Another World (Brian May): 'On My Way Up'

I recently read a story about a letter written World War II that was delivered after 76 years. Its writer, who died a few years ago, was an American stationed in Germany at the time and had written to his mother back in the US. The letter was recently delivered to his widow (nobody knows the reason for the delay), who stated, “It’s like he came back to me, you know?”I've had a similar feeling about my mum since writing my autobiography, ‘Bohemia Place’, which I published as an E-book on Amazon at the end of last year.

Now I’m starting a new project to accompany the re-release of Brian's second album, ‘Another World’. The track I’ve chosen to start with is ‘On My Way Up’, What better song to start us off, to get energised, propelling ourselves into this New Year? A way to feel invigorated, and to ‘Januarise’ your life, if you like? The most important of our time frames is the present, of course, but January is named after the Roman god Janus, who looks both backwards - into the past - and forwards - into the future. There’s a problem with him, though: he appears to do both with equal weight. We can’t dwell on the past -  it’s finished. At the same time, though, it shouldn’t be forgotten: that’s also very damaging, hence the way I’ve remembered mum, preserving her in my book. Nevertheless, the present and the future are all we have some control over. So Janus’s forward-looking head should, in fact, be bigger. The future holds all the excitement of an empty page, just waiting to be written on. 

Let's look at the title of this song, 'On My Way Up'. We associate ‘up’ and ‘down’ with our moods. The latter is a synonym of ‘depressed’, whereas the former provides us with the word ‘upbeat’, implying the opposite. The up-down theme is something else that came up in ‘Bohemia Place’, when I recalled (my memory jogged by one of Brian’s Instagram posts) a quote I used to have on my wall when a teenager, which was in German, and translates as ‘The way into the valley always leads me back on to the summit’. This spawns the idea that the ‘way up’ is unlikely to be easy: it’s an ‘uphill struggle’, as we say.

Brian recently put out an appeal for artists to contribute to a book to accompany the re-release of  ‘Another World’. As a writer who’s working towards a book to go with this album too, I’m on my own. I never set out to be exclusive – but that’s just the way it is: everyone has their unique story to tell, choosing their own way to tell it, according to their talents. I’m alone here in my writing, but, like that mountaineer returning again and again to the summit, it’s a life-affirming thing for me - I’m not in a lonely place.

 I suppose that I’ve never needed recognition in order to write, although it would’ve been appreciated, of course. Back in the days when I wrote pieces for the Queen Fan Club magazine, I only remember one person complimenting me. If I dwelt on that, I’d simply give up. I suppose that I could at least say that I was ignored rather than criticised, whereas Queen themselves always had a great deal of negative press, especially at the beginning. Yet the musician plays to be heard, the artist paints to be seen, and the writer writes to be read. 

Just as I was about to start writing this blogpost, Brian posted on Instagram that Mazz Murray, (formerly ‘Killer Queen’ from the London ‘We Will Rock You’ show), had found a guitar outside Edgware tube station in London. First of all, I thought of the accounts from Brian’s old schoolfriend, Dave Dilloway, which I mentioned in 'Bohemia Place', that Brian had been very absent-minded while they were together in their schoolband, even leaving his beloved Red Special guitar around in places! Brian's post also made me think of an adaptation to the ‘six-word novel’ (attributed to Ernest Hemingway) - ‘Brian May: “Guitar found. Owner sought”'!

So now I’m embarking on another writing adventure – but at the same time promising that my stories will be longer than six words each!