Queen: Another One Bites The Dust Meaning

Song Released: 1980

Another One Bites The Dust Lyrics

Steve walks warily down the street,
With the brim pulled way down low
Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet,
Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, are you ready for this
Are you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the...

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   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Aug 26th 2013 !⃝

   It's about someone who is a heart-breaker...and Steve is the one getting his heart ripped out in this case.
   The "shooter" is the person who is a serial heart-breaker...and "another one bites the dust" is just his/her latest victim.
   Steve can feel it coming...but gets nailed anyway.
   "Are you ready..are you ready for this...are you sitting on the edge of your seat?" is the singer telling the story...setting up the "Can you believe this?" moment to the listener.
   
   The serial heart-breaker moves on... "Another one bites the dust...and another one's gone..."
   
   The rumor that it was a song about AIDS must be wrong...The song was released on "The Game" album in 1980..Aids was still very rare and wasn't really known in the UK till 1981...and Mercury didn't become infected until the mid to late 80's (He claimed 1987). Freddy died in 1991 at the age of 45.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Oct 1st 2007 !⃝

   Queen has denied it having that backward message, and it doesn't even sound that much like it. If you try saying 'Another One Bites the Dust' backwards, like writing it out and sounding out all the vowels as they are, it SLIGHTLY resembles that phrase. It's all psychological, and it's all bullshit. Queen would never do something as stupid as that.
   
   And in a documentary, someone stated that Deacon heard the phrase in Texas, about the cowboys, as someone stated earlier. He meant it only as an American phrase, NOT a backwards message about marijuana. And obviously it worked, as it was a number one hit in the US. I also heard that it was Michael Jackson who suggested releasing it as a single, and Queen was like, are you mad?
   Sorry, this wasn't as interpretation either. But most of these comments aren't.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jun 15th 2009 !⃝

   Steve is an emotionally "beat up" young man. Fed up with society, parents, classmates, etc. And when his girlfriend/someone to hold on to breaks up with him/betrays him, he snaps!
   Steve takes out his anger/rampage at his school. Walking in silent hallways with his firearm ready. Students in classrooms he takes his revenge on. Jocks, cheerleaders, anyone he sees as a source of his pain eagerly sitting on the edge of their seats. Eagerly waiting to socialize, hang out, have fun, be popular; when out of a doorway the bullits rip, another one bites the dust. To the sound of the beat of each bullet, another one bites the dust!
   And another one gone and another one gone another one bites the dust!
   Steve took a stand for the first time in his life, on his own two feet. Tired of being beat up, cheated and left alone, another one bites the dust!
4. anonymous

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   Jun 21st 2021 !⃝

   Oh my goodness...are these people with their ridiculous interpretations for real? Geeze..knuckle head. All I know is Deacon wrote it

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Dec 12th 2020 !⃝

   That Steve has his heart broken so many times. And now his heart was broken again and he knew it was gonna happen.
6. anonymous

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   Apr 9th 2019 !⃝

   The John Deacon song Misfire, uses guns and shooting as (need I say it) a metaphor for male genitalia and sex as that song is about premature ejaculation. That said, John used guns, bullets and shooting again in this song (Freddie used it in Bohemian Rhapsody-put a "gun against his head. Pulled my trigger now he's dead)and I interpret it as a song that is about Freddie himself. Being close friends, he knew that Freddie was out there in the club scene, having sex with as many people as he could.
   
   "Steve" is Freddie, heading to a club. Not wanting to be recognized.
   
   Machine guns ready to go (he's ready for sex)
   
   Out of the doorway the bullets rip. Rip to the sound of the beat.(There's so much sex going on inside that it's almost pouring out of the doors, and people are having sex to the beat of the music)
   
   Another one bites the dust (Freddie. Going thru as many men as possible)
   
   How do you think I'm gonna get along
   Without you when you're gone? (I feel that this is where it breaks off and it is Deacon himself asking the question to Fred because I feel John had some issues and Fred was usually there to help him, but Freddie isn't around as much any more because of his new lifestyle. John's songs were filled with lines about missing someone, and being left alone)
   
   Are you happy, are you satisfied? How long can you stand the heat? (another question of Deacon's to Fred. Is this the lifestyle you want and how much longer can you go on having sex with so many people?)
   
   There are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man
   And bring him to the ground
   You can beat him, you can cheat him
   You can treat him bad and leave him when he's down (once again, John talks about someone leaving him, and I feel it is directed at Freddie. Esp. the leaving part. He needed Fred, and he wasn't around)
   
   But I'm ready, yes, I'm ready for you
   I'm standing on my own two feet(John stating that he perhaps has accepted the fact that Fred is not there to help, and he will have to take care of himself. He also brought this up in I Want To Break Free)
7. anonymous

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   Feb 3rd 2019 !⃝

   How can singers make or sing song that have a meaning playing it backwards??? That something evil, don't you think?

