . It is derived from the German words gerber , meaning "tanner", and aue , meaning "meadow". Calw had
13272-412: The backing vocals. The major hit on the album was " Somebody to Love ", a gospel-inspired song in which Mercury, May, and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to create a gospel choir. The song went to number two in the UK, and number thirteen in the US. The album also featured one of the band's heaviest songs, May's " Tie Your Mother Down ", which became a staple of their live shows. Musically, A Day at
13440-408: The band (May in particular) on the direction of the album, bringing the band's inexperience in the studio to bear. The band's fighting centered around their efforts to integrate technical perfection with the reality of live performances, leading to what Baker referred to as "kitchen sink overproduction". The resulting album was a mix of heavy metal and progressive rock . The group were unhappy with
13608-458: The band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident, to manage the band and enable them to use their facilities, while the management searched for a deal. This suited both parties, as Trident were expanding into management, and under the deal, Queen were able to make use of the hi-tech recording facilities used by signed musicians. Taylor later described these early off-peak studio hours as "gold dust". Queen began 1972 with
13776-434: The band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock . Before forming Queen, May and Taylor had played together in the band Smile . Mercury was a fan of Smile and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques. He joined in 1970 and suggested the name "Queen". Deacon was recruited in February 1971, before
13944-453: The band negotiated themselves out of their contract and searched for new management. One of the options they considered was an offer from Led Zeppelin 's manager, Peter Grant , who wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin's own production company, Swan Song Records . The band were concerned about being a lower priority than Zeppelin and Bad Company (also signed to Swan Song) and instead contacted Elton John 's manager, John Reid , who accepted
14112-467: The band released their self-titled debut album in 1973. Queen first charted in the UK with their second album, Queen II , in 1974. Sheer Heart Attack later that year and A Night at the Opera in 1975 brought them international success. The latter featured " Bohemian Rhapsody ", which topped the UK singles chart for nine weeks and helped popularise the music video format. The band's 1977 album News of
14280-615: The band were greeted with scenes of fan-fever, and the promoter of their first shows at the Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires was moved to say: "For music in Argentina, this has been a case of before the war and after the war. Queen have liberated this country, musically speaking." The group's second show at Vélez Sarsfield was broadcast on national television and watched by over 30 million. Backstage, they were introduced to footballer Diego Maradona . Topping
14448-404: The band's exuberant vocal harmonies. In 1978, Queen toured the US and Canada, and spent much of 1979 touring in Europe and Japan. They released their first live album, Live Killers , in 1979; it went platinum twice in the US. Queen also released the very successful single " Crazy Little Thing Called Love ", a rockabilly inspired song done in the style of Elvis Presley . The song made
14616-545: The band's history. While Mercury and Deacon enjoyed the new soul and funk influences, Taylor and May were less favourable, and were critical of the influence Mercury's personal manager Paul Prenter had on him. According to Mack , Queen's producer, Prenter loathed rock music and was in Mercury's ear throughout the Hot Space sessions. May was also scathing of Prenter—Mercury's manager from 1977 to 1984—for being dismissive of
14784-422: The band. The two were taken with "Keep Yourself Alive" and began promoting the band to several record companies. Promoter Ken Testi managed to attract the interest of Charisma Records , who offered Queen an advance of around £25,000, but the group turned them down as they realised the label would promote Genesis as a priority. Testi then entered discussions with Trident Studios ' Norman Sheffield , who offered
14952-547: The basis for "Bohemian Rhapsody" music video production. The album reached number five on the British album chart and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK. The Mercury-written lead single " Seven Seas of Rhye " reached number 10 in the UK, giving the band their first hit. The album featured a 'layered' sound which would become their signature, and features long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics, and instrumental virtuosity. Aside from its only single,
