Crazy Little Thing Called Love The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
Fender Telecaster Electric Guitar
1: On 24th December 1977, the four Queen members were interviewed live for a Christmas Eve special on BBC Radio One. After playing Lap of the Gods, Tom Browne commented it sounded like "Beach Boys meet Wagner or something" and asked if it'd been a forerunner for Bohemian Rhapsody, to which Freddie replied "I suppose it could be progressed that way. I was beginning to learn a lot on 'Sheer Heart Attack', we were doing a lot of things which was to come on future albums, was to be used on future albums. Songs like that, yes, I suppose. Working out the harmonies and song structure did help on say something like Bo Rhap. Somebody said this sounds like Cecil B. De Mille meets Walt Disney or something. More to the point than The Beach Boys!" Unfortunately, when the 'A Night at the Opera' DVD was issued, Fred's words about Lap and something else he'd said about Black Queen were taken out of context and mixed in the Audio Commentary for Bo Rhap, thus forging information. Way to ruin an otherwise marvellous release. 2: "It was just one of those pieces I wrote for the album: just writing my batch of songs. In its early stages I almost rejected it, but then it grew. We started deciding on a single about halfway through. There were a few contenders - we were thinking of The Prophet's Song at one point - but then Bohemian Rhapsody seemed the one. There was a time when the others wanted to chop it around a bit, but I refused. If it was going to be released, it would be in its entirety. We knew it was very risky, but we had so much confidence in that song - I did anyway. I felt, underneath it all, that if it was successful it would earn a lot of respect" - Freddie Mercury (Sounds Magazine, January 1976).
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Overview & Background
This song's quite an abnormality: in spite of its multiple key-changes, disorienting rhythms, abrupt solo-tutti arrangement alterations, acyclic form, connexion between different styles and irregular structure, it enjoyed massive fame and prestige. The reasons? A very beautiful melody, an immaculate performance (both vocally and instrumentally), a heroic production, a phenomenal marketing strategy, a well-defined video and a number of myths and legends surrounding the song, some of which were generated deliberately, some others by accident. Here, some of those aspects are going to be commented, willing to offer an objective, serious and thorough analysis on this masterpiece, so profoundly talked about, yet so utterly enigmatic; a work that is deeply over-rated in some fields, though it's heavily under-valued in others; a song that's never been explained, but containing enough to fill a book with analyses. Bohemian Rhapsody was composed by Freddie Mercury sometime between May and August 1975 at his flat in London, and after a three-week recording session in five different studios (four in London, one in Wales), the song was finally ready. The single helped to promote their short UK tour that started in November, and after the video and the album were issued, Bo Rhap became the band's first #1 hit. After all these years, this masterpiece's longevity is astonishing: loads of people from different generations, cultures and musical tastes respect it and praise its originality. Only two singles have sold more copies in England: Candle in the Wind (the version released after the death of Princess Diana) and Do They Know It's Christmas? (by Band Aid). Music
& Lyrics by: Freddie Mercury Produced
by: Queen & Roy Thomas Baker Recorded:
Between 24th August and mid-September 1975 Main
Keys: Gm/Bb, Eb, A, F Acoustic
Drums, Timpani & Gong: Roger Taylor Lead
Vocals: Freddie Mercury Bohemian Rhapsody's usually credited as a pioneer in mixing opera and rock, in featuring a musical video and in being a hit single in spite of its length. None of those statements are true: Bo Rhap doesn't combine opera and rock (it alternates them, which is quite different), and even if it did, others had practised it before (e.g. The Who, David Bowie, Queen themselves with In the Lap of the Gods); there had been videos for over a decade before this one, and Hey Jude is just one of the several counter-examples we can find about the third so-called fact. Personally, I think Queen fans (or anyone who loves this track for that matter) should stop trying to justify its value by looking for "firsts" (don't get me started on the "180 voices" charade); Bohemian Rhapsody's indeed a masterpiece, and its originality lies in the marvellous way it's written, arranged and executed - there's no need to spread senseless rumours to boost its respect. Back in 1972, David Bowie's 'Man Who Sold the World' album (produced by Tony Visconti) already put operatic and rock elements together, for instance at the end of the title track (with a brilliant counterpoint of a multi-tracked Bowie and the distinctive guitar work from Mick Ronson). Two years later, Freddie would compose In the Lap of the Gods, described on BBC Radio One as "Beach Boys meet Wagner" (1). That track features a dramatic intro with Roger's high soprano screaming, Freddie's multi-tracked choir (in high, middle and low ranges), virtuoso piano arpeggios, chromatic bass, cymbal rolls and a three-part guitar-choir. Indeed, they'd done opera and rock simultaneously. Bo Rhap, otoh, had an a capella bit, a ballad section, an operatic interlude, a rock bit and a reprise: definite sections, so at one time it was opera, at one time it was rock, but it was never both. As for the long-hit, four cases spring to mind: Hey Jude (lasting over seven minutes, #1 in loads of countries including UK and USA), Stairway to Heaven (never hitting the charts as a single, yet an incredibly famous epic), In Agadda da Vida and Free Bird. All long, all successful, all wonderful, all before Bohemian Rhapsody. By the way, there's another well-known legend, claiming that the track had been trimmed down to six minutes, but the full version was longer. Again, nothing further from the truth (2).
