It’s a hit single for Roger!
But…not without help.
First. From his son. Who was listening to the radio and said, since he was a baby, “Radio Ca ca.”
Certainly one can picture Roger, king of songs that are lethargic, indulgent and never happy or uplifting, thinking, “Yeah! That’s a song, mate! Everything on the Radio IS caca!”
Next. John Deacon. Who apparently heard Roger playing around with the track (no doubt arpegiatting) and came up with a solid bassline.
Exit Roger to go on vacation and enter Freddie. Who turned the lyrics around and decided it was a song about how, despite the advent of music videos, radio itself had yet to have its best days. (Remarkable at just how opposite these two people’s worldviews were).
And, that’s how “Radio Ga Ga” came to be. Roger’s first real single. And a massive one for the band.
As a song, it’s a great video.
The full immersion into electronics arrives with “Radio Gaga”. Voices are run through a vocoder, the drums are synthetic. Until Freddie’s voice arrives after the intro, nothing sounds real or authentic. Which is really strange. In just 10 short years we’ve gone from “Keep Yourself Alive” to Synth-pop.
But that isn’t to say that it isn’t a great song. It’s another quintessential 80s track, with one of the biggest anthem choruses Queen came up with since “We Will Rock You”.
The song also suffers from something I’ve complained about here: It doesn’t know that it’s over. So self-obsessed and indulgent that the second instrumental break (which is really just programmed machinery) goes on and on for well over 2 minutes after the song should have been over.
Alas. That was the way things were then.
Grade: B+