15120-506: The biggest-ever TV audience of an estimated 400 million, Queen performed some of their greatest hits. Many of the sold-out stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang, and swayed in unison. The show's organisers, Bob Geldof and Midge Ure ; other musicians such as Elton John and Cliff Richard ; and journalists writing for the BBC , CNN , Rolling Stone , MTV , The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph , among others, described Queen as
15288-531: The book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . The group ended their early 1974 UK tour with a show at the Rainbow Theatre on 31 March. Mercury chose to a wear a Zandra Rhodes -designed tunic for the gig, changing into a slashed black top midway through the show. In May 1974, a month into the band's first US tour opening for Mott the Hoople, May collapsed and was diagnosed with hepatitis, forcing
15456-538: The book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . The second single from the album was Deacon's " You're My Best Friend ", which peaked at number sixteen on the US Billboard Hot 100, and went on to become a worldwide top-ten hit. The band's A Night at the Opera Tour began in November 1975, and covered Europe, the United States, Japan, and Australia. On 24 December, Queen played a special concert at
15624-421: The cancellation of their remaining dates. While recuperating, May was initially absent when the band started work on their third album, but he returned midway through the recording process. Released in 1974, Sheer Heart Attack reached number two in the UK, sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the US. It gave the band their first real experience of international success, and was a hit on both sides of
15792-550: The characters, including Harry Haller), the Magic Theatre was founded in 1967 to perform works by new playwrights. Founded by John Lion, the Magic Theatre has fulfilled that mission for many years, including the world premieres of many plays by Sam Shepard. There is also a theatre in Chicago named after the novel, Steppenwolf Theatre . Throughout Germany, many schools are named after him. The Hermann-Hesse-Literaturpreis
15960-576: The charts in Brazil and Argentina, the ballad " Love of My Life " stole the show in South American concerts. Mercury would stop singing and would then conduct the audience as they took over, with Lesley-Ann Jones writing "the fans knew the song by heart. Their English was word-perfect." Later that year Queen performed for more than 150,000 on 9 October at Monterrey ( Estadio Universitario ) and 17 and 18 at Puebla ( Estadio Zaragoza ), Mexico. Though
16128-408: The concert is recorded in the live album, Queen Rock Montreal . Queen worked with David Bowie on the 1981 single " Under Pressure ". The first-time collaboration with another artist was spontaneous, as Bowie happened to drop by the studio while Queen were recording. Mercury and Bowie recorded their vocals on the track separately to each other, each coming up with individual ideas. The song topped
16296-481: The concerts, Classic Rock magazine states, "They were under the spotlight from all quarters, as the entire music industry waited to see if their ambitious plans would bear fruit". Tom Pinnock in the March 1981 issue of Melody Maker wrote, Queen chalked up a major international "first" by becoming the band to do for popular music in South America what The Beatles did for North America 17 years ago. Half
16464-469: The delays were in the ratios of prime numbers , a technique now known as non-harmonic reverberation. A tape loop is used to repeat the last phrase of the guitar solo three times as opposed to Brian May playing it three separate times on the recording. The "stomp, stomp, clap" sounds were later used in the Queen + Paul Rodgers song " Still Burnin' ". When performed live, the song is usually followed by "We Are
16632-551: The early summer of 1894, he began a 14-month mechanic apprenticeship at a clock tower factory in Calw. The monotony of soldering and filing work made him turn himself toward more spiritual activities. In October 1895, he was ready to begin wholeheartedly a new apprenticeship with a bookseller in Tübingen . This experience from his youth, especially his time spent at the Seminary in Maulbronn, he returns to later in his novel Beneath
16800-522: The facilities available. May created a multi-layer guitar introduction "Procession", while Mercury wrote "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" based on the painting of the same name by Richard Dadd . The group spent the remainder of the year touring the UK, supporting Mott The Hoople , and began to attract an audience. The tour ended with two shows at the Hammersmith Odeon on 14 December, playing to 7,000 people. In January 1974, Queen played
16968-634: The first two albums, along with various rock and roll covers, such as Cliff Richard and the Shadows ' " Please Don't Tease ". They attracted the attention of producer John Anthony , who was interested in the group's sound but thought they had the wrong bass player. After three live gigs, Mike Grose decided not to continue with the band and was replaced by Barry Mitchell (ex Crushed Butler ). Mitchell played thirteen gigs with Queen between August 1970 and January 1971. In turn, Mitchell left in January 1971 and
