Queen wrote about a lot of things throughout their long and storied career, from love to loss to complex storylines found in rock operas like “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Queen also paid homage to one of their real-life contemporaries in a particularly bittersweet piece of work. That piece of work is the 1982 song “Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)”. And unless you’re a diehard Queen fan, you may have never heard this John Lennon tribute before. I highly recommend you give it a spin.
Freddie Mercury wrote this unique song as a tribute to Lennon. However, it’s also a unique work for Queen for another reason. Namely, “Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)” was one of the extremely few and far between songs that Mercury wrote where the lyrics were fleshed out before the actual song.
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The Legacy of “Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)” by Queen
Freddie Mercury wrote the lyrics to “Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)” as a tribute to the former Beatle. For reference, Lennon was tragically shot and killed in 1980 by a former fan. Mercury’s tribute to Lennon wasn’t as dance-friendly as many of the other songs on the album it was featured on. Rather, the song has a soulful energy to it, and pays homage to the lyric “love is real” from Lennon’s song “Love” from the 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. And some of the lyrics of Mercury’s tribute are absolutely gutwrenching.
Sleeping is my leisure
Waking up in a minefield
Dream is just a pleasure dome
Love is a roulette wheel.
“Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)” made it to the 1982 album Hot Space after it was completed. The song, along with covers of “Imagine”, also made it to the band’s live tour that followed. Though, “Life Is Real (Song For Lennon)” never made it to the setlists of the band’s European leg of the tour. Rather, it was only performed a handful of times in North America.
Queen’s sweet ode to John Lennon was never released as a single. Still, it did receive quite a bit of airplay on the radio. So much so that this non-single from Hot Space managed to peak at No. 57 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. I’d like to imagine Lennon would be proud.
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