a night at the opera

Queen pondered on the lesson of life's insanity in a cruel world and cried for a love gone stale with the dynamic drama of this fandango magnifico.  After a headlining world tour supporting their 'Sheer Heart Attack' album, the band severed ties with Neptune Productions and Trident Studios, eventually signing with Elton John's manager, John Reid.  Brian May expressed at the time:   "It affects your morale. Your capacity for working. It dries you up completely when you're worrying about business things. We couldn't write at all in that three months. We came back from Japan thinking, 'Great, we're going to finish the writing and then record it,' but the whole thing with Trident blew up at that point, and we spent the next three months being businessmen, which is the last thing we wanted to be. But now it's all sorted out -- all the emotions came out in a big flood -- and I think it's going to be really good...It's more extreme. It's varied, but it goes further in its various directions. It has a couple of the heaviest things we've ever done and probably some of the lightest things as well. It's probably closer to 'Sheer Heart Attack' than the others in that it does dart around and create lots of different moods, but we worked on it in the same way we worked on 'Queen II'. A lot of it is very intense and very ... layered."

Deacon relates:     "Everybody goes off to their separate homes to get their stuff together," Taylor says, "and then we all sort of get together somewhere else for about two weeks and pool all of the material we have - play around with it, pull it to pieces, throw some out, change bits, and get a sort of rough idea, as good an idea as we can, of what shape the album's going to take. It's a very soul-destroying time...I'm very sort of finicky, you know. I get something written and then I listen to it the next day and I throw it away out of hand. Probably too finicky, but I don't know, I get sort of fussy and go off my own ideas very quickly. The others usually never get to hear them even."

'A Night at the Opera' was produced with Roy Thomas Baker (who had helmed their first three) in London at Lansdowne Recording Studios, Olympic Sound Studios, Roundhouse Recording Studios, and Scorpio Sound Studios; as well as at Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales.  Queen co-produced the sessions that featured Freddie Mercury on lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, jangle piano, and woodwind vocalizations;    Brian May on guitars, ukulele, backing vocals, harp, orchestral backdrops, toy koto, and  lead vocals on "'39" and "Good Company";   Roger Taylor on drums, percussion, brass vocalizations, backing vocals, and lead vocals on "I'm in Love with My Car";   and   John Deacon on bass guitar, double-bass,  and Wurlitzer electric piano.  At the time, it was one of the most expensive albums ever made with studio costs of reputedly forty thousand pounds.  

Mercury would muse:   "I do enjoy the studio, yes. It's the most strenuous part of my career. It's so exhausting, mentally and physically. It drains you dry. I sometimes ask myself why I do it. After Sheer Heart Attack we were insane and said never again. And then look what happens!...I think that is the basis of Queen actually. We were very, very meticulous. That has now become an obsession in a funny way, for want of a better word. It's subconscious now, but we feel that we have to better that past standard we've created. Otherwise they'll say, God, look at what they did on Sheer Heart Attack and look at what they're churning out now. And you have to supercede it for your own satisfaction...But I did discipline myself... Take vocals, because they're my forté - especially harmonies and those kind of things. On Queen II we've gone berserk. But on this album I consciously restricted myself. That's brought the songwriting side of it across, and I think those are some of the strongest songs we've ever written."

'A Night at the Opera'  took the world by storm, going to number sixteen in France; ten in Sweden; nine in Austria and Japan; five in Germany; four in Norway and the US;  and number one in Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK.  It has sold over twelve million copies worldwide.  

http://www.queenonline.com/


http://www.queenarchives.com/


lyrics:
http://genius.com/albums/Queen/A-night-at-the-opera





"Bohemian Rhapsody" became a worldwide smash hit, spending nine weeks on the top of the British charts, where it is the third biggest selling single of all time.  In the US, it went to number nine.  In 1992, it was re-released after it was featured in the film 'Wayne's World', sending it up the charts to peak at number two.  

Mercury:   "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...People were all going, You're joking, they'll never play it, you'll only hear the first few bars and then they'll fade it out. We had numerous rows. EMI were shocked - A six-minute single? You must be joking! The same in America - Oh, you just got away with it in Britain."

Deacon:   "When we finished the album, the Night at the Opera album, that was the track on it that we thought we were gonna release as a single in England first. And when we released it in England we didn't necessarily think it'd be released in America, cause we know even over here, you know, the AM tastes are even more (hesitates) stricter. Anyway we did have thoughts about even in England, perhaps editing it down at all, but we listened to it over and over again and there was no way we could edit it. We tried a few ideas, but if you edited it, you always lost some part of the song, so we had to leave it all in. And luckily it took off anyway."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ


Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me

Mama, just killed a man, put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away
Mama, ooh, didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters
Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh, I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango
Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very fright'ning me
(Galileo.) Galileo. (Galileo.) Galileo. Galileo figaro magnifico
I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let him go!) Bismillah! We will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go
(Let me go.) Will not let you go. (Let me go.) Ah
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
(Oh mamma mia, mamma mia) Mama mia, let me go
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me!

