The song harks back to the old roots of the band, being built around a hard angular and muscular riff.

The music video was filmed in Brussels during The Works Tour, and features drummer Roger Taylor wearing an oversized message T-shirt ("CHOOSE LIFE") created by Katharine Hamnett.

[4] The lyrics at several points refer to the Cold War era in which the band members grew up, fuelling the popular conception that the song was about nuclear war: For we who grew up tall and proud In the shadow of the mushroom cloud The term "waiting for the hammer to fall" in the song was taken to refer to the anticipation by the public that Cold War would turn "hot" – or, alternatively, as a reference to the Soviet Hammer and Sickle.

[7] Live versions of the song in the 1980s also usually served as an opportunity for touring keyboardist Spike Edney to appear onstage playing rhythm guitar, as he was usually not visible from behind his keyboard stack.

[9][10] At the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, Extreme singer Gary Cherone performed the song with Queen and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, having previously done a medley of other Queen songs with his own group.