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John Interviews
Jim Ladd: Good evening everybody and
welcome. Tonight we’ll spend the next hour with John Deacon, bass player and
composer for one of rock and roll’s most interesting and progressive bands.
Their music is a study in variety that ranges from “up against the wall” rock
and roll to extremely complex and intricate ballads. They’re highly proficient
both in the studio and onstage, a unique combination of both musical talent and
showmanship. And we’re about to find out how it is all accomplished in
tonight’s Innerview of Queen.
[Keep Yourself Alive]
Jim Ladd: The song “Keep Yourself
Alive” I like that. Who wrote that?
John Deacon: Brian May wrote that, our
guitarist. That was one of the very early songs we had with the group Queen. I
met them when I was at college, and we used to just rehearse and that was one
of the songs that we had then. And they were essentially songs we just used to
play you know, live, all of those…to audiences. And quite a lot of the songs on
that first album were songs that we had had for a long while, and songs that we
just used to play together, songs like “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Liar” “Great
King Rat,” and other numbers. They’re songs that we just used to play. And we
just went in and recorded them. And there were one or two numbers on that first
album which were more sort of that first sort of sign of getting interested in
doing things in the studio. “My Fairy King” was a number Freddie wrote which we
only wrote when we were in the studio and it was built up in the studio.
Whereas, you know as I said, there’s other numbers where essentially live
songs, basically just the track and then just a few …….backing vocals and
guitar solos over the top and that was it.
[Modern Times Rock and Roll]
Jim Ladd: If you can, would you give me
a brief personality sketch, you can be as either complimentary or otherwise, as
you would like of the other members of the band?
John Deacon: Well, I could do that,
yeah. (laughter)
Jim Ladd: Of course I’ll leave that to
your conscience.
John Deacon: I don’t know Roger is sort
of the rock and roller of the group, Roger. I mean he loves touring. I like
touring, I like being in the studio, a bit of both. I like to have a bit of
time at home as well.
Jim Ladd: But Roger he just wants to….
John Deacon: He just likes to get out
on the road and tour, and do the gigs. He loves it, you know.
[Drowse]
John Deacon: Fred, Fred loves doing the
shows. He really likes the big shows…you know, the New York's, the Chicago's
and the LA’s, the more prestigious ones, where you get all the people coming to
see you. He likes…. sort of hopes, there’s someone….. people in the audience
watching him…but he’s a total professional. Every night.
Jim Ladd: But he’s into have people of
renown coming to see him?
John Deacon: Oh yes, he likes all that
side of it as well. But he’s a very, very hard worker. Cause he really goes
through a lot every night on stage. He really sort of abuses his body onstage
running around.
Jim Ladd: He gives his all.
John Deacon: Yes, he does, every night.
[Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy]
John Deacon: Brian, Brian is a bit more
sort of a thinker. He puts a lot of thought into his songs, and the ideas. We
don’t actually write songs on the road, but Brian sometimes often picks up
ideas on the road, which he’ll develop later into songs.
[White Man]
John Deacon: I tend to be the quiet one
of the group. There’s always one. And it’s often the bass player as well.
Jim Ladd: Yes, “the rock” of the band.
John Deacon: John Entwistle, a few
people like that. Yes I tend to be the quieter one. But you know it takes, it’s
a balance of four personalities, and them all being different, it’s very
healthy in a way. And also with four people there’s plenty of ideas you can
bounce off each other. And also you don’t get too extreme in any one direction
that could be bad for the group because there’s always sort of three people to
perhaps pull it back.
[Stone Cold Crazy]
[ads]
Jim Ladd: I’ll begin with a question of
how a song as simple and uncomplicated as “Bohemian Rhapsody” ever got to be a
hit single in the
John Deacon: Um, no we didn’t really.
When we finished the album, the Night at the Opera album, that was the track on
it that we thought we were gonna release as a single in
[Bohemian Rhapsody]
Jim Ladd: Do you see Queen affecting
people on a sociological level, or just entertainers?
John Deacon: First and foremost I’d say
it’s entertainment. But I think Brian puts a little bit more, there’s quite a
lot of meaning in his lyrics. Whereas Freddie’s songs are more sort of in a
fantasy vein. It depends on particularly who has written the songs. I don’t know,
it’s how big we tend to take them, but I would say we’re mainly more on the
just entertainment side. We’re not sort of deep politically motivated in any
way at all, I don’t think.
Jim Ladd: It seemed like English
musicians, or English kids in general, were much more educated to American
music than Americans ever were. You know, it was English bands who brought back
over to
John Deacon: Yes, possibly, possibly.
There was always a lot of American music in England until, obviously when the
Beatles came around, then there was a shift towards English music, but before
then American music was the main thing…It was sort of the Elvis Presley, Chuck
Berry, especially all that the early R & B stuff. Cause that’s what the
English bands used to listen to, they started up then…the Bo Diddley, and that
sort of thing, those records. American music was a big influence.
[Bring Back Leroy Brown]
One of the first things one notices
about Queen’s music is the accuracy with which they execute their songs. They
seem at times to be able to create almost impossible effects, both
electronically and vocally, and have learned to play the studio, almost as well
as their instruments.
