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The Show Must Go On — Queen
Incredibly, we’re closing in fast on the 30th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s passing. He left us on 24th November 1991 to join that great rock group in the sky.
It seems like yesterday. I remember the announcement that he was ill, but it still came as a shock just 24 hours later to hear he’d already gone. I thought we might have had a little longer to get used to the idea that one of our musical heroes was not immortal after all, but it was not to be.
Poignantly, “The Show Must Go On” was the final track on the final album Queen released during Freddie Mercury’s lifetime. It must have been heart-breaking to put on a brave face to record a song about the importance of keeping going on no matter what, when everyone involved would have known that the end was very close.
I don’t know what strength of character that must have taken, but I’m not sure I could have delivered it in similarly challenging circumstances.
The entire band is credited with writing “The Show Must Go On”, and it’s certainly true that everyone contributed to it, but there seems to be a consensus that Brian May did most of the heavy lifting on the songwriting front. He had a very special relationship with Freddie Mercury and this was his way of telling his old friend that he wouldn’t be forgotten…that his “show” would go on, even when he wasn’t around…
