Queen - "Get Down, Make Love" (the song remains the same)

I'm still not the biggest Queen fan, yet I saw "Bohemian Rhapsody" again this weekend.  This time it was the "sing along" version at the Naro.  The previous time I took the opportunity to introduce you to Laibach, and this time I'll introduce the freaky side of Freddie Mercury that the movie hinted at but did not dwell on.

Everyone has heard of Nine Inch Nails (NiN) now, but when "Pretty Hate Machine" came out in 1990, it was revolutionary -- the first of industrial music that went mainstream and was accessible while still being menacing.  It sounds dated now, overtaken by the genre it helped create but in 1990 it was amazing.  Being a super collector, I got the "Sin" CD single  not long after the LP came out.  Aside from the three different version of "Sin" was the B-side of Queen's "Get Down, Make Love", from their 1977 LP "News of the World".  Not being a fan I never had this LP, and thus had never heard the song -- you certainly won't hear it on classic rock radio.

I was immediately struck by the NiN version and it was in high-rotation during many a 1990s party.  While it clearly sounded like NiN, it had an extra dimension that many of their songs did not.  Turns out, that's the Queen contribution (and Al Jourgensen/Ministry too!).

And as crazy, raw, dungeon-esque as the NiN version is... it's all there in the Queen version too, albeit with a sparser, non-synth instrumentation.  It's still pounding, steamy, and intimidating.  It's also the type of song that few performers could can pull off without sounding like a hollow parody of a rawk song.  Led Zeppelin (there are obvious similarities to "Whole Lotta Love"), Prince, maybe a few others... and Trent Reznor.

If you want to take a detour from the uplifting, Live Aid elements of the film and focus on BDSM elements they hinted at, then listen to both versions of "Get Down, Make Love". 

Queen - "Get Down, Make Love"
NiN - "Get Down, Make Love"


If we see the film again I'll have to blog about "Stone Cold Crazy", and although it's cool that Metallica covered it I'm sad to say I don't love it.  If we see it a fourth time, then I've got nothing.

Bonus link (just in case the BDSM link was not clear): 

NiN - "Sin"

(somehow this video snuck through the Youtube censors)

Queen - "One Vision" (forgotten song)

We saw the Queen / Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" about two weeks ago.  I enjoyed it, even though Danette is a much bigger fan of Queen than I am.  I don't dislike them, and I certainly recognize their proficiency and importance, but they were never important to me.  Regardless, the movie was enjoyable and it motivates today's choice for a "forgotten song".

Even though the movie ends with Live Aid (1985) and thus did not cover the 1986 LP "A Kind of Magic" from which the single "One Vision" was released (it was also on the Iron Eagle soundtrack, if anyone still remembers that movie...).  "One Vision" received radio and MTV airplay at the time, but it's certainly not one of their better songs and has mostly faded from our collective musical radar...

So why choose this song?  Because I want to introduce you to Laibach, a band which was (is?) important to me (albeit for other portions of their canon).  What can I say about Laibach?  They're exactly what you'd think an Eastern European, martial, art-by-committee, collective would sound like.  It was never really clear if they were fascist or communist, or perhaps simultaneously both in defiant self-negation, but it was clear they were authoritarian.  I've never been sure if they're serious, or if they are just the Slovenian version of Devo and the Church of the SubGenius and it's just a long running inside joke that I lack the cultural context to process (in the same way the Chinese Government struggled to understand The Onion).

Regardless, I'm using their "cover" of "One Vision" as an opportunity to introduce them here.  Laibach occasionally did loose covers of popular Western songs, although whether they did them out of respect or disdain is not entirely clear either.  Their "cover" is appropriately renamed "Geburt einer Nation" ("birth of a nation"), and is from the 1987 "Opus Dei" LP.

Are they for real?  Or a performance art, musical version of the Colbert character?  Either way, they convey more middle-class shock than Queen ever did...

Queen - "One Vision"
Laibach - "Geburt einer Nation"


P.S. Both Freddie Mercury and "Eber" (a pseudonym; lead vocals for Laibach) are both sporting the same 70s pornstache...

Queen & David Bowie - "Under Pressure" (the song remains the same)

With arguably the world's most recognizable bass line (somewhat unfortunately), the 1981 David Bowie & Queen collaboration "Under Pressure" might be my personal favorite song from Queen or David Bowie.  Although I respect both, I've never been a huge fan of either, and on this song I think the balance each other out and the result works, musically and lyrically.  Even the video was a welcome break from de rigueur lip synced, faux-concert videos of the time.

So imagine my surprise when I stumbled across this 2011 version by The Cribs, live in the studio.  To the best of my knowledge, it isn't on any of their official releases and is just a knockabout version they did for a music web site.  There is no shortage of cover versions of this song, but it does seem like a bit of a departure for The Cribs, who favor more obscure covers by cult bands like The Replacements, The Kaiser Chiefs, Comet Gain, etc.

Queen & David Bowie: "Under Pressure" (a cappella version)
The Cribs: "Under Pressure"

2020-11-01 update: Karen O and Willie Nelson have just released a beautiful duet: "Under Pressure"