John Deacon: We always find quite an
interest on the recording side because of what we have on our records. There’s
a lot of stuff on our records, you know. Especially when you get the headphones
on, you can actually, you know….I suppose our thing is fairly modern in a way,
because we do use the studio a lot. I suppose it sounds more modern in a way
because of all the various multi-tracking we do. That wasn’t done five years
ago because the facilities weren’t around. When we recorded our first album
sixteen track machines were the thing. And we just used the facilities that
they could do. Whereas a few years previous it was only eight tracks and four
tracks and people were very limited to what they could do. It was more like
playing music live, they would go in and they would play the music as they
performed it onstage, and that would be it. But now working in the studio is an
art in itself, because you can come up with sounds that you could never
reproduce onstage.
[Tie Your Mother Down]
John Deacon: We had a chat with Roy
Baker, who’s very well known now, who did our first three albums. And we needed
him, cause he’s like a really good super engineer, he knew all the technical
ins and outs of the studio. So he was able to tell us how we could do this,
sort of record our vocals over 50 times, or do this “phasing.” The ideas that
we wanted to do, just how he could actually, physically record them. But Night
at the Opera, was the last album we did with him. We had done four albums with
him, and we came to the position where, we had learned ourselves in the studio
what to do, and one didn’t really need the services of the producer, because we
had within the group, within the four of us, we had plenty of the ideas. All we
really needed was a good engineer. So that’s what we did with the new album, A
Day at the Races, we more or less produced it ourselves with an engineer. I
mean Night at the Opera and Sheer Heart Attack, we had co-production credits on
it, so it was sort of a slow thing when you’re first in the studio you’re new,
you’re beginners, you have to learn. And then it depends how long it takes. You
have to get that confidence in the studio to know what to do in time, and then
you can sort of perhaps take it over yourself. Whereas it depends on different
people, some artists just don’t know what goes on in the studio at all. But
we’ve always been very interested in working in studios, how to get the best
out of them. It’s just been a natural extension really, to just produce our
own.
[Somebody to Love]
John Deacon: Our albums just tend to be
collections of songs really, because we all write in the group, all four of us.
Freddie and Brian tend to write the majority of the material. I think on the
new album Day at the Races they wrote four each and Brian [sic] and I each
wrote one, so there’s never particularly a concept for the whole album. It just
depends on what songs come out when we individually made those. We usually
have, before we go to record now, we usually have a few weeks where we’ve been
writing songs.
[Killer Queen]
Jim Ladd: Anything else that you can
think of that you’ve always wanted to tell American radio…where to go…or
something you’d like to say?
John Deacon: Um…I don’t know…I must say
American radio is good in a way because for new groups, especially like English
groups that’s how the interest picked up on us over here. All we did was the
first album was released, right, and radio stations picked up on it, and it’s a
very healthy situation.
Jim Ladd: What’s the thing you’re most
proud of, Queen?
John Deacon: I don’t know …different
things for different people. We’re very very happy with the tour we’ve just
done. It’s our first American tour that’s really taken us into some of the
larger halls. That’s quite a big step. Our concert audience has really grown
quite big this year. And also we’ve done some very big shows around the country
this year, which we’re very pleased with. You know, we’ve done some of the
larger halls, like we did the LA Forum, and in New York we did Madison Square
Garden, we did one show there. Those are gigs you know, you’ve always sort of
heard about, and this is our fourth time here, going around doing the small
theaters, and it’s sort of our ambition in a way to play those. I know Roger,
it’s really one of his ambitions to play Madison Square Garden. and LA Forum
and things like that. I’d almost say we’ve done some very good shows this time
around. Because in a way, our show does seem to come off very well in that size
auditorium.
[You and I]
John Deacon: We do take a long while in
the studio, especially Freddie, with the songs he writes. He has all the ideas
sort of up in his head of what he wants to go on top and all the little things
here and there.
Jim Ladd: Right down to the production
of the song?
John Deacon: Oh, yes, yes. All the way
through. We do spend a long while in the studio, listening to songs at each
stage, and making sure it is correct as we put it on, you know.
Jim Ladd: Have we run out of time here?
OK.
John Deacon: Are you closing me off, or
something. (laughs)
Jim Ladd: Thank you very much.
John Deacon: Ok thank you very much
indeed, yeah.
Well I hope you enjoyed this last hour
and that perhaps you may at this point feel you know a little bit more about
these four very talented musicians known as Queen. And of course you’re invited to join us next week for another Innerview.
Bored?
Depressed? Lonely?
Cheer Up, So is John
Deacon of Queen and he’s a millionaire.
"Bored and depressed" by
Queen’s recent inactivity, John Deacon faces flak from the HiT over Live Aid ad
South Africa and talks about the brand new Queen single "One Vision".
Well you know us anything to cheer him up…….
The HiT has it on best authority that
Stevie Wonder actually knows most of the Stevie Wonder jokes. Even laughs at
some of them.
Likewise John Deacon, bass player with
Queen. He’s heard most of the Queen rumours – including the latest, and
scuzziest, from Fleet Street… that Freddie Mercury has AIDS.
