When most fans think of Queen in 1980, what comes to mind is “The Game,” the album that gave the British band their breakthrough in the U.S. in June. Anyone who didn’t like Freddie Mercury’s operetta-like appearance was in good hands with this record. Gone were the dramas, now it was time for less complex songs. The rockabilly song “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” reached number one on the Hot 100, as did the funk of “Another One Bites The Dust.” Musicians in America would never be more successful.
Just six months after “The Game,” Queen followed up with the soundtrack to “Flash Gordon.” The sci-fi remake of the 1936 film – which in turn is based on a comic book series – was in a production loop in Hollywood for a long time. Dino De Laurentiis originally wanted to hire Federico Fellini as director, then Nicolas Roeg, and another candidate, George Lucas, had already fulfilled his own space dream with “Star Wars”.
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The “Flash Gordon”, ultimately directed by the unsuspicious Mike Hodges, is a real trash-fest, with ill-fitting bird-man wings, robot costumes like a toy store, and the Italian Ornella Muti in a supporting role as a princess. Acting star Max von Sydow, in the role of dictator Ming, was at least allowed to hide behind a mountain of make-up that made him look like a mixture of Taurus and Fu Manchu.
How many already filmed scenes from “Flash Gordon” Queen were able to see to get in the mood is unknown. In any case, they didn’t allow themselves to be stopped from their work. They confidently set about scoring the score. “… and I don’t like ‘Star Wars’” sang Freddie Mercury in “Bicycle Race” in 1978, and at his concerts he sat on the shoulders of a muscleman dressed as Darth Vader. It is clear who is enthroned over whom here. However, the Queen musicians also recognized that science fiction could lead to box office records. The second “Star Wars” film, “The Empire Strikes Back,” was the expected success in America in May. The calculation was that “Flash Gordon” would be ideal as a vehicle for their songs.
For the first time in their career, the musicians used synthesizers, and they also incorporated snippets of dialogue into the songs that seemed somewhat silly from today’s perspective, which made the record a radio play. At the beginning of the pre-single “Flash” there is this interesting dialogue between “Ming the Merciless” and his right hand man, Klytus. Topic of conversation: the destruction of planet Earth.
Ming: Klytus, I’m bored. What play thing can you offer me today?
Klytus: An obscure body in the SK System, your majesty. The inhabitants refer to it as … the planet Earth.
Ming: How peaceful it looks.
(laser beam noises, explosions)
Ming: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Klytus: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, most effective your majesty. Will you destroy this…Earth?
Ming: Later, I like to play with things while… before annihilation.
Ming: Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
What follows this intro is still one of the best Queen singles. Their very first soundtrack song is perfect: the wing-beat stakatto of bass and piano, perhaps also inspired by John Williams’ two-tone motif from “Jaws”, plus the May solo, timed every minute, that strikes like lightning. The almost slogan-like interjection “Flash!” and the slowed down “Just a man” C-section, in which our hero is portrayed as a completely normal person: a film life in three minutes. Everything in it. “The Hero”, the only other song on the 18 album tracks, has a similar power, as an instrumental illustration of the Hawkmen’s attack on Ming City. No wonder the band chose “Hero” as the opening number of their 1982 tour. Are the dialogue snippets still okay? camp – the music was thoroughly serious.
However, this score is lost in the band’s overall catalogue. Most fans don’t perceive it as an album, but rather as a commissioned work, and above all as a collage of atmospheres. Which is of course the secret strength of the record. The best soundtracks are those that support the film’s narrative rather than telling it themselves. Pieces like “The Kiss (Aura Resurrects Flash)” or “Execution of Flash” leave a lot of space for Mercury’s wordless voice and May’s guitar. Compared to the band’s often dense arrangements, in which all four want to do a lot at the same time, as in “A Night At The Opera” (1975) or “Jazz” (1978), most of the compositions in “Flash Gordon” are of almost quiet lightness. An “ooohooo” from Mercury here, a melody from the guitarist there. Ideal conditions for an inner film.
After “Flash Gordon”, Queen would continue to achieve great success, at the latest with “Radio Ga-Ga” and “I Want To Break Free” from the 1984 album “The Works”, although no longer in the USA. However, from then on, Mercury, May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor soon resembled a comedy troupe themselves, thanks to their videos full of comic characters and drag. “Flash Gordon” wasn’t supposed to be a gag. If you wanted to hear Queen one last time as a dark, lurking, forward-looking band, “Flash Gordon” was the right choice.