Deacon, Mercury and Highlander director Russell Mulcahy all hate this song.
Replete with snippets of dialogue and echoing the chords of “Princes of the Universe”, Gimme the Prize is the sludge metal cousin of “Tear it Up”. Which, in and of itself, renders it redundant.
Revolving around the title, it’s not much of a song as it is background music to images, much like “Who Wants….”, also written by May.
About midway, after Kurgen’s “Better to burn out” speech, the guitars ring out with a melodic, almost royal solo, which gives way to a more chaotic and improvisational sounding one, before circling back to the vocals, which aren’t so much a song as it is Freddie wailing emphatically to give him the prize….
Ho hum.
Grade: D+
