Madogg's Blog

Chapter 13: A Kind Of Magic

2009-12-18T08:09:00.001-08:00

A Kind of Magic was the band's twelfth studio album and their first to be recorded digitally, and is based on the soundtrack to the film Highlander, the first in a series directed by Russell Mulcahy. Though the album stalled at #46 in the United States, it rocketed to #1 in the United Kingdom, remaining in the charts for sixty-three weeks and spawning 3 hit singles. The single "A Kind of Magic" only reached #42 in the US despite being featured in Highlander. The album eventually went Gold in the US in 2002. It is Queen's first album with a title track, and every album released thereafter also contained one. Although Queen would release another three albums with Freddie Mercury (including one posthumous one), A Kind of Magic would turn out to be the band's last ever album promoted with a concert tour, due to Freddie Mercury's affliction with AIDS. For the first time in their career, the band allowed cameras to film them while they were in the studio. The video for "One Vision" shows them in various stages of writing and recording the song.

The album enjoys the status of an unofficial soundtrack for the 1986 film Highlander (for which no official standalone soundtrack album was ever released), as six out of nine songs on the album appeared in the film, although in different versions. The three songs that did not appear in Highlander are "Pain Is So Close to Pleasure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision" (which was featured a year earlier in the film Iron Eagle). Conversely, a recording of "Theme from New York, New York" made specifically for a scene in Highlander does not appear on A Kind of Magic, and in fact has never been released in album form to date. According to a statement by Brian May on the Greatest Video Hits 2 DVD (2003), at least at that point, he had the intention to work on a proper Highlander soundtrack in the future.

1. One Vision

"One Vision" was first released as a single in 1985 and then included on their 1986 album A Kind of Magic. It was originally written by Roger Taylor about Martin Luther King, Jr., and includes lyrical references to King’s "I Have a Dream" speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1963. The song featured briefly in the film Highlander playing on the radio in the car of the gun nut, it was also featured in the movie Iron Eagle. Queen were inspired to write and record this song because of the euphoric feeling that came from their performance at Live Aid. The song was included in all Queen's live concert performances of the 1986 Magic Tour, as the very first song of each concert. They claimed they chose "One Vision" as the introduction song because its intro made a perfect concert introduction.

Distorted vocals

The song contains mysterious and distorted beginning vocals (which on the album and extended versions, also appear throughout Roger Taylor's drum section and in the end), most prominently the vocals retained in the single version.

Forward message

The reversed vocals at the start of the song relay new lyrics when played forwards—they say, "God works in mysterious ways... mysterious ways...". Though it has been claimed by an official Queen fan club that the second part is sung by Brian May, it is likely sung by Freddie Mercury[1]. It is clearly shown during the portions of the studio recording session of "One Vision" on both the Magic Years documentary and the DVD Greatest Video Hits II that Mercury sings the line.

"Fried chicken"

The final line of the song (in both the studio and live versions) is "fried chicken", although the lyrics say "one vision". This was a result of a prank that Freddie Mercury played in the studio, as the band had fried chicken for dinner that day. Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury's lover, says in his book, that the singer was not sure whether to include it in the final cut or not. Hutton encouraged him, saying "You are big enough" (to get away with this).

What is notable that the live performances of the song added an additional section in the beginning of the song, right after the guitar riffs without the percussions, and a big finale, which included ad-libbed vocals by Freddie Mercury. The ad-libbed vocals were not present on all performances though, the most notable being the performance at the Maimarktgelände in Mannheim, on 21 June 1986.

Also, the live versions of the song included a different version of the intro, which starts like the single version intro, but later changes into the album version intro, but repeats the section after the vocals "Ii" near the end. It also features the initial distorted vocals as they were in the single version.

However, the version used on the Wembley shows was yet different from the one mentioned above - basically it had the complete initial distorted vocals, and the first part was also like in the one in the album and extended versions, but the transition to the second part was just like in the version, mentioned above, and it did include the repeated section in the end. The VHS version of the July 12th Wembley show has the first part of the middle instrumental section of the studio version of Brighton Rock instead of the initial distorted vocals. The version of the song from the 11 July Wembley show has not yet been officially released. Interestingly enough, none of the two versions of the intro has been used with a studio version of the song so far.

A remixed version of the song, basically an extended and completely different (but not in structure) version of Roger Taylor's drum section from the song, but retaining the ending (however with a longer version of the music from the end of the song's intro plus an additional non-distorted sond over the final vocals "Vision vision vision vision...", which are like in the single version of the song), and repeating the existing famous distorted vocals (also in a new form, which is the first repetition), plus adding new distorted vocals (although they are nowhere as prominent as the famous ones), has been released as the song's B-side on both the 7" and 12" singles, and titled "Blurred Vision".

"One Vision" has been covered by many artists, the most notable is the German-language cover by the industrial music band Laibach, titled "Geburt einer Nation" ('Birth of a Nation'), which changed the song's feel and mood from the somehow light-hearted and optimistic original to the feel and mood of a Nazi propaganda song. This version also starkly revealed the ambiguity of lines like "One race one hope/One real decision". It was released in 1987, on the album Opus Dei. A video was also shot for this version, directed by Daniel Landin.

The music video to "One Vision" mainly showed the band recording the song at Musicland Studios in Munich and was the first to be directed and produced for Queen by Austrian directors Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, also collectively known as DoRo. DoRo and Queen developed a fruitful working relationship which would result in numerous acclaimed and award-winning videos (for "Innuendo" and "The Show Must Go On", among others).

The video also featured a "morphing" effect of the band's famous pose in 1975's "Bohemian Rhapsody" video to a 1985 version of the same pose.

The video even shows John Deacon on the drums. It isn't known if he actually played some drum parts in the song or if it is just a joke.

"One Vision" became another hit single for Queen in many countries, usually reaching the Top 40, where it did in the Netherlands (#21), Switzerland (#24), and Germany (#26). It also had very minor chart success on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at #61. It became a big hit in the band's native UK, peaking at #7 in the singles chart, a strong showing for a rock band at a time when pop music was by far the more dominant genre in Britain at this time.It also made #10 on Australia's ARIA Chart.

The song is featured in the movie Iron Eagle and is on the soundtrack. The version on the Iron Eagle soundtrack is the original single version, which preceeded the album version by nearly a year. The song was recorded in September 1985 (according to the "One Vision" documentary found on The Magic Years Vol. 1 VHS and the Greatest Video Hits Vol. 2 DVD, chronicling the recording of the song). The single was released November 4, 1985, the soundtrack album was released in January 1986, and the song was remixed for the album, which came out June 2, 1986.

The song also appears on the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack, and in-game on the radio station 'Liberty Rock Radio 97.8'.

During the 2008-09 season it was used as the official song of Rotherham United F.C.

It is also used in Ricky Gervais Fame DVD as he enters the stage.

A remixed and edited version of the song was used in Sony's E3 2009 Opening and Closing videos. A small part of the footage from the music video was also included in the opening.

The song is available as downloadable content for the Rock Band series and is the hardest song on drums of the Queen pack.

Actor Ricky Groves and his dance partner Erin Boag performed a paso doble to the song in the seventh series of Strictly Come Dancing.

2. A Kind Of Magic

"A Kind of Magic" is written by Roger Taylor for the film Highlander. The song reached number three in the UK Singles Chart, but only reached number forty-two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Name

The phrase "a kind of magic" is actually used in the film by Christopher Lambert and impressed Taylor so much that he made it into a full song. There are references to the film in the lyrics – "one prize, one goal"; "no mortal man": "there can be only one".

Composition

Taylor wrote the melody and chords for the version that appeared in the film. Freddie Mercury composed a new bass line, added instrumental breaks, and changed the song's order. Mercury and David Richards produced this new version. The song was still credited only to Taylor. Whilst Taylor's version is at the end of the film, Mercury's version appears on the album.

The song was a live favourite on Magic Tour of the same year, which proved to be Queen's last with the original foursome.

On the Rock the Cosmos Tour of Europe, Roger Taylor took lead vocals for the song at some concerts.

The music video for this song was directed by Russell Mulcahy, director of Highlander. Notable is that guitarist Brian May didn't use his famous Red Special guitar in the music video, instead he used a 1984 copy. Mercury is dressed as a magician type of figure. He enters an apparently condemned house where Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon (all dressed as stereotypical hobos) are asleep until awakened by Mercury's entrance. Mercury, dressed as a magician, transforms the hobos into the Queen members dressed regularly with their instruments, and back to hobos again as he leaves. Throughout the video, cartoon images dance to the beat of the song.

Usage in other media:

* A shortened version of the song is used in the opening credts of the Children's animated series A Kind of Magic.
* The song was heard on a launch promo of Disney Channel in the UK in 1995. But also in 2009 for the launch in the Netherlands and Flanders.
* A sample of Freddie yelling Ha ha ha ha ha it's magic also appears in the Queen version of the song "I Was Born to Love You" from the album Made in Heaven.
* M-Net have used the song in promo's several times, as their motto is "we call it magic".

3. One Year of Love

"One Year of Love" is a song by John Deacon. The album version features Deacon playing Yamaha DX-7 synth, a string orchestra conducted by Lynton Naif and a saxophone played by Steve Gregory. Deacon decided to substitute the guitar components with a saxophone solo after a discussion with May, who doesn't appear in the song. It was released as a single in France and Spain only, and appeared during the bar scene in Highlander. The song was covered by Elaine Paige in 1988, and by Dutch singer Stevie Ann in 2006.

4. Pain Is So Close to Pleasure

"Pain Is So Close to Pleasure" began as a riff idea by May. Then Deacon and Mercury turned that into a song, with Deacon playing rhythm guitar. The song has a Motown style (a first for Queen) and was released as a single in 1986, reaching #26 on the Dutch charts. The title also appears as a line in "One Year of Love". This would be one of the last times Freddie Mercury would sing a Queen song in falsetto.

5. Friends Will Be Friends

"Friends Will Be Friends" was written by Mercury and Deacon, with lyrics written by Mercury (which was confirmed by Brian May on his website)[1]. It's one of the last of Mercury's piano ballads, and it holds many musical similitudes with older Queen material, such as "Play the Game" and "We Are the Champions". It is another song not featured in Highlander. It was noted as being a modern update of the 70's Queen rock anthems "We Are The Champions" and "We Will Rock You" and reached #14 in the UK.

6. Who Wants To Live Forever

"Who Wants to Live Forever" is a power ballad by the English rock band Queen. The song is the sixth track on the album A Kind of Magic, released in June 1986, and was written by guitarist Brian May for the soundtrack to the film Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy. The song peaked at No 24 in the British charts.

The song is used to frame the heart-wrenching scene in the film where Connor MacLeod must endure his beloved wife Heather growing old and dying while he, as an Immortal, is forever young. (It was later used in the episodes "The Gathering", "Revenge is Sweet", "The Hunters", "Line of Fire", and "Leader of the Pack" of the Highlander television series.) The song's title is taken from a line in another movie scored by Brian May and Queen, Flash Gordon.

May sings lead vocals on the first verse, before Freddie Mercury takes over for most of the remainder of the song. The version which can be heard in the film is unique, in that it features Mercury singing lead vocals on the first verse. Mercury also sang the lead in live performances. When live, however, the song was lowered by a whole tone, and Mercury would frequently alter the song's highly demanding vocal line due to the strain placed on his voice by vocal nodules: this often involved Roger Taylor handling lead vocals on the choruses, while Mercury harmonised with a counter-melody. An instrumental version of the song, titled "Forever", was included as a bonus track on the CD version of the album. This instrumental featured only a piano, with keyboard accompaniment during the chorus sections. The piano track was recorded solely by Brian May.

Cover versions

* Elaine Paige, who recorded an album of Queen songs in 1988, included a strong 'power-ballad' version of the song.
* In 1989, Brian May's daughter Louisa, who was at the time eight years old, sang a version of the song. It was included on a 12 inch single, along with another version of the song that Brian May performed with two kids named Ian and Belinda.
* Seal performed a live version of this song at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, noting that the song made him cry when he first heard it.
* In 1995, Brian May recorded a version with Jennifer Rush on her Out of My Hands album. It featured May on lead-vocals for a verse plus backing vocals and guitar work.
* Luciano Pavarotti called Giorgia for his charity concert Pavarotti & Friends where she performed the song. The recorded Live-CD was released in 1995.
* Shirley Bassey covered this song on her 1995 album Sings the Movies, and performed it on "A Royal Gala" at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996.
* Dune recorded an orchestrated version on the 1997 album Forever. It was also released as the first single from the album.
* The symphonic metal band After Forever recorded a cover of this song and released it with their single "Emphasis" in 2002.
* Polish singer Edyta Górniak recorded a cover called "Nieśmiertelni" in 2003, released on Moja i Twoja muzyka, RMF FM compilation album.
* In 2005, the song was covered by Breaking Benjamin on the album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
* The Ten Tenors recorded a version on their album "Here's to the Heroes", released in 2006.
* Rock Star: INXS Finalist, MiG Ayesa covered the song on his debut Album "MiG" in 2007.
* Katharine McPhee covered this song on the "Queen" themed week on American Idol's fifth season.
* Eva Avila covered this song on the "1980's" themed week on Canadian Idol's fourth season.
* In 2007, the song was covered by the band Gregorian on their album Masters of Chant Chapter VI.
* Kady Malloy covered this song during "80's" week on American Idol's seventh season.
* Dutch diva Karin Bloemen did a cover in her 2007/2009 show "Overgang", in a translation by Jan Rot, "Wie wil die leeft voor eeuwig" .
* Jonathan Ansell covered this song for his 2nd album Forever, released in 2008
* Rhydian Roberts covered this song on his debut album, Rhydian, released on the 24th of November 2008.
* Stacey Solomon performed the song on the sixth series of The X Factor.

