Queen’s News of the World (1977) album turned 40 years old this year. I was five years old when it came out. It would be six or seven years more until Queen were firmly on my radar, and so would begin a lifelong love of the band.
To celebrate the anniversary of the album’s release, Queen are releasing a box set on Friday 17 November that includes a number of recently unearthed out-takes and rarities.
Among the rarities is this hybrid version of “All Dead, All Dead” (side 1, track 4) featuring alternative lyrics and vocals from Freddie Mercury.
What I didn’t realise, all these years of listening to the song, is that the song was written by Brian May about the death of his childhood cat.
It’s a beautiful song, even if does have the ‘wrong’ lyrics.
The box set is released on Friday 17 November costing £109.99.