Crazy Little Thing Called Love The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
Fender Telecaster Electric Guitar
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After completing his hat-trick of leading singles (and hat-trick of top-ten hits), Freddie continued the new tradition with this beautiful ballad. From then on, the vast majority of his songs (both Queen and solo) would be about love, in one way or another: You Take My Breath Away, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, Get Down Make Love, Jealousy, Play the Game, Body Language, It's a Hard Life, Exercises in Free Love, Mother Love... This particular track would turn out to be Freddie's favourite, according to his best friend Peter Freestone. When asked if it was a follow-up to Bohemian Rhapsody, Mercury commented (Circus magazine, 31st January 1977): "I think it had a different kind of technical approach because it was a gospel way of singing. Which was different to us, and this is me going on about Aretha Franklin - going a bit mad. I just wanted to write something in that kind of thing. Sort of incensed by the gospel approach that she had on her earlier albums. Although it might sound the same approach on the harmonies, it is very different in the studio because it's a different range". Music
& Lyrics by: Freddie Mercury Produced
by: Queen Recorded:
Between July and November 1976 Key:
Ab Acoustic
Drums: Roger Taylor Lead
Vocals: Freddie Mercury
Somebody asked me the other day if this piece was musically complex. Well, in most ways it's not at all: only ten chords are used, there are no modulations, instrumental parts are simple, there's only one short bit with harmonised guitars ("yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah") and it's an elemental three-part thing; vocal arrangement doesn't feature any kind of counterpoint except when the bass-voice appears, and even then, it's the simplest kind. So, even if the song's marvellous, beautifully played and sung, has a breath-taking guitar solo and some nice antiphonal backing vocals, it's not complex in either harmony, rhythm or arrangements. Yet, there are indeed two aspects where it's really advanced: melody and structure (typical for Freddie). This song's based over three recurring sections (most of the time in variants), which are indeed quite similar to each other if we analyse them harmonically. Fred managed to build an entire song over them without making it sound monotone. An earlier example is The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke although in this case he took it one step further. The "intro" is actually a chorus variant (done mostly a capella) followed by a verse variant (played on piano). Again, this is a clever way to use recurring sections; Fred would apply the same trick in Don't Stop Me Now. With such meticulous and original approach to musical structures one can't help but thinking that Mercury would've been an extraordinary architect. But then of course, the world would've missed his voice and his fantastic songs.
As it's common for soul, barbershop and gospel music, the supertonic is replaced by the secondary dominant. Actually, there are some influences from that on Bohemian Rhapsody as well. The most distant functions here are #v (which only appears briefly when harmony vocals are doing an oscillating "anybody" before the last verse) and vii (also present in Keep Passing the Open Windows).
The first "anybody", arranged for seven voices. Harmonies are mostly antiphonal and parallel, and most of the time they're three-part (growing to six in the chorus, with bass-voice by Freddie and soprano by Freddie and Roger). The way Mercury used his lead voice as an instrument is worthy of praise: note his exquisite scales. It seems that, with exception of the top and bottom notes, they all sang every part, with some dominance from one of them in particular bits. For instance, "at the end of the day" is chiefly Brian, while the last "yeah" at the outset of the guitar solo is Roger. All in all, Freddie used most of his range here (low F to high Ab, three octaves and a minor third), and arranged a nice semi-counterpoint for the chorus:
The distance between the bass-voice and soprano grows, in semitones, from 12 to 15, then 19 and then 26. In maths, that's an arithmetic pattern: a, a + 3, a + 3 + 1, a + 3 + 1 + 4. Again, Fred would've been a great architect (or engineer)! As usual for these situations, backing track is formed by piano, bass and drums. John occasionally doubles Freddie's left-hand although most of the time his bit is independent (albeit not as melodic as in We Are the Champions, another 6/8 masterpiece). Brian on guitar only appears doing some overdubs here and there (including a three-part harmony on "yeah yeah yeah yeah") and a fantastic solo. Don't Stop Me Now would have a similar formula. Compared to the studio track, Somebody to Love had noticeable differences when done on stage: - More guitar work throughout - No bass-voice - Intro for piano & lead vocal - Longer interlude, having drums first, then adding vocals - Audience participation On 20th April 1992, Brian, Roger and John performed a marvellous version of this song with George Michael on lead vocals, Mike Moran on piano, Spike Edney on synth-organ and the London Community Gospel Choir. It eventually went to #1 in the UK, giving Freddie a posthumous top-hit (years later, McFly would do the same with Don't Stop Me Now). Noticeable differences: - Played in the key of G - No vocal intro - The public sings the descending scale - Phrasing is quite different on "everybody wants to put me down" All in all, great version. Indeed, Freddie had said in the Mike Reid '89 interview (the last ever made to the band) that his favourite rock singers were George Michael and Robert Plant (and he did not mention Paul Rodgers, btw).
One of Freddie's idols was this extraordinary musician (born in Memphis on 25th March 1942), who sings marvellously, plays piano and is also a good songwriter and arranger. Although Mercury followed her career closely, he seemed to have been more interested in her early work. Some quotes about her: Roger Taylor (Circus magazine, 31st January 1977): "Somebody To Love is Aretha Franklin-influenced. Freddie's very much into that. We tried to keep the track in a loose, gospel-type feel. I think it's the loosest track we've ever done" Freddie Mercury (Queen for an Hour, 1989): "I'd love Aretha to sing Somebody To Love" |
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