7. Gimme the Prize (Kurgan's Theme)

"Gimme the Prize" was written by May. This song is featured in Highlander, and also samples the lines "I have something to say: It's better to burn out than to fade away" and "There can be only one", spoken by actors Clancy Brown (The Kurgan) and Christopher Lambert (Connor MacLeod) respectively. Director Russell Mulcahy states in the DVD commentary that this was his least favourite of the band's songs used in the film because he does not like heavy metal. Brian May also commented (to a Japanese magazine in 1986) that both Mercury and Deacon hated the song. It is one of Queen's heaviest works.

8. Don't Lose Your Head

"Don't Lose Your Head" was composed by Taylor and features Joan Armatrading in a vocal cameo. The song takes its name from a line spoken in Highlander, and is played for a short time when Kurgan kidnaps Brenda. The song then segues into a cover of "Theme from New York, New York", though it is only a small clip. An instrumental version of the track entitled "A Dozen Red Roses for My Darling" is featured as the 'B' side to "A Kind of Magic". This disco experimental track was a joke to not lose your head in battle, in co ordinance with the Highlander movie.

9. Princes Of The Universe

"Princes of the Universe" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and performed by Queen. The song was written for the soundtrack of the movie Highlander and released on the A Kind of Magic album in 1986. This song is the only song which Mercury receives sole credit for on the entire album. Later it was also used for the Highlander: The Series as its theme song. The song was never released as a single in the UK, and while not a charting hit, it is considered a cult favorite because of its relation to the film.

The music video was directed by Russel Mulcahy and was shot on the Silvercup rooftop stage used for the film, featuring a sword fight between Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) and Freddie Mercury (Freddie wielding his trademark bottomless mic stand instead of a sword) intercut with scenes from the movie. During the video, guitarist Brian May appears without his Red Special, but instead with a white guitar, similar to a Jackson Randy Rhoads but NOT an actual RR model (The inner surfaces of the 'V' shape are slightly curved on a Jackson Randy Rhoads instead of being completely straight like the white guitar in the video). The video was actually played quite a bit on music video stations (in the US) when this single came out, despite not charting. Up until its eventual release on Greatest Flix III (VHS, 1999) and Greatest Video Hits 2 (DVD, 2003), it was rarely seen by fans outside North America, elevating its possession to that of a collector's item.

The lyrics are from the perspective of the immortals, about the state of being immortal, the superiority it gives them to normal humans, and the test that they must face because of this. The lyrics can also be interpreted as regarding Queen themselves: "People talk about you, people say you've had your day / I'm a man that will go far, find the moon and reach for the stars." The song Who Wants to Live Forever is the foil of this song.

Singles

* Queen recorded One Vision, released in the UK on November 4, 1985, the first after their much-lauded appearance at the Live Aid concert. It did well on the charts, reaching seventh in the UK and making top ten throughout Europe. The song appeared in the film Iron Eagle.
* A Kind of Magic, released in the UK on March 17, 1986, reached #3 on its home chart and was a top ten hit in many other countries. While charting well everywhere else, it peaked at #42 in the USA and has been played on radios mostly in New England (Similar to their first single Keep Yourself Alive). Russell Mulcahy, director of Highlander, directed the song's accompanying video.
* Friends Will Be Friends, released on June 9, 1986, reached 14th in the UK and made the top forty throughout Europe.
* Who Wants to Live Forever, released on September 15, 1986, reached 24th in the UK. The National Philharmonic Orchestra featured in the song's video, along with forty choirboys and two thousand candles.
* Pain Is So Close to Pleasure, released in the US and parts of Europe only.
* One Year of Love, released in France and Spain only.
* Princes of the Universe, was never released as a single in the UK. While not a hit, it is a cult favorite due to the 1986 film Highlander in the USA. It was also used as the theme music for the Highlander television show which followed the movie in 1992-1998. The music video featured Christopher Lambert and the band on part of the film set, and is cleverly cut with scenes from the film. The song also appears on Greatest Hits III. It was released as a single in The Netherlands on February 28 2000.

Additional musicians

* Spike Edney – extra keyboards
* Joan Armatrading – incidental vocals on "Don't Lose Your Head"
* Steve Gregory – alto sax on "One Year of Love"
* String Section on "One Year of Love" arranged and conducted by Lynton Naiff
* National Philharmonic Orchestra on "Who Wants to Live Forever" arranged by Michael Kamen and Brian May and conducted by Michael Kamen

Chapter 12: The Works

2009-10-22T12:00:00.001-07:00

The Works is the band's eleventh studio album, it marked a partial return to their rock roots, although with a much lighter approach. It has also the heaviest electronics amongst all group albums. In comparison, rock was mostly absent on their previous effort Hot Space giving room to dance and funk with the use of analogue synths and brass, while electronics were not that much present.

Recorded at the Record Plant Studios and Musicland Studios from August 1983 to January 1984, the album's title comes from a comment drummer Roger Taylor made as recording began – "Let's give them the works!"

This was the first Queen album to be released on Compact Disc.

Following the release of and subsequent touring for their 1982 album Hot Space, the four members of Queen opted to take a break from the band the following year, indulging in solo projects and taking the chance to stretch in individual directions. While a spring tour of South America had been an early possibility, especially following the band's success there two years prior, equipment and promotional problems brought an end to these plans.[1] Brian May worked with Eddie Van Halen and others on the Star Fleet Project, while Freddie Mercury began work on his solo album. By August 1983, however, the band had reunited and began work on their eleventh studio album. It would be Queen's first album for EMI (and its United States affiliate Capitol Records) worldwide after the band nullified its recording deal with Elektra for the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan.

Recording commenced at Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles – Queen's first time recording in America – and Musicland Studios in Munich. Also during this time, their manager Jim Beach offered them the opportunity to compose the soundtrack for the film The Hotel New Hampshire. The band agreed, but soon discovered much of their time was being spent on the soundtrack instead of the upcoming album, and the project fell through. Only one song written for the soundtrack, "Keep Passing the Open Windows", made it onto The Works. By November 1983, Roger Taylor's "Radio Ga Ga" was chosen as the first single from the album. The Works was released on February 27, 1984.

1. Radio Ga Ga

"Radio Ga Ga" is a song performed and recorded by Queen, written by their drummer Roger Taylor. It was released as a single with "I Go Crazy" by Brian May on the original B-side (3:42) and was included on the album The Works without "I Go Crazy" (that song would only be included on the 1991 CD remaster). The single was an enormous worldwide success for the band. It reached number two in the UK (kept from the number one spot only by Frankie Goes To Hollywood's smash hit "Relax"). In the USA it reached the number 16 spot. This was to be their last Top 20 hit single in the US until 1992.

The song was a commentary on the invention of television's overtaking radio's popularity and how one would listen to radio for a favorite comedy, drama, or sci-fi program and so on. It also pertained to the advent of the music video and MTV. (Ironically, the video would become a regular staple on MTV in 1984.) Taylor originally conceived of it as "Radio Ca-Ca" (apparently from something his toddler son once said), a slam against radio for the decrease in variety of programming and the type of music being played. It was eventually changed to "Radio Ga Ga", because that sounded better, clearer, and rolled off the tongue more easily. There are rumors that the publishers objected to the original title because of the close resemblance of "Ca-Ca" to a common word for feces in many languages.[citation needed]

The song makes a reference to the broadcast of Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds, in the verse "through wars of worlds/invaded by Mars".

Taylor began writing the song in Los Angeles when he locked himself in a room with a Roland Jupiter 8 and a drum machine. He thought it would fit his solo album, but when the band heard it, John Deacon wrote a bass-line and Freddie Mercury reconstructed the track, thinking it could be a big hit. Taylor then took a skiing holiday and let Mercury polish the lyrics, harmony, and arrangements of the song. Recording sessions began at Record Plant Studios and included session keyboardist Fred Mandel, who later on would work with Supertramp and Elton John. Mandel programmed the Jupiter's appeggiated synth-bass parts. The recording features prominent use of the Roland VP330+ vocoder. The bassline was produced by a Roland Jupiter 8, using the built-in arpeggiator.

David Mallet's music video for the song features scenes from Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi movie Metropolis—Freddie Mercury's solo song "Love Kills" was used in Giorgio Moroder's restored version of the film, and in exchange Queen were granted the rights to use footage from it in their "Radio Ga Ga" video. However, Queen had to buy performance rights to the film from the communist East German government, which was the copyright holder at the time. Critics said that the video looked like a "Nuremberg Rally" much to Roger Taylor's dislike. In the video there is a part where they list some of their earlier videos (such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Flash", and so forth) in a photo album, illustrating the changes and the influence videos received through the years. In the video Taylor tries to turn right in the vehicle but the vehicle moves to his left, he quickly tries to correct this but the video still shows the error.

In the video, a different version of Bohemian Rhapsody was shown. It can clearly be seen that there are flames around the four members of Queen in the clip.

Queen played a shorter, uptempo version of "Radio Ga Ga" at the Live Aid charity event in 1985 at the Old Wembley Stadium. It became a live favourite thanks largely to the audience participation potential of the clapping sequence prompted by the rhythm of the chorus (copied from the video).

The song was played for the Magic Tour a year later, including twice more at Wembley Stadium; it was recorded for the live album Live at Wembley '86 on 12 July 1986, the second night in the venue.

Paul Young performed the song with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert again at Wembley Stadium on 20 April 1992.

At the "Party at the Palace" concert, celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee in 2002, "Radio Ga Ga" opened up Queen's set with Roger Taylor on vocals and Phil Collins on the drums.

This song was played on the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour in 2005/2006 and sung by Roger Taylor and Paul Rodgers. It was recorded officially at the Hallam FM Arena in Sheffield, England, on 5 May 2005. The result, Return of the Champions, was released on CD and DVD on 19 September 2005 and 17 October 2005, respectively.

It was also played on the Rock The Cosmos Tour during the fall of 2008, this time with just Rodgers on lead vocals. The concert Live in Ukraine came as a result of this tour, yet the song is not available on the CD or DVD versions released 15 June 2009. This performance of "Radio Ga Ga" is only available as a digital download from iTunes.

Cover versions:

* Roger Taylor performed the song with Spike Edney's SAS Band.
* A heavily modified version of the song serves as the introductory number for We Will Rock You, a musical composed of Queen songs.
* The song was covered in 2004 by Electric Six. The band recorded the song against their wishes under pressure from their label at the time. The video depicts Electric Six frontman, Dick Valentine, as the ghost of Freddie Mercury dancing near his own grave. It was widely misinterpreted that Valentine (as Mercury) was dancing on his grave. He explains on his website's video section "Though some have claimed this video portrays me dancing on Freddie Mercury's grave, actually it's more like we are resurrecting Mr. Mercury for the duration of the song and his grave is the logical starting point." [1] Roger Taylor has said the video is tasteless and that he will "wait for the royalties". On the other hand, Brian May reportedly enjoyed the video.
* Sophie Ellis-Bextor has made a live-cover of this single at the Al Murray's Happy Hour, on ITV.
* "Radio Ga Ga" is one of the songs performed by the inmates of CPDRC Philippines (as seen on various web based video sites).

Influences:

* "Radio Ga Ga" is also the name of a radio station in Targu Mures (Marosvasarhely), Romania, in 88 FM (in the region).[2]
* "Radio Gaga" is also a Norwegian cartoon published in the Norwegian cartoon album pondus.[3]
* "Radio Ga Ga" is also a radio program broadcast on Melbourne's (Australia) 3WBC-FM - 94.1FM locally. See [4]
* "Radio Gaga" is also a Macintosh computer program for listening to and recording Internet radio.
* American pop singer-songwriter and musician Lady Gaga named herself after this song.

2. Tear It Up

"Tear It Up" is May's song, and the demo features him doing the vocals instead of Mercury. It was written as an attempt to revive Queen's old sound. It features stomping percussion similar to "We Will Rock You" that drives the song.

3. It's A Hard Life

"It's a Hard Life" is a song by English rock band Queen, written by lead singer Freddie Mercury. It was featured on their 1984 album The Works, and it was the third single from that album. It reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart and was their third consecutive Top 10 single from the album.

The opening lyric of "It's a Hard Life" is based on the line "Ridi, Pagliaccio, sul tuo amore infranto!" (Laugh, Pagliaccio, at your broken love!) from "Vesti la giubba", an aria from Ruggiero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. Mercury was well-known for his love of opera, which influenced many Queen songs, such as "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Musically, the song strongly features Mercury's piano playing and the band's characteristic technique of layered harmonies. It is recorded very much with the ethos of earlier Queen albums in that it features 'no synthesizers'. By that time the band had been using synths on record since 1980's The Game and the gesture of returning to the traditional Queen sound was comforting to some fans.

Tim Pope's video which accompanies the song (which is full of visual jokes) has been created in an operatic "style," with the band and extras appearing in period "operatic-style" costume. The video also featured an unusual "skull and bones"-themed guitar that cost more than £1,000 [1] played by May, which can be seen on the single cover.

The band found the costumes hot and uncomfortable, and the "eyes" on Mercury's outfit were ridiculed by the others, saying he looked "like a giant prawn"[1]. Both Roger Taylor and Brian May[2] groaned out loud when shown this video during their commentary for the Greatest Video Hits 2 collection. Taylor said it was "the worst music video ever." May pointed out more positively that the video was a thematic joke, as it portrayed Mercury as a wealthy man singing about how hard life and love are, and at that point Mercury in real life possessed great wealth but was still searching for love.

Roger Taylor, by his side, remarked that he'd "actually loved the song, hated the video." Despite this, the video was posted on the band's official YouTube channel.

One of the extras in the clip is Mercury's then-lover, Barbara Valentin.

4. Man On The Prowl

"Man on the Prowl" is a three-chord rockabilly Mercury composition (similar to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love") in which Fred Mandel plays the piano ending. Note that "Tear It Up", "It's a Hard Life" and this song are free of synthesizers. Mercury played rhythm guitar throughout the song, while May played the solo using a Telecaster.

