After "Friends Will Be Friends" - songs about the friendship and unity of the members of "Queen", the "Who Wants To Live Forever" (May) is a recognized masterpiece of "Queen", written for the "Highlander". In the film, it was about the sufferings of an immortal hero, forced to lose loved ones - and live on. "Queen" turned the song into a church mass, the spiritual hymn of love, eternity and immortality. The video clip combines Christian and Zoroastrian symbols of immortality. Burn hundreds of candles and dozens of "fire wings". This sign, known from the time of Sumer and Ancient Egypt, is called the "solar disk" and symbolizes the divine essence (Fravahar). Over Maya's head burns a fiery crescent moon, similar to a bull's horns - and this is also a Zoroastrian symbol of the "sacred bull" - a sign of communication with God, divine power, a fighter against evil.
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Silver dish. King Khosrov with a sacred sign over his head
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Fragment of the "Who Wants To Live Forever" video
In the song there is the phrase "This World Has Only One Sweet Moment Set Aside From Us" ("In this world there is only one sweet moment, and that's not for us"). The point was that immortal warriors can not have children - it's a payment for immortality. Freddie uttered this phrase with a special yearning, and in his eyes at that moment was inexpressible pain. That's what Freddie said about himself.
In his lyrical songs, Freddie often spoke about his loneliness and asked the question - why? Why is a rich, handsome, charming and famous person unable to build his personal life? Why does all his novels end in failure? Why does everyone in "Queen" have wives, children, a normal family life, and his family hearth is empty? Why is this misfortune for him? And in some of his songs he answers - this is my rock, my destiny. So, he has a different mission on Earth, and what is allowed to his assistants is not allowed to him. He has no right to ordinary human happiness - he is sent to Earth for another. And his loneliness and childlessness is a fee, just like the hero of the film. Fee for immortality - but not bodily ...
Surrounded by candles, the signs of Ahura Mazda and under the angelic choir of boys "Queen" completes this mass of eternal life:
And we can be together forever,And we can love forever.Eternity is ours today.Who wants to live forever?Who wants to live forever?Eternity is ours today.And who wants to wait forever?
"Give Me The Prize" (May) is also written for the "Highlander" and is dedicated to Kargan - who embodies the absolute evil of the Black Immortal, who challenges the "Reward" - the power over the world that must be won by the winner of the Last Battle. The author displays the image of Kargan outside the ordinary fairy villain. Kargan - almost Antichrist:
Here I am, I am the master of your destinies.I am one, only one, I am the god of the coming kingdom.Give me a reward, give me a reward!
"God of the future kingdom" - this is the Antichrist of the Apocalypse, pretending to "Kingdom Come" - "The Coming Kingdom". If God does not claim absolute power over people and gives them freedom, then the Antichrist wants to completely control the life, will and thoughts of people - therefore, Kargan makes such blatant statements. Not only in the stylized song "Queen" - in the film there was also the theme of the satanic character of the personality of Kargan: remember the scene in which Kargan commits a sacrilege in the church. As a true Antichrist, Kargan does not doubt his victory, blatantly stating: "The battle has been won, the battle is won." He screams: "There can only be one" - that is, he, Evil itself. But his impudence is premature - the battle is yet to come, and in it, Kargan will be slain.
After the meaningful "Do not Lose Your Head" (Taylor), dedicated to the "secret war" of "Queen", the album ends with "Princes Of The Universe" (Mercury). From this song dedicated to the Immortal, the "Highlander" began, in the future she got into the TV series of the world that went around the same TV series and became a youth hit of the 80-90s. The song, especially in the video clip, is full of hints of a spiritual war and the mission of "Queen".
At the beginning of the clip, the silhouettes of all four musicians appear, they stand in a fighting posture and hold their instruments as soldiers hold a weapon. Under the solemn fighting music, Freddie, pointing to his comrades, sings:
Here we are. Born to become kings.We are princes of the universe.We belong to your world. Fight for survivalWith the darkest forces of the world.
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Freddie Mercury and Christopher Lambert. Fragment of the video "Princess Of The Universe"
Considering that Mercury by then was called the "King of Rock" in the press, and the whole of "Queen" - princes, princes, it is not difficult to guess that it is not so much about the immortals from the film as about Freddie and his team - and their spiritual abuse With "the darkest forces" that occupied show business.
The video clip consists of the montage of "Queen" performance frames and scenes from the film. It's easy to see that Freddie associates himself with the film's hero, the immortal conqueror of evil by Connor MacLeod. Every time MacLeod swings his sword, Freddie waves the microphone in exactly the same way, repeating exactly the movements of his hero. When McLeod is threatened or when he beats with his enemies, Freddie bends the microphone to the floor, as if struggling with someone.
When MacLeod solemnly raises his sword as a token of victory - Freddie also raises the microphone. Not for the first time Freddie hints that the scene is his battlefield, and the microphone is his spiritual sword.
Christopher Lambert, the actor who played Connor MacLeod, was not accidentally invited to appear in a video clip - Freddie, as it were, proclaims the unity of "Queen" with the forces of good. In one episode of the clip, Freddie, standing on stage, crosses his microphone with Lambert's sword. The audience perceived this as a sign of the struggle, but Mercury did not fight Lambert - they crossed the sword and microphone as men-warriors join the weapon as a sign of union or brotherhood - they hit the "swords", they diverge. This is not a fight, but a fighting alliance of the soldiers of good.
In another episode, under the triumphant scream of Freddie, the big letter "S" flies on the stage. The sign "S" in European symbolism means Satan or Snake ("Satan", "Serpent"). This episode means "defeated Satan."
Freddie also talks about the slander that his enemies spread. He screams savagely:
I'm a man that will go far.I'll reach the moon and reach the starsWith my sword in my hand and my head held high.I must first pass the test, yes!I know that people talk about me, I hear it every day.But for the first time I will prove to you that you are mistaken, but I am right.
The last two lines do not exactly belong to the hero of the "Highlander" - they did not gossip about him. Freddie talks about himself - he knows what nasty things are said about him, but he intends to prove his innocence and shame the slanderers. Moreover - Freddie does not conceal his intentions to take the throne of the King of Rock, having passed all the tests for this purpose and throwing away his rivals-burrows. He finishes the song with a warlike one:
