Keep Yourself Alive is a song by Queen. It was written by Brian May for the band's 1973 album Queen. It was also released as a single with Son and Daughter on the B-side.
History[]
Composition[]
Brian May originally wrote Keep Yourself Alive sometime before 1972, according to former bass player Barry Mitchell. May penned the lyrics to be tongue-in-cheek and facetious by nature. The song was written to be about whether there was something more to life than just surviving, but the lyrics paint the idea of just sitting in the present instead of doing anything more with your life. However, when Freddie Mercury performed the song, the meaning of the lyrics changed into something more honest and sincere.
Mercury might have helped on the musical arrangements based on the fact that (as it has been recalled by former bassists and the band themselves) they were in a more collaborative period in the pre-studio days and he was usually the one getting his way with structural ideas. While it is highly possible that he contributed ideas to the song (the modulation types and the expanded form are closer to his style than to May's), the bottom line is that even in that case Mercury would be more a co-arranger than a co-writer per se (like George Martin on The Beatles' songs).
De Lane Lea Demo[]
| “ | I have this great belief that the magic of the moment can never be recaptured and, although we ended up with something that was technically in the playing and perhaps even in the recording a bit better than the De Lane Lea thing. I still think that the De Lane Lea one had that certain sort of magic, so I was never really happy. As it turned out no one else was ever really happy either and we kept remixing it. | ” |
–Brian May - 1983, BBC Radio One | ||
In December 1971, Queen recorded a rough version of Keep Yourself Alive at the De Lane Lea Music Centre alongside four other songs that would later make their way onto the band's debut album. Although the instrumentation is less refined than what would be found on the later finished track, the band found the original De Lane Lea recording to have a certain degree of rawness that they couldn't replicate on later recordings.
Music Video[]
The filming of a promotional music video was planned at the Brewer Street Studios, located thirty kilometers west of London. Mike Mansfield, who would soon become famous for his gigantic concert recordings, was chosen for the production on August 9, 1973. Tensions ran high between the group and the filmmaker, who, in response to each of their suggestions, politely thanked the musicians and reminded them of their inexperience. In the end, the group fired Mansfield and dumped the video, which seemed to them to not be in keeping with their creative world.
The music video was filmed a second time on October 1, 1973, at St. Johns Wood Studios, accompanied by Barry Sheffield. This recording would be the one used on all further releases.
Appearances in other media[]
The intro to Keep Yourself Alive was used in a Microsoft Surface Duo TV Commercial released on September 20, 2020.
Keep Yourself Alive was made available as a playable level in Queen: Rock Tour. The level is a recreation of Queen's performance at The Rainbow in 1974.
Trivia[]
- It is the band's debut single and first track from their debut album, making it a rare single.
- It is the first rare single in the band's discography, with the second one being Flash.
Gallery[]
Main article: Keep Yourself Alive/Gallery