17136-538: The gigs were successful, they were marred by a lack of planning and suitable facilities, with audiences throwing projectiles on stage. Mercury finished the final gig saying, "Adios, amigos, you motherfuckers!" On 24 and 25 November, Queen played two nights at the Montreal Forum , Quebec, Canada. One of Mercury's most notable performances of The Game 's final track, " Save Me ", took place in Montreal, and
17304-494: The group in early 1968 to focus on his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy at Imperial College and find a group that could write original material. He formed the group Smile with Staffell (now playing bass) and keyboardist Chris Smith. To complete the line-up, May placed an advertisement on a college notice board for a " Mitch Mitchell / Ginger Baker type" drummer; Roger Taylor , a young dental student, auditioned and got
17472-429: The highlight. Interviewed backstage, Roger Waters stated: "Everybody's been buzzing about Queen that I've run into. They had everybody completely spellbound." An industry poll in 2005 ranked it the greatest rock performance of all time. Mercury's powerful, sustained note—"Aaaaaay-o"—during the call-and-response a cappella segment came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World". The band were revitalised by
17640-418: The importance of radio stations and their vital connection between the artist and the community, and for denying them access to Mercury. May states, "this guy, in the course of one tour, told every record station to fuck off". Queen roadie Peter Hince wrote "None of the band cared for him [Prenter], apart from Freddie", with Hince regarding Mercury's favouring of Prenter as an act of "misguided loyalty". During
17808-577: The job. Smith left the group in early 1969, immediately before a gig at the Royal Albert Hall with Free and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band . While attending Ealing Art College in west London, Staffell became friends with fellow student Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara , who was from Zanzibar and of Indian Parsi descent. Bulsara had studied fashion design for a year before switching to graphic art and design, and soon became
17976-814: The language that surrounded Hesse's grandfather, Hermann Gundert, for most of his life. A Hermann Hesse Society of India has also been formed. It aims to bring out authentic translations of Siddhartha in all Indian languages and has already prepared the Sanskrit, Malayalam and Hindi translations of Siddhartha . One enduring monument to Hesse's lasting popularity in the United States is the Magic Theatre in San Francisco. Referring to "The Magic Theatre for Madmen Only" in Steppenwolf (a kind of spiritual and somewhat nightmarish cabaret attended by some of
18144-649: The largest single concert crowd in Argentine history with an audience of 300,000 in Buenos Aires and two concerts at the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, where they played to more than 131,000 people in the first night (then the largest paying audience for a single band anywhere in the world) and more than 120,000 people the following night. A region then largely ruled by military dictatorships,
18312-569: The late 1970s and early 1980s, as heard on the albums Live Killers (1979), Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl (2004), Queen Rock Montreal (2007), and the expanded edition of News of the World (2011). A studio version was made for John Peel 's BBC Radio 1 show at the Maida Vale Studios on 28 October 1977 and first broadcast soon after on 14 November. It includes a separate section that begins with an abridged session version of
18480-491: The live double album Queen at Wembley , released on CD and as a live concert VHS/DVD, which has gone five times platinum in the US and four times platinum in the UK. The demand for tickets saw extra dates added to the tour, with concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith stating "they seem to have an endless market." Queen could not book Wembley for a third night, but played at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire on 9 August. The show sold out within two hours and over 120,000 fans packed
18648-571: The love for Indian culture and Buddhist philosophy that had already developed earlier in his life. In 1924, Hesse married the singer Ruth Wenger, the daughter of the Swiss writer Lisa Wenger and aunt of Méret Oppenheim . This marriage never attained any stability, however. In 1923, Hesse was granted Swiss citizenship. His next major works, Kurgast (1925) and The Nuremberg Trip (1927), were autobiographical narratives with ironic undertones and foreshadowed Hesse's following novel, Steppenwolf , which