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
So you think you can love me and leave me to die?
Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby!
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here!

Nothing really matters, anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
Any way the wind blows

"You're My Best Friend"  was a worldwide hit.  







'A Night at the Opera'
full album:




Side one
1. "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)"   Freddie Mercury 3:43
2. "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon"   Mercury 1:08
3. "I'm in Love with My Car"   Roger Taylor 3:05
4. "You're My Best Friend"   John Deacon 2:50
5. "'39"   Brian May 3:25
6. "Sweet Lady"   May 4:01
7. "Seaside Rendezvous"   Mercury 2:13

Side two
8. "The Prophet's Song"   May 8:17
9. "Love of My Life"   Mercury 3:38
10. "Good Company"   May 3:26
11. "Bohemian Rhapsody"   Mercury 5:55
12. "God Save the Queen" (Instrumental) Traditional, arr. May 1:11

sheer heart attack

Queen was guaranteed to blow our minds with this stone cold crazy quilt of killer theatrics.  During their first American Tour opeing for Mott the Hoople, guitarist Brian May had to be hospitalized with hepatitis; but he continued to compose during his convalescence.  He returned to the studio but soon was in the hospital again with a  duodenal ulcer.  As he recovered from his operation, the rest of the band continued to work on their third album with producer Roy Thomas Baker.  May filled in his parts when he returned to the studio.

  
May revealed:  "When I came back, I was able to look at Queen as if I were an outsider - I'd never realized what it sounded like, or how much the group had to offer.  They'd got so much done without me - they were really good about it. All I had to do was to go in and put my bits on. The only thing that really suffered from my illness was that I only have about three and a half songs on this album...That does not really matter, because I play my best guitar on other people's songs...This is the first album on which we sound like a band rather than four individuals...The experience we've gained on our tours is beginning to show now. The whole thing gels together."

Expanding from the progressive metal fantasy of their first two albums ('Queen' and 'Queen II'), 'Sheer Heart Attack' shows the band finding a more melodic radio friendly sound while bringing in other musical influences like glam and vaudville.    The album features Freddie Mercury on lead and backing vocals, piano, jangle piano on "Killer Queen" and "Bring Back That Leroy Brown";   Brian May on guitars, backing vocals, piano on "Dear Friends", banjo ukelele on "Bring Back That Leroy Brown", and lead vocals on "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)";   Roger Tayloron drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Tenement Funster", and screams on "In the Lap of the Gods";   and John Deacon on bass guitars, acoustic guitar on "Misfire", rhythm guitar and lead guitar on "Misfire", and double bass on "Bring Back That Leroy Brown".   

Mercury mused:   "We have the most outrageous rows.  There are so many things we don't see eye to eye about in the group, even as to the titles of our albums. We row about everything, even about the air we breathe. But I think that's good, because we get the cream of the crop. It's good, that's healthy...I don't like compromises - everything has to be done to perfection. I have always put everything into things that interest me, so I put everything into my music..I know the others have been feeling a little neglected.  I'm trying very hard to persuade people that I'm not the leader of the group, that there's no such thing, but it's not easy."

 'Sheer Heart Attack' was an international success, charting at number twenty-three in Japan, nineteen in Australia, twelve in the US, nine in Norway, seven in the Netherlands, six in France, and number two in the UK.  





http://www.queenonline.com/






"Killer Queen"  made the band an international sensation, going to number twenty-four in Australia, twelve in Germany and the US, ten in Austria, three in the Netherlands, and number two in the UK.  



She keeps Moet et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Kruschev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline

Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatin
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?

To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah
Then again incidentally
If you're that way inclined

Perfume came naturally from Paris
For cars she couldn't care less
Fastidious and precise

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatin
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Drop of a hat she's as willing as
Playful as a pussy cat
Then momentarily out of action
Temporarily out of gas
To absolutely drive you wild, wild.
She's all out to get you

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatin
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime

Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
You wanna try.





"Now I'm Here"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OSd17ko3O4





"Stone Cold Crazy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Rfb1Jtmic






 'Sheer Heart Attack' 
full album:




Side one
1. "Brighton Rock"   Brian May 5:08
2. "Killer Queen"   Freddie Mercury 3:01
3. "Tenement Funster"   Roger Taylor 2:48
4. "Flick of the Wrist"   Mercury 3:19
5. "Lily of the Valley"   Mercury 1:43
6. "Now I'm Here"   May 4:10
Side two
7. "In the Lap of the Gods"   Mercury 3:20
8. "Stone Cold Crazy"   Queen 2:12
9. "Dear Friends"   May 1:07
10. "Misfire"   Deacon 1:50
11. "Bring Back That Leroy Brown"   Mercury 2:13
12. "She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos)"   May 4:08
13. "In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited"   Mercury 3:42

a day at the races

Queen followed up the massive multi-tracked success of 'A Night at the Opera' with equally exuberant Marxism of 'A Day at the Races'. Though conceived as a companion piece to its predecessor, the album marked a big change for the band. They left Roy Thomas Baker and produced the new album on their own at Sarm East, The Manor and Wessex Studios. John Deacon recalled: "We had done four albums with him, and we came to the position where, we had learned ourselves in the studio what to do, and one didn’t really need the services of the producer, because we had within the group, within the four of us, we had plenty of the ideas. All we really needed was a good engineer. So that’s what we did with the new album, 'A Day at the Races', we more or less produced it ourselves with an engineer. "

