Stone Cold Crazy
| "Stone Cold Crazy" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
| "Stone Cold Crazy" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| A-side | "Enter Sandman" |
| B-side | "Enter Sandman (Demo)/Stone Cold Crazy" |
"Stone Cold Crazy" is a song by English rock band Queen from their successful 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. The song is the eighth track on the album. Although the song was never released as a single, it has been featured on Queen compilation albums and was played live at almost every show in their first ten years.
The song credit is shared between all the members of the band, although Mercury played it with his band Wreckage before Queen was created in the late 1960s. It was the first song Queen performed live in 1970, but the song underwent many changes musically and lyrically before getting recorded, resulting in credit going to the entire band. Early versions of the song were much slower, according to the band, although no bootlegs exist.
The lyrics feature a gangster theme, even mentioning Al Capone. A person is dreaming on a Saturday morning about being Al Capone committing various crimes, although the lyrics are very tongue-in-cheek and have humorous lines such as "walking down the street/shooting people that I meet/with my rubber tommy water gun".
In 2009 it was named the 38th best hard rock song of all time by VH1.[1]
"Stone Cold Crazy" is featured in the music video games Guitar Hero: Metallica and Rock Revolution.
Cover versions
Metallica covered the song as their contribution to the 1990 compilation album "Rubáiyát" – Elektra's 40th Anniversary. This cover version was later used as a B-side of their "Enter Sandman" single and subsequently won a Grammy Award; it also appeared on their covers/b-sides album Garage Inc.. The Metallica version of the song is more aggressive than the original; they also slightly altered the lyrics, adding two uses of the word "fuck" and changing the more humorous lines for more violent lyrics, such as "walking down the street/shooting people that I meet/with my fully loaded tommy gun".
James Hetfield once sang it together with Queen & Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame (singing Metallica's altered lyrics) at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Metallica also played the song as an encore during their 1991-'93 Black Album tour; it appears on the live CD Live Shit: Binge & Purge. Hellyeah played Metallica's version of Stone Cold Crazy on the 2007 Family Values Tour, sometimes referring to it under the title "Stone Cold Wasted".
Extreme also included part of the song during their medley at the same Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. The band Eleven has also recorded a cover, lending the spot of lead vocals to friend and Queens of the Stone Age front man Josh Homme (Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen).
See also
References
- ^ "spreadit.org music". Retrieved February 7, 2009.
