John Richard Deacon was born on this day in 1951, in Leicester, England. He was known as the quiet one in Queen – a more than able bassist, guitarist, keys player and songwriter with a first class honours degree in electronics, so in possession of some useful technical skills as well! He cobbled together components he found lying around in a skip and engineered a piece of equipment the band referred to as the ‘Deacy Amp’. It was used pretty much right throughout their heyday, unless my info is incorrect. I was fortunate enough to attend a show during theirWorks! tour, and much to my astonishment, still have the programme - all in one piece! I remember security being incredibly tight (not to mention the pants – jeepers). Quite a show that was – fantastic performance and staging!
Deacon may not have been one for the limelight, but his contribution to the success of the band is beyond dispute, as are his bass lines. He didn’t sing, other than backing vocals, but he did write one or two songs on each of their albums, could play a number of instruments, and did, and had a great working collaboration with Freddie, particularly. Not so much with Mr May (reading between the lines) – or at least not latterly, when they started wanting to follow different creative directions; in fact, he refused to let the rocket scientist record the guitar parts on several of the pieces he wrote and instead, did it himself, which led to some tension, as one might imagine.
Once Freddie had passed on, he had no further interest in the band – didn’t see the point in carrying on sans the presence of the mercurial one (with which sentiment I’m inclined to agree), and has now retired from the biz. He still manages the money though, which seems very sensible.
He wrote “Another One Bites the Dust” which while far removed from being my personal favourite, turned out to be their best-selling single. He also wrote “I Want to Break Free” which too is not much loved by moi. These are some more of his …
“Back Chat” caused a bit of in-house controversy but was taken on board by Mr Mercury (and Michael Jackson too) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6QGP0OUaV4
“You and I”- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir05RhMqpPI
“You’re My Best Friend” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZpZQG2z10
and “Spread Your Wings” – love this clip …
Deacon may not have been one for the limelight, but his contribution to the success of the band is beyond dispute, as are his bass lines. He didn’t sing, other than backing vocals, but he did write one or two songs on each of their albums, could play a number of instruments, and did, and had a great working collaboration with Freddie, particularly. Not so much with Mr May (reading between the lines) – or at least not latterly, when they started wanting to follow different creative directions; in fact, he refused to let the rocket scientist record the guitar parts on several of the pieces he wrote and instead, did it himself, which led to some tension, as one might imagine.
Once Freddie had passed on, he had no further interest in the band – didn’t see the point in carrying on sans the presence of the mercurial one (with which sentiment I’m inclined to agree), and has now retired from the biz. He still manages the money though, which seems very sensible.
He wrote “Another One Bites the Dust” which while far removed from being my personal favourite, turned out to be their best-selling single. He also wrote “I Want to Break Free” which too is not much loved by moi. These are some more of his …
“Back Chat” caused a bit of in-house controversy but was taken on board by Mr Mercury (and Michael Jackson too) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6QGP0OUaV4
“You and I”- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir05RhMqpPI
“You’re My Best Friend” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaZpZQG2z10
and “Spread Your Wings” – love this clip …
"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us." ~ Bill Watterson