By the time King Mercury created this piece, he was relatively young. Having been a professional musician for barely half a decade, it'd be surprising to realise he'd only got limited experience in this kind of songwriting. Otoh, he'd been wanting to make something like this for a long time, so it's possible that he used previous compositions of his as some sort of course. Freddie penned Bohemian Rhapsody at his flat in Stafford Terrace, playing either an upright piano he used to have there, or a Yamaha baby-grand he bought in Japan that year but at least until May it hadn't arrived to London, so it's not known whether Fred began at the upright and then switched to the baby-grand, or wrote it all in either one of them. Allegedly, Mercury's formula in those days consisted of having a clear image of how he wanted the song to be, so he changed the seminal idea as many times as required until it took shape as he wanted. That re-writing exercise usually brought excellent results: clever non-repetitive melodies, creative section variants, subtly-executed modulations were details that (unexplainably) pleased loads of listeners, even if they didn't know why, and at the same time astonished and earned admiration from those more musically-trained. In that matter, Freddie's first masterpiece had been Killer Queen. Note that the public, the critics and the band themselves usually refer to 'Races' as a follow-up to 'Opera', but actually, 'Opera' was in many ways a continuation to 'Sheer Heart Attack': Fred expanded on his vaudeville numbers (Leroy Brown --> Seaside Rendezvous / Sunday Afternoon) as well as his evil ones (Flick of the Wrist --> Death on Two Legs), John kept on contributing pieces to the band, Brian took his use of canons to a whole new level (compare Now I'm Here with Prophet's Song), Roger evolved in his vocal arrangements and performance. In fact, Mercury had also written We Are the Champions in 1975 (which would fill the missing link between Lap of the Gods ... Revisited and Somebody to Love when it comes to songs in ternary metre). In that matter, Bohemian Rhapsody inherited the outrageous complexity of My Fairy King, The March of the Black Queen and In the Lap of the Gods and the catchiness (in a humorous and almost 'camp' way) of Killer Queen and In the Lap of the Gods ... Revisited. The actual inspiration seems to be a secret, but what's well-known is that Bo Rhap showed how much its author had learnt in such a few time. That's pure craftsmanship. When Freddie wrote Bo Rhap, he was twenty-eight. At the same age, John Lennon had penned Because (also regarded as his band's magnum opus in terms of vocals), Paul McCartney composed Uncle Art / Admiral Halsey (which, like Bohemian Rhapsody, had acyclic structure and tempo changes), George Harrison came up with Try Some Buy Some, Roger Waters wrote San Tropez, Rich Wright did his masterpiece The Great Gig in the Sky, Dave Gilmour composed Wish You Were Here, Pete Townshend made 'Quadrophenia', John Entwistle Rigor Mortis Sets In and Steve Howe composed Awaken. It seems that 28's a great age for composers, as those younger than Freddie would come up with majestic pieces too: David Bowie composed Warsawa with Brian Eno, and that track features loads of operatic overdubs as well. Mick Ronson came up with Billy Porter, Billy Joel with Scenes from an Italian Restaurant (which is also in the form of a rhapsody), Elton John composed his epic I Feel Like a Bullet (In the Gun of Robert Ford) and Axl Rose penned his epic masterpiece Estranged (which has irregular form too, and doesn't mention the title in the lyrics). For classical musicians twenty-eight was a bliss too: Frederick Chopin started off his Op. 28 (24 preludes), Johann Sebastian Bach did his 3rd Suite in G Minor for Harpsichord BWV 808 (note that Bo Rhap also resembles suite forms, and it's in Gm as well), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Minor K457, Pyotr Tchaikovsky came up with 'Voyevoda', Antonio Vivaldi with Op. 1, Twelve Sonatas for Two Violins and Basso Continuo, Gioachino Rossini with the opera La cambiale di matrimonio. Regarding musicals, 'Evita' (Andrew Lloyd Webber) and 'Oh Kay!' (George Gershwin) were born when their respective composers were 28. And last but not least, Ludwig van Beethoven was that same age when he wrote his Symphony No. 1 in C Major, his String Quartet No. 1 and his Piano Sonatas No. 9 and No. 10, in E and G respectively. Freddie's connexion with theatre was more than evident here: abrupt changes of mood are present at various points, and each instrument is organised differently depending on the section. Bass, for instance, has a nice "character development", beginning by doubling left-hand piano, then doubling the guitar and then doing a slightly more melodic bit (still locked-up in some ways to Freddie's left hand). A short walkthrough from one section to another: - Intro: Scored for a four-part harmony, where the lead vocal is the second from the top. There's a guide piano edited out in the first bars, doing Freddie's usual performance: left hand plays octave bass, right hand does arpeggios and broken chords. There's a percussion overdub (cymbal rolls during "wind blows"). - 1st Verse: There's only piano (doing the famous hand-crossing lick), bass (playing roots) and lead vocal. - 1st Chorus: Drums kick in. - 2nd Verse: Full backing-track combo (piano, bass and drums), with Brian doubling treble piano with guitar harmonics. - 2nd Chorus: Rhythm guitars enter as well as two different bounces of backing vocals (both two-part). - Solo: Backing track is still piano, bass and drums; there are rhythm and lead guitars. No lead vocal but a two-part harmony in descending motion. - Opera Section: Solo-tutti alternations on vocals, piano is the main instrument (sometimes there's only right hand, sometimes only left, sometimes both), bass and drums appear in the fortissimo bits. There are timpani in the three "Bismilah"'s, and an extra snare. Several choral parts are counterpoints. - Rock Section: Backing track is still piano, bass and drums. Guitars play the same lines as the bass, and lead vocals are double-tracked. At the end there are four scales, three of them played by guitar and the last one by left-hand piano. - Outro: Guitar-fanfare, harmony vocals and of course, piano, bass and drums. When lead vocal enters bass is gone, and after the last "nothing really matters" drums stop, leaving only piano and lead guitar (shades of The March of the Black Queen, only that here there's no coda). At the very end, there's a gong.
