QUEEN - A KIND OF MAGIC @ 35

 

June 2nd marks the 35th anniversary of the release of Queen’s 12th studio album, A Kind of Magic, which was issued on this day in 1986. It was the first album to be released after Queen’s groundbreaking performance at Live Aid in 1985 and the last album the band would promote with a world tour before Freddie Mercury’s health issues would make it impossible for him to perform live anymore. The album began as the soundtrack to the Highlander feature film, though it evolved beyond that constraint as it began to take shape and eventually grew into a proper album with additional material not used in the film and even the pieces that were used ended up being remixed and slightly reworked from their original cinematic versions.

With the recognition from Live Aid putting fresh wind in Queen’s sails, the album became a major hit for the band, especially in the UK where it reached the number one album slot and lingered in the charts for a whopping 63 weeks, racking up 600,000+ unit sales there alone. Though it was a commercial success, critically, it received mixed reviews. Critics found it lacking in focus and direction, though there are a number of songs on the album which have come to be viewed as essential in Queen’s canon of greatest hits. This includes songs like One Vision, which was directly inspired by Queen’s Live Aid experience, at least as far as Freddie’s interpretation of the track. While it began as a Roger Taylor composition referencing Martin Luther King, Freddie reworked a lot of the lyrics and brought in a bit of camp humor with lyrics like "one shrimp, one prawn, one clam, one chicken”. Who Wants to Live Forever would eventually take on a far more poignant tone in light of Freddie’s struggles with HIV, which would eventually take his life in 1991.

Personally, it’s an album that came along at a time when I was very far away from following the band. While they were a favorite in my teens in the late 1970s, by the mid 1980s, I was deep into some very experimental, obscure musical territory and Queen were pretty well off my radar. As such, I’ve only given this album a glancing blow in terms of paying it much attention. What better time then to give it another listen?