While the waves crash in the sea and meet the land
While there's a wind and the stars and the rainbow
Till the mountains crumble into the plain
Tread that fine line
Oh we'll keep on tryin yeah
Just passing our time
While we rule by blind madness and pure greed
Our lives dictated by tradition, superstition, false religion
Through the eons, and on and on
We'll tread that fine line
Oh oh we'll keep on tryin'
Till the end of time
Till the end of time
Don't take offence at my innuendo
Just turn yourself into anything you think that you could
ever be
Be free with your tempo be free be free
Surrender your ego be free be free to yourself
If there's a God or any kind of justice under the sky
If there's a point if there's a reason to live or die
If there's an answer to the questions we feel bound to ask
Show yourself - destroy our fears - release your mask
Hey tread that fine line
Yeah we'll keep on smiling yeah (yeah yeah)
And whatever will be will be
We'll keep on trying
We'll just keep on trying
Till the end of time
Till the end of time
Till the end of time
This seems to be about the balances of life, making choices whether they are popular or not, but also trying to figure out how those choices fit in the larger scheme of things, "If there is a God or any kind of Justice under the sky, if there's a point to live or to die..."
An awesome song, mixing musical styles like "Bohemian Rhapsody" did, but this has a darker, different feeling to it. A true gem.
Innuendo can literally translate to "Hidden Meaning". The song is about revealing the meaning of the universal question - life & death "...release your mask!". Perhaps a reflection of Freddies own mortality.
The lines "while we live by race, colour or creed" are challenged by saying "You can be anything you want to be!" which say to the listener - Don't let people dictate to you how you should live your own life, be free.
** This is a very well pieced song with great lyrics, I have to agree the spanish guitar piece is one of my fav. parts - and then how he replays it on the electric guitar (red special no doubt) again soon after.
About the song:: In my opinion, he is saying, [While the sun hangs in the sky and the desert has sand].. so on. = While everything keeps going accordingly to plan, the earth keeps turning, and the stars keep burning, we'll keep on trying. We'll put up a fight to make it thru, the hard times, good times, what ever. There is war, racism, hatred, poverty, etc., but we'll keep trying to get thru it, to put a stop to it, to bring peace and love to one another, we'll keep on trying. Then he says "you can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think that you could ever be" - if theres a will, theres a way. If you think you can make a difference then you can! you can achieve it if you want it enough. And also that you need to be yourself, and expect to be accepted showing your true colors. "Be free with your tempo, be free, be free, surrender your ego, be free, be free, to yourself." Don't follow the crowd! Be an individual, live your life on YOUR perspective. I also must think of Freddie's situation of his sexuality and how he had to grow to be proud and "chin up" about it and how it needed to be free/TrUe to himself alone.
"If theres any justice under the sky, if theres a reason, if theres a point to live or die, If there's an answer to the questions we feel bound to ask Show yourself - destroy our fears - release your mask" -- =There is no 'scientific' proof or God. But we have faith, and he is questioning faith- God, and everybody. We always say we believe in God, (some of us anyway-) but he is questioning, is there really a God? We want to pursue these questions but don't. After thinking these things over he begins to test God, -"Show yourself, destroy our fears, release your mask." He wants proof. And although of all this, we'll keep on trying, just trudging thru.
My hypothesis is probably naive, & so am I. But this is how I feel at the time, my perspective will probably change as I grow older. I hope you enjoyed my opinion!
This is a great song, when I first heard it I thought it sounded more like an oldie of theres, of course Freddie's voice gave it away and a few other things, it's very nicely pieced.
@xxMyInnuendo Great interpretation!!!
@xxMyInnuendo Great interpretation!!!
I simply adore the Spanish guitar, and what better way to imitate it than with Red Special? I've always been a fan of the kind of transition where the music gets to a climax, then suddenly breaks in wtih a whole new style as a solo, and then back into the loud, fast-paced theme. Obviously I was completely thrilled when I heard this one. The line "Through the sorrow, all through our splendour/Don't take offence at my innuendo" makes me think that he's questioning the existance of some divine being or predestination, but he's not necessarily denying such an existance. The entire first verse is about how no matter what kind of divine being exists, for aeons existance has continued on, and so it doesn't matter if there is one or not as long as we are alive and still tangible. I dunno, I'm new to this site, but not new to song interpretations, and I hope my input will help a bit.
I just think it works well with the: Till the end of time Till the end of time Till the end of time
"whatever will be will be" makes more sense.- Besides those are the official lyrics, which you can´t trust sometimes, but I think they're right on this one
This is one of my favorite Queen songs.
I think alot of you are not looking in the right place for the meaning of the song. I think the key to this song lies in the line: "Through the Sorrow; All through the Splender; Don't take offence at my; Innuendo". I believe that this line is the key for a few reasons. The rest of the song is loud, powerfull and optemistic. This seems to be the songs one low note. It is like the song is showing a person's outside appearence, their large and monumentous actions, and this line shows the one simple thing, that one thought guiding them. The song is also titled innuendo, as is the album. If you look at this song, it is talking about the future, about possibilities, about goals. However, at this point, Freddie Mercury new that he was going to die, and probably soon, although he kept this fact hidden. I think that this song is about the facade that he is putting up and that this one line is the one line where he admits his fate. I think this line is in a way a farewell mesage saying I'm sorry I could not succeed in the goals layed in the rest of the song. I think in this case, the innuendo refers to the empty intentions, how he wanted to change the world, but now he is affraid that the goals that he set were nothing but innuendo: a suggenstion at something without the results to back it up.
