Is it really true that the lyrics for the song One Vision was actually written by Roger Taylor as a tribute to Martin Luther King, expressing solidarity for the black community which Freddie later if not massacred ,at least reworded or altered and used for his own purposes ? It would be interesting to know what the inspiration behind the writing of the lyrics of all of their songs was. Was it just sheer celebration of life and exulting in it or did they have any particular agenda or a motive or a purpose in mind ?
Freddie often rewrote and rearranged Roger's songs...with Roger's permission...I don't think he massacred it at all. Another song Freddie rewrote and largely arranged was radio ga ga...
One man, one soul
One vision, one goal
One golden glance
Of what should be
One flash of light
Oh, happy day
One man, one vision
That showed the way
The bell that rings
Inside your mind
It shouts, it sings
Of changing times
The waiting seems eternity
The day will dawn of sanity
One man, one soul, one vision
One race, one goal, one vision
One rage that lasts a thousand years
One man, one soul, one vision
One flash of light
Oh, happy day
One man, one vision
That showed the way
The bell that rings
Inside your mind
It shouts, it sings
Of changing times
The waiting seems eternity
The day will dawn of sanity, yeah
One man, one soul, one vision
One race, one goal, one vision
One rage that lasts a thousand years
One man, one soul, one vision
Yeah, one vision
One soul
It's not 100% sure who is it about, but Roger said he wrote it about Dr.King, so I see no reason to not believe him
Yes it went through the mincer and came out as One Vision and A Kind of Magic. The latter reworded by Roger to fit the Highlander story, the former reworded by the three/four of them as seen in the "Making of One Vision" documentary. It seemed to end up just being a case of shaping odd lines to fit the song, so it's not really about King in particular anymore.
It's all in various Roger interviews - one on Magic Years where he says this - he wrote it about MLK and the rest of them changed the words - especially "that rotter Freddie".
I think the lyrics (not entirely accurate) posted above are of 'A Kind of Magic', and not 'One Vision'. Several of the songs on the album 'A Kind of Magic' were written for the movie 'Highlander' with the song 'A Kind of Magic' being one of them. I read it's an unofficial theme song of the movie, which is a sci-fi (of sorts) about immortals. The lyrics fit with that suggestion.
Apparently, 'One Vision' was written in the glow of the success of Live Aid and their contribution to the concert and are in tribute to MLK.
Thereuhaveit wrote:
I think the lyrics (not entirely accurate) posted above are of 'A Kind of Magic', and not 'One Vision'. Several of the songs on the album 'A Kind of Magic' were written for the movie 'Highlander' with the song 'A Kind of Magic' being one of them. I read it's an unofficial theme song of the movie, which is a sci-fi (of sorts) about immortals. The lyrics fit with that suggestion.
Apparently, 'One Vision' was written in the glow of the success of Live Aid and their contribution to the concert and are in tribute to MLK.
The lyrics I posted is from the song which was released under the title "A Kind of a Vision".
The timeline should go something like this:
- Live Aid
- Roger writes his "poem", apparently about Martin Luther King
- the "poem" gets turned into a song (released in 2011)
- the songs gets rejected, but Roger's lyrics become a basis of a different song, which we now know as "One Vision". Both the lyrics and the music are created in studio, with most of the lyrics done by Roger, and most of the music seems to be coming from Freddie (judging by the footage filmed by DoRo)
- original melody of "A Kind of a Vision" gets more polished sound and new lyrics, and is included in the movie "Highlander", now it's known as "A Kind of Magic"
- for the album "A Kind of Magic" the song "A Kind of Magic" gets completely restructured and remixed by Freddie (with Roger's permission). The album features this new version and a mostly instrumental version called "A Kind of A Kind of Magic". The 12" single gets a brand new mix which is basically the two versions joined together
It is strange , that a post should have two versions of replies to it. Shows the two timing and double dealing dishonest nature of the people behind it. The official lyrics has it one sore loser. I can understand , I would be envious too, if i was an Oracle conglomerate or a Google conglomerate of losers.
Wtf?! I am moderated on this forum? With all the bullshit flying by, i am the one to get moderated?
Stand by my opinion that is not true.
Fucking unbelievable.