ALEXANDER: The third volume of “Queen’s Greatest Hits” has recently followed its two predecessors to chart across the world. Freddie Mercury‘s charismatic vocal presence was accompanied by the ever-present wizardry of Brian May‘s guitar. Our “Flip Side” team met with Brian at his home studio near London and talked about life after Freddie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen, “The Show Must Go On”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN MAY, MUSICIAN: “The Show Must Go On” is written as a collection, which is a Queen song because we decided to credit everything to Queen after all. But that’s kind of, that, I regard that as my baby because most of that I wrote with Freddie sitting right here and it was a great experience because Freddie at that time wasn’t really able to or willing to expose himself in terms of lyrics except at certain particular instances. And he knew about this idea. He knew that it related to the way we felt about him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen, “The Show Must Go On”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAY: When I sang the guide vocal for Freddie — and most of it I had to sing falsetto because I couldn’t sing that high — and I was going to Freddie, is this OK? And he downs a vodka and goes into the studio and just nails it. And I think it’s one of his finest performances ever, the original version of “The Show Must Go On.”
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen, “The Show Must Go On”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAY: We had the idea to remix “Under Pressure,” which is the song we did with David Bowie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen and David Bowie, “Under Pressure (Rah Mix)”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAY: When we came to make the video, we had the opportunity to do something different and we were thinking what can we do here? And what it begs is to have something live and we suddenly realized we have live tapes of “Under Pressure.” We have Freddie singing it. That’s when he sang it, you know, one of the last times we ever did the song. We also had Bowie singing it at the tribute to Freddie. One was in the darkness and one’s in the light, but with modern video technology, digital stuff, you can do that stuff.
So Freddie and Bowie are there next to each other, which is something which had been, would have been great to see on stage but you can only see it in this video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen and David Bowie, “Under Pressure (Rah Mix)”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAY: I don’t really visualize Queen without Freddie, to be honest. No. I think I more visualize turning over a page and there he is again, like, oh, hi, Fred, you’re back. Great. OK. Let’s just get on with it. I think we all live in this kind of strange place because he seems very much alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen and George Michael, “Somebody To Love”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAY: I think it’s nice to do one-offs and Elton and George Michael are both great singers and great personalities. And I think if you speak to them, they would feel the same, to try and recreate something which had a wonderful moment and is gone I think is a mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAY: I think “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a great piece of work and it’s really all Freddie’s thing. It’s Freddie’s baby more than anything else and whatever was in his mind at that point was something pretty bizarre. And I feel very proud of it as a piece of work and I was very happy to see it voted as the song of the millennium. We went and received our award for that, which is very nice. That was in a poll in England. I don’t know if that happened elsewhere. And we were voted sort of the number two group to the Beatles, which is lovely, you know, over the last thousand years.
Roger and John and I are very good friends still and socially we’re probably better friends than we ever were. But we like, we all like to do things in a different way now. You know, we were part of this great team for all those years but there’s a certain benefit in not being in a team in that way anymore and I think we’ve all found our freedom to an extent since Queen was no longer a going concern.
The nice thing about Queen is that Queen never got old. I’m getting old, but Queen doesn’t get old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Queen, “These Are the Days of Our Lives”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDER: Queen was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, but surprisingly didn’t make the cut.
==============
This week the nominations for the Grammys were revealed and Serena Yang was in Los Angeles to cover the event for WORLD BEAT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SERENA YANG, WORLD BEAT (on camera): Thanks, Brooke.
Well, the 42nd annual Grammy race is officially underway with this week’s announcement of the nominees for the award show’s top categories.
(voice-over): A star-studded lineup of artists named the nominees for 13 of the award’s most notable categories and it was a morning of surprise for many of the announcers themselves.