This is my interpretation of the song
By reading your comment I'm very fascinated by this. You must be a big and enormous fan of Queen. It's very refreshing to see somebody is truthfully conscious of the world we live in. You have a higher understanding because choose not to remain ignorant . Very well said!!! Cheers...
By reading your comment I'm very fascinated by this. You must be a big and enormous fan of Queen. It's very refreshing to see somebody is truthfully conscious of the world we live in. You have a higher understanding because choose not to remain ignorant . Very well said!!! Cheers...
@malec2b This fascinated me and made me look at back the entire album (no pain, it's my third fav album) and noticed a pattern throughout the songs, i will start where you left off. This truly made me think what the line "If there's a God or any kind of justice under the sky If there's a point, if there's a reason to live or die Ha, if there's an answer to the questions we feel bound to ask Show yourself - destroy our fears - release your mask" meant. I think it means he was questioning his and everyone's existence,...
@malec2b This fascinated me and made me look at back the entire album (no pain, it's my third fav album) and noticed a pattern throughout the songs, i will start where you left off. This truly made me think what the line "If there's a God or any kind of justice under the sky If there's a point, if there's a reason to live or die Ha, if there's an answer to the questions we feel bound to ask Show yourself - destroy our fears - release your mask" meant. I think it means he was questioning his and everyone's existence, something everyone i know and i would do when we are dying, he may have been saying how we believe in a god but it never showed itself, the fact that we can't comprehend the scheme of things, the question that is there a point to live or die? He was asking to the higher creature why it wasn't answering our questions, why it wasn't destroying our fears, why it didn't take off it's mask. This matches perfectly with the line "False Religion" as it is saying that everything we ever believed in, science, religion, everything could be a lie, that we could never learn the truth, the secret may never unmask itself. Also the video matches perfectly with your comment, the fact it kept showing a Theatre with Queen performing on the screen, the fact that they won't be able to change the world with music, which is why they aren't there, merely fragments of the past lingering in where they began. Also the part with the masks falling inside a mask represents the fact that those masks were his dreams, his dreams to change the world, falling apart inside the one other mask, the gold mask which represents himself.
I'm Going Slightly Mad is the example of his madness, the fact that the later stages of AIDS will cause loss of memory and worse, the song is about how he is losing his sanity to the later stages of AIDS, i don't need to go through the lyrics, the whole song is about it.
I can't find any meaning in Headlong that goes with this theory, i think it was just a entertainment song...
I can't live without you gives the most info in this verse "Yeah I'm having a hard time I'm walking a fine line between hope and despair You may think that I don't care But I traveled a long road to get hold of my sorrow I tried to catch a dream But nothing's what it seems Love is saying baby it's all right When deep inside you're really petrified Lover turns to hater On this escalator" It seems this is saying that he is going through sorrow and misery, his love is turning to hate, he's petrified of death, his love of the world is telling him it's okay when he truly believes it isn't, like he is trying to deceive himself into not being terrified. The line "Through the madness through the tears We've still got each other For a million years, yeah" is saying throughout his misery and madness (I'm Going Slightly Mad) he has his friends helping him get through it, they've still got each other for as long as he lasts. The fact that this was written by May shows how much he is there for Freddie.
Don't Try So Hard is where he is stopping himself from pushing himself to hard along with the other bandmates trying so hard to please him in his final hours. He knows he is weak and he doesn't want to destroy himself even more but still live a happy ending. His friends are trying to give him happiness but he just wants them to relax and live happily as well.
I couldn't find a meaning linking to this in Ride The Wild Wind. I think that it is about a motorcycle of some kind, considering it was written by Tyler and since he wrote about a song about another auto mobile (I'm In Love With My Car) i assume this meets it too.
All God's People is about him feeling that he is starting to connect to God during his death, i am a atheist (don't judge me please, i respect all beliefs, it is about who you are, not what you believe in) and i believe he truly was feeling better because of his beliefs, the placebo effect really made him happy during writing this song, i know Freddie believed in Christianity (Bohemian Rhapsody and Seven Seas Of Rhye) but he was never crazy into religion, that was what made him amazing, he accepted all beliefs.
These Are The Days Of Our Lives is how all the bandmates wished they were young again, the line "The rest of my life's been - just a show" is how they have been treated as if their entire lives are just shows for other people.
Delilah is pretty easy to explain so i will copy and paste the wikipedia sentence explaining. "Delilah" is a song Mercury penned for his favourite female tortoiseshell cat, which was called Delilah.
I'm not to sure at The Hitman on the meaning, whether or not it was about his death or not, i never understood it, maybe you can help me.
Bijou is a love song i think, i'm not to sure on this one either.
The Show Must Go On (My favorite song) is about how the band must go on, how everyone must go on, after Freddie, after any bad thing. Freddie sang this when he was in his worst point in AIDS and couldn't walk, but his voice was the most powerful it had ever been as he had the emotion of a man with Death at his door and the great voice of Freddie Mercury, no man can copy the emotion of a dying man. This song was done in 1 take, 1 perfect take by Freddie, this song was recorded and published 6 weeks before Freddie's death, Do not think the band forced Freddie to do this, they were trying to stop him, he did it even though he was in some of the worst pain he had ever been in.
If you disagree with anything please tell me, i would love to make this better
Well it looks to me that the whole song have meaning about life at all. If you have watched movie The Secret, than you will know about they are talking. It's bassicly the same thing I can assure you. :)