Talk:The Show Must Go On (Queen song)

A fact from The Show Must Go On (Queen song) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 December 2005. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the song "The Show Must Go On" by the British rock band Queen was written by guitarist Brian May, and is about lead singer Freddie Mercury's desire to continue making music even as his health was deteriorating?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2005/December.

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American Idol mention

Is it really relevant that Paris Bennet sung this song in AI? I believe this information should be removed. Anyone agrees?

I agree: I don't think it's relevant. -- Candyfloss 23:53, 24 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say leave it. It's relevant in that American Idol is hugely popular, and the performance gave more recent exposure to the song. It's certainly not hurting anything. --AWF

I don't think it's relevant, the article is about Freddie's swan song, not a subpar performance of it. -- CD

So true. And while we're at it: "There are (and will be I hope) many other covers of this song [...]" WTF? What's that whole paragraph doing in a Wikipedia article??!?--afromme 01:44, 11 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Some girl called Carly sang it on the last series of American Idol, too. Worth mentioning? TopGearFreak (talk) 11:47, 27 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Cover used in Moulin Rouge

Would it be acceptable for me to add the fact that this song was covered in the Baz Luhrmann musical Moulin Rouge? Perhaps under a "this song in popular culture" heading? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 111.95.149.35 (talk) 05:03, 1 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I think this is a necessary addition, for whatever it's worth. 130.132.173.21 (talk) 20:56, 15 September 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Song "meaning"

The article says "The song [The Show Must Go On] is about Mercury's desire to continue making music even as his health was deteriorating." Give me a break... Whoever wrote that - has he or she actually bothered to read the lyrics? The can be found here [1] and it's pretty clear to me that they're not at all about a desire to make music despite deteriorating health, but rather about keeping up a certain public image. " Inside my heart is breaking - My make-up may be flaking - But my smile still stays on" It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it? In a way, the song's lyrics kind of continue the subject "Scandal" (from The Miracle) already dealt with a couple of years earlier (" Another hero, another mindless crime - Behind the curtain - in the pantomime - Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore?"). Except the tone of the music and lyrics of The Show Must Go On is a lot bleaker, with parts that can easily be construed to be reflecting on life and the imminent death struggle ("Empty spaces - What are we living for", "Does anybody know what we are looking for...", "Does anybody know what we are living for...", "I have to find the will to carry on"). The imagery used in the song also reflects this: "I'll soon be turning - Round the corner now - Outside the dawn is breaking - But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free", "My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies - Fairytales of yesterday will grow but never die - I can fly - my friends". Thus, I have deleted that portion of the article as it is if not factually wrong (which I actually think it is) then still not neutral but rather sugar-coating the subject of the song. Never mind that the "desire to continue making music" thing might actually be a quote from a well-intended interview by one of the band members.--afromme 01:42, 11 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Huh?

"The single was released just six weeks before Freddie Mercury died and was the last released during his lifetime."

If this means single, OK. But the last released song? Noooo... Mercury recorded Mother Love and A Winter's Tale 2 weeks before his death...

Just try reading what you actually wrote. Recorded 2 songs before his death does not mean they were released. They were not released until 1995 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.190.243.233 (talk) 18:31, 20 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Nickelodeon

Did you know that this song has been included with Nickelodeon Studios Tributes on Youtube?

Genre

Why is the song considered only to be rock? It's a relatively hard-edged song, so why can't it be hard rock? Every time I have changed the genre to hard rock, it has been reverted. Why is this?70.110.242.249 (talk) 17:30, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Power ballad isn't a genre it's a term. The genre field is not for term it is only for genres. Anger22 (Talk 2 22) 19:34, 28 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You still haven't explained why hard rock would not be acceptable. 69.243.87.23 (talk) 18:25, 1 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds like heavy metal to me. 80.230.163.92 (talk) 18:11, 2 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I guess the style must be hard rock / symphonic rock. It's not Rock at all, and moreover, not art-rock. Well, the version with Elton John sounds very heavy, it's definitely hard rock. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anatoliy-024 (talk • contribs) 11:19, 13 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Power ballad isn't a genre it's a term". Agreed. Rodericksilly (talk) 13:04, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reference to Pink Floyd?

Should we mention the "Empty Spaces" line, obviously a tribute to The Wall...--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 20:21, 3 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As much as I would love to establish a tribute to Pink Floyd as often as possible, I don't know if that is necessarily true. It makes sense, but I can't guarantee its accuracy. If you can find evidence that supports this idea, great. But if not, we shouldn't put an unsourced statement on the article. Krobertj (talk) 21:42, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Using [sic] to clean up quotes is not a great writing technique.

When quoting Freddie Mercury after he consumed a measure of vodka to prepare to sing the lyrics to the song someone edited the actual words used in the quote out and wrote [sic] instead of the word that was actually used. There are two things wrong with this the least of which being [sic] is used improperly the obvious intention was to remove a curse word. However the quote is credited from a number of public sources as actually being a curse word. Editing of articles to redact words you don't like because they offend you is not healthy for Wikipedia. I suggest the line quoting Mercury in this article be reverted to how it was as of a month ago, "I'll fucking do it, darling!".

99.74.42.221 (talk) 12:48, 1 November 2010 (UTC) Ganzai[reply]

Fixed. --Lošmi (talk) 19:50, 10 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mercury's condition during the recordings

The main article claimed that Freddie could barely walk when he was recording vocals for this and that he did the vocals in one take. The source mentioned (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-19691231/freddie-mercury-20101202) doesn't say anything about Freddie doing the song in one take so I edited that. Also the claim made in the same article that he could barely walk is false. Just look at the Headlong and I'm going slighly mad videos, which were both filmed after he recorded the vocals, and you'll see he was able to walk perfectly well and more. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:14BA:F00:0:0:D9C:D36B:D3BB (talk) 13:37, 6 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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External links modified

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Hard rock

To replace Rock to Hard rock: Rock is unsourced; Hard rock is more specific than "Rock". --Marcos FTO (talk) 18:49, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Source:^[1] — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marcos FTO (talk • contribs) 18:24, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. I've just gone ahead and done it, because this talk page isn't very heavily trafficked. Anyone who disagrees, feel free to revert, but please discuss instead of revert-and-run. -A lad insane (Channel 2) 18:43, 29 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Moskowitz, David V. (2015). The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World. ABC-CLIO. p. 501. ISBN 9781440803406. Innuendo also contain powerful hard rock energy with 'Headlong' and 'The Show Must Go On,'

Written Mainly By Brian May

Your own article states that Taylor/Deacon wrote the chord structure/tune, and that Freddie Mercury wrote 50% of the lyrics. So how is that mainly Brian May?

165.225.81.41 (talk) 11:06, 11 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Defunct Citation

The thirteenth citation ("Freddie and Jim: A Love Story". mr-mercury.co.uk. Retrieved 19 August 2011.) is from a cite that is no longer active. If possible, the cited material should either be re-cited or reiterated from a different source. If not, then the cited material should just be removed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ztpartin (talk • contribs) 01:53, 6 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Pagliacci

The idea that "the show must go on, although my heart is breaking", is of course that contained in Vesti la giubba from Pagliacci, which is recalled in It's a Hard Life. While this is obvious, we need a reliable source for us to be able to say so in the article. DuncanHill (talk) 23:42, 1 November 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Two Cellos version

Two Cellos has made an amazing video that should be cited, but where? Jwbruceshaw (talk) 01:37, 21 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[1] Moskowitz, David V. (2015). The 100 Greatest Bands of All Time: A Guide to the Legends Who Rocked the World. ABC-CLIO. p. 501. ISBN 9781440803406. Innuendo also contain powerful hard rock energy with 'Headlong' and 'The Show Must Go On,'

[1]