5. Machines (Or 'Back To Humans')

"Machines (Or 'Back to Humans')" came up as an idea by Taylor, and May collaborated with him and finished it. Producer Reinhold Mack programmed the synth-"demolition" using a Fairlight CMI II Sampler, and the song is sung as a duet between two Mercury (harmonising with each other) and a robotic Taylor (using a Roland VP330 Vocoder). The instrumental remix of the song samples parts of "Ogre Battle" from Queen's second album Queen II. This song, along with Radio Ga Ga are some of the heaviest uses of electronics on the album.

6. I Want To Break Free

"I Want to Break Free" was written by bassist John Deacon. In the UK Chart, it peaked at number 3, and remained in the chart for fifteen consecutive weeks from its release in late April 1984. Most of the song follows the traditional 12 bar blues progression in E Major, a rare thing for a Queen song.

Two differing versions of the song are in circulation. The version on The Works is in fact shorter than the single remix by 61 seconds, because of a fade-in synthesiser introduction and a longer solo in which both the synthesiser and guitar feature separately. This is in contrast to "Hammer to Fall", a song which was edited down by thirty seconds from the album version to be released as a single. The promotional 45 sent to radio stations by Capitol Records had both versions on either side. However, Queen's name and the song title were deliberately left off one, so the labels read "Special Single Mix (Queen 4:21)" and "Special Single Mix-Edited (3:59).

The music video, directed by David Mallet, was a parody of the northern British soap opera Coronation Street. During part of the video, the band members dressed in drag, as mildly similar characters found in the soap at the time; Mercury's character was loosely based on Bet Lynch, while May's character was based on Hilda Ogden.[1] The video also depicted the band in what appeared to be a coal mine in their normal look, and it also features a ballet piece with the Royal Ballet (one of the dancers was Jeremy Sheffield), for which Freddie Mercury shaved his trademark moustache to portray Nijinsky (though he had kept it for the parody part of the video, interestingly enough). According to Brian May in an interview about Queen's Greatest Hits, the video ruined the band in America, where many people - unlike the case in the UK - failed to see the soap-opera connection & interpreted the video as an open declaration of transvestitism and Mercury’s homosexuality. This might explain why singles failed to go above #40 in the US Billboard charts after "Radio Ga Ga", until The Show Must Go On reached No. 2. The video was initially banned by MTV in the U.S., but the ban was lifted in 1991 when it aired on VH1's My Generation 2-part episodes devoted to Queen hosted by guitarist Brian May. The song received renewed attention when it was used in a media advertising campaign for Safeway.

Cover versions:

* In 1998, Masterboy made a dance cover.
* Belgian singer Arno Hintjens recorded a cover of the song.
* In 2006, Dewa 19, one of the bestselling Indonesian rock bands covered the song on their album Republik Cinta (Republic of Love).
* A ska version was recorded and released by Australian ska band Area 7.
* Las Vegas band, The Cab, released a cover of this song in June 2009 on The Lady Luck EP

Live cover performances:

* At the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Lisa Stansfield performed the song. She entered the Wembley stage wearing hair curlers (à la Hilda Ogden) and pushing a vacuum cleaner in a direct reference and tribute to the song's video.

* Extreme performed the song live a few times. Most notably, they played a bit of it during their medley on the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. They also performed it live in London around the same time with Brian May himself as a guest guitarist.

Parodies

In the late 1990s, the Spanish TV program "El Informal" made a parody of the videoclip of the song. The song was called "Me Quiero Reír" (I Want to Laugh) and it featured the presenters dressed as the band members and performing funny sketches.

7. Keep Passing the Open Windows

"Keep Passing the Open Windows" was written by Mercury in 1983 for the film version of The Hotel New Hampshire, based on a novel by John Irving. The phrase is mentioned on a number of occasions throughout the film and was, according to the opening credits, also co-produced by the band's manager Jim Beach, who changed it in order to suit the album mood better. Mercury played piano and synths and wrote the lyrics after reading the quote in the book.

8. Hammer To Fall

"Hammer to Fall" is a 1984 hard rock song written by Brian May and performed by the British rock group Queen. It appeared on their 1984 album The Works.

It was the fourth and final single to be released from that album, although the single version was edited down by thirty seconds in contrast to the version on the album. Different sleeves were used to package this single and the live picture sleeve is now a collector's item. The song was also the subject of a popular music video directed by David Mallet, in which was a regular live performance of the song by the band in Brussels during the Works Tour, over which the single edit of the song was dubbed. The song harks back to the Queen of old, with a song being built around a hard angular and muscular riff.

The song was a concert favorite and was also played at Live Aid. Live versions of the song in the 1980s also usually served as an opporitunity for touring keyboardist Spike Edney to appear onstage playing rhythm guitar (he was usually not visible from his keyboard stack.) A different version of the song with the first part played in the style of a ballad was played by Queen + Paul Rodgers in 2005. The song peaked at number 13 in the UK, at 1 in the EUA and Japan, and at 3 in South America; then was later featured in the film Highlander.

At the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992, Extreme singer Gary Cherone performed the song with the band, having earlier done a medley of other Queen songs with his own group.

The lyrics refer to the Cold War era in which the band members grew up, fuelling the popular conception that the song was about nuclear war:

For we who grew up tall and proud
In the shadow of the mushroom cloud
Convinced our voices can't be heard
We just wanna scream it louder and louder and louder
What the hell are we fighting for
Just surrender and it won't hurt at all

The song, however, contains many more references to death and its inevitability:

Rich or poor or famous
For your truth it's all the same (oh no oh no)
Lock your door while the rain is pouring
Through your window pane (oh no)
Baby now your struggle's all in vain, yeah, yeah.

The issue was effectively settled when May wrote on his website that Hammer to Fall is really about life and death, and being aware of death as being part of life. "The Hammer coming down is only a symbol of the Grim Reaper doing his job!"

9. Is This the World We Created...?

"Is This the World We Created...?" was written in Munich after Mercury and May watched the news. Mercury wrote the lyrics and May wrote the chords. The song was recorded with an Ovation but live they used May's Gibson Chet Atkins CE nylon-stringed guitar.

Chapter 11: Hot Space

2009-09-30T09:16:00.001-07:00

Hot Space is released in 1982. Marking a notable shift in direction from their earlier work, Queen employed many elements of disco, Pop Music, R&B and dance music on Hot Space, being partially influenced by the success of their 1980 hit "Another One Bites the Dust" . This made the album less popular with fans that preferred the traditional rock style they had come to associate with the band, though Hot Space did fit in with the Queen tradition of incorporating many disparate influences into their music.

Queen's decision to record a funk album germinated with the massive U.S. success of "Another One Bites the Dust" (and to a lesser extent, the UK success of the song too). In hindsight, while it seemed a carefully calculated move to capitalise on their incidental interest in "black music", it was considered by some to be a temporary blow to their reputation. While the album's second single "Body Language" did peak at #11 on the U.S. charts, the accompanying video was not accepted to be put on rotation by MTV for its erotic overtones (particularly those that hinted at Freddie Mercury's sexuality) which may have resulted in a backlash from the more conservative sections of the band's fan base.

Despite the controversy over the album's new sound, (Disco/Funk-influenced rock music) "Under Pressure" was well-received by fans and became the band's 2nd #1 hit in the U.K. It also reached #29 in the U.S.

1. Staying Power

"Staying Power" is the first track on the first side of Queen's 1982 album Hot Space. It was written by lead singer Freddie Mercury and is notable as being the only Queen song to have a horn section which was arranged by Arif Mardin. The song is driven by a funk-styled synth-bass riff (played by Mercury on an Oberheim OB-X) beginning in D minor and modulating to E minor throughout the song. John Deacon doesn't play bass on this song—instead playing rhythm guitar on a Fender Telecaster. Roger Taylor programmed a drum machine for the track. Brian May of course is on his Red Special.

This song was played throughout the Hot Space Tour and to an extent, on The Works Tour. The live version of staying power is slightly different than the album version. Morgan Fisher would take over the keyboard parts and replace the Oberheim with the Roland Jupiter 8. Taylor would replace the drum machine with acoustic drums. Also of note is that it would be the only song played live in which Deacon played rhythm guitar, as the bass was done via keyboard. With the electronics scaled back on the live version, the song is transformed into a funk rock song—rather than a disco-influenced, electronic-funk song.

2. Dancer

The bassline of "Dancer" was played on a synthesiser (a Oberheim OB-Xa) by Brian May. The song itself — a tantalising fusion of rock and funk — is something of a follow-up to "Dragon Attack" from the band's 1980 album The Game in that it fuses heavy elements of music with danceable ones, as Led Zeppelin did. The phone message at the end of "Dancer" is in German, and was recorded in a hotel room in Munich; it roughly translates to "good morning, this is your wake-up call". The lyrics of "Dancer" are also notable for being the only ones on the album that make reference to the album title itself.

3. Back Chat

"Back Chat", written by bassist John Deacon, is the track most influenced by black music. Deacon (who differed from his band-mates, in that he was the only one raised on soul instead of rock and roll) had chosen a no-compromise method of eliminating any rock elements from his songs for Hot Space. This act of defiance caused friction amongst fellow band members, particularly Brian May, who fought to retain some Queen sensibilities in their funk diversions.[1] The band finally decided to include a guitar solo on "Back Chat" after heated debate. It reached #40 on the UK singles chart. The track would be performed on the Hot Space tour at a faster tempo, with a more rock-orientated arrangement. "Back Chat", the title, is an English idiom equivalent to the American phrase "back talk" (a phrase that is actually mentioned in the song), referring to an argument between two people.

4. Body Language

"Body Language" is a disco/rock hit, written by lead singer Freddie Mercury and was a fairly big hit in North America, where it received extensive radio-play. However, the single only received a luke-warm response in the United Kingdom. The track was the second single released from their 1982 album Hot Space.

The massive success of "Another One Bites the Dust" inspired Queen to temporarily abandon their glam and experimental rock roots in the early 1980s, and experiment with disco, funk and soul music. "Body Language" and, more importantly, its parent album Hot Space were the results of this change. It contained no guitar during the body of the song, only a short two-note riff during the fade out. The song's key feature was its minimal, sparse production, with the emphasis of "suggestive" lyrics, a "slinky" synth bass (Played on an Oberheim OB-X), and writer Freddie Mercury's moans and groans. This song was played few times during the European Leg, with the first performance being in Vienna on May 13. It often got a lukewarm reaction, although the live arrangement was much different from the studio. The song was played much more frequently on the U.S leg, where the song achieved more commercial success.

The drastic change caused the single to stall at #25 on the UK charts. However, it did far better in the U.S., where it peaked at #11, the Americans appearing to be a lot more supportive of Queen's forays into dance music. The B-side is "Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)", this single was released just a little over a year after Lennon's assassination. In the US the accompanying music video caused a considerable amount of controversy. Due to thinly veiled homoerotic undertones plus lots of skin and lots of sweat (but apparently not enough clothing, save that worn by the fully clothed members of Queen themselves), it was deemed unsuitable for a television audience in 1982. It was not accepted by MTV, eventually becoming the first ever music video to be banned from that television station.

5. Action This Day

"Action This Day", one of two Roger Taylor songs that appear on the album, was clearly influenced by the New Wave movement/style current at the time; the track is driven by a pounding electronic drum machine and features a saxophone-like synthesizer solo, played by producer Mack on an Oberheim OB-Xa. "Action This Day" takes its title from a Winston Churchill catchphrase that the statesman would attach to urgent documents, and recapitulates the theme of social awareness that Taylor espoused in many of his songs. The band performed "Action This Day" live on the Hot Space Tour in a more conventional arrangement, replacing the drum machine and bass synth with a rock rhythm section.

6. Put Out the Fire

"Put Out the Fire" is an anti-firearm song written by Brian May, with lead vocals by Freddie Mercury. May recorded its guitar solo under the influence of alcohol (after many unsuccessful attempts). Though never released as a single, "Put Out the Fire", the album's most 'traditional' Queen song, later appeared on the Queen Rocks compilation in 1997. A new video was also produced for the accompanying video compilation, featuring a live performance of the song intercut with footage of fire and explosions.

7. Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)

Mercury wrote "Life Is Real" as a tribute to John Lennon, whose murder in 1980 had also previously prompted the band to perform his song "Imagine" on tour. Like Lennon's songs, "Life Is Real" features a sparse piano-based arrangement and a melancholy tone. It is also one of the few Queen songs whose lyrics were written before the music ("Killer Queen" being another). The title may be a reference to the lyric "love is real", from Lennon's 1970 song "Love". It contains the slightly offensive line "...Loving like a whore." It begins with three bell-like piano notes, meant to recall the opening bells in Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over," and "Beautiful Boy." Also, the first two words, "Guilt stains..." are virtually identical interval-wise (though in a different key) to Lennon's first two notes in his song, "Mother."

8. Calling All Girls

The first Roger Taylor song (however with Mercury on vocals) to be released as a single (albeit in selected countries, including the United States and Australia, but not the United Kingdom), "Calling All Girls" failed to create much of an impact on the charts where it peaked at #60 in the U.S., despite having an entertaining music video based on the George Lucas film THX 1138. Taylor composed "Calling All Girls" on guitar, and played the feedback noises during the song's break.[4] Queen rarely performed the song on tour, but a live recording from Japan in 1982 is commercially available on the Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl DVD, where "Calling All Girls" accompanies the photo gallery. The single was released in July of 1982 and reached #33 in Canada and #60 in the US.

9. Las Palabras de Amor (The Words Of Love)

"Las Palabras de Amor (The Words Of Love)" is written by Brian May. The single was released on June 1, 1982.

