The final Queen song Freddie Mercury wrote and recorded before his tragic death

30 August 2024, 16:34

It's safe to say he changed the course of rock music history.

When Queen burst onto the scene after their show-stopping performance of 'Killer Queen' on Top Of The Pops in 1974, a new musical force was unleashed.

That force was Freddie Mercury - a flamboyant and daring individual who helped the band stand out from the crowd of glam rockers at the time.

Backed by the talent of his bandmates Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon, Freddie brought operatic sensibilities to rock music that nobody had quite experienced prior to their breakthrough album, Sheer Heart Attack.

As they evolved, Queen altered rock radio, incorporating influences from funk, disco, electronica, and new wave.

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In most Queen fan's eyes, they reached their peak at Live Aid, in a twenty-minute set which is widely considered to be the greatest rock performance of all time.

Sadly, Freddie's health issues would dictate the next stage of his life having been diagnosed with AIDS.

He eventually lost his secret battle with the disease on 24th November 1991, and with that, we lost a true music great.

In the final song he ever put to paper and recorded, Freddie was vulnerable about his painful battle with AIDS. Though, the world wouldn't hear it until years later.

After the recording of Queen's final studio album with Freddie, 1991's Innuendo, he penned the song 'Mother Love'.

His lyrics depicted a deteriorating Freddie, not only physically, but also his mental state which was becoming increasingly desperate.

"I'm a man of the world and they say I am strong, but my heart is heavy and my hope is gone," he laments on 'Mother Love'.

It was a rare instance of Freddie laying bare his fears. The only other Queen song he really touched on his mortality in such a way was 'The Show Must Go On' which also featured on Innuendo.

Throughout the recording process, Freddie managed to muster the strength to sing the first two verses.

However, by the end of May 1991 he was too sickly to record any more, so 'Mother Love' was left unfinished.

Under Freddie's instruction, his bandmates were to complete many of Queen's final songs after he passed, all knowing his precarious situation.

In the documentary Champions Of The World, Brian May recalled: "By the time we were recording these other tracks after Innuendo, we had had the discussions and we knew that we were totally on borrowed time because Freddie had been told that he would not make it to that point."

"I think our plan was to go in there whenever Freddie felt well enough, just to make as much use of him as possible, we basically lived in the studio for a while and when he would call and say, 'I can come in for a few hours', our plan was to just make as much use of him as we could, you know he told us, 'Get me to sing anything, write me anything and I will sing it and I will leave you as much as I possibly can'."

Naturally, the lead-up to Freddie's eventual death became too intense for May, Taylor and Deacon who loved him immensely.

So their final batch of songs was left, with the remaining Queen members focusing on the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in the wake of his death as well as launching the AIDS-focused charity organisation the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

But in 1993, they revisited the studio and the songs that Freddie had left them, with May taking on the responsibility of completing 'Mother Love'.

Queen - Mother Love

Brian wrote and sang the third and final verse of 'Mother Love' which would go on to feature on Made In Heaven, released four years after Freddie's death in 1995.

May explained in the Days Of Our Lives documentary: "Freddie would say 'give me words, I will sing' so there I was writing on scraps of paper these lines of 'Mother Love.'"

"I would give him a line, he would sing it, then sing it again, then sing it again - so we only had three takes of everything."

"After he'd finished the second verse, he said 'Oh I don't feel too well, I'm going to go home and we'll finish it tomorrow'... and he never did. That was the last time I saw Freddie in the studio."

As well as adding Brian's vocals to the song, 'Mother Love' also featured segments of previous Queen songs and live performances mashed together and sped up.

The snippet's inclusion signified the cyclical nature of life and death, revisiting Freddie's many accomplishments in what could be regarded as his true swansong.

Drummer Roger Taylor is a particular admirer of 'Mother Love' and its sentiment, saying: "I'm hearing the voice (Freddie's voice) getting... weaker."

"But I mean he still hits all the notes. There's an absolutely spine-chilling note in the middle of "Mother Love" ("out in the city, in the cold world outside, I don't want pity, just a safe place to hide") which is just a great bit of singing."

Equally, Brian May was effusive about 'Mother Love', perhaps because it was the final opportunity to hear Freddie's spectacular voice, and that it was an homage to his friendship and inimitable talent.

Recalling the making of Made In Heaven in 2013, May revealed: "[Made In Heaven] was possibly the best Queen album we ever made."

"It has so much beauty in it. It was a long, long process, painstakingly put together. A real labour of love."