Then we hear a short set of May/Mercury acoustic numbers, "Now I'm Here," ""Love Of My Life," "Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt," and "Is This the World We Created...?" Following the quieter interlude, the full group gets back to rockin' with a full-throated rendition of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" and then a string of those great hits, "Bohemian Rhapsody" (with a noticeable pretaped insert of the choral section), "Hammer To Fall," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," and "Radio Ga Ga." For the encore, we get an extended medley of "We Will Rock You," "Friends Will Be Friends" (also from A Kind of Magic), and "We Are The Champions."
In the "Deluxe Package," we also get expanded CDs of the concert with songs not included on either the DVD or Blu-ray versions available separately as discs or downloads. On disc one we hear "Another One Bites The Dust" and "Looks Like It's Gonna Be A Good Night – Improv." Available On disc two, we hear "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care" and "Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)." Why these songs didn't make the final cut for the movie is anyone's guess as there's nothing lackluster about the performances. While "God Save the Queen" is included on the CD track list but not the Blu-ray or DVD, it's there on all three formats. Likely it was felt 118 minutes and 22 songs were long enough for the movie, especially with a few minutes of behind-the-scenes footage interspersed from time to time to show Queen interacting with fans, signing autographs, and riding go-carts.
There's also a superb bonus 25-minute documentary called “A Magic Year." It chronicles what the band did after their appearance at Live Aid, their work on the score for Highlander (the soundtrack of which makes up most of the songs on A Kind of Magic) and their decision to go on a European tour ending with the Budapest gig. It's chock-full of behind-the-scenes studio footage and very revealing interviews from the band members, notably the rarely interviewed John Deacon who talks about his contributions to the band beyond his bass playing.
A case can be made encouraging viewers to watch the documentary first to fully understand the context of the Hungarian concert. All these years later, we look back and hear some songs as almost prophetic in light of the passing of Mercury. But back then the emphasis was the band reaching an audience they hadn't played for before, not expecting to make any money but rather contributing a crack to the grip of the Iron Curtain.
Article comments