The song was inspired by the band's close relationship with their Ibero American fans. It marked the band's fourth appearance on Top of the Pops (the first, second and third being for "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen" and "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy"). For this mimed performance May is seen playing a grand piano and, on the recording, he plays both piano and synths in addition to acoustic and electric guitars. May also sang lead vocals for the harmonized line "this time and evermore". At one point Mercury is seen miming incorrect words.

During the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium in 1992, this was the third song of the second half, performed by Zucchero and Queen. In Queen + Paul Rodgers Rock The Cosmos-tour 2008 it was played in the Spanish speaking countries, sung by Brian.

This song also made onto 1999 Queen's Greatest Hits III after Made in Heaven song "Heaven for Everyone" and before Brian May's smash hit "Driven by You".

The baby's face image of the single's cover would reappear on The Cross single for their song "New Dark Ages".

10. Cool Cat

"Cool Cat", written by Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, originally featured David Bowie on background vocals and even a few lines of rap during the middle eight. According to Mercury in a 1982 television interview, Bowie was unhappy with the results and requested them to be removed. All the instruments are played by either John or Freddie. On the album version, Mercury sings the entire song in falsetto.[5] The alternate take with Bowie's vocals still intact is widely available on various bootleg recordings[6] and surfaces from an early 1982 vinyl "Hot Space" test pressing from the USA. This is also the only Queen studio track on which John Deacon uses the popping technique.

11. Under Pressure

"Under Pressure" marked David Bowie's first released collaboration with another recording artist as a performer, and is featured on Queen's 1982 album Hot Space and on David Bowie's 2002 album Best of Bowie. The song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also number 31 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the '80s.

Bowie had originally come to the studios in order to sing backing vocals in another Queen song, "Cool Cat," which would end up being edited out since he wasn't satisfied with them. Once he got there, they worked together for a while and wrote the song.

Queen had been working on the song under the title "Feel Like" but were not yet satisfied with the result. The final version that became "Under Pressure" evolved from a jam session the band had with Bowie at his studio in Montreux, Switzerland, therefore it was credited as co-written by the five musicians. According to Queen bassist John Deacon (as quoted in a French magazine in 1984), however, the song's primary musical songwriter was Freddie Mercury — though all contributed to the arrangement. The earlier, embryonic version of the song without Bowie "Feel Like" is widely available in bootleg form.

There has been some confusion about who created the song's famous bassline. John Deacon said (in Japanese magazine Musiclife in 1982, and in the previously mentioned French magazine) that David Bowie had created it. In more recent interviews, Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have credited the bass riff to Deacon; Bowie also said on his website that the bassline was already written before he became involved. The September 2005 edition of online music magazine Stylus singled out the bassline as the best in popular music history.

Roger Taylor was frequently rumoured to be the song's chief writer. However, it appears that he served more as an intermediary for Mercury and Bowie (two of rock music's biggest stars at the time), being friends with both men. Taylor was involved in the production of the track and did some preliminary mixes with Bowie in New York, but Bowie was unsatisfied with these results and wanted to re-record everything (as claimed by May on a November 1982 interview for IM&RW magazine). In the end, the final mix was done with the involvement of Mercury and recording engineer Mack, under pressure from Bowie and Taylor (according to Brian May in the same 1982 interview).

Although very much a joint project, only Queen incorporated the song into their live shows at the time. Bowie chose not to perform the song before an audience until the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, when he and Annie Lennox sang it as a duet (backed by the surviving Queen members). However, since Mercury's death and the Outside tour in 1995, Bowie has performed the song at virtually every one of his live shows, with bassist Gail Ann Dorsey taking Mercury's vocal part. The song also appeared in setlists from A Reality Tour mounted by Bowie in 2004, when he frequently would dedicate it to Freddie Mercury. Queen + Paul Rodgers have recently performed the song as well. While Bowie was never present for a live performance of the song with Mercury, Roger Taylor instead filled for back-up vocals usually in unison with Mercury as Mercury would take over most of Bowie's parts.

Chapter 10: The Game

2009-09-06T02:53:00.001-07:00

The Game is the eighth studio album by Queen released 30 June 1980. It was the only Queen album to reach the #1 position in both the United Kingdom and the United States and became Queen's best selling studio album in the US with four million copies sold to date, tying News of the World's US sales tally. Notable songs on the album include the bass driven "Another One Bites the Dust" and the rockabilly "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", both of which reached number 1 in the United States. The Game was the first Queen album to use a synthesizer[1] (an Oberheim OB-X). The album's working title was "Play the Game", but Taylor voiced concern about its possible overtones of conformity, so it was changed to simply "The Game".

The album features a more pop/rock sound than its predecessor, Jazz. The album's style would be augmented on Queen's next release Hot Space, and future Queen albums. At approximately 35 minutes, The Game is the shortest of Queen's studio albums.

Re-issued in May 2003 on DVD-Audio with Dolby 5.1 surround sound and DTS 5.1. The 5.1 mix of "Coming Soon" features an alternate backing track, because the final master tapes were not found when mixing the album to 5.1.

The photo on the cover of the EMI CD is different from that originally used on the LP and cassette even though the Hollywood CD still has the original photo. The original photo (with Taylor having folded arms and May not having a hand resting upon his exposed hip) is shown in the article. This alternate photo was also used on cover of the DTS DVD-Audio edition of the album released in 2003.

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Sail Away Sweet Sister (To The Sister I Never Had)", "Coming Soon", and "Save Me" were recorded from June to July of 1979. The rest of the songs were recorded between February and May of 1980.

1. Play The Game

"Play the Game" is a song by Queen, written by Freddie Mercury. It is the first track on the first side of their 1980 album The Game. It commences with a series of overlapping rushing noises on an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer, heralding the band's acceptance of electronic instruments into their once explicitly "no synths" sonic repertoire. They played it in their live shows from 1980 to 1982. The single was a hit in Queen's home country reaching #14 in the charts. In America, however, it gained small response at reaching only #42.

The song features a considerably soft vocal by Freddie complimented by a strong G4 rising in pitch all the way to a C5 in chest voice, contrary to the other C5s being hit in falsetto. He also played piano on the track.

The B-side, "A Human Body", has never appeared on any Queen album, but was finally released on CD format in the 2009 box set Queen Singles Collection Volume 2.

The cover of the single, as well as its promotional video, marked the first time Freddie Mercury appeared in either format with what later became his trademark moustache. The video is also notable in that Brian May did not use his trademark Red Special guitar, instead using a Fender Stratocaster replica made by Satellite. This was likely due to the risk of damage involved in the shot in which Mercury snatches the guitar away from May, then appears to throw it back to him.

2. Dragon Attack

3. Another One Bites The Dust

"Another One Bites the Dust" is written by bassist John Deacon.

"Another One Bites the Dust" was a worldwide crossover hit. It hit number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, number two on the R&B charts and the Disco Top 100, and number seven in the UK Singles Chart. The song is one of Queen's best selling singles, with sales of over 7 million copies. This version was ranked at number 34 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.

In 1998, it was covered by Wyclef Jean, Pras Michel and featured Free's rap vocals. "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song as "Another One Rides the Bus".

The song was also remixed by eurodance Captain Jack.

The bass line was inspired by the song "Good Times" by the Disco group Chic.[1][2] In an interview with New Musical Express, Chic co-founder Bernard Edwards stated, "...that Queen record came about because that Queen bass player... spent some time hanging out with us at our studio".[3]

Recording sessions were produced by Reinhold Mack at Musicland Studios in Munich (West Germany) and consisted of Deacon playing almost all the instruments: bass, piano, rhythm and lead guitars and handclap percussion. Roger Taylor added a drum loop and Brian May contributed some noises with his guitar and an Eventide Harmoniser. There are no synthesizers used in the song: all effects are created with pianos, guitars, and drums, with subsequent tape playback performed in reverse at various speeds. Finally, some sound effects were run through the Harmoniser for further processing. The effect of the Harmoniser can be heard clearly in the "swirling" nature of the sound immediately before the first lyric. During the mix the road crew suggested it as a single but the band did not like the idea until Michael Jackson recommended it after a concert (this anecdote was confirmed by Roger Taylor and Brian May on the U.S. radio show In the Studio with Redbeard that spotlighted the album The Game on one episode).

The song garnered Queen its only Grammy nomination, for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The band lost to Bob Seger's album Against the Wind. The "Another One Bites the Dust" music video was filmed at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas.

A common urban legend surrounding the chorus is that, when played in reverse, will be heard as, "It's fun to smoke marijuana." A spokeswoman for Hollywood Records (Queen's current US label) has denied that the song contains a backward message. In 2008, DJ Lobsterdust released a mix of the song called "It's Fun to Smoke Dust" that combines the original with a recording of Gary Greenwald's 1982 rant about the alleged subliminal message in the song.

During the administration of chest compressions during CPR, it can be difficult to achieve and maintain the recommended rate of 100 compressions per minute[6]. The bass line of this song is at such a rate; thus it is possible to think or hum this song during CPR, to maintain the correct rate.

In 1998, Wyclef Jean along with Pras Michel, Canibus, and Free remixed the song using a new instrumental track and samples from the actual song for the 1998 movie Small Soldiers. This version also appeared on Queen's compilation Greatest Hits III released in 1999. It enjoyed the most success in the UK, where it entered the chart at #5, its highest chart position, going on to spend six weeks on the chart. It also reached the top ten in Finland. It charted #18, #23, #50 and #62 in New Zealand, Austria, Sweden and France, respectively.

It was Pras' third top-10 UK hit as a solo artist following Ghetto Supastar and Blue Angels.

The song was covered by Queen Factory, a French project of Stéphane Durand who was inspired by Mad'House (house covers of Madonna) and King of House (house covers of Michael Jackson).

The song was remixed and covered by Greek-American singer Kalomoira for her debut self titled album released in Greece and Cyprus in September 2004. The album reached number 1 in both countries and was certified gold.

The song was remixed again in 2006 by The Miami Project.

3. Dragon Attack

4. Need Your Loving Tonight

"Need Your Loving Tonight" is written by bassist John Deacon. It is the fourth track on the first side of their 1980 album The Game and the second song on the album by Deacon (the other being Another One Bites the Dust).

The melody is very Beatles-influenced, although it has more of a rocking guitar riff, thus giving the song a power pop sound. "Need Your Loving Tonight" was released as a single in November 1980 and peaked at #44 in the United States.

It was played only scarcely during The Game Tour during the early 1980s; it only lasted this one tour. Also during live performances of the song, Brian May sang backing vocals and Freddie Mercury played piano (both of which were absent in the studio version).

5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is written Freddie Mercury. While it peaked at number two in the UK, it hit number one on the U.S. charts on February 23, 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks. It topped the charts in Australia for six weeks.

The song is written in a rockabilly style. As reported by Mercury in Melody Maker, May 2, 1981, Mercury composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar in just five to ten minutes.[citation needed] Other accounts say that he wrote it while lounging in a bubble bath in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich during one of Queen's extensive Munich recording sessions. He took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to bandmates Roger Taylor and John Deacon. The three of them, with their new producer Mack, recorded it at Musicland Studios in Munich. The entire song was reportedly recorded in less than half an hour (although Mack says it was six hours).

Although Mercury would play an electrified twelve-string on stage (and later a six-string electric), in the studio he recorded it with a six-string acoustic with external mics. Freddie Mercury also played the original guitar solo on a version which has been lost.

The "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single hit number two in the UK and became the first U.S. number-one hit for the band.

American country music singer Dwight Yoakam included a cover of the song on his 1999 album Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits from the 90's.[5] Yoakam's version was released as a single, peaking at #12 on the U.S. country singles charts in 1999. It was also used in a television commercial for clothing retailer Gap at the time of the album's release.

The music video was directed by Yoakam.

Other cover versions:

* In 1980 by The Chipmunks on their comeback album, Chipmunk Punk. Respectively their Mexican couterparts Las Ardillitas cover a Spanish version.
* Canadian pop/big band singer Michael Bublé covered the song for his self-titled 2003 debut album.
* American singer Josh Kelley recorded a cover for the 2005 album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
* British pop rock/pop punk band McFly covered the song, which it was featured on their Room on the Third Floor single.
* American band The 88 did a cover for the movie Failure to Launch
* Diana Ross covered the song on her 2007 album I Love You. Brian May plays guitar on this version.

6. Rock It (Prime Jive)

7. Don't Try Suicide

8. Sail Away Sweet Sister (To the Sister I Never Had)

9. Coming Soon

10. Save Me

"Save Me" is a song by English rock band Queen. This rock ballad was written by guitarist Brian May, who played piano, as well as guitar on the track. It was recorded in 1979 and released in the U.K. on January 25th, 1980, nearly six months prior to the release of the album The Game. It spent six weeks on the UK charts, peaking at number eleven. The song was played live from 1979-1984.

Brian May wrote "Save Me" about a friend whose relationship had ended, and played piano, synths and guitars (electric and twelve-string acoustic) on it.

Played live, the song would typically feature a short piano introduction absent from the studio version. This introduction can be found in a Brian May solo composition "My Boy" which can only be found much later on the 1998 compilation album "Lullabies With A Difference". The general melody could have been conceived by May as early as 1980 as the intro to the live version of "Save Me" exhibits.

In addition, the lyrics "I'm naked and I'm far from home" were uttered near the end of the pilot episode of the television series "Highlander" (whose theme was another Queen song, "Princes of the Universe") by Christopher Lambert's character.

Chapter 9: Jazz

2009-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

Jazz is a 1978 album by Queen. It was the band's seventh studio album. The album's varying musical styles were alternately praised and criticised; it was subject to a viciously scathing Rolling Stone review by Dave Marsh which included the suggestion that "Queen may be the first truly fascist rock band." Nevertheless, the album made it to #6 on the American Billboard 200.

