This joke will transform humor forever and expand the laughter and joy of all humanity. There, it's done.

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For general reasons, I was thinking about Queen and for whatever reason, the snotty idiot's claim entered my head, that 'you never really had any interest, you're lying, I dare you to name anything they did.'  Because I had nothing else to do but amuse myself, the discussion said to a challenge to name any song from The Works and, surprisingly given my memory, I found myself responding (to myself) with "all I hear is the hammer falling down, hopefully I break free, it's my life we're talking about," obviously referencing to several songs from the album.  Pure coincidence I'm sure, but each one was written by a different member of the band and I think all were singles, at least in the UK.

So what the hell, it's been ages since I listened to a Queen album and The Works was on my mind for some pointless reason, why not?

I seem to be usually listening to bonus tracks first, I don't know where this version of "Hammer to Fall" came from but it sounded awesome.  I'm just listening on a computer and thought even the production stood out although it may just be because I haven't heard the actual song lately but obviously have listened to it many many millions of times.  "Thank God It's Christmas" was a nice-if-minor ballad, one can see why it didn't make the album but they did consider releasing it as a single anyway, which worked.  "I Go Crazy" was just weird to hear from this band, a generic song about sex.  I'm pretty sure it was done in the style of the Rolling Stones, they're even mentioned in the lyrics, which itself is strange.  One reason I love this band so much is that they keep successfully going in all these different styles while still sounding like Queen.

Then the album starts.  I'd forgotten how much I loved "Radio Gaga."  The lyrics are rather weak but the music is great, almost an epic.  "Tear It Up" is another basic rock song.  I guess Queen had done stuff like that before - I'm thinking Jazz specifically - but it still sounds different.  Actual musicianship, actual songwriting, we don't get to hear things like this before.

"It's a Hard Life" is actually weaker than I remembered it but it's still a well-produced Freddie ballad.  It sounds like they're just deliberately filling a slot.  Even this band would eventually run out of directions to go and have to repeat themselves.  The lyrics sound like stereotypical 1980s nonsense and I don't mean that in a good way although there's nothing really wrong with them.  After that, Freddie goes back to "Man on the Prowl" which is not one of Queen's better songs, back to the 50's rock style like "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" but nowhere near as much fun although the band sounds great in the last part.

"Machines (Back To Humans)" doesn't work but it's an noble try to start adding computers to musical production.  The bridge sounds good, even the lyrics, and there's still a band playing in the background towards the end so there's something.  Still, I have to think the song should have been shorter.

Then there's "I Want To Break Free."  I love the bridge but the rest of the song is so stupid and dorky that I can't understand why it was ever popular.  John was the weakest songwriting in the band (which is like being the shortest giant) and this is a good example of why.  It just starts, goes along and ends.

"Keep Passing the Open Windows" was written for a possible movie soundtrack that never happened, I'm not even sure the movie ever happened.  The song is actually better than "It's A Hard Life" but obviously not as good a choice for Freddie's single.  For that matter, how do these things get decided?  Bad enough that Queen would be arguing with each other to get their own song on a single but how does the record company figure it out for any band?  Just listen to the album over and over and over before release and vote on it?  Play a song here and there for someone who claims to have a clue what the audience wants?

I'm not enjoying "Hammer to Fall" as much as before, probably because I just heard it, but it is still a great sounding hard-rock song.  I do have to be astounded by how these guys knew how to write a commercial song, every bit of it is catchy and well-produced.  It probably helped that they'd added synthesizers a few years ago, everybody knew how to play them and they were done with the disco nonsense.  They knew how pop music worked and headed straight in that direction.  It's also a typical 1980s lyric.  Then "Is This the World We Created" follows the same path, just going about it completely differently to put together a short guitar-based melody between Freddie and Brian.  It almost sounds like they're just sitting there, playing and singing something on the spot.  Obviously more work went into it than that but it's a good show.  It just ends, closing off the album.

Well, that was definitely the works and it definitely worked.  

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