18816-585: The mock autobiographies: Life Story Briefly Told and Aus den Briefwechseln eines Dichters ) and spent much time pursuing his interest in watercolours. Hesse also occupied himself with the steady stream of letters he received as a result of the Nobel Prize and as a new generation of German readers explored his work. In one essay, Hesse reflected wryly on his lifelong failure to acquire a talent for idleness and speculated that his average daily correspondence exceeded 150 pages. He died on 9 August 1962, aged 85, and
18984-530: The name of a Marx Brothers movie, and its cover was similar to that of A Night at the Opera , a variation on the same Queen logo. The most recognisable of the Marx Brothers, Groucho Marx , invited Queen to visit him in his Los Angeles home in March 1977; there the band thanked him in person, and performed " '39 " a cappella . Baker did not return to produce the album; instead the band self-produced with assistance from Mike Stone, who performed several of
19152-480: The namesake of his grandson), managed the publishing house at the time, and Johannes Hesse succeeded him in 1893. Hesse grew up in a Swabian Pietist household, with the Pietist tendency to insulate believers into small, deeply thoughtful groups. Furthermore, Hesse described his father's Baltic German heritage as "an important and potent fact" of his developing identity. His father, Hesse stated, "always seemed like
19320-508: The new material. At a gig in Frankfurt , Mercury told some people heckling the new material, "If you don't want to listen to it, go home!" Former Mott The Hoople keyboardist Morgan Fisher joined as an additional touring member. Shows were planned at Arsenal Stadium and Old Trafford , but these were cancelled as Pope John Paul II was touring Britain, leading to a lack of available outdoor facilities such as toilets. The gigs were moved to
19488-461: The next day died of bronchopneumonia , a complication of AIDS. One more album was released featuring Mercury's vocals, 1995's Made in Heaven . Deacon retired in 1997, while May and Taylor continued to make sporadic appearances together. Since 2004, they have toured as "Queen +", with vocalists Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert . Queen have been a global presence in popular culture for more than half
19656-499: The only time during the eighth-season premiere of Saturday Night Live on 25 September of the same year; it became the final public performance of the band in North America before the death of their frontman. Their fall in popularity in the US has been partially attributed to a homophobia : Mikal Gilmore for Rolling Stone writes, "At some shows on the band's 1980 American tour, fans tossed disposable razor blades onstage: They didn't like this identity of Mercury—what they perceived as
19824-574: The opening night at the Concert for the People of Kampuchea in London, having accepted a request by the event's organiser, Paul McCartney . The concert was the last date of their Crazy Tour of London. Queen began their 1980s career with The Game . It featured the singles "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and " Another One Bites the Dust ", both of which reached number one in the US. After attending
19992-408: The opening song " Death on Two Legs ", a savage dig at perceived wrongdoers (and later dedicated to Trident in concert) and the camp vaudeville "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" and "Seaside Rendezvous". May's " The Prophet's Song " was an eight-minute epic; the middle section is a canon , with simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound. The Mercury penned ballad, " Love of My Life ", featured
20160-414: The opinions of critics. Among other accolades, it was ranked number 16 in Q magazine's "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" in 2004, a poll done in collaboration with British music and entertainment retailer HMV . It was also placed at number 230 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of " The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time " in 2003. A Night at the Opera is the third and final Queen album to be featured in
20328-416: The original "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions". In 2002, the fast version was officially released on a promo single distributed by the tabloid The Sun , and can also be found on The Best of King Biscuit Live Volume 4 , and In The Mirror - The Lost BBC Sessions . The music video for "We Will Rock You" was filmed in 1978 at the back garden of Roger Taylor's mansion. It sees the band lip synching
20496-399: The original comprising the first verse, chorus and guitar outro - this part has become known as We Will Rock You (slow). Between the two parts there is a brief reading of Hermann Hesse 's novel Siddhartha , used in a BBC Radio documentary. This audio was found on the BBC tapes being reused to record the session and was retained by the band. This full BBC session version of We Will Rock You
20664-427: The original tape wore thin. EMI initially refused to release the single, thinking it too long, and demanded a radio edit which Queen refused. Mercury's close friend and advisor, Capital London radio DJ Kenny Everett , played a pivotal role in giving the single exposure. He was given a promotional copy on the condition he didn't play it, but ended up doing so fourteen times over a single weekend. Capital's switchboard
