Is This the World We Created...?

"Is This the World We Created...?"
Song

"Is This the World We Created...?" is an extraordinarily delicate social and environmental protest song by the British rock band Queen, which was originally released on their eleventh studio album The Works in 1984.

The song was played at every Queen concert from 1984 to 1986. It was part of the finale at Live Aid in 1985. The song is the shortest one on the album but still is one of the most famous songs on it. It has more than 20,000 hits on Last.fm.

About

Is This the World We Created...? was written in Munich after Mercury and May watched the news of poverty in Africa; Mercury wrote most of the lyrics and May wrote the chords and made small lyrical contributions.

The song was recorded with an Ovation but live May used Taylor's Gibson Chet Atkins CE nylon-stringed guitar. A piano was tracked at the recording sessions for this song, but ultimately not included in the final mix. Originally, a Mercury composition, "There Must Be More to Life Than This" (which was around since the Hot Space sessions and finally ended up on his solo album Mr. Bad Guy) was supposed to be the album's last track. Was written in the key of B minor, but the recording sounds one semitone lower.

The song was performed at Live Aid as an encore, with additional instruments and arrangements in the last part; changes was present also in the vocal line.

Covers

In 1988 the song was covered by English singer Elaine Paige on her The Queen Album solo release.

Personnel

• Freddie Mercury - lead vocals
• Brian May - acoustic guitar

"Live Aid" lyrics change

The "Live Aid" lyrics version differ from the studio album version in some part:

• "So many loneliness, scattered all around" vs. original "So many lonely faces, scattered all around"
• "Elsewhere a wealthy man, Is sitting on his throne" vs. original "Somewhere a wealthy man, Is sitting on his throne"
• "looking down, what must He think" vs. original "looking down, what can He think"