The band had intended to sell the album with a poster depicting the all-female nude bicycle race staged to promote "Fat Bottomed Girls", but in the USA it was only available through mail order so as not to upset retailers. A small version of the poster comes with the Crown Jewels box set.

Roy Thomas Baker temporarily reunited with Queen and became their producer for this album. It was 3 years since he co-produced Queen's 1975 album A Night at the Opera. But this album also was the last album he co-produced for the band.

This was the first Queen album recorded outside the UK, for tax purposes.

Included in the liner notes is the attribution "Thunderbolt courtesy of God", referring to the crash of thunder heard at the end of the song "Dead On Time" which May recorded with a portable audio recorder during a thunderstorm.

The album artwork was suggested by Roger Taylor, who previously saw a similar design painted on the Berlin Wall.

1. Mustapha

"Mustapha" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and recorded by English rock band Queen. It is the first track of their 1978 album Jazz. "Mustapha" was released as a single in Germany, Spain, Yugoslavia and Bolivia in 1979, although it didn't cause much of an impact on the charts.

In live performances, Mercury would often sing the opening vocals of "Mustapha" in place of the complex introduction to "Bohemian Rhapsody", going from "Allah we'll pray for you" to "Mama, just killed a man...". However, sometimes the band performed an almost full version of the song from the Crazy Tour in late 1979 to The Game Tour in 1980, with Mercury at the piano. They dropped the second verse and went from the first chorus to the third. Also notable is that the song was often requested by the audience, as can be heard on Live Killers.

Although some fans believe that Mercury could speak more languages because of the lyrics of this song (and others such as "La Japonaise" and parts of "Bohemian Rhapsody"), he only knew English and perhaps Gujarati or Hindi, because of his Indian background and education in India (Gujarati is the native language of the Parsis).

2. Fat Bottomed Girls

"Fat Bottomed Girls" is a hit single by the English rock band Queen. It was released in 1978 on the album Jazz. The song was written by Queen guitarist Brian May and was one of the few Queen songs played in an alternative guitar tuning commonly called "drop D tuning". The lyrics express the axiom "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder", albeit done in a humorous and overtly sexual tone. The song is also considered ironic due to the ambiguous sexuality of lead singer Freddie Mercury.

Vocal arrangements are quite different between the studio version and the live version. In live performances, the lead vocals during the chorus were sung by Freddie Mercury and harmonised with an upper voice (Roger Taylor) and a lower voice (Brian May). In the studio version, there is no higher harmony. The lead vocals are sung by Freddie Mercury, while May performs the lower harmony. In the chorus, May has lead vocals.

The single version (which can be found on Greatest Hits) omits the extended guitar interludes between the verses as well as fading out before the ending.

"Fat Bottomed Girls" was released as a Double A-side with the song "Bicycle Race." This cut includes the line "Get on your bikes and ride". Bicycle Race also contains the line "Fat bottomed girls, they'll be riding today, so look out for those beauties, oh yeah", completing a double cross-reference between the two songs.

The original single cover featured a nude woman riding a bicycle. When many stores refused to stock the single because of the cover, the label altered the image so that the woman was wearing panties.

Cover versions:

* The band Antigone Rising covered the song on the 2005 tribute album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
* Hayseed Dixie covered it in bluegrass style on their 2002 album A Hillbilly Tribute to Mountain Love, where it's back to back with Spinal Tap's parody Big Bottom.
* The Feeling performed this song on their 2007 UK tour.
* Kevin Fowler covered the song on his 2002 album High on the Hog.
* On the Ozzfest 2006 tour Atreyu used the intro to open their set. As well as using it during their European tour in November 2007.
* Eric Church uses this song now as his intro to "I Pledge Allegiance To The Hag" in his live performances.
* The song was covered by American Idol Season 5 contestant Bucky Covington during Queen week
* This song was also covered by The Rockers in their CD, "We are the Champions. A tribute to Queen"
* A song set to the same tune "Triple D's" was featured in an episode of Rick & Steve sung by lipstick lesbian Kirsten to her wife Dana who had been insecure about the weight she's put on since giving birth.
* Kid Rock did a southern rock version of the song on 2004's CMT Outlaws Concert Special.

Featured appearances:

* The song as used in the second season of the series My Name is Earl in episode seventeen.
* The song was used as the opening theme for Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary Super Size Me.
* The song was also played during surgery on episode 40 of Nip/Tuck (2005).
* The song was mentioned in the song "Mix Tape" from the Broadway musical Avenue Q.
* Part of the song is sung at the end of the Father Ted episode, "The Mainland", by Fr. Noel Furlong, when he is trapped in a cave under a large pile of rocks, with only his hand showing.
* A song set to the same tune "Triple D's" was featured in an episode of Rick & Steve.
* The song was released for Guitar Hero: World Tour as downloadable content on March 26, 2009.

3. Jealousy

"Jealousy" was penned by Mercury and features May playing his Hairfred acoustic guitar placing small pieces of piano wire under the frets to produce the "buzzing" effect of a sitar. All vocals were recorded by Mercury. It was released as a single in 1979.

4. Bicycle Race

"Bicycle Race" (Sample (info)) is a single for the English rock band Queen. It was released on their 1978 album Jazz and written by Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury. The song is unusual for a Queen single in that it shows off the band's humorous side. Among other comic moments it has a middle eight which features bicycle bells. Fans would often replicate this at Queen concerts with their own such bells.

To release this song Queen staged a bicycle race with 65[citation needed] naked women. The video was originally banned and subsequently re-edited with added special effects to censor the offensive imagery.

It was released as a Double-A side with the song "Fat Bottomed Girls". A crudely retouched photograph of a naked cyclist from the bicycle race was used for the single cover (now sporting a pair of bikini bottoms).

Cover versions:

* This song was covered by the German dance artist Blümchen (1996). Her version contains samples from Queen's original recording.
* The song was covered in 2002 by Upsilon Acrux on Queen tribute album released by Three One G records.
* The song was covered by Lemon Demon and was released on the bonus tracks to his Damn Skippy album in 2005.
* The song was covered again in 2005 by Be Your Own Pet on a Queen Tribute album.
* The song was covered again in 2006 by Between the Buried and Me on their covers album The Anatomy Of.
* The song was also covered in 2009 by Jason Lytle which can be heard on his MySpace.

5. If You Can't Beat Them

"If You Can't Beat Them" was another Hard Rock composition by John Deacon and was a live favourite for the band in late '70s. It is one of the few songs by Deacon where May plays all the guitars and contains a guitar solo of over two minutes, making it one of the longest guitar solos in a Queen song.

6. Let Me Entertain You

"Let Me Entertain You" was written by Mercury, directed towards the audience. The line "we'll sing to you in Japanese" is a reference to May's Teo Torriatte, from A Day at the Races. The idea of a guitar riff in parallel sixths was re-used later in the Innuendo track, "The Hitman".

7. Dead on Time

"Dead on Time", written by May, features some of the fastest and most aggressive guitar work by its author, as well as some equally complicated yet ferocious drumming by Taylor. Performed at breakneck speed, it was considered by most fans to be an ideal live number, but was curiously never played in concert; May would only incorporate snippets of it in his guitar solos during the Jazz Tour. The song resembles "Keep Yourself Alive" from Queen's self-titled debut album. Particularly the guitar play is similar to that of Keep Yourself Alive, although it's faster in "Dead on Time". In the last chorus, the words "keep yourself alive" are sung, and in the lyrics attached to the album, those words are written in capitals.

The song ends with the sound of a thunderbolt, followed by Mercury screaming "You're dead!" The thunderbolt was actually recorded by May on a portable recorder during a vicious thunderstorm. Amusingly, the album's liner notes credit the thunderbolt to God.

8. In Only Seven Days

"In Only Seven Days" resembles Deacon's previous song, "Spread Your Wings". Deacon also played acoustic guitar and electric guitar.

9. Dreamer's Ball

"Dreamer's Ball" is May's tribute to Elvis Presley, who had died one year before. The arrangement for the concert version was completely different, with May and Taylor doing vocal brasses.

10. Fun It

"Fun It" was a funk track with a disco vibe by Taylor, where both Mercury and himself shared the vocals. Taylor did the lead vocals, while Mercury was backup. Taylor used Syndrum pads and played most of the instruments.

11. Leaving Home Ain't Easy

"Leaving Home Ain't Easy" was a ballad by May, who also sang all the vocals (lead and harmony). His voice was sped up for the bridge.

12. Don't Stop Me Now

"Don't Stop Me Now" is a 1979 hit single by Queen, from their 1978 album Jazz. Lyrics and music were written by Freddie Mercury and Daniel Preece. It was recorded in August/September 1978 in Nice, France.

Musically, the song is based around Mercury's piano playing, with John Deacon and Roger Taylor providing a bass guitar and drums backing track. The song also provides an example of Queen's trademark style of multitrack harmony vocals for the chorus lines. Several recordings were laid over each other to achieve the final sound. On the studio version, Brian May's only guitar playing is in his guitar solo, but on live versions performed on the band's 1978 and 1979 tours, May would also play rhythm guitar throughout the rest of the song to add a rockier feeling to it.

The lyrics have cosmic imagery describing feelings of power and exhilaration, for example "I'm gonna go, go, go there's no stopping me / I'm burning through the sky yeah 200 degrees…".

The single reached #9 in the UK charts but only #86 in the US.

It is famous for being a song Brian May did not like, and is the advertising jingle for the Trafford Centre.

Despite the fact that the studio version is one of Queen's most popular songs, it only lasted from 1978-1979 live, with the last performance in the Crazy Tour.

* In 2005, this song was voted as "The Greatest Driving Song Ever" by viewers of the BBC television program Top Gear, but the trophy given to Roger Taylor (probably intentionally) was mis-engraved, reading Stop Me Now.
* The 2004 horror/comedy Shaun of the Dead featured the song near the end of the movie. The song is played on a jukebox in the Winchester pub as three of the main characters circle around the zombie former barkeep while hitting him over the head with pool cues in rhythm with the song, leading Shaun to utter the line; "David, kill the Queen!" Also, during the song, various things happen to the beat of the music, such as lights flashing. Thematically, the song is ironic, as its upbeat feel completely contradicts the protagonists' no-win scenario when it accidentally is played on jukebox.
* The song is featured in a Panasonic commercial in Australia during coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics, featuring Australian Olympians in their childhood on home videos.
* The song was also featured in FOX's cartoon series "American Dad!" during the first season episode "Roger 'n Me".
* The song also featured in the credits of a British television show on the history of the Concorde aircraft.
* 'Don't Stop Me Now' is also the title of a group show held at Trolley Gallery, London in June 2008, of artists examining the body beyond death
* The song was featured in a series of Gatorade Propel advertisements.
* The song was used in a commercial for Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, showing airport trucks having a race along the runway to a background of the song playing. This was later changed to Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer.
* This Song was used in the Australian Queensland Motorways Ad for their new tolling system.
* It was used by M-Net in an advertising campaign in the early 90's.
* The song is featured in graffiti film Grovt Skadeverk 2.

Cover versions:

* McFly, the cover is the official song for Sport Relief 2006. It reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart on the week ending 29 July 2006.
* The Vandals, 2004 (punk)
* Fobia (in Spanish)
* In the European release of the drumming game Donkey Konga (2004)
* The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
* Katy Perry covered the song twice on her Hello Katy tour.

13. More of that Jazz

"More of that Jazz" is yet another one of Taylor's bitter comments about current society and the way rock and roll is disrespected. It is loop based and Taylor plays most instruments and sings all vocals, reaching some very high notes (peaking on a E5). The outro also contains short clips from many songs on the album, including "Dead on Time", "Bicycle Race", "Mustapha", "If You Can't Beat Them", "Fun It" and "Fat Bottomed Girls".

Chapter 8: News Of The World

2009-07-12T02:18:00.002-07:00

News of the World is the sixth studio album by Queen, released in 1977.

Containing hit songs "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions" and "Spread Your Wings", the album went platinum in the United Kingdom, four times platinum in the United States and achieved high certifications elsewhere throughout the world also.

News of the World was the second album to be produced solely by the band (the first being A Day at the Races) and was recorded at Sarm West and Wessex Studios, England and co-produced and engineered by Mike Stone.

After releasing A Day at the Races, Queen's self-producing debut and followup to A Night at the Opera which featured their magnum opus "Bohemian Rhapsody", having received some criticism that Races was a "boring" album,[1] Queen decided to shift their musical focus towards the mainstream, but remaining as the producers of the next album. After completing the A Day at the Races Tour, the quartet re-entered the studio to begin work on their sixth studio offering in July 1977, enlisting Mike Stone as assistant producer at the Basing Street Studios in Wessex, London. The group completed recording and production of the album two months later in September and released the album on 28 October. Initially, the album's critical response was mixed, and some was rather negative commenting that the group had again produced a "bland" album; however as the singles for the album were released, the reviews' favourability improved, and sales quickly improved.[2]

During the recording of the album, the Sex Pistols were recording their album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in the next studio and Johnny Rotten was eager to meet Mercury, so he crawled on all fours through Queen's studio, up to the side of the piano where Mercury was playing, and said "Hello, Freddie!" before crawling out.

Brian May describes News of the World as being a "rootsier" album than previous Queen records, partly due to the punk scene breaking at that time, which inspired Queen to record a more "back to basics" rock album. News of the World is a less finely polished production than their previous offerings. The complex vocal harmonies and guitar orchestrations that are used heavily in earlier Queen albums are used much more sparingly and subtly on this album.

1. We Will Rock You

"We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded and performed by Queen. Due to its prevalence in popular culture, "We Will Rock You" has been recognized by various authorities as being quite influential, including Rolling Stone, which ranked it #330 of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004[1] , and also the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) which placed it at #146 on its list of Songs of the Century.

Cover Versions:

* 1991: Italian band Kirlian Camera covered the song on their album Todesengel. The Fall of Life.
* 1992: Warrant covered the song for the film Gladiator.
* 1992: Brazilian band Viper covered the fast version of the song in their third album Evolution, and later in a 1993 live album Maniacs in Japan.
* 1996: Linda Ronstadt performed a soft lullaby version for her album Dedicated to the One I Love.
* 1997: El General remade the song in Spanish as "Nosotros Te Conmoveremos" for the compilation Tributo a Queen: Los Grandes del Rock en Espanol.
* 2000: DJ Hurricane and Scott Weiland collaborated on a cover of the song for the album Don't Sleep.
* 2000: Queen members May and Taylor recorded a rap-style version of the song with boy band 5ive.
* 2000: Actress Kimberly Williams performs an alternate version of the song for the television miniseries The 10th Kingdom.
* 2003: John Farnham performed a rendition for his Greatest Hits CD, featuring samples from the original recording. According to the liner notes for One Voice: The Greatest Hits, Brian May contributed an extended guitar solo.
* 2003: a remix by KCPK, sung by a chorus of children, was released in a series of animated Evian adverts which aired in France, Germany and Belgium. The remix was later released as a single and entered the local charts[2].
* 2004: Houseboyz performed a cover version for the video game Dance Dance Revolution Extreme[3].
* 2005: German band Pink Cream 69 covered the song in their album Food For Thought[4].
* 2005: Nickelback covered the song as a bonus track, through a promotion with Wal-Mart, for their album All the Right Reasons.
* 2008: Japanese singer Kosaka Riyu recorded a trance music version of the song.

Live cover performances:

* 1992: Queen with guest singer Axl Rose performed the song at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.
* 1996: Alanis Morissette and her band ended the first encore of her "Can't Not" Tour (following the song, "You Learn") with a cover of the song. Drummer Taylor Hawkins took the microphone, while Morissette took to the drums.
* 2003: Robbie Williams covered the song at his Knebworth Park gig. The performance subsequently appears on his Live Summer 2003 album which was released in the same year.
* 2003: Anastacia performed a version with Queen members May and Taylor at the 46664 Mandela concert.
* 2007: Prince's performance at the Super Bowl XLI started with a rendition of the song.
* 2007: Japanese singer Kumi Koda covered the song in her a-nation '07 performance.
* 2007: Girl band Hope sang the song on series 4 of X Factor.
* 2008: Finnish band Sonata Arctica plays "We Will Rock You" in concerts of their 2008 tour, using the crowd as a human drum kit.
* 2008: KoRn plays "We Will Rock You" as medley with their Coming Undone at their live concerts.
* 2008: Celine Dion performed a cover of this song as The Show Must Go On for her world tour concerts.
* 2008: Stone Temple Pilots who recently reunited have played the song at many of their shows.
* 2008: New Kids On The Block interpolated this song with "Hangin' Tough in Live performances on their tour in support of their comeback album

Remixes:

* 1991: Rick Rubin did some remixes of "We Will Rock You", released by Hollywood Records. The "Ruined Remix" also contains contributions by Flea and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
* 2003: Japanese techno artist Killingscum remixed 5ive's cover of the song in the track Morning Knifreak.
* Norman Cook performed a Fatboy Slim remix on "We Will Rock You".
* DJ Speedo has performed a gabber style remix for various compilation CDs.

Sampling:

* 1999: The "stomp-clap" is sampled as Juvenile is introduced on the track 'You Dig' from The Hot Boys album Guerrilla Warfare.
* 2002: Eminem sampled the "stomp-clap" on his album The Eminem Show for the song Till I Collapse.
* 2003: Kid Rock samples the song on "Hillbilly Stomp" from his self titled album. The song uses banjos, dobros and slide guitar to make it sound unique.
* 2007: Bon Jovi use the song as intro of their song "Summertime" in all the Lost Highway Tour.
* 2008: Detroit rapper Pick Up used this song as a sample for the track, "Like Me Or Not," off his debute album 8 Milez North.

Parodies & References to song:

* 1987: Henry Rollins did a parody of "We Will Rock You" titled "I Have Come to Kill You".
* 2003: Blondie's song Good Boys uses the line "You got me on your face/A big disgrace."
* 2004: Scum of the Earth did a cover version on their debut album Blah...Blah...Blah...Love Songs for the New Millennium. However, the song title was changed to "Pornstar Champion" with modified lyrics.

Appearances in other media:

* We Will Rock You was a featured song on the game Donkey Konga.
* 2004: The song featured in a global Pepsi-Cola TV ad campaign performed by Beyoncé Knowles, Pink and Britney Spears, and was produced by Brian May. Brian May and Roger Taylor both make guest appearances in the ad, which was shown on TV in the United Kingdom, Finland, Brazil, Malaysia, Romania, Philippines, India, Mexico, and Latin America.

2. We Are The Champions

"We Are the Champions" is a power ballad written by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by Queen for their 1977 album News of the World. One of their most famous and popular songs, it has since become an anthem for sporting victories and has been often used or referenced in popular culture (see below). The song has been covered by many artists.

Musically, it is based around Mercury's piano part, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon providing a drums and bass guitar backing. Brian May overdubbed some guitar sections, initially subtle, but building to a 'solo' played simultaneously with the last chorus. Mercury employed many jazz chords (major and minor 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th harmonies), and the choruses featured these voiced as 4 and 5-part vocal harmonies. The lead vocal is very demanding and strident (highest point is a C5), and in live performances, Mercury often deferred to let Taylor handle the highest parts of the melody. An exception to this was Mercury's performance of the song at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

The single featured "We Will Rock You" as a B-side, and preceded the song on the album. The two songs were often played consecutively at the close of Queen concerts, and are customarily played together on radio broadcasts (in album order). Keeping with tradition, it was also used to close the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with all the show's acts joining in behind the lead vocal of Liza Minnelli.

In 1977-1978, "We Are the Champions" was released as a single for the time in many countries, including U.S. where it reached number 4 on the Billboard Pop Singles, UK, Ireland and Norway where it reached the top ten, and Germany, Austria and Sweden where it was a top 15 hit.

In 1992, 1993 and 1998, the single was re-released in France, totalling 45 weeks on the chart and peaking respectively at #19, #14 and #10. The song has thus its greatest success during the 1998 World Cup because the French team was the winner arnas.

"We Are the Champions" was also covered by Crazy Frog under the title "We Are the Champions (Ding a Dang Dong)". It was released as a single on June 5, 2006. A cover of the 1977 Queen song of the same name, it was released to coincide with the 2006 World Cup, but Queen's vocals are featured in the song.

The single had its greatest success in France. It went straight to #1 on June 10, 2006, and stayed at this position for five weeks. Then, it kept on dropping in the chart. It remained for 9 weeks in the top 10, 17 weeks in the top 50 and 25 weeks in the chart. On August 30, 2006, it was certified Gold disc two months after its release by SNEP, the French certificator, and became the 15th best selling single in 2006 in that country.

Other cover versions:

* The song was covered by Live 2 Love as a dance track, where it appeared in the Japanese version of Dance Dance Revolution Extreme.
* Scatman John did a cover of this song along with Invisible Man.
* Era has also covered this song.
* Das Oath covered the song and has had it featured on more than one CD, including Dynamite with a Laserbeam: Queen as Heard Through the Meat Grinder of Three One G.
* La Unión, from Spain perform the song as "Somos Campeones" in Spanish on the 1996 album Tributo A Queen: Los Grandes Del Rock En Español.
* Queen (May/Taylor) re-recorded this song for the soundtrack of the 2001 film A Knight's Tale with Robbie Williams on vocals. Williams also made a music video for the song.
* William Hung covered this song for his 2004 album Hung for the Holidays.
* Gavin DeGraw covered this song for the 2005 album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
* In addition to performing the song live in a medley with "We Will Rock You" during the show's seventh season, American Idol contestant Michael Johns also recorded a studio version of the medley.
* Jean-Sébastien Lavoie, a contestant of French TV show Nouvelle Star, covered the song in 2003. His version, released as a single, reached #38 in France and #53 in Switzerland.[23]
* A sound-alike cover appears on the 1977 album Top of the Pops, Volume 62. When the album was re-issued in 2008 on iTunes, it was credited to Top of the Poppers.
* Florent Pagny covered the song as duet with David Hallyday on his 2001 album 2.
* The song has also been performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. [1]
* Green Day covers the song in most of their live sets.
* Jonathan Coulton has covered the song, along with We Will Rock You, as part of his Thing a week project.

Live cover performances:

* Green Day covered the song at Live 8 in 2005. Also, they have often covered the song at their shows.
* The Bad Plus performs a jazz cover of this song in Blunt Object: Live in Tokyo (2005).
* Japanese singer-songwriter Angela Aki performs the song along with "We Will Rock You" in her live concert (2006).
* The Jonas Brothers, Rooney, and the entire tour crew performed the song at their final concert for the 'When You Look Me In The Eyes' tour. The brothers pulled their entire family onstage and sang with the fans.

Uses in popular culture:

* The song is a playable song in the music video game Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, which is unlockable in the U.S. and U.K. versions of the game by completing career mode on lead guitar.
* The song is featured as end credits song in Pro Evolution Soccer 2, We Will Rock You being the opening song of the same game.
* The song has been played in 2002, UEFA Champions League Cup Final, after Real Madrid beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen(2-1) at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland.
* The song was used in South Park: Undeniable and Eric Cartman's Greatest Hits.
* The song has been used together with "We Will Rock You" in The Mighty Ducks' trilogy.
* The song has been sampled by Dame Dash, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Young Chris, Beanie Sigel, Cam'ron & Twista for their song, "Champions".
* The song appears in three episodes of The Simpsons - in "War of the Simpsons," Homer sings "I Am the Champions" after catching a legendary catfish, General Sherman. In "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken," Homer, Lenny, Carl, and Barney sing it after the Springfield Isotopes win the pennant. In "She Used To Be My Girl," it was played by the Fox News truck during the media circus followed by Major Quimby's paternaty scandal.
* The song appears in Season 5 of The Sopranos as the character Tony Blundetto's ring tone on his cell phone.
* The song was used in Drawn Together episode, "Spanky's Cup", the song plays after Spanky beats Cartman at his field, the entire cast celebrate the champions. It also plays in "The Chronicles of Leap", "Ice Skating", "Toot Goes Bollywood", and "Merry Christmas".
* At the end of the AFL Grand Final in Australia, the song is played over the stadium as the Premiership team does a lap of honor.
* The song is used as the entrance music of professional wrestling tag team The Kings of Wrestling.
* The song was used in the episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Hal shows his skating abilities.
* The song has been played to celebrate numerous sports championships. It was played at the finals of 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, after Italy won the cup. Usually, the winner of the German soccer championship plays the song during the celebration.
* The song was used during the end cutscene for The Matrix: Path of Neo.
* The song was used at the end of the South Park episode "Stanley's Cup" for someone else's happy ending, rather then the protagonist's.
* The song marked the climax of the ending of the 1984 hit comedy Revenge of the Nerds.
* The song was televised locally right after Sri Lanka won the 1996 Cricket World Cup on March 17, 1996.
* John Cusack dances to this song after he finds out that his ex-girlfriend has not had sex with his hated neighbor in the 2000 film High Fidelity.
* This song was the closing credits song for the movie 'A Knight's Tale' (2001.)
* Fernando Alonso sung the song after winning the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix, securing the Contructors' title for his team, Renault. The team later released an MP3 of the song being "played" by the engine they had used in that season, with the different notes played by changing engine speeds to adjust the pitch of the engine sound and exhaust note.
* The song was in the 2005 film, Kicking & Screaming.
* An Australian dart team - the Warilla Bowls All-Nighters adopted it as their 'team song' after winning back-to-back premierships in 2005.
* In the film Chicken Little (2005), Chicken Little sings the song after winning the big baseball game, but improvises the lyrics ("I Am The Champion" instead of "We Are the Champions"). Pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin also altered the song in this fashion in 2001.
* Liberal talk-radio personality Randi Rhodes used the song after the 2006 midterm elections to celebrate Democratic victories in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
* It was used as a musical extract for which to answer questions on in the 2006 Level One NCEA Music Exam
* It was used as the introductory music prior to Prince's halftime TV performance at Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007 in Miami, Florida.
* It was used after the Boston Celtics won the 2008 NBA finals
* On an episode of So You Think You Can Dance in 2007, Danny Tidwell performed a solo to Gavin DeGraw's version.
* A grunt sings a line of the chorus in Halo: Combat Evolved after you get killed by one.
* The song was used in JJB Stadium after Manchester United won the league there in the 2007-08 season. It was used again the following season at Old Trafford Stadium when Manchester United retained the title in 2008-09.
* The song was used in the movie What Happens in Vegas when Jack wins the jackpot in the casino.
* It was featured at the end an episode of The Big Bang Theory when the Perpetual Motion Squad won a science match.
* In the series Angel, Cordy, Wes, and Gunn sing the song in a karaoke bar after getting fired.
* In an episode of Phineas and Ferb, after winning at the baseball game, Phineas begins to sing "I Am the Champion" instead of "We Are the Champions".
* In the May 20, 2009 Season 8 finale of American Idol, Adam Lambert and Kris Allen performed the song with Queen.
* In the June 2, 2009 RoboTech Fiesta held in Suntec City Singapore,the song was played when Admiralty Secondary School won the Grand Championship Title.
* In an episode of WarioWare, Inc., Dr. Crygor sings "I Am the Champion" after catching a East Asian Catfish. Wario, Jimmy, Dribble, 9-Volt, and Orbulon sing it after Dr. Crygor quits his job. In "War of the Volts", 18-Volt sings "I Am the Champion" after catching a legendary dogfish, General.

Sampling and parodies:

* Producer Rick Rubin remixed the song (along with "We Will Rock You") for Hollywood Records. (This mix also samples James Brown's "Funky Drummer".)
* The song has been sampled by Dame Dash, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Young Chris, Beanie Sigel, Cam'ron & Twista for their song, "Champions".
* J.B.O. released a spoof version, “Wir sind die Champignons” (We Are the Mushrooms), in 1997.
* David Strassman parodied it on the Teddy's Farewell Tour, making his puppets mock him by singing, "We are the Voices, in his Head."

“ Certainly it's a relationship that could be, but I was thinking about football [soccer] when I wrote it. I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. It was aimed at the masses; I thought we'd see how they took it. It worked a treat. When we performed it at a private concert in London, the fans actually broke into a football chant between numbers. Of course, I've given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. You know me. I certainly wasn't thinking about the press when I wrote it. I never think about the British music press these days. It was really meant to be offered the musicians the same as the fans. I suppose it could also be construed as my version of "I Did It My Way." We have made it, and it certainly wasn't easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it's still not easy. -Freddie Mercury (1978)”

“ I have to win people over, otherwise it's not a successful gig. It's my job to make sure people have a good time. That's part of my duty. It's all to do with feeling in control. That song "We Are the Champions" has been taken up by football fans because it's a winners' song. I can't believe that somebody hasn't written a new song to overtake it.” -Freddie Mercury (1985)

3. Sheer Heart Attack

"Sheer Heart Attack" was half-finished at the time of the eponymous album. Roger Taylor sang lead on the demo but for the definitive version the band decided Mercury should sing lead vocals (probably based on the fact that May had already sung two songs and Taylor one). Guitars[citation needed] and bass were played by Taylor, apart from some guitar "screams" by May during the instrumental section.

During this time, the punk rock movement went into full effect, and this song was viewed as something of a jab at the musicians who felt bands like Queen were too self-indulgent. Of note is the lyric "I feel so inarticulate", and the fact that Taylor stated in interviews that he thought many of the 1970s punk bands had very little talent.

German Heavy metal band Helloween covered the song. The cover can be heard as a B-side for their single "Just a Little Sign".

4. All Dead, All Dead

"All Dead, All Dead" was written and sung by May, and features Mercury on backing vocals; May also plays piano. Lyrically, the song deals with May's experiences following the death of his childhood pet cat.

5. Spread Your Wings

"Spread Your Wings" is a song by Queen, from their 1977 album News of the World. It was released as the A side of the single Spread Your Wings/Sheer Heart Attack in 1978. It is a rock ballad, written by bassist John Deacon. It features Deacon on bass and acoustic guitar, Freddie Mercury on piano and vocals, Brian May on guitar and Roger Taylor on drums.

The song is in 4/4 meter, and starts with a simple piano motif in D. It is written in D Major, then modulating up to D's relative minor, B minor in the bridge, coming down to D in the chorus.

The lyrics of the song describe a troubled young man named Sammy who works sweeping the floor at Emerald Bar. The narrator (Mercury) of the song encourages Sammy to pursue his dreams, telling him to "spread your wings and fly away".

This song was covered by German power metal band Blind Guardian on both their 1992 album Somewhere Far Beyond, and their 1996 album The Forgotten Tales.

6. Fight from the Inside

"Fight from the Inside" was written and sung by Roger Taylor. In addition to the drums, Taylor also plays rhythm and bass guitar, the latter borrowed from Deacon himself.

The track is built around a jangly guitar riff and is amongst the first in the Queen catalogue to focus predominantly on the drums and bass, as opposed to the lead guitars. Lyrically, the song can be interpreted as an expression of scorn directed at punk rock fans which at the time had lambasted Queen ([1]).

Guitarist Slash has cited the guitar riff to this song as one of his favourite riffs of all time.

Chapter 7: A Day At The Races

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"A Day At The Races" is the fifth Queen album, released in December 1976.

"A Day At The Races" was the band's first self-produced album after co-producing their first four albums with Roy Thomas Baker and John Anthony.

A Day at the Races was recorded at Sarm East, The Manor and Wessex Studios in England and engineered by Mike Stone. The title of the album followed suit with its predecessor A Night at the Opera in taking its name from a film by the Marx Brothers.

A Day at the Races peaked at number 1 in the UK, in Japan and in the Netherlands. It reached number 5 on the US Billboard album chart and was Queen's fifth US album to ship Gold in the U.S.. It subsequently reached Platinum status in sales in the U.S.

1. Tie Your Mother Down

"Tie Your Mother Down" is a riff-driven rock song by Queen, written by guitarist Brian May and featuring one of rock music's most recognizable guitar riffs. It was released as a single from the band's 1976 album, A Day at the Races. On the album, the song is preceded by a one-minute instrumental intro, which is actually a reprise of the ending of "Teo Torriatte": this was intended to create a "circle" in the album, typical, for example, of Pink Floyd's albums.

May started writing the song in Tenerife, while he was working for his Ph.D. as an astronomer. He composed the riff on a Spanish guitar, and woke up early one morning and played it while singing "tie your mother down," a line he considered a joke.

Later on, Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury encouraged him to keep the line, similar to what happened between John Lennon and Paul McCartney with the line "the movement you need is on your shoulder" from the Beatles' song "Hey Jude". When performing the song during his solo shows, May has often omitted the line, "take your little brother swimming with a brick, that's all right," or at the very least mumbled through it.

A promotional film was made for it directed by Bruce Gowers and was a performance clip shot at Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York in February, 1977 during the band's first US arena headlining tour.

Though it was a long-time live favorite and a US FM rock radio favorite, the song had limited chart success, making #31 in the UK and #49 in the US. Therefore it was included on the band's first Greatest Hits compilation in certain markets only; however, the song is featured on the Queen Rocks compilation album, together with some of the band's heaviest songs.

In a BBC Radio 4 tribute program to Rory Gallagher, May stated that a key inspiration for the riff of this song came from Taste's 'Morning Sun' from their On The Boards (1970) album. The riff is also quite close in sound to the verse riff from T. Rex's song Funky London Childhood, from their January 1976 album, Futuristic Dragon.

In a 1976 interview on Capital Radio, Mercury was asked why tie your mother down? He replied: "Well this one in fact is a track written by Brian (May) actually, I dunno why. Maybe he was in one of his vicious moods. I think he's trying to out do me after 'Death on Two Legs' actually." [1]

The song was featured on the soundtrack for the 1993 film Super Mario Bros..

The song was featured on the Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen, performed by hard rock band Shinedown.

The song was covered a few times by Extreme, even though never commercially released. In one of those times, Brian May joined the group (1992 in a gig in London, England).

The song was performed by Foo Fighters (with Brian May and Roger Taylor), at their Hyde Park concert in 2006 with the vocals sang by Foo Fighters' drummer, Taylor Hawkins.

A cover by W.A.S.P. can be found on the American version of their album Still Not Black Enough.

Lynch Mob covered it on their self-titled second album.

After its release in 1976, it was played by Queen on every subsequent tour.

At the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, the song was co-performed by Queen and guests Joe Elliot and Slash. May sang the first verse and chorus before handing over the vocal part to the Def Leppard singer Joe Elliot.

This song has also been played live a few times by Queen with the Foo Fighters. They played this together for instance at Queen's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2001, VH-1's Rock Honors 2006 and most recently in Foo Fighters London Hyde Park performance in which they encored the show with the song.

2. You Take My Breath Away

"You Take My Breath Away" was written by Freddie Mercury and based on the harmonic minor scale. All of the vocals and piano were done by him, and he performed it by himself at Hyde Park before recording it. There is a vocal interlude between this song and the next one that begins with a wash of vocals (repeating the words "long away") created by echoes (of a multitracked Mercury) regenerating in reverse, which gradually evolves into the repeated phrase "you take my (breath away)" and reintegrates into the next track, "Long Away."

3. Long Away

"Long Away" is a single by the band Queen; it is the third track on the first side of the 1976 album A Day at the Races. Brian May wrote the song and sings the lead vocals. It is one of the few songs where May uses a guitar other than his Red Special, for the rhythm guitar parts he used an electric Burns twelve string guitar (although he used the Red Special for the second guitar solo in the middle section of the track). The song has a sad tone, describing that "for every star in heaven / there's a sad soul here today", and an overall sense of melancholic nostalgia lies over the song. It is similar in feel to the song '39 from A Night at the Opera, although without the folk influence. Roger Taylor sings the highest parts of the song.Freddie Mercury only did the backing vocals.

4. The Millionaire Waltz

"The Millionaire Waltz" was written by Mercury about John Reid (Queen's and Elton John's manager at the time)[citation needed]. It's another multi-key and multi-metre song like Bohemian Rhapsody, using abrupt arrangement changes and including Brian May doing multi-tracked guitar choirs.

5. You and I

"You And I" is John Deacon's song on the album. It features him on acoustic guitar and Mercury playing Elton John-esque piano parts. It's arguably Deacon's only dark sounding song on any album. This song was never played live.

6. Somebody To Love

Like "Bohemian Rhapsody", the major hit from Queen's previous album, "Somebody to Love" has a complex melody and deep layering of vocal tracks, this time based on a gospel choir arrangement. It was the first single off the album A Day at the Races. It is a rock ballad on which band members Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor multitracked their voices to create the impression of a 100-voice gospel choir. The lyrics, especially combined with the gospel influence, create a song about faith, desperation and soul-searching; the singer questions both the lack of love experienced in his life and the role and existence of God. Staying true to Queen's guitar-driven style, it was also filled with intricate harmonies and a notable guitar solo by Brian May, and it went to number 2 on the UK charts and number 13 on the U.S. singles chart. The song requires many high notes, ranging from a C5 in full voice to an Ab5 in falsetto[1]

A promotional video was made combining a staged recording session at Sarm East Studios (where the A Day at the Races album was recorded) and film footage of the band's performance at Hyde Park that September.

The song was included on their first Greatest Hits, released in 1981.

7. White Man

"White Man" was written by May about the suffering of Native Americans at the hands of European immigrants. Its riff was used for the album intro, similarly to "Father To Son" and "Procession" some years before. This song would be the focal point for a Freddie Mercury vocal solo on the A Day at the Races tour and would serve as both a Mercury vocal solo spot and a Brian May guitar solo spot on the 1977-78 News of the World tour. The song is one of Queen's heaviest works, thematically and musically.

8. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

"Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" is the fourth single ("Queen's First EP") from an eighth track on the British rock group Queen's 1976 album A Day at the Races, written by Freddie Mercury. It was one of several British music hall-inspired songs written by both Mercury and Brian May that appeared on other Queen albums from the 1970s.

The song starts with a piano and vocal introduction by Mercury, then continues, with the bass and drums adding on, at the start of the chorus. The second verse is sung, followed by another chorus. At this point, the drums, bass and guitar drop out, which then leads into the bridge, sung by Freddie Mercury and Mike Stone. Following the Brian May guitar solo, another verse is sung, and then the chorus ends the track.

The song describes how "a good old-fashioned lover boy" will romance with an unnamed love interest, especially at night.

The single version and the album track version differ significantly. On the album track, there are more vocal harmonies added. ("I miss those warm summer nights"). The single version also has drummer Roger Taylor singing Mike Stone's line. It was mimed by the band for BBC and aired on Top Of The Pops.

The song was also performed live from A Day At The Races Tour until the end of the News of the World Tour. It was performed in a medley after Killer Queen, and was the first two verses, followed by the final chorus.

For the CD Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen the song is covered by Jason Mraz.

9. Drowse

"Drowse" was Roger Taylor's song in 6/8 having him playing rhythm guitar and timpani and doing all of the vocals. May played slide guitar during this and "Tie Your Mother Down" (the second guitar solo in the middle of the song).

10. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)

"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" (手をとりあって, Te o Toriatte?) is a song from the 1976 Queen album A Day at the Races and is written by guitarist Brian May. It is the tenth and final track on the album.

The song is notable for having two verses sung in Japanese; it is one of four Queen songs in which an entire verse is sung in a language other than English. The song features a piano, a plastic piano, and a harmonium, all of which are played by Brian May. It is the only point in the album in which Freddie Mercury does not play piano.

The album's closing guitar melody is also its opening melody; the sequence was attached to the beginning of "Tie Your Mother Down", the first track on the album. May described it as "a never-ending staircase", otherwise commonly known, musically, as a Shepard tone.

The song was released as a single exclusively in Japan, and only as a 7” single; it reached #49 on the Japanese charts. The B-side was the song "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy". The closing Shepard tone was edited off the song.

Yasumi Matsuno is a fan of Queen, and named Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together as a tribute to this song[citation needed].

"Teo Torriatte" was later referenced by Queen in a line ("we'll sing to you in Japanese") from the song "Let Me Entertain You", featured on their 1978 album Jazz.

The song's title in English uses an outdated form of romanization by applying the particle 'o' to the word before it. When romanized correctly, "手をとりあって" reads "Te (w)o Toriatte."

Also note the romanisation of the hiragana has only one "r", reading the title in kanji and hiragana, "te (w)o to ri a っ te", the character "っ" doubles the "t" in "te".

The chorus part sung in Japanese goes as follows:

"Teo toriatte konomama iko
Aisuruhito yo
Shizuka nayo ini
Hikario tomoshi
Itoshiki oshieo idaki"

The chorus part sung in English is the rough equivalent:

"Let Us Cling Together As The Years Go By,
Oh My Love, My Love,
In The Quiet Of The Night
Let Our Candles Always Burn,
Let Us Never Lose The Lessons We Have Learned."

In the UK the first track to be released as a single was Somebody to Love on November 12, 1976 (EMI 2565). It reached number 2. Tie Your Mother Down followed on March 4, 1977 (EMI 2593), reaching number 31, and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy on May 20 1977, reaching number 17. In the US, Somebody to Love was released on 10 December 1976 ( Elektra E45362) and reached number 13. It was followed by Tie Your Mother Down (Elektra E45385) in March 1977, which reached number 49. Both of these were released in Japan: in addition, Teo Torriatte was also released exclusively in Japan.