20832-498: The park for what was Queen's final performance with Mercury. At the end of the concert the band appeared on stage for the final time to an encore of "God Save the Queen", with Mercury, in his crown and gown, bidding the crowd "goodnight and sweet dreams". Roadie Peter Hince states, "At Knebworth, I somehow felt it was going to be the last for all of us", while Brian May recalled Mercury saying "I'm not going to be doing this forever. This
21000-446: The police informed Mercury that he would be arrested if he attempted to go on stage again. May enjoyed the gig particularly, as he had been to see previous concerts at the park, such as the first one organised by Blackhill Enterprises in 1968, featuring Pink Floyd . On 1 December 1976, Queen were the intended guests on London's early evening Today programme, but they pulled out at the last-minute, which saw their late replacement on
21168-523: The popular themes of the 1960s counterculture (or hippie) movement. In particular, the quest-for-enlightenment theme of Siddhartha , Journey to the East , and Narcissus and Goldmund resonated with those espousing counter-cultural ideals. The "magic theatre" sequences in Steppenwolf were interpreted by some as drug-induced psychedelia although there is no evidence that Hesse ever took psychedelic drugs or recommended their use. In large part,
21336-479: The position. Reid's first instruction to the band was "I'll take care of the business; you make the best record you can". Queen started work on their fourth album A Night at the Opera , taking its name from the popular Marx Brothers movie. At the time, it was the most expensive album ever produced, costing £40,000 and using three different studios. Like its predecessor, the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound. Mercury wrote
21504-404: The publication of Hesse's Siddhartha (1922), this masterpiece was to be derived from these new influences. During this time, there also was increased dissonance between him and Maria, and in 1911 Hesse left for a long trip to Sri Lanka and Indonesia . He also visited Sumatra, Borneo, and Burma, but "the physical experience... was to depress him". Any spiritual or religious inspiration that he
21672-527: The re-recording of "The Night Comes Down", so the finished album uses the De Lane Lea demo. Another track, " Mad the Swine " was dropped from the running order after the band and Baker could not agree on a mix. Mike Stone created the final mix for "Keep Yourself Alive", and he went on to work on several other Queen albums. By January 1972, the band finished recording their debut album, but had yet to secure
21840-408: The response to Live Aid—a "shot in the arm" Roger Taylor called it—and the ensuing increase in record sales. In 1986 Mercury commented: "From our perspective, the fact that Live Aid happened when it did was really lucky. It came out of nowhere to save us. For sure that was a turning point. Maybe you could say that in the history of Queen, it was a really special moment." Queen ended 1985 by releasing
22008-609: The rock ballad " We Are the Champions ", both of which became enduring international sports anthems , and the latter reached number four in the US. Queen commenced the News of the World Tour in November 1977, and Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times called this concert tour the band's "most spectacularly staged and finely honed show". During the tour they sold out another two shows at MSG, and in 1978 they received
22176-448: The same year, Hesse changed jobs and began working at the antiquarium Wattenwyl in Basel. Hesse had more opportunities to release poems and small literary texts to journals. These publications now provided honorariums. His new bookstore agreed to publish his next work, Posthumous Writings and Poems of Hermann Lauscher . In 1902, his mother died after a long and painful illness. He could not bring himself to attend her funeral, stating in
22344-595: The show, EMI labelmate the Sex Pistols , give their infamous expletive-strewn interview with Bill Grundy . During the A Day at the Races Tour in 1977, Queen performed sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden , New York, in February, supported by Thin Lizzy , and Mercury and Taylor socialised with that group's leader Phil Lynott . They ended the tour with two concerts at Earls Court , London, in June, which commemorated
22512-452: The single " One Vision " and a limited-edition boxed set of Queen albums, The Complete Works . The package included the 1984 Christmas single " Thank God It's Christmas " and previously unreleased material. In early 1986, Queen recorded the album A Kind of Magic , containing several reworkings of songs written for the fantasy action film Highlander . The album was successful in the UK, West Germany and several other countries, producing
