Queen: Killer Queen Meaning
Song Released: 1974
Covered By: 5 Seconds of Summer (2018)
Killer Queen Lyrics
In her pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Kruschev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline
Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:The song is about a high class call girl. he's trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. there is reference to Mary Antoinette, the queen of france during the french revolution. She was there living the high life and when informed of the peasants not having bread, she ignorantly replied with "then let them eat cake". hense the line.
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2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:You could be right bout the drag queen but I doubt the prostitute would have caviar cigarettes and buy perfume from Paris! No I reckon it's about a conwomen that preys on men "to avoid complications she never kept the same address" and then kills them "guarunteed to blow your mind"
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3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:Does this song really need more interpretation? It's just talking about a woman who is amazing in every way. Even amazing enough to remedy the tension between Kruschev and Kennedy, Cold War guys!
I mean does it really matter if it was about a whore or not? The point is just that she's a classy, killer queen! Teasing, playful, speaks eloquently, hard to satisfy. Guaranteed to blow your mind! -
The first lines are about the producer that rejected Queen. The rest of the song is about Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn was seen with Kruchov and Kennedy and went down to China with a fashion designer. She didn't give a rat's butt about fancy cars.
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Somerset Belenoff. Look into it. Truly the killer queen and Freddie must have bumped into her somewhere in his flamboyant partying.
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I think this song is quite a fun tune, and no really deeper meaning, but after thinking about it, here's my opinion:
This song could possibly be about Mary Austin. I know, at this point in Freddie's song writing life, he was still in love with her, and believing himself straight. However, the lyrics "anytime an invitation, you can't decline" could foreshadow Freddie's undying love for Mary, and that if she ever came back to him, he wouldn't be able to decline. I know this is physically impossible, because at when this song was written Freddie loved only Mary, and didn't know his sexuality, but I just think that it could mean something different.
The line "met a man from China" could suggest that Mary has met someone else, but unknown to Freddie. "Temporilily out of gas" could mean that just for a bit, Mary and Freddie's relationship has no heat, or is getting difficult to maintain. This foreshadows their tragic breakup, the word temporilily is misinterpreted, because (unknown to Freddie) it is permenatley out of gas.
I know this theory is impossible, but I just thought it would be fun to look deeper into the lyrics of one of my favourite Queen songs.
P.S. sorry for any spelling errors. -
The song is about a man that Freddie Mercury was in love with. It was not David Minns. According to an interview in the movie Mercury Rising, we learn that it was about a man named Eric who worked for publicly broadcasting Queen. The song is about how Freddie is in love with Eric, but Eric is not homosexual, and is therefore killing Freddie.
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I disagree with the top post. This song was written/recorded in 1974 and off the "Sheer Heart Attack" album. Freddie, did not meet David Minns until the summer of 1975 while recording "A Night at The Opera". A whole year later. (from the official book of Queen "As It Began)
That said, I think it was just a made up, fun song, set to the vaudeville style music Freddie liked to do on his early albums. Sure Minns can say he had Moet de Chandon, I'm sure lots of wealthy people did, but he did not know Freddie at this point, so it's not about him. Back then, no one could corroborate his story. Biographies and the internet have changed all that. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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The song is about a whore with high class. Maybe refers to Marilyn Monroe.
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This song is about Marilyn Monroe... when he said in his interview "It's about a high class call girl... I'm trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. That's what the song is about, though I'd prefer people to put their own interpretation upon it" and then the lyrics of Kruschev and Kennedy... Marilyn Monroe and Kennedy had an affair together (so to say) during the Cold War between him and Kruschev (USA and Russia). "Let them eat cake" refers to her as well because in actuality Marilyn Monore enjoyed her fair share of cake, and Queen drew on the parallel of Marie (Antoinette) with Marilyn Monroe... (through the Marie/Marilyn name similarity.)
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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The lyrics "Dynamite with a laser beam" refers to a particular girl who was an early laser light show operator. She had graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and at the time was working her way through NYU and paying for her drug habit as a high-priced "classy" call girl.
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Everyone here seems to miss the obvious: All the songs Freddie wrote are personal and derived from his own life. They all have at least a dual meaning - not just because he was gay, but because he was very different in real life from his stage persona.
At the time Freddie wrote Killer Queen, he knew for sure he was gay and even though still lived with Mary Austin, he was heaving a relationship with David Minns. The latter was a high class music industry executive and if you read the full quote of Freddie's explanation of the meaning of the song, he says: "I'm trying to say that classy people can be whores as well."
In an interview, Mr.Minns said that the song was most likely written about him, because he kept Moet et Chandon in his cabinet, and I would not be surprised one bit. This was the first homosexual relationship for our beloved Freddie and he was head over heels in love with David. He even wrote the song You take my breath away for him. If you watch the performance of that song in Hydepark, there is such a raw emotion in Freddie's voice and face - something I had never seen before in him.
I think he finally came to grips with who he was sexually and stopped suffering from the constant doubts and inner fight, due to the traditional values instilled in him by his parents and the Catholic boarding school he attended until he was 16 years old.
Something else that comes to mind for the reason the song was written is that David could have cheated on Freddie. The latter still loved him very much, but was also bitter and that prompted the name, Killer Queen.
This is my take on it, but we will never know for sure what any of his highly intelligent and complex songs meant really. -
Its about a high priced hooker
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