YOU DON'T FOOL ME

This one's a fairly unique song in the Queen catalog in the sense that it was built over some bare bones left by Freddie, John and Roger during post-'Innuendo' sessions. Although it's heavily layered with synthesizers, there's some memorable guitar work. Fans and listeners often tend to believe Deacon was the main songwriter, mainly because of its funky style that's quite reminiscent of 'Hot Space' (although it does NOT come from those recordings), but it's actually a rare collaboration between Mercury and Taylor.

General Information:

Music by: Freddie Mercury & Roger Taylor
Lyrics by: Freddie Mercury
Arranged by: Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor & John Deacon
Written: 1991
Length: 5:24
Released on: November 6th 1995

Produced by: Queen, David Richards, Justin Shirley-Smith and Joshua J. Macrae
Mixed by: David Richards
Engineered by: David Richards, Justin Shirley-Smith and Joshua J. Macrae

Recorded: 1991 - 1995
 Recorded at: Mountain (Montreux), Cossford Mill and Allerton Hill

Keys: Em
Meter: 4/4
Form: Cyclic

Acoustic Drums: Roger Taylor
Electric Bass: John Deacon
Electric Guitars: Brian May
Digital Synthesizers: Freddie Mercury and/or Roger Taylor

Lead Vocals: Freddie Mercury
Backing Vocals: Roger Taylor

Back to the top

Form:

One of the most monotone Queen songs ever: after the fading-in intro, we've got seven repetitions of the same section (i > VII > iv > i), then the solo (i > i > VI > vi twice, then III > III > iv > VII and then i > VII > VI > VII twice), followed by eight further repetitions of the sequence, which works as chorus, spacer, verse, bridge (with some Billie Jean influence, IMO) and coda.

Back to the top

Harmony:

Except for the solo, it's all based on i > VII > iv > i progression with pedal bass. All in all there are six chords, five of them diatonic.