Brian May: "Hammer to Fall is really about life and death, and being
aware of death as being part of life. I was inspired, I think, by "Waiting for
Godot" ...although there are a lot of other things mixed up with it in there ...
The Hammer coming down is only a symbol of the Grim Reaper doing his job!! ...
the last verse of "Hammer to Fall"? Well, it's always been a personal kind of
part - the spectre of the mushroom cloud was absolutely a real part of my childhood
... we were constantly told it was going to happen, and we ought to hide somewhere
if the four-minute warning was given (how was it going to be given ???!!) And
we should not LOOK at the blast !!! As if there would be a choice ... In the musical,
the song (at my instigation, inspired by what Ben did with the script at the 11th
hour) became re-oriented as a struggle between two lovers. Constraints of sense
and time made this last verse difficult to include. So I was happy to leave it
out. The last verse is really, as I look at it now, one of my protests against
violent solutions, so it should not be too out of place in a Christian perspective,
though I am probably not a very good Christian!! And an awful lot of people in
the world STILL seem to be doing violence in the name of Christianity, which appalls
me. How our Western leaders justify this in their minds baffles me completely.
I am praying we soon get a change."
Credit: BrianMay.com