Transcript of Queen At The Movies: Take 2 - Highlander (Episode 32)
Queen Official
0:14Welcome back to Queen The Greatest,0:15and to our second instalment of0:17Queen At The Movies.0:18This time it’s “Highlander”.0:25Following the success of their first0:27soundtrack album, “Flash Gordon”,0:29Queen weren’t short of offers to be0:31involved in other film projects.0:33Nothing captured their imagination,0:35until 1986 when Director Russell Mulcahy0:39made a tentative approach with his new0:41fantasy movie project, Highlander”,0:43to see if the band could be tempted…0:54[Russell Mulcahy] “When it came up to0:55doing Highlander, I thought to myself,0:59the film needs a big, not only a big1:02orchestration score, but it needs1:03a big rock score.1:06I had twenty minutes of the film cut1:07together, and I brought them in,1:09and didn’t know how they were1:10going to react.1:11I only wanted them to do1:12one song in the film.1:14They saw the footage and1:15they said ‘we’ll do five songs’.”1:23[Roger Taylor] “No, I don’t know what1:24prompted Russell to get in touch with us,1:26but he said ‘come down to a screening1:28theatre in Soho, and have a look at this1:30and see what you like.’1:31And we went and we saw the opening scenes1:34and then I think the Love scene,1:36in the Highlands, and we thought1:39it was magnificent, visually.”1:42[Roger Taylor] “You know, it wasn’t1:44nowhere near finished by then,1:46we just thought ‘that’s really great,1:48we could do some good stuff on that’.1:51And that inspired Brian to write1:55Who Wants To Live Forever,1:56and then I wrote1:58A Kind Of Magic off that, again2:01nicking the line from the film.2:03And that was quite a nice experience.”2:15[Brian May] “I don’t know if you,2:17it depends how well you know2:18the Highlander film, but it’s a film about2:23a man who becomes conscious that he’s2:26immortal and he’s reluctant to2:29accept the fact. And he’s told that if he2:31falls in love he’s in for big trouble,2:33but of course he falls in love anyway2:36and the girl that he falls in love with2:37eventually grows old and dies in his arms.”2:41[Brian May] “That kind of opened up2:43a floodgate in me, I was dealing with2:47various tragedies in my own life,2:49the death of my father,2:52the death of the marriage2:53etcetera, etcetera,2:56so I could immediately hear this2:59Who Wants To Live Forever song in my head.3:02It was almost complete3:05in the car going home,3:06I remember singing it to my manager3:08as he drove me home3:10and he was pretty surprised. He said,3:11‘where did that come from?’3:12and I said ‘I don’t even know where it3:13came from, but I can just3:14hear it in my head’.”3:23Unlike “Flash”, Queen decided not to3:25release a soundtrack album, but instead3:27paired the “Highlander” tracks with3:29other songs, such as One Vision3:31and Friends Will Be Friends,3:32to create a full Queen album.3:34They then teamed up with Russell Mulcahy3:36again to make the promo videos for the3:38majestic “Princes of The Universe”,3:40and the spellbinding “A Kind Of Magic”.3:51[Roger Taylor] “I remember discussing it3:52with the Director, Russell Mulcahy,3:54in The Groucho Club and, you know, just3:58saying how we want strange little things4:00to happen, like I remember I sort of4:02wanted gargoyles winking4:04and things like that,4:06and having this magic stuff flying4:08all over the place.4:09And I think it worked nicely,4:11it’s un-pretentious,4:13and it’s rather nice.”4:16Over subsequent years, Queen songs have4:17featured on and enhanced a number of films4:21– but the next time the band would provide4:23a full soundtrack just over thirty years4:25later, would be for a movie they’d4:27be making themselves –4:29coming soon, to Queen The Greatest.
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