22680-843: The single version); however, they do not sing any vocals on the track. Freddie Mercury had died in November 1991, nearly a decade before this version's release, and John Deacon had retired from public life three years before the release of the Five cover. The song charted at number one on the UK Singles Chart , making it Five's second number-one single, and their ninth consecutive top-ten hit. "Megamix" consists of four songs by Five: " Don't Wanna Let You Go ", " If Ya Gettin' Down ", " Keep On Movin' ", and "We Will Rock You". UK CD1 UK CD2 UK cassette single European CD single Australian CD single Shipments figures based on certification alone. A remix by KCPK, sung by
22848-408: The solitary Hesse many opportunities for withdrawal into a private life of artistic self-exploration, journeys and wanderings. In 1900, Hesse was exempted from compulsory military service due to an eye condition . This, along with nerve disorders and persistent headaches, affected him his entire life. In 1901, Hesse undertook to fulfill a long-held dream and travelled for the first time to Italy. In
23016-456: The song, hand clapping with gloves and foot stomping on a frozen ground. In an interview with Billboard , Taylor spoke on filming the video: We shot it on the grounds of a country house I'd just bought in Surrey and we hadn't completed the sale, so we weren't allowed in the house. We figured, 'we might as well shoot it here.' It was absolutely freezing cold and we did three takes. Information
23184-469: The soundtrack they had recorded for Flash Gordon . At the 1981 American Music Awards in January, "Another One Bites the Dust" won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single, and Queen were nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group. In February 1981, Queen travelled to South America as part of The Game Tour , and became the first rock band to play stadiums in Latin America. On playing
23352-466: The spirit and not to sing along when the people start belting out the patriotic songs their leaders have ordered them to sing". In the 1930s, Hesse made a quiet statement of resistance by reviewing and publicizing the work of banned Jewish authors, including Franz Kafka . In the late 1930s, German journals stopped publishing Hesse's work, and the Nazis eventually banned it. According to Hesse, he "survived
23520-472: The subject of outrage, having played in South Africa during the height of apartheid and in violation of worldwide divestment efforts and a United Nations cultural boycott. The band responded to the critics by stating that they were playing music for fans in South Africa, and they also stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences. Queen donated to a school for the deaf and blind as
23688-430: The success, Queen were still tied to the original Trident deal and wages. They were all living in relative poverty in bedsits, while Deacon was refused money for a deposit on a house. EMI contacted lawyer Jim Beach , who tried to find a way of extracting them from their contract. Trident complained that they had invested £200,000 in Queen and wanted their money back first. In August, after an acrimonious split with Trident,
23856-550: The time of Hesse's death in 1962, his works were still relatively little read in the United States, despite his status as a Nobel laureate. A memorial published in The New York Times went so far as to claim that Hesse's works were largely "inaccessible" to American readers. The situation changed in the mid-1960s when Hesse's works suddenly became bestsellers in the United States. The revival in popularity of Hesse's works has been credited to their association with some of
24024-575: The top 10 in many countries, topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven consecutive weeks, and was the band's first number one single in the United States where it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. Having written the song on guitar and played rhythm on the record, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he ever played guitar in concert. On 26 December 1979, Queen played
24192-526: The video David Mallet said Mercury was reluctant to do it, commenting "it was a hell of a job to get him out of the dressing room". That year, Queen began The Works Tour , the first tour to feature keyboardist Spike Edney as an extra live musician. The tour featured nine sold-out dates in October in Bophuthatswana , South Africa, at the arena in Sun City . Upon returning to England, they were
24360-682: The years of the Hitler regime and the Second World War through the eleven years of work that [he] spent on [ The Glass Bead Game ]". Printed in 1943 in Switzerland, this was to be his last novel. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. During the last twenty years of his life, Hesse wrote many short stories (chiefly recollections of his childhood) and poems (frequently with nature as their theme). Hesse also wrote ironic essays about his alienation from writing (for instance,
