Music Video Commentary: A Kind of Magic – Queen

I love that the Queen Official YouTube Channel has a playlist of “Queen’s Most Flamboyant Videos.”  It’s a great list (although how is “Body Language” not on there, really?), and you should check them all out here.  But this music video has particular charm.

• Appreciate the clothes of the band, especially hobo!Queen.  Not that they look much better with magic.  80s.
• Pay special attention to the sweet video editing at 3:11.  Wow, special effects.
• This is one of the many songs that has a tie-in to the movie “Highlander,” which is why it has a special place in my heart.  I’m endlessly amused at the varying definitions of magic.  What type of magic is Freddie supposed to have here?
• But teasing aside, it is amusing to see them playing with different special effects (much like they do in, say, “Invisible Man”) and really testing their boundaries as a band.  I feel like this is a point in Queen’s life where they had done everything and were sort of seeing what they could get away with (see, the last lyrics in “One Vision”).
• It’s a fun song and a fun project connected to a canon that can sometimes take itself very seriously, because the story can be emotional.  Questions of mortality, morality, etc.  But this reminds us of the lighter side of magic and immortality and the things we don’t understand.  Sometimes, things are just for fun.  And “A Kind of Magic” embraces that.