After a three-week rehearsal period at Herefordshire, Queen went to Rockfield Studios in Wales to start off the album. Fred's Thing, as it was originally labelled by the producer, began on 24th August 1975. The first part was to lay down piano, bass and drums, which they did live, leaving some empty spaces for what would come afterwards. According to Roger, they didn't know what Freddie was thinking of putting there, so it was rather confusing. Then the lads went to London and tried out Scorpio Studios, where they layered vocal overdubs. After having some problems with the console, they went to Sarm East, another great studio for vocal and guitar harmonies (Prophet's Song would be done there too). Eventually they went to the converted church known as Wessex Studios in Highbury, where they layered some more vocals and percussion, and to the small studio in Saffron Hill known as Roundhouse, where there was a Cadac console Roy was fond of. Since they only had 24 tracks, they'd usually combine different instruments or vocals on the same ones. For instance, the gong only appears at the end, so the rest of the track could be used for something else, same for guitars (which didn't appear on the intro or opera sections).
Mixing was done live at Sarm East by Roy and Freddie, switching tracks on and off and controlling the volume. There weren't any sort of console effects (except for some reverb), since Roy was fond of human-generated effects: instead of adding phasing to backing vocals, he made Freddie record each part with the effect in his headphones, so he could reproduce it better. For guitars, it was a similar approach: the mellow sound came from Brian's accurate double-tracking, which is something machines can't quite reproduce. A short comment on the way each instrument was mixed: - Drums: There's an odd distortion, caused by generation copies. That big in-your-face sound was partly accidental, yet a key factor of Queen's trademark records. - Percussion Overdubs: Loads of reverb on the gong and the cymbal rolls, but not those that can be achieved through outboard equipment. I guess that's the natural echo from Wessex studios (check out We Will Rock You for another powerful percussion). - Timpani: On the contrary, those sound somehow "dry", which suggests that either Roger played them in a different studio, or that the engineers applied a darker EQ, a clever choice because, by one side, too much reverb would have caused a disturbing set of harmonics (considering there were enough to work on coming from drums, bass, piano and the octave "Bismilah" vocals), and by the other, Roger actually made a small mistake on the second "Bismilah". - Bass: As usual for Roy, it was spread in three tracks, one coming from the amp, another from the speaker, and the DI. Depending on the section, one of the signals had higher volume in order to get the appropriate sound. For instance, compare the bass during "Mamma, just killed a man" (probably coming from the speaker mostly), with the orchestral lines during the fanfare (chiefly DI). - Piano: Mixed stereo, thanks to the wonderful U67's they used. Freddie was always too keen on the piano sound, as evidenced in concerts (where he often changed volume depending on what he wanted). - Guitars: Again, there are different sounds depending on the section, as a result of the different studios and mics used. Five tracks were taken for the fanfare, probably with some bouncing so there were actually richer guitar layers. Although the musical side of Bohemian Rhapsody was clearly superior, the words are worthy of some comments: - "Is this the real life, is this just fantasy, caught in a landslide, no escape from reality": Quite redundant, isn't it? Btw, Freddie would revisit this theme some years later with his tribute to Lennon, Life Is Real. - "I'm just a poor boy": Found in the intro first and then the opera section. - "I need no sympathy": It was originally "in need of some sympathy", but later changed to the opposite. - "Easy come easy go": That line appears first during the intro, then at the opera section on double speed. - "Any way the wind blows": Quite an important statement since it's in the intro and then closes the song. - "Doesn't really matter to me": Another recurring motif, since it's paraphrased in the ballad section ("as if nothing really matters"), then the reprise ("nothing really matters anyone can see"). - "Mamma": Both Freddie and Brian had frequent references to parenthood in their songs. In the case of Freddie: "I have sinned dear father" (Liar), "Mother Mercury" (My Fairy King) and his last lyric, Mother Love. Brian, by his side, had Father to Son, Tie Your Mother Down, Good Company and Love Token. - "Mamma mia": Ironically, that's the title of the song that would knock Bo Rhap off the top. |
