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BECHSTEIN DEBAUCHERY Songs such as Love of My Life, Another One Bites the Dust, Under Pressure, Ride the Wild Wind and All Dead All Dead all have different qualities, come from different eras, different songwriters, and apply to different audiences. Likewise, they may work as some sort of laboratory for composers, producers, performers, lyricists or arrangers. It doesn't matter if you're an amateur or an expert, or if you're a skiffle, jazz or stomp musician, there's still a big chance you can progress through analysing an artist's catalogue, be it a classical composer, a rock band or a soul singer. This web aims to enhance the public's artistic knowledge using the British group Queen (1970-1991) as textbook. Virtually any other phenomenal band (e.g. Pink Floyd, Depeche Mode or even Green Day) could have worked for the same purpose, so the reasons why Queen were chosen as pilot for this project were mainly two: the broad range of styles and trends they cover (for being a rock band, there are loads of songs they recorded which aren't rock at all), and the fact they are, to date, the only four-person group where each member penned at least two #1 hit singles. Every mainstream act in popular music tends to be grossly over-rated, and Queen weren't the exception. Let me assure you, dear readers, that neither mixing rock and opera, nor combining classical piano with distorted guitar choirs, nor layering dozens of tracks, nor taping videos, nor having a filler-free compilation, nor causing traffic jams, nor using coins instead of plectra, nor bringing complex music to the masses, nor testing De Lane Lea studios, nor touring Latin America, were first done by these lads. Other so-called inventions, such as five-eyed covers or nude biking ladies, could be true, but utterly irrelevant. In the same vein, Queen didn't stop famine, prevent global warming, impulse Perestroika, discover a vaccine or change the development of epistemological parapsychology. What's the one truly superb accomplishment from those blokes? One very simple, yet uncommon: they chose to do what they liked to do, they did it well and they made a living, friends, fame and a career out of it. They were professional musicians, extraordinary composers, good performers (enough to play, sing and co-produce most of their own material) and all-rounded artists. And that's it, indeed. Now, in this web you'll find some comments on Freddie's, Brian's, Roger's and John's musical careers, focusing on three main aspects, which are creativity (both in songwriting and arrangements), performance (both instrumental and vocal) and equipment. Please take any useful approach you find here and incorporate it to your own unique style. As Dr May's often said "you don't have to sound like us, you have to sound like you". With favourable assistance from many contributors, 'Bechstein Debauchery' will hopefully keep on growing, slowly expanding to deeper levels of analysis, more interesting data on instruments, more thorough copy-editing and a more dynamic layout. There's a small section commenting other artists' creations, which is an important step in the process: remember that this is a Queen site, but we don't mean to undervalue anybody else's work. Maintaining an unbiased perspective is hard, but crucial. Another key element in this project is of course encouraging visitors to share their own expertise, ideas, corrections or mere feedback (which is very important to us). Again quoting His Mayesty: "everyday I want to build a new world, but I've had no-one to build it with ... it's a hard business to make it on your own". Your visit's a big honour for us. Please enjoy your stay. Cheers!
- Freddie Mercury usually wrote first the melody and chords for his songs (either at piano, guitar or synth), and then lyrics, but for some cases he applied a reversed approach, such as his #2 hit Killer Queen and his tribute to John Lennon Life Is Real. - Brian May had (and still has!) the habit of using exotic unique instruments and tools for recordings. Several acoustic guitar bits were done on a cheap old Hairfred he'd got since he was a child, and throughout the Queen discography he recorded with plastic piano, a toy koto, a ukelele-banjo and of course his legendary Red Special homemade guitar, using a sixpence coin instead of a pick, and plugging it to an amplifier John Deacon made. - Roger Taylor's lyrics frequently fall into some recurring themes: criticising modernity and throw-away society (One Vision, Innuendo, More of That Jazz), expressing young lust (Tenement Funster, Loser in the End, Action This Day) or nostalgia (These Are the Days of Our Lives, Radio Ga Ga or his solo track No More Fun), or describing a new stage in life (Modern Times Rock N' Roll, Drowse and of course Breakthru). There are several songs which fall into various categories. - John Deacon was an excellent guitarist, and he often played acoustic parts, as well as electric rhythm, in the studio. His choices for equipment were in concordance with the rest of the group's: Martin and Ovation acoustic guitars, Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster electric ones. Freddie and Brian used Martin as well, all four used Ovation, Tele's and Strat's. - The "no no no no no no no" bit in Bohemian Rhapsody is written as a first-species counterpoint for counter-tenor, tenor and bass, which were done by Roger, Brian and Freddie respectively (although the three of them were tenors). That bit uses eleven off the twelve pitches in Western music - the only one missing is C. - Usually, the author of each song took care of its arrangements (for all instruments and voices) as well as production and structure, unless he wanted to "open up" and let others contribute. If so, contrary to what would be expected, Freddie's input wasn't necessarily on vocals or piano, Brian's wasn't always on guitar parts, Roger's was often outside the percussion department and John's could easily be for other details besides bass. For instance, Brian added some lyrics to Freddie's It's a Hard Life, and Freddie on his side wrote the bass leitmotif for Roger's A Kind of Magic. - Queen had their share of ghost contributors, just like probably any band of their rank. Most notably, English singer Peter Straker wrote a couple of lines in I'm Going Slightly Mad, producers Reinhold Mack and David Richards played synthesisers in some songs, and there were recordings where percussion was played by members of the crew, which went uncredited. - Musically, the most complex song in the band's catalogue is Bohemian Rhapsody, and the simplest is Loser in the End. The album with the most use of advanced compositional tricks is 'A Night at the Opera', and the one with the least is 'The Game'. |
