December 8, 1980 - Flash Gordon and Flash's Theme

A month after my last release and a mere 5 months since "The Game", Queen released their ninth album, a soundtrack album for the film "Flash Gordon", released on December 8, 1980. I have only the first song on the album, titled "Flash's Theme" but it was a successful single. Flash Gordon is a science-fiction film that Queen wrote an entire original soundtrack for! This is certainly out of their comfort zone but let's check out some sci-fi Queen!


"Flash's Theme" begins with some dialog from the film as we hear an evil voice say "what plaything can you offer me today?" His underling replies that they've discovered a new planet called Earth and the evil voice says "how peaceful it looks". We hear the sound of a sci-fi laser and an explosion followed by maniacal laughter. The underlying asks if he will destroy Earth and he says "later! I like to play with things a while... before annihilation". A very interesting opening that seems pretty intriguing, and after nearly a minute of dialog we finally hear Queen. Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor sync up for a repeated, daunting riff and Brian May joins both of them on vocals as they all sing together, "flash! Ahh-ahh!" and May plays some epic guitar after every line before they quiet it down again and repeat. Taylor plays some epic drums and at one point Mercury hits some really high notes in a cool quickly sung part. After one of May's epic guitar flourishes Mercury's slow piano takes things in a new direction as he sings a nice new verse. This slower part sounds pretty epic with Mercury leading the way but it's very short as they go back to the marching main riff until it fades to an end. We hear an explosion at the end and the evil man scream "For God's sake, strap yourselves down!" It's a little odd that this song with dialog in it became a successful single, but it's an epic main riff that Queen do expertly. This also happens to be my last release of the year, and so begins the year-end wrap-up! Eight albums this year is a bit more like normal, but still down from peak times. Despite the turn of the decade there was still some solid music this year, let's see how it all shakes out!

Favourite song of the year: It's a close one this year but with an honourable nod to Iron Maiden's  "Phantom Of The Opera" I think my favourite song of the year was "Natural Science" by Rush. There are a couple other Rush songs that could make this list as well as they continue to show that they are still one of the best rock bands out there.

Top 5 Albums of the Year

1. Permanent Waves by Rush
2. Blizzard Of Ozz by Ozzy Osbourne
3. The Game by Queen
4. Iron Maiden by Iron Maiden
5. Women And Children First by Van Halen

Rush is atop the summit once again and deservedly so. Two new artists come in as well and I'm sure Ozzy and Maiden will.be both be back in the future. See you in 1981!

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