Well, what did he contribute, since the song is credited as a Queen composition? Any words at all? Did he compose some musical bits? Or did they just credit him for the sake of it?
For the sake of it... maybe there wasn't enough space in the sleeve so they had to put only one or two words, and a credit like 'Lyrics first sketched by Taylor but then "that rotter Freddie" changed all his words, while May concentrated for a while in an "I've got it ... I've got it... no, I don't!" way; music chiefly composed by May although Taylor had some ideas for the riff and some drum bits were arranged and conducted by Mercury as well as the melody'.
Instead, they went for 'Queen' and that was it.
For Stone Cold Crazy it was a similar case since the song was already played before Deaks joined.
With the whole joint-credit rule they adapted for 'Miracle', 'Innuendo' and some 'Made in Heaven', John's the one who got most favoured, as he contributed muh less than the others but still received 25% of the publishing royalties. Likewise, Fred contributied more but received the same as the others, but since he was dying he wouldn't need to spend a lot of cash anyway.
I doubt John's input in the track was big - in the making-of video we see Brian writing the intro, Freddy and Roger writing the words - while John is doing a silly dance. I'm sure he contributed his bits - but they're probably smaller than the input from the rest of the band. Funny thing BTW, in the new Absolute Greatest booklet is a picture of the original lyricsheet from One Vision and it includes some lines from A Kind Of Magic :)
Pim Derks wrote:
I doubt John's input in the track was big - in the making-of video we see Brian writing the intro, Freddy and Roger writing the words - while John is doing a silly dance. I'm sure he contributed his bits - but they're probably smaller than the input from the rest of the band. Funny thing BTW, in the new Absolute Greatest booklet is a picture of the original lyricsheet from One Vision and it includes some lines from A Kind Of Magic :)
The whole 'one..., one...' pattern is found in both songs, which suggest they could've at least partly stemmed from around the same time and from the same person.
I think in the 'Making of...' John does say that although the track's credited to Queen, it's a Taylor, May & Mercury thing.
I remember in the making video, John said something about the writing mostly being Freddie, Roger, and, Brian. So I'm guessing he contributed a little bit just not much. And besides, that video wasn't the entire making of One Vision.
Pim Derks wrote:
I doubt John's input in the track was big - in the making-of video we see Brian writing the intro, Freddy and Roger writing the words - while John is doing a silly dance. I'm sure he contributed his bits - but they're probably smaller than the input from the rest of the band. Funny thing BTW, in the new Absolute Greatest booklet is a picture of the original lyricsheet from One Vision and it includes some lines from A Kind Of Magic :)
As i've said somewhere else.I reckon they got that wrong.
I reckon that these lyrics ARE A Kind Of Magic and not One Vision as they said in the book.You'd think that they'd get that right.
Althought the line "One flash of light" does appear on both songs
Sebastian wrote:
For the sake of it... maybe there wasn't enough space in the sleeve so they had to put only one or two words, and a credit like 'Lyrics first sketched by Taylor but then "that rotter Freddie" changed all his words, while May concentrated for a while in an "I've got it ... I've got it... no, I don't!" way; music chiefly composed by May although Taylor had some ideas for the riff and some drum bits were arranged and conducted by Mercury as well as the melody'.
Instead, they went for 'Queen' and that was it.
For Stone Cold Crazy it was a similar case since the song was already played before Deaks joined.
With the whole joint-credit rule they adapted for 'Miracle', 'Innuendo' and some 'Made in Heaven', John's the one who got most favoured, as he contributed muh less than the others but still received 25% of the publishing royalties. Likewise, Fred contributied more but received the same as the others, but since he was dying he wouldn't need to spend a lot of cash anyway.
And it was Freddie's idea to credite songs to Queen...