24528-459: Was a difficult time for me, personally – some dark moments. — May on the recording of Hot Space during a difficult period for the band. In 1982, the band released the album Hot Space , a departure from their trademark seventies sound, this time being a mixture of pop rock , dance, disco, funk , and R&B . Most of the album was recorded in Munich during the most turbulent period in
24696-583: Was a great turning point in his life. For the first time, he found himself in the middle of a serious political conflict, attacked by the German press, the recipient of hate mail, and distanced from old friends. However, he did receive support from his friend Theodor Heuss , and the French writer Romain Rolland , who visited Hesse in August 1915. In 1917, Hesse wrote to Rolland, "The attempt...to apply love to matters political has failed". This public controversy
24864-484: Was a heavy influence on most of his novels. By 1898, Hesse had a respectable income that enabled financial independence from his parents. During this time, he concentrated on the works of the German Romantics , including much of the work of Clemens Brentano , Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff , Friedrich Hölderlin , and Novalis . In letters to his parents, he expressed a belief that "the morality of artists
25032-707: Was born in 1847 in Weissenstein , Governorate of Estonia in the Russian Empire (now Paide, Estonia ). His son Hermann was at birth a dual citizen of the German Empire and the Russian Empire. Hermann had five siblings, but two of them died in infancy. In 1873, the Hesse family moved to Calw, where Johannes worked for Calwer Verlagsverein, a publishing house specializing in theological texts and schoolbooks. Marie's father, Hermann Gundert (also
25200-407: Was broadcast on Alan Freeman 's Final Saturday Rock Show on Radio 1 on 26 August 1978, has also been played on Radio 1's The Friday Rock Show and more recently on Johnie Walker 's Sounds Of The Seventies and Vernon Kay 's weekday morning show, both on BBC Radio 2 . The fast version is also used as the curtain call music for the musical of the same title , after the finale, which is a pairing of
25368-561: Was buried in the cemetery of Sant’Abbondio in Gentilino , where his friend and biographer Hugo Ball and another German personality, the conductor Bruno Walter , are also buried. As reflected in Demian , and other works, he believed that "for different people, there are different ways to God". Despite the influence he drew from Hindu and Buddhist philosophies, he stated about his parents that "their Christianity, one not preached but lived,
25536-554: Was credited to the whole band. Mercury wrote the closing number, "In the Lap of the Gods", with the intention that the audience could sing along to the chorus when played live. This would be repeated later on, more successfully, in songs such as "We Are the Champions. The single " Killer Queen " was written by Mercury about a high-class prostitute. It reached number two on the British charts, and became their first US hit, reaching number 12 on
25704-526: Was criticized for not condemning the Nazi Party, but his failure to criticize or support any political idea stemmed from his "politics of detachment [...] At no time did he openly condemn (the Nazis), although his detestation of their politics is beyond question." In March 1933, seven weeks after Hitler took power, Hesse wrote to a correspondent in Germany, "It is the duty of spiritual types to stand alongside
25872-469: Was filled with works of world literature. All this instilled a sense in Hermann Hesse that he was a citizen of the world. His family background became, he noted, "the basis of an isolation and a resistance to any sort of nationalism that so defined my life". Young Hesse shared a love of music with his mother. Both music and poetry were important in his family. His mother wrote poetry, and his father
26040-495: Was known for his use of language in both his sermons and the writing of religious tracts. His first role model for becoming an artist was his half-brother, Theo, who rebelled against the family by entering a music conservatory in 1885. Hesse showed a precocious ability to rhyme, and by 1889–90 had decided that he wanted to be a writer. In 1881, when Hesse was four, the family moved to Basel , Switzerland, staying for six years and then returning to Calw. After successful attendance at
26208-506: Was looking for eluded him, but the journey made a strong impression on his literary work. Following Hesse's return, the family moved to Bern (1912), but the change of environment could not solve the marriage problems, as he himself confessed in his novel Rosshalde from 1914. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Hesse registered himself as a volunteer with the Imperial Army , saying that he could not sit inactively by
26376-457: Was not yet resolved when a deeper life crisis befell Hesse with the death of his father on 8 March 1916, the serious illness of his son Martin, and his wife's schizophrenia . He was forced to leave his military service and begin receiving psychotherapy . This began for Hesse a long preoccupation with psychoanalysis , through which he came to know Carl Jung personally, and was challenged to new creative heights. Hesse and Jung both later maintained
