Queen
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SEVEN SEAS OF RHYE
Index Queen II Seven Seas of Rhye

QUEEN II
Procession
BM
Father to Son
BM
White Queen
BM
Some Day One Day
BM
The Loser in the End
RT
Ogre Battle
FM
...Master-Stroke
FM
Nevermore
FM
March of the Black Queen
FM
Funny How Love Is
FM
Seven Seas of Rhye
FM
...Beside the Seaside
JGK

RECORDING SESSIONS
Trident
August 1973

ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL
Roy Thomas Baker  
a a a a
Mike Stone

INSTRUMENTS
Fender Precision Bass
e
e
Ludwig Drums
e
e
May & May Guitar
e
e
Steinway Piano
e
e
Tambourine

DEVICES
3M 79 16-Track Tape-Recorder
e
e
AKG Microphones
e
e
beyerdinamic Microphones
e
e
Dolby Noise-Reduction System
e
e
fOXX Foot Phaser Pedal
e
e
Ginger Baker Drum-Sticks
e
e
Hiwatt Amplifier
e
e
JBL Monitor Speaker
e
e
Lockwood-Tannoy Monitor
e
e
Neumann Microphones
e
e
Rangemaster Treble-Booster
e
e
Sony Microphones
e
e
Trident A-Range Console
e
e
Vox AC30 Amplifiers
QUEEN ARE

John Deacon
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
Brian May
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
Freddie Mercury
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
a
Roger Taylor

OVERVIEW

The band's very first hit, and not the most logical choice for a single. However, it had enough nice and unexpected details for people to grow fond of it including a memorable piano intro, some very nice harmonies, a guitar solo that almost sounds like a fiddle at some points, great vocals, strange lyrics and daring production.


SONGWRITING
Intro
Verse
a
a
a
Verse
Chorus
a
Intro'
a
a
Solo
a
Verse'
a
a
a
Verse"
a
a
Intro"
a
a
a

The main key is D Major and there are some modulations to G and B-Flat. Form's relatively simple and single-material but the fact there's not a sing-along repetitive (and recurring) chorus makes it a bit hard to memorise... on paper.

But Freddie managed to make it likeable which is all that matters.

INSTRUMENTS

Besides the basic Queen combo there's a tambourine for the second cycle, probably played by Roger. Note the very nice slides on the guitar choirs during the intro, sort of foreshadowing what vocals would do at the end of the chorus.

VOCALS

Freddie sang lead (sometimes double-tracked, it seems) and there are harmonies by Roger, Brian and himself. Roger sang the high 784-Hz G at the end of the chorus. Not his highest note ever but one of his most famous.

QUOTES

I never understood a word of it, and I don't think Freddie did either, but it was just sort of gestures really, but it was, it was a fine song. It was a real goer to, uh, but our first sort of real hit, bit hit, International hit, was Killer Queen, and that was a song which we spent ages literally sort of crafting, and er, I think it shows. I think it still sounds good today. Its you know its well played, it sounds good, its well sung, harmonies are good and its got a very original lyric. I think its er, stands up well.

Roger Taylor, BBC Radio 2, 6th November 1999


Its roots go back a long way because there’s a little fragment of it on the very first album, the first Queen album, Freddie had this idea in his head but it wasn’t really developed so we just put down what we had at the end of that album. And then we thought it would be a good basis for the single, and again, it was very collaborative – we all threw things in. But you know, throw all the harmonies, all the guitar harmonies, all the bombast, all the smoke bombs, it’s all in Seven Seas of Rhye.

Brian May, Absolute Greatest Audio Commentary, 2009
This article’s been written and researched by Sebastian (sebastian@queenconcerts.com), with a lot of direct and indirect help from who knows how many people. As any academic work, it may have mistakes and it things that can be rendered wrong in the future (remember there was a time when scientists thought the earth was flat). All of the information found here has been carefully checked and verified as much as possible. It still does NOT mean it's a 100% error-proof research (even the people who were there make mistakes about what happened) but it does ensure that it's way more than mere speculation and guessing. Not being able to prove everything is not the same as not being able to prove anything.

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