ROZONDA “CHILLI” THOMAS, TLC: For best new artist, the nominees are Christina Aguilera, Macy Gray.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Macy Gray, “I Try”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACY GRAY, BEST NEW ARTIST NOMINEE: I’m having a ball. I’m really excited and just to have my first record nominated is amazing. I’m pretty blown away. CHRISTINA AGUILERA, BEST NEW ARTIST NOMINEE: I was thrilled. I was shocked, first of all, you know, because I’d only had one song out this year, “Genie In A Bottle,” barely going on my second single, “What A Girl Wants” and I couldn’t believe that that’s all it took.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Christina Aguilera, “Genie In A Bottle”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARTINA MCBRIDE, BEST FEMALE COUNTRY PERFORMANCE NOMINEE: For song of the year, the nominations are “I Want It That Way” by Backstreet Boys, songwriters Andreas Carlson (ph) and Max Martin, “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin, songwriters Desmond Child (ph) and Robbie Rosa (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Ricky Martin, “Livin’ La Vida Loca”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DESMOND CHILD, SONG OF THE YEAR NOMINEE: We tried to create a unique song, a new sound for the new millennium because it has elements of Latin music, of arena music, of swing, of bebop, of hip hop.
MCLACHLAN: For album of the year the nominees are The Backstreet Boys for “Millennium,” Dixie Chicks for “Fly,” Diana Crowe (ph) for “When I Look In Your Eyes,” Santana for “Supernatural” and TLC for “Fan Mail.”
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TLC, “No Scrubs”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YANG: R&B trio TLC earned six nominations, but the highest scoring artist this year is Carlos Santana, who earned 10 nominations, including categories for album of the year and record of the year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Santana with Rob Thomas, “Smooth”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL GREENE, RECORDING ACADEMY PRESIDENT: Carlos Santana, of course, has been an inspiration for many, many years for so many musicians and for him to have 10 nominations this year, it really speaks volumes about the fact that there’s a real diversity that exists in music these days.
YANG: WORLD BEAT will continue to follow the awards process and we’ll bring you a special report from the Grammy awards ceremony here in Los Angeles in February.
I’m Serena Yang handing you back to Brooke in New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDER: The music of North Africa meets Western pop when we return for an “Inside Track” with a megastar of Algerian rai, Cheb Mami.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALEXANDER: Rai has been called the blues of North Africa, a rhythmic blend of Arabic and Western music. French Algerian artist Cheb Mami is taking rai even further, fusing it with rap, Latin and even techno. He has topped the charts in Europe and he has recently completed a duet with Sting.
“Inside Track” presents Cheb Mami.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Meli Meli”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEB MAMI, MUSIC: Rai music was born in Algeria in the 1920s. It was a music sung by women and later developed by the chebs (youth).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Meli Meli”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: At first, it was a little difficult because the authorities said rai music was vulgar because we used simple words, words from the street.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Parisien Drug Nord”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: It wasn’t poetry or some beautiful life. Instead we sang about our daily life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Parisien Drug Nord”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: The music has succeeded in reaching even beyond the Arab world, and now they say it is part of our culture — before they were saying just the opposite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Azwaw 2”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: As an Algerian I was very shocked to see my country plunged into horror, but as a singer it was a combat. Every time I did a concert and saw the youth carrying the Algerian flag. It was like a resistance. Algeria is fighting against its pain and unhappiness, against people who wanted to kill it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Mama”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: The concert drew 80,000 people. It was the return of rai to Algeria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Mama”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: It was more than a concert, it went beyond music. From a symbolic point of view it was Algeria that was waking up, living again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Sting with Cheb Mami, “Desert Rose”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STING, MUSICIAN: Well, you know, he is one of the biggest stars in France. It’s quite easy to discover him. He’s all over the plate. But he’s not very well known in America and he should be. He’s an extraordinary singer, a very gifted singer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Sting with Cheb Mami, “Desert Rose”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MAMI: I was very flattered by his proposition because for me, it’s Sting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, Unidentified Song MAMI: I know rai very well, but if I said I didn’t want to mix it with other music, then I would be alone in my corner. I prefer to be open toward other musical styles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Cheb Mami, “Mama Rose”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDER: That’s it for this edition of WORLD BEAT.
Next week we will introduce a new segment to our show called “Cyberbeat,” reflecting some of the advances in music technology.
From me, Brooke Alexander in New York City, we leave you with an impromptu private performance from Cheb Mami and friends.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Source: http://cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0001/09/wbt.00.html