26544-493: Was overwhelmed with callers inquiring when the song would be released. With EMI forced to release "Bohemian Rhapsody" due to public demand, the single reached number one in the UK for nine weeks. It is the third-best-selling single of all time in the UK, surpassed only by Band Aid 's " Do They Know It's Christmas? " and Elton John 's " Candle in the Wind 1997 ", and is the best-selling commercial single (i.e. not for charity) in
26712-765: Was placed in a mental institution in Stetten im Remstal , and then a boys' institution in Basel. At the end of 1892, he attended the Gymnasium in Cannstatt, now part of Stuttgart . In 1893, he passed the One Year Examination, which concluded his schooling. The same year, he began spending time with older companions and took up drinking and smoking. After this, Hesse began a bookshop apprenticeship in Esslingen am Neckar , but quit after three days. Then, in
26880-423: Was published in 1927. In the year of his 50th birthday, the first biography of Hesse appeared, written by his friend Hugo Ball . Shortly after his new successful novel, he turned away from the solitude of Steppenwolf and started a cohabitation with art historian Ninon Dolbin , née Ausländer. This change to companionship was reflected in the novel Narcissus and Goldmund , appearing in 1930. In 1931, Hesse left
27048-568: Was published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , on 3 November. In this essay he appealed to his fellow intellectuals not to fall for nationalistic madness and hatred. Calling for subdued voices and recognition of Europe's common heritage, Hesse wrote: "That love is greater than hate, understanding greater than ire, peace nobler than war, this exactly is what this unholy World War should burn into our memories, more so than ever felt before". What followed from this, Hesse later indicated,
27216-432: Was released as a single; Queen are credited as co-lead artists. 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Queen (band) Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals), later joined by John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock , hard rock and heavy metal , but
27384-629: Was replaced by Doug Bogie for two live gigs. In February 1971, John Deacon joined Queen. In addition to being an experienced bassist, his quiet demeanour complemented the band, and he was skilled in electronics. On 2 July, Queen played their first show with the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon at a Surrey college outside London. May called Terry Yeadon, an engineer at Pye Studios where Smile had recorded, to see if he knew anywhere where Queen could go. Yeadon had since moved to De Lane Lea Studios ' new premises in Wembley , and they needed
27552-475: Was shot in three hours. The operatic section featured a reprise of the Queen II cover, with the band member's heads animated. On the impact of the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional video, Rolling Stone states: "Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air." Ranking it number 31 on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history, The Guardian stated it "ensured videos would henceforth be
27720-471: Was the beginning of a serious personal crisis. In March 1892, Hesse showed his rebellious character, and, in one instance, he fled from the Seminary and was found in a field a day later. Hesse began a journey through various institutions and schools and experienced intense conflicts with his parents. In May, after an attempt at suicide, he spent time at an institution in Bad Boll under the care of theologian and minister Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt . Later, he
27888-417: Was the place where Hesse's interest in Buddhism was re-sparked. Following a letter to Kapff in 1895 entitled Nirvana , Hesse had ceased alluding to Buddhist references in his work. In 1904, however, Arthur Schopenhauer and his philosophical ideas started receiving attention again, and Hesse discovered theosophy . Schopenhauer and theosophy renewed Hesse's interest in India. Although it was many years before
28056-453: Was the strongest of the powers that shaped and moulded me". In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Hesse's first great novel, Peter Camenzind , was received enthusiastically by young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life in this time of great economic and technological progress in the country (see also Wandervogel movement). Demian had
28224-404: Was used as the opening track on 1977's News of the World . This consists of a stomp-stomp-clap-pause beat, and a power chorus , being somewhat of an anthem . The stamping effects were created by the band overdubbing the sounds of themselves stomping on the Wessex drum riser and clapping many times and adding delay effects to make it sound like many people were participating. The durations of
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