"Well I heard someone asked – I
think it was The Sun or something – because AIDS so much in the press at the
moment." John explains. " So they ring up and want to know is it
true? And if you say no, then it becomes ‘So and So denies etc, etc’ – I mean
they can twist it anyway they want…."
The AIDS rumour is the latest in a long
line of scandals and stories that have dogged Queen – and particularly the
controversial Freddie – since the band’s formation in 1973. In the last three
years the gossip has become steadily more frequent, increasingly more vicious
coinciding with Fleet Street’s pop-gossip circulation war and Queen’s rise from
pomp-rock stars who have hits to a state of near pop perfection…
It’s ironic then with Queen riding on
the crest of a triumphant Live Aid appearance – and gossip plumbing new depths
– that John Deacon, the quietest and most anonymous member of the group has
pushed himself forward to speak…
" I mainly did it because Pete
Brown (a PR currently working for Deacon) asked me to do it. I mean we’ve ended
up with a lot of time on our hands now 'cos we don’t work as hard as we used to
so now I need something to fill up my time"
The phrase has a hollow ring coming
from a member of one of the world’s richest (the richest?) rock groups.
Crushed
He’s here ostensibly to talk about a
new studio that he’s opened in London with partner Henry Crallen – formally a
member of Queen’s road crew. And about a new single he’s working on with Hot
Chocolate singer Errol Brown called ‘This is your time’ but he has little to
say about either.
He seems crushed down by the inactivity
during Freddie’s album, then Roger’s – "I can’t make a solo album because
I can’t sing"
"We’re not so much a group
anymore," he explains. "We’re four individuals that work together as
Queen but our working together as Queen is now actually taking up les and less
of our time. I mean I basically went spare, really, because we were doing so
little. I got really bored and I actually got quite depressed because we had so
much time on our hands."
That slow drag for Deacon started
around three years ago after the groups disappointing ‘Hot Space’ album.
"We were disappointed with it too
I think, so we really did talk about how we were going to attack the next
album. With ‘The Works’ we decide to go more towards the things people
associate with Queen."
Live Aid
The result was an album so successful
that it raised Queen into a yet higher bracket of superstardom. A glorious run
of hit singles – Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free, Hammer To Fall, It’s A Hard
Life – accompanied by deliciously camp videos, left Queen with more time than
ever to slow up and bask in the glory.
The brilliantly theatrical and
exuberant appearance at Live Aid raised their status higher but it also gave
them the impetus to record a brand new single ‘One Vision’. Since ‘Queen
Greatest Hits’ climbed back up the charts as a result of Live Aid, will
royalties from the new single to into the fund?
"At the moment, no, " says
Deacon. So have Queen donated money to Live Aid behind the scenes?
"Yes, Someone in the group has
donated royalties from something, I’m not saying anymore. It wasn’t an album,
it was the publishing – what you earn form writing the song."
Rows And Scandal
As with every decision made within
Queen, the discussions over Live Aid provoked a row. Deacon is casual about it
"we’ve been rowing since the year dot."
"We were doing some filming for
the new video, right and after that there was this enormous row going on
between Freddie and Roger. We’re doing a box set this Christmas of all the
albums, right? And they were arguing about whether the new single should be on
it. Someone was saying that it won’t be the complete works if it’s not."
He shakes his head, with a smile.
" I couldn’t really get involved in that because I though, well, who’s
going to but that? Obviously they’ll sell a few to collectors but it’s going to
be an expensive item. Forty or Fifty quid or something."
He’s adamant that press criticism –
particularly in the mid-70’s when Freddie Mercury broke off relations with the
music press – stings very hard.
John Deacon lost his father when he was
eleven, a shattering blow that he can still barely talk about. "It was
rough, yeah," He says "It’s not easy growing up without a dad."
Perhaps it’s that pain which can make
harsh rumour and scandal so cruel.
"I remember there was a time when
one of the guys who worked for Freddie sold his story to The Sun or something.
That was hurtful. You’re not embarrassed for yourself but because you’ve got
friends, you’ve got relatives, you’ve got parents that are going to read
it."
Queen are set to work shortly on a score
for a film entitle Highlander which stars Sean Connery and Christopher ‘Subway’
Lambert. It’s the second feature by noted video director Russell Mulcahey and
will preclude Queen from starting work on their new album.
In the meantime they’ve to dodge the
inevitable and deserved flak surrounding their visit to South Africa’s Sun City
gambling complex.
Deacon States first that the complex
has no apartheid – "only rich and poor" – and that the Musician’s
Union were against their visit, "lots of other people have been
there."
So what ultimately convinced them to
play at a centre part-financed by the South African government in which there
is no apartheid but which no African could afford to visit?
"I dunno I enjoy travelling."
The answer hangs absurdly lame between
us.
"I’d like to learn first-than
rather than necessarily what you read in the press. I mean everybody know
Apartheid is wrong"
So how do you justify your visit?
"We’re a non-political band. We
try really to keep out of politics. We’ll go anywhere if people want to come
and see us"
He smiles. In Queen he’s the normal
one…….
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