Brian May says: "By then John Reed had taken the management burden off us and he just said 'right guys, don't worry about anything, just go in there and make the best album you've ever made' and with the joy of having that sort of yoke taken off us that we just went in and loved every minute of it. That applies to both those albums - 'A Day At The Races' too. We just thought 'how far can we go'? We were big fans of the Beatles and they had taken advantage of the studio as it was in those days but all kinds of new toys had come in by the time we were in there so we though that we'd use every colour in the pallet and create something that had never been created before."

Freddie Mercury said, "Each time we go into the studios, it gets that much more difficult because we're trying to progress, to write songs that sound different from the past. The first album is easy, because you've always got a lot in your head that you're anxious to put down. As the albums go by, you think, `They'll say I'm repeating a formula.' I'm very conscious of that."

Roger Taylor considers it "a step ahead of our previous work. We tried to avoid overcomplication, sterility-we tried to get a more basic feel in." The sound is tighter; but their dramatic flair is intact. Each of the bandmembers contributed songs: Brian May and Freddie Mercury each delivered four, while John Deacon and Roger Taylor each added one of their own. 'A Day at the Races' went to the top of the album charts in the Netherlands, Japan, and the UK. In the US, it went to number five and sold platinum.








http://www.queenonline.com/

The multi-tracked gospel extravaganza "Somebody to Love" was written by Mercury as a companion piece to 'Bohemian Rapsody'. The single went to number two in the UK and thirteen in the US.

"Tie Your Mother Down" was composed by Brian May on Spanish guitar while working on his PhD in Astronomy in Tenerife. The single peaked at number ten in the Netherlands.

Brian May wrote and sang lead on "Long Away"

Mercury wrote "The Millionaire Waltz" about the band's manager John Reid.

John Deacon wrote "You and I" and played acoustic guitar.

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" is another Mercury composition. It was also released on an EP and went to number seventeen in the UK.

Brian May wrote "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" as a tribute to the band's fans in Japan. It features choruses sung in Japanese and May on piano.

 'A Day at the Races' full album:





Side one
1. "Tie Your Mother Down"   Brian May 4:48
2. "You Take My Breath Away"   Freddie Mercury   5:09
3. "Long Away"   May 3:34
4. "The Millionaire Waltz"   Mercury   4:54
5. "You and I"   John Deacon 3:25
Side two
6. "Somebody to Love"   Mercury   4:56
7. "White Man"   May 4:59
8. "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"   Mercury   2:54
9. "Drowse"   Roger Taylor 3:45

10. "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)"   May 5:50

another one bites the dust

queen's biggest selling hit took the world by storm. it was centered around john deacon's bass line, which owed a lot to chic's 'good times'. that 'machinegun' groove provides a anxious undercurrent to the violence of the lyrics.

this song was everywhere back then. it's hard to believe that the band was not going to release it as single until michael jackson told them that they should after he heard them perform it in concert. chances are he didn't hear it backwards.

http://www.queenonline.com/

let's go!

steve walks warily down the street
with his brim pulled way down low
ain't no sound but the sound of his feet
machine guns ready to go

are you ready hey are you ready for this?
are you hanging on the edge of your seat?
out of the doorway the bullets rip
to the sound of the beat yeah

another one bites the dustanother one bites the dust
and another one gone and another one gone
another one bites the dust yeah
hey i'm gonna get you too
another one bites the dust

how do you think i'm going to get along
without you when you're gone?
you took me for everything that i had
and kicked me out on my own

are you happy are you satisfied
how long can you stand the heat?
out of the doorway the bullets rip
to the sound of the beat look out

another one bites the dustanother one bites the dust
and another one gone and another one gone
another one bites the dust yeah
hey i'm gonna get you too
another one bites the dust

hey
oh take it

bite the dust bite the dust hey
hey another one bites the dustanother one bites the dust ow
another one bites the dust hey hey
another one bites the dust

hey ey ee ay ee ay ee ay ee ay ee ay
ooh shoot out

there are plenty of ways that you can hurt a man
and bring him to the ground
you can beat him
you can cheat him
you can treat him bad

and leave him when he's down
but i'm ready yes i'm ready for you
i'm standing on my own two feet
out of the doorway the bullets rip
repeating to the sound of the beat

another one bites the dustanother one bites the dust
and another one gone and another one gone
another one bites the dust yeah
hey i'm gonna get you too
another one bites the dust
shoot out

this audio was played for me in a church youth group along with some other alleged "backward masking" tracks in an attempt to dissuade me from listening to rock music. it didn't work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6tnksyRygw