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Nov 13th 2018 !⃝

   If this song was released in today, it would clearly reflect the mass shootings happening almost daily. "Another one bites the dust" - just another victim of the violence, another head count. Maybe it was a warning to society, about how we were all becoming so detached from reality we would just report the headcounts, pause for a moment and move on with our lives unless it hits us directly....
9. MidnightQueen

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   Nov 19th 2017 !⃝

   Here's what I see-
   Verse one- Dumped "Lover/Husband" so furious with his exes decision to leave him, decides to go on the vengeance shooting spree(seen from a 3rd person viewpoint).
   Verse two- Is documenting his continued fury with his ex, and his mindset of how could She/or He. How long are they going to take the heat of the anger and range and things head for divorce, or similar (seen in the first person viewpoint)
   Verse three- Is again a picture of his rage (this time seen from the first person angle, via his thoughts).
   The "Shoot out" could be any major location of the exes usual hangout, a mall, salon, school, Etc.
   IMO it is entirely a story of a vengeful jilted lover taking aim at his ex
10. anonymous

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    Jun 8th 2017 !⃝

    Queen comments on the record[edit]
    “ I'd been wanting to do a track like 'Another One Bites The Dust' for a while, but originally all I had was the line and the bass riff. Gradually, I filled it in and the band added ideas. I could hear it as a song for dancing but had no idea it would become as big as it did. The song got picked up off our album and some of the black radio stations in the US started playing it, which we've never had before. Michael Jackson actually suggested we release it as a single. He was a fan of ours and used to come to our shows. —John Deacon[19] ”
    “ A fantastic bit of work from Freddie really. I mean, I remember Deacie having this idea, but Deacie doesn’t sing of course, so he was trying to suggest to Freddie how it should be and Fred just went in there and hammered and hammered until his throat bled, making... you know, he really was inspired bit and took it to a new height, I think. —Brian May[20] ”
    “ I remember laying down the backing track with him and... he really wanted the drums as dry as they could possibly be, so I just stuffed it all with blankets and made it as dead as I possibly could and very low tuned. —Roger Taylor[20]
    
    (Wikipedia)
    
    What it meant to the writer.
11. anonymous

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    Jun 7th 2017 !⃝

    Thank you for all the various interpretations. Steve is my favorite drummer who performs in Europe where terrorists are targeting /American bands! So I was going to make the singers in our band use another name until I read these!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    May 20th 2017 !⃝

    Queen was at Brisbane Grammar School's Outdoor Ed center in Australia. The band (including lighting and stage crew) were climbing the fidget ladder. John Deacon had fallen off and was watching everyone else try it. When someone fell off there would be a cloud of dust in the air. He thought up the beat and the song and that is where it came from.
13. anonymous

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    Nov 5th 2016 !⃝

    About the Protagonist who was boasting over another fallen evil ententie to overome that was believed to be after him and seeing ''another one bites the dust'' that fell behind, while the Protagonist was on the rise to fame and feeling confident in himself. Could also be about a personal war one might go through when addicted to drugs within the circle of friends with similar addictions. A time that was difficult to see some of them that psychologically droped out like flies, either from ''shooting'' to many drugs, but mostly was the addiction use of ''angel dust'' that was unfortunately evily introduced in the late 70's and on that messed up a lot of minds to drop out of ''the game''psychologically and of any competition that became dissociated to the mind and body forwhere ''another one bites the dust''.
14. anonymous

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    Oct 5th 2016 !⃝

    Steve, Old Steve etc is a known name for Heroin. It's about more and more people getting addicted to snorting heroin.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
15. anonymous

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    Jun 20th 2016 !⃝

    To me it clearly states in other words the homosexuality that they had another one bites the dust if they're having sex with each other and they're slowly dying off and numbers if you were relate some of those words with sex and AIDS in the wrong things that homosexuals do you see they just put them in other words Another One Bites the Dust hey we gotta get you to having no care in the world of spreading it dangerous disease of AIDS the machine gun basically represented the penis

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
16. anonymous

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    Oct 7th 2015 !⃝

    Really, this song has long been a reference to the Vietnam war. The machine gung being carried by the marching feet in the street. The signature walk the subordinates had marching with their gun up and their head low (brim down). The helicopter sound was a added touch by the producer latter on!
17. anonymous

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    May 15th 2015 !⃝

    The song starts as a story about Steve, armed and warily walking down the street, being cut down by bullets emerging from an open doorway. But the viewpoint of the song then shifts to that of another person, a former lover perhaps, who is angry at Steve for having taken him/her for everything that he/she had. So the brutal assassination with which the song starts is seen to be a fantasy of this jilted lover. But Steve continues to mistreat others the same way that he had mistreated the singer. How long can Steve "stand the heat" before the fantasy turns real? The singer predicts that some day, Steve will fall victim to someone's revenge.
18. anonymous

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    May 12th 2015 !⃝

    There is a bunch of people eating dust.

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