"Staying Power" is the first track on

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

's 1982 album ''

Hot Space ''Hot Space'' is the tenth studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 21 May 1982 by EMI Records in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. Marking a notable shift in direction from their earlier work, they employed many e ...

''. It was written by lead singer

Freddie Mercury Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer and songwriter, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. Regarded as one of the greatest singers in the ...

and is notable as being the only Queen song to have a

horn section A horn section is a group of musicians playing horns. In an orchestra or concert band, it refers to the musicians who play the "French" horn, and in a British-style brass band it is the tenor horn players. In many popular music genres, the te ...

, which was arranged by

Arif Mardin Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for ov ...

. The song is driven by a funk-styled bass riff (played by Mercury) beginning in D minor and modulating to E minor throughout the song.

John Deacon John Richard Deacon (born 19 August 1951) is an English retired musician, best known for being the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He wrote several songs for the group, including Top 10 hits " You're My Best Friend", "Another One Bite ...

does not play bass guitar on this song—instead playing rhythm guitar on a

Fender Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful Les Paul had built a prototype solid bo ...

Roger Taylor Roger Taylor may refer to: *Roger Taylor (Queen drummer) (born 1949), drummer for Queen *Roger Taylor (Duran Duran drummer) (born 1960), drummer for Duran Duran *Roger Taylor (author), author of epic fantasy Hawklan series *Roger Taylor (college pr ...

programmed a

Linn LM-1 The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics and released in 1980. It was the first drum machine to use samples of acoustic drums, and one of the first programmable drum machines. Its designer, the American en ...

drum machine for the track.

Brian May Brian Harold May (born 19 July 1947) is an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and astrophysicist, who achieved worldwide fame as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen (band), Queen. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Fredd ...

is on his

Red Special The Red Special is the electric guitar designed and built by Queen's guitarist Brian May and his father, Harold, when Brian was a teenager in the early 1960s. The Red Special is sometimes referred to as the Fireplace or the Old Lady by May and ...

. In a ''

Stylus A stylus (plural styli or styluses) is a writing utensil or a small tool for some other form of marking or shaping, for example, in pottery. It can also be a computer accessory that is used to assist in navigating or providing more precision w ...

'' review of the album, critic Anthony Miccio described the song's style as "an electro-disco track with frenetic horns."Queen – Hot Space
''Stylus''. Retrieved 7 April 2012 The song was released as a single in Japan.

Live performances

This song was played throughout the

Hot Space Tour The Hot Space Tour was the ninth headlining concert tour by the British rock band Queen in support of their 1982 album ''Hot Space''. The tour started on the 9th of April in Gothenburg, Sweden and ended, after sixty-nine concerts, in Tokorozaw ...

and to an extent, on

The Works Tour The Works Tour was the tenth headlining concert tour by the British rock band Queen to promote their successful 1984 album '' The Works''. During the tour, Queen participated in the Rock in Rio festival in 1985; the concert was released on VHS. ...

. The live version of "Staying Power" is slightly different from the album version.

Morgan Fisher Stephen Morgan Fisher (born 1 January 1950) is an English keyboard player and composer, and is most known as a member of Mott the Hoople in the early 1970s. However, his career has covered a wide range of musical activities, and he is still ac ...

took over the keyboard parts and replaced the Oberheim with a

Roland Jupiter 8 The Jupiter-8, or JP-8, is an eight-voice polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizer introduced by Roland Corporation in early 1981. The Jupiter-8 was Roland's flagship synthesizer for the first half of the 1980s. Approximately 3300 units have ...

. Taylor replaced the drum machine with acoustic and electric drums. Also of note is that it was the only song played live in which

Deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...

played rhythm guitar, as the bass was performed via keyboard. With the electronics scaled back on the live version, the song is transformed into a

funk rock Funk rock is a fusion genre that mixes elements of funk and rock. James Brown and others declared that Little Richard and his mid-1950s road band, The Upsetters, were the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat, with a biographer sta ...

song—rather than a disco-influenced rock song that stays strong to its disco influences. The live version is on ''Queen on Fire: Live at the Bowl'', Queen ''

Greatest Video Hits 2 ''Greatest Video Hits 2'' is the second DVD of music videos from the English band, Queen. It was released in November 2003, and included video hits of the band from 1981 to 1989. It was at number one in UK, in its first week. It also peaked at ...

'' and on the ''Hot Space'' 2011 deluxe CD album.

Personnel

;Queen *

– lead and backing vocals, synthesiser, synth bass *

– electric guitar *

– electronic drums, drum machine *

– electric guitar ;Additional *

– "Hot and spacey" horn arrangement

References

External links

*
Lyrics at Queen official website
Queen (band) songs 1982 singles Songs written by Freddie Mercury Song recordings produced by Reinhold Mack EMI Records singles Elektra Records singles Hollywood Records singles Funk rock songs Disco songs {{1980s-rock-song-stub