Queen - My Fairy King (1973)

In London, 1970, Farrokh Bulsara joined what remained of the local band he was a fan of, known as Smile. Still in the loosely assembled group at the time were guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Early in the following year, Bulsara renamed the band to its now-widely recognized name, seen above. Also at this time, in February 1971, the group finally discovered a bassist that they had enough chemistry to record with, and John Deacon completed the group’s lineup. Shortly after, Bulsara found inspiration in the lyrics of the song heard below, which he wrote, and changed his stage name to Freddie Mercury.

Written by Mercury and released on the group’s 1973 debut eponymous album, this song was the first by the group to feature Freddie on piano. Lyrically, the song is about the fictional world known as Rhye, also created by Mercury. The mentioning of the land would be repeated again later in their song “Seven Seas of Rhye.” In this song, however, the line sung, “Mother Mercury, look what they’ve done to me,” was said to be about Freddie’s mother. It is also this line, as touched on above, where Freddie found the inspiration for his new stage name.



Queen - My Fairy King (1973)

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Lyrics:

In the land where horses born with eagle wings
And honey bees have lost their stings
They’re singin’ forever to you
Lions’ den with fallow deer
And rivers made from wines so clear
Flow on and on forever
Dragons fly like sparrows through the air
And baby lambs where Samson dares
To go on, on, on, on, on

My Fairy King can see things
He rules the air and can see things
That are not there for you and me to see (Ooh, yeah)
My Fairy King can do right and nothing wrong

Then came man to savage in the night
To run like thieves and to kill like knaves
To take away the power from the magic hand
To bring about the ruin to the promised land

They turn the milk into sour
Like the blue on the blood of my veins
(Why can't you see it?)
Fire burnin' in Hell with the cry of a screaming pain
(Son of Heaven, set me free and let me go)
Sea turns dry, no salt from sand
Seasons find no helping hand
Teeth don't shine like pearls for poor man's eye (No more)

Someone- someone has drained the color from my wings
Broken my fairy circle ring
And he shamed the King in all his pride
He changed the winds and wronged the tides
Mother Mercury
Look what they've done to me
I cannot run, I cannot hide