I know John Deacon wrote the song, but did he create that saying?
I dunno, I just remember hearing the saying alot of times in my life, before I even knew Queen.
Ignore Thomas Quinn, he's full of doo doo.
Of course John Deacon wrote the song, which in turn created the whole "If You Can't Beat'Em" phenomenon.
Just ask Greg Brooks.
Indeed he wrote the saying too. He also invented the words "if", "you" "can't" "beat" and "'em".
So if you read any book edited before 1978 with any of those words, be sure they travelled on time and stole those terms from Deacy.
You guys do realise you actually owe John Deacon royalties every time you drag out this old cliché.
In fact, he should be making a tidy sum out of backpayments once his legal people go about collecting. He could buy a *shitload* of tea with what we owe him.
That is, if you ever used the saying. I sure as fuck don't.