Queen released a song they recorded with Freddie Mercury in 1988 that has never been heard before. Face It Alone was recorded by the late singer during sessions for The Miracle, which came out in 1989. It was played for the first time on Thursday by BBC Radio 2’s Ken Bruce.
Roger Taylor, the band’s drummer, said in June about the song, “We did find a little gem from Freddie that we’d kind of forgotten about.”
“It’s great, and a real find. It’s a piece with a lot of feeling.”
This song is one of six unreleased tracks that will be included in a box set of The Miracle that will be coming out soon. Four of the tracks feature Mercury’s vocals.
Face It Alone is a slow, sad ballad that starts with a pounding drum and a finger-picked guitar line. Freddie Mercury then sings, “When something so close to you explodes inside, you feel like your soul is on fire.”
It was recorded in London and Switzerland during the historic sessions for The Miracle when Mercury had been diagnosed with HIV but hadn’t told anyone.
In a powerful vocal, he seems to be talking about his failing health. As he repeats the refrain, “In the end, you have to face it all alone,” he gets angrier and angrier.
Brian May, the guitarist, thought at first that the recording couldn’t be saved, but engineers proved him wrong.
He told Radio 2’s Zoe Ball earlier this year, “It was kind of hiding in plain sight.”
“We looked at it many times and thought, ‘Oh no, we can’t save that. But we went back in, and our great engineering team said, “OK, we can do this and this.”
“It’s kind of like putting together pieces, but it’s beautiful and moving.”
Face It Alone is one of more than 20 songs that didn’t make it to The Miracle. It’s a lot darker than songs like “I Want It All” and “The Invisible Man,” which did.
On the last song of the album, “Was It All Worth It,” the star thought about his life and career and asked, “Am I a happy man, or is this sinking sand?”
Mercury died in November 1991, nine months after the release of Queen’s last album, Innuendo, which was the follow-up to The Miracle.
In 1995, the group’s remaining members got back together to record Made in Heaven. The songs were finished by the singer before he died.
Mercury’s voice was last heard on “new” Queen music eight years ago when May and Taylor put the Michael Jackson duet “There Must Be More to Life Than This” on the Queen Forever album.
Under the name Time, Waits for No One, a stripped-down version of Mercury’s 1986 solo single Time came out in 2019.
Since 2011, the band has been on tour with Adam Lambert, who was on American Idol. They have sold out stadiums all over the world. With more than seven million copies sold, their 1981 album Greatest Hits is the best-selling album of all time in the UK.
Face It Alone will be out as a single on Thursday. On November 18, the Miracle box set will come out.
There will be radio interviews and “fly-on-the-wall” recordings from the album sessions, as well as alternate takes and demos, on the eight-disc collection.
When Love Breaks Up, You Know You Belong to Me, Dog With a Bone, Water, and the fan favorite I Guess We’re Falling Out are the other unreleased songs.
Several of them have been out on bootlegs for the past 30 years, but this is the first time they have been released officially.
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