BURNING THE GROUND EXCLUSIVE 1985
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech on August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.
“One Vision” is a song written and recorded by British rock band Queen, first released as a single in November 1985 and then included on their 1986 album A Kind of Magic. The song was alson included on the soundtrack of the 1986 film Iron Eagle. It was originally conceived by Roger Taylor.
The song has been speculated to be inspired by either the band’s “show-stopping” performance at Live Aid earlier in 1985, or by the life and exploits of Martin Luther King, with the lyrics recounting a man battling and overcoming the odds. In the 2011 BBC documentary, Queen: Days of Our Lives, Taylor stated his lyrics were “sort of half nicked off Martin Luther King’s famous speech.
“One Vision” contains mysterious and distorted beginning vocals (which on the album and extended versions, also appear throughout Roger Taylor’s drum section and in the end), most prominently the vocals retained in the single version.
The most prominent distorted vocals relay new lyrics when played forwards—they say, “God works in mysterious ways… mysterious ways…”. It is clearly shown during the portions of the studio recording session of “One Vision” on both the Magic Years documentary and the DVD Greatest Video Hits II that Freddie Mercury sings the line.
The final line of the song (in the studio, live, and “Blurred Vision” versions, in the album and extended versions the line before the final God works in mysterious ways… Mysterious ways…) is “fried chicken”, although the lyrics say “one vision”. This was the result of trying to come up with the proper wording of the song, and since it was not working, Mercury at some point introduced words that had nothing to do with the song for fun. The “fried chicken” survived, as a humorous note within the deep and inspired contents of the song.
An extensively remixed version of the song, titled “Blurred Vision” appears as the B-side of both the 7″ and 12″ single releases. It is exactly the same version on both formats. This is primarily an extended and completely different (but not in structure) version of Taylor’s drum section from the A-side. However, it retains the original ending, albeit with a longer version of the music from the end of the original’s intro plus an additional non-distorted sound over the final vocals “Vision vision vision vision…” (which are like those in the single version). It also repeats the existing famous distorted vocals, and adds new, less-prominent distorted vocals.
“One Vision” became another hit single for Queen in many countries, usually reaching the Top 40, where it did in the Netherlands (#21), Switzerland (#24), and Germany (#26). It also had very minor chart success on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #61. It became a big hit in the band’s native UK, peaking at #7 in the singles chart, a strong showing for a rock band at a time when pop music was by far the more dominant genre in Britain. It also made #10 on Australia’s ARIA Chart.
SIDE A:
One Vision (Extended Vision) 6:28
SIDE B:
Blurred Vision 4:40
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
CHART HISTORY:
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | One Vision | U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | #61 |
| 1985 | One Vision | U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | #19 |
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label: Capitol Records – V-15210
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Promo, Single
Country: US
Released: 1985
Genre: Rock
Style: Hard Rock, Arena Rock
Credits: Artwork By [Design] – Queen Created By The Artful Dodgers
Engineer – Mack (2)
Photography [Cover] – David Bailey With Thanks To Live Aid
Producer – Mack (2), Queen
Written-By – Queen
NOTES:
From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “Iron Eagle”
Recorded at Musicland, Germany & Maison Rouge, London.
Find The 12″ On DISCOGS
EQUIPMENT USED:
Turntable: Pro-Ject Debut III
Cartridge: Ortofon Super
Stylus: Ortofon OM Stylus 30
Pro-Ject Acryl-It platter
Pro-Ject Speed Box S
Bellari VP130 Tube Phono Preamp
Soundcard: ESI Juli@
VPI HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine
Brother MFC-6490CW Professional Series Scanner
SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Audition 3.0 (Recording)
Adobe Photoshop CS5
ClickRepair
dBpoweramp
Playlist Creator
RESTORATION NOTES:
All vinyl rips are recorded @ 32bit/float
Downsampled to 24bit/96kHz and16bit /44kHz using iZotope RX Advanced 2
FLAC (Level Eight)
MP3 (320kbps)
Artwork scanned at 600dpi