Chapter 6: A Night At The Opera

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The album takes its name from the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. The 1976 follow-up album, A Day at the Races, was also named after a Marx brothers film.

1. Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)

"Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" could only be referred to as Mercury's hate letter toward Queen's ex-manager, Norman Sheffield, who is reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972-1975. Though it never made a direct reference to him, upon listening to the song, Sheffield attempted to sue the band for defamation. This was how the public found who the song was about. Sheffield later admitted that it probably gave the band an incentive to dedicate the song to him after he decided to sue them. During live performances, Mercury would usually re-dedicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman", although this line was censored out on the version that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979, possibly to avoid further legal proceedings.

In the "Classic Albums" documentary about the making of A Night at the Opera, Brian May stated that the band at first was somewhat put back by the incisiveness of Mercury's lyrics. After the song came together, it was agreed that the "author should have his way," and the song went on as penned.

As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on this song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to Brian May how they needed to be played on guitar.

"Death on Two Legs" was on the setlist right into The Game Tour in 1980, then fell off the setlist half way through the tour.

2. Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

"Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" was another song by Mercury. He played piano and did all of the vocals. The lead vocal was sung in studio, produced through headphones elsewhere in the studio in a tin bucket. A microphone picked up the sound from the bucket, which gives it a hollow "megaphone" sound. The guitar solo is also reported to have been recorded on the vocal track, as there were no more tracks to record on.[citation needed] The key change going into the guitar solo (Eb to A) is a tritone relationship, making it a jarring, but very effective, transition into the key of D for the next track, "I'm in Love with My Car".

3. I'm in Love with My Car

"I'm in Love with My Car" is amongst Roger Taylor's most famous songs in the Queen catalogue. The song was initially taken as a joke by Brian May, who thought that Taylor was not serious when he heard a demo recording.

Taylor played the guitars in the original demo, but were later re-recorded by May on his Red Special. The lead vocals and the majority of the harmonies were sung by Roger Taylor, with assistance from Freddie Mercury and Brian May in the verbal harmonies of the second chorus. The revving sounds at the conclusion of the song were recorded by Taylor's then current car, an Alfa Romeo. The lyrics were inspired by one of the band's roadies, Johnathan Harris, whose Triumph TR4 was evidently the "love of his life". The song is dedicated to him, the album says: "Dedicated to Johnathan Harris, boy racer to the end".

When it came down to releasing the album's first single, Taylor was so fond of his song that he urged Mercury (author of the first single, "Bohemian Rhapsody") to allow it to be the B-side and reportedly locked himself in a cupboard until Mercury agreed. This decision would later become the cause of much internal friction in the band, in that while it was only the B-side, it generated an equal amount of publishing royalties for Taylor as the main single did for Mercury.

The song was often played live during the '77-'81 period, again for the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour in 2005 and the Rock the Cosmos Tour in 2008. Taylor sang it from the drums while Mercury played piano and provided backing vocals. Roger would recover the song for his concerts with The Cross and solo tours, where instead of drums he played rhythm guitar.

4. You're My Best Friend

"You're My Best Friend" is a song penned by John Deacon and performed by British rock band Queen. It was originally included on the A Night at the Opera album in 1975, and later released as a single. This song also appeared on the Greatest Hits (1981) album.

Deacon wrote the song for his wife, Veronica, to whom he remains married to this day. In this song, he plays a Wurlitzer electric piano in addition to bass guitar. The characteristic 'bark' of the Wurlitzer's bass notes plays a prominent role in the song. During live performances, the band used a grand piano rather than an electric, and it would be played by Freddie Mercury, while Deacon played the bass guitar.

For the music video, it shows the band in a huge ballroom surrounded by over one thousand candles, including a huge chandelier hung above them on the ceiling. The video was filmed in the summer of 1976. (May later mentioned that the video was shot in the middle of a very unpleasant heatwave and the ballroom in which they were filming did not have air conditioning.) Also, Deacon is seen playing a grand piano, even though he plays a regular electric on the recording.

The band answered Tom Browne on 24 December 1977 in a live BBC Radio One interview, regarding Deacon's control of the piano for the recording:
“ Well, Freddie didn’t like the electric piano, so I took it home and I started to learn on the electric piano and basically that’s the song that came out you know when I was learning to play piano. It was written on that instrument and it sounds best on that. You know, often on the instrument that you wrote the song on. ”—John Deacon
“ I refused to play the damn thing (the Wurlitzer). It’s tiny and horrible and I don’t like them. Why play those things when you’ve got a lovely superb grand piano? No, I think, basically what he [John] is trying to say is it was the desired effect. ”—Freddie Mercury

Cultural impact

* The song can be heard in Kenneth Brannagh's 1992 film Peter's Friends.
* The song was featured in a 2000 episode of That '70s Show entitled "Hyde's Father."
* The song was featured at the end of the Simpsons episode "Moe Baby Blues" in 2003.
* The song was featured in the ending credits of the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead.
* The song was also featured in the 2005 Nintendo Gamecube game Karaoke Revolution Party.
* The song was played during the final moments of the Will & Grace finale in May 2006.
* The song was played during the opening credits in the 2006 film The Break-Up.
* The song was featured in a My Name Is Earl episode "Something to Live For" in 2006.
* The song was featured at the end of the 2007 movie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.
* The song was featured in a 2007 "AT&T" commercial.
* Cheese (voiced by Candi Milo) sang this song in the 2007 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade along with other characters from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
* The song is currently featured for "Carnival Cruise Lines" new brand campaign, "Let the Fun Begin".
* The song was featured in a television trailer for the 2008 film, Pineapple Express.

5. '39

'39 is a song by Brian May. May sings lead vocals on its skiffle-like arrangement, featuring three- and four-part harmony vocals – including passages of falsetto during the middle bridge section, which culminate in an A5 sung by Roger Taylor.

"'39" is the 39th song in the Queen studio album chronology.

The acoustic guitars were recorded with a capo on the first fret.

"'39" was released as the B-side to "You're My Best Friend", so the two singles from A Night at the Opera, the other being "Bohemian Rhapsody/I'm In Love With My Car" comprised one composition from each of the four members of Queen.

The song's lyrics are a science fiction short story which concerns twenty volunteers who leave a dying Earth on a spaceship in search of new worlds to settle. They return to report success, 100 calendar years later, with only a single year passing from the volunteers' perspective (due to time dilation). The lyrics imply that the song's protagonist faces his grandchild upon return to Earth: For so many years have gone/though I'm older but a year/your mother's eyes from your eyes/cry to me. This, and the fact that all his peers and friends have died, are a terrible grief to the protagonist, as the final words insist: For my life/still ahead/pity me!

To provide 100 years' time dilation on Earth in only one year of spaceship time, the velocity of the spaceship must average to 99.995% of the speed of light.

Brian May described the song as follows:

It's a science fiction story. It's the story about someone who goes away and leaves his family and... because of the time dilation effect, when you go away, the people on Earth have aged a lot more than he has when he comes home. He's aged a year and they've aged 100 years. So, instead of coming back to his wife, he comes back to his daughter and he can see his wife in his daughter... a strange story. I think, also, I had in mind a story of Herman Hesse, which I think is called "The River" (actually "The Poet" [1]). A man leaves his hometown and has lots of travels and then comes back and observes his hometown from the other side of the river. He sees it in a different light, having been away and experienced all those different things. He sees it in a very illuminating way, 'cause I felt a little bit like that about my home at the time as well, having been away and seen this vastly different world of rock music... totally different from the way I was brought up, and I had those feelings about home.

In the first verse, the science-fictional nature of the story is hidden but hinted at by two non-rhyming couplets, which should rhyme based on the structure of the song. "The sweetest sight ever seen" is "rhymed" with the word "few", suggesting a line like "the sweetest ship ever flew", and "sailed across the milky seas" is rhymed with the word "day", suggesting the line "sailed across the Milky Way".

Cover versions

* George Michael performed '39 at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert before performing "Somebody to Love," which was subsequenly released as a single and its profits donated.
* "'39" was covered by Ingram Hill on the 2005 tribute album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
* The intro of "'39" was used by the German band Puhdys for the intro of their own song "Alt wie ein Baum" (As old as a tree) in 1976.
* Brian May and Roger Taylor played the song with the Foo Fighters live at the O2 in November 2007.
* The song was covered by the Danish rock band Pretty Maids on the acoustic album Stripped.
* The punk rock band Swingin' Utters recorded a cover of '39 on a BYO Records Swingin' Utters/Youth Brigade Split album.
* Finnish musician Neumann recorded a cover version of '39 with Finnish (majorly different) lyrics.
* Mägo de Oz recorded a cover version in the album "La ciudad de los arboles" with an alternative lyric
* Pato Fu used a loop of the middle vocal part in "Cuidado é fragil"(Ruido Rosa) but didn't get clearance for it.

On live versions of the song Freddie Mercury would often sing the lead vocal part instead of Brian May, who would sing backup vocals and play 12-string guitar. Roger Taylor would play a tambourine and a bass drum at the same time, and sing the high pitched notes in the middle section. John Deacon would play the walking bass line on a fretless bass guitar instead of an upright bass.

6. Sweet Lady

"Sweet Lady" is a heavy metal number written by May. Lyrically and musically, it's usually thought to precede 'Tie Your Mother Down' as a loud, riff-heavy expression of disdain for the author's romantic interest. However, 'Tie Your Mother Down' had already been written at the time.

The song is an unusual rock style in 3/4 meter (which gives way to 4/4 at the bridge). Roger Taylor remembers it as the most difficult drumming part he ever recorded. As DTS tracks reveal, there are several off-pitch notes by Freddie Mercury on the lead vocal, something covered up by harmonies and overdubbing.

7. Seaside Rendezvous

"Seaside Rendezvous", written by Mercury, is probably best known for the "musical" bridge section which begins at around 0:51 into the song. The section is performed entirely by Mercury and Taylor using their voices alone. Mercury imitates woodwind instruments including a clarinet and Taylor mostly brass instruments, including tubas and trumpets, and even a kazoo. The tap dance segment is also "performed" by Mercury and Taylor on the mixing desk with thimbles on their fingers. Mercury plays both grand piano and jangle honky-tonk.

8. The Prophet's Song

"The Prophet's Song" was composed by May. On the show In the Studio with Redbeard, which spotlighted A Night at the Opera, May explained that he wrote the song after a dream he'd had while he was recovering from being ill while recording the Sheer Heart Attack album, and is the source of some of the lyrics. He spent several days putting it together, and it includes a vocal canon sung first by Mercury, then by Mercury, Taylor and May. The vocal, and later instrumental canon was produced by early tape delay devices. It is a heavy and dark number with a strong progressive rock influence. At over eight minutes in length, is also Queen's longest song (not counting the untitled instrumental track on Made in Heaven).

As detailed by Brian May in a documentary about this album, the speed-up effect that happens in the middle of the guitar solo was achieved by starting a reel-to-reel player with the tape on it, as the original tape player was stopped.

The dream he had was about The Great Flood, and lyrics have references from the Bible and the Noah's Ark account.

9. Love Of My Life

"Love of My Life" is a ballad from the album A Night at the Opera by English rock band Queen. A live release of the single reached number 1 in Argentina and Brazil, in 1979. The preceding track on the album, "The Prophet's Song", flows seamlessly into this song, although the two were never performed back to back live.

Freddie Mercury wrote it on the piano and guitarist Brian May rearranged the song for acoustic 12-string guitar to facilitate live performances. May contributed occasional guitar phrases to the original recording and played the swooping harp glissandos by pasting together multiple takes of single chords. The song is a good example of Mercury's familiarity with rubato phrasing, showcasing his classical piano influences, notably by Chopin and Beethoven.

The song was written for Mary Austin, Mercury's girlfriend at the time.

"Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and the band released the song as a single there.

The 1979 album Live Killers features a live version of the song. It was also performed during the Queen Rock Montreal, Live at the Bowl, Live at Wembley '86, and Return of the Champions concerts. There is a live video of the song on the DVD Greatest Video Hits 1 of a May-Mercury-Audience trio in Tokyo, 1979. The audio for that clip came from a 1979 performance in Frankfurt.

After Mercury's death, Brian May usually dedicated the song to the late Freddie Mercury. A notable exception is the Sheffield show which yielded the Return of the Champions CD and DVD. At that show, May announced that Mercury's mother was at the show and he dedicated the song to her. In the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour, May would sing a few lines of the song, then let the audience take over. He did this on every verse.

Numerous artists have released a cover of "Love of My Life" commercially, including Declan Galbraith, Scorpions, Michael Burgess, Extreme (which featured Brian May), Rose Marie, Elaine Paige, Mark Slaughter, Antonio Vega, Norma Waterson and Iris.

10. Good Company

"Good Company" was written and sung by Brian May. All vocals are by May, who also plays a George Formby Ukelele-Banjo (also known as banjolele) that he'd used one year previously in 'Bring Back That Leroy Brown'.

The recording is remarkable for featuring an elaborate recreation of a Dixieland-style jazz band, produced by May using his Red Special guitar, along with various forms of effects processing.

The song is a narrative tale, told by a man who in young age was advised by his father to "take care of those you call your own, and keep good company." In his younger years, the singer follows his father's advice, keeping his friends and marrying a girl named Sally. However, after their marriage, he begins to lose interest in his friends, who gradually disappear. As he grows older, he becomes increasingly skilled at and dedicated to his occupation, working long nights and neglecting his family.

Eventually, the singer's efforts are rewarded, he begins his own Limited company (which is also a pun, since throughout the rest of the song "company" is used in the sense of companions). Even more dedicated to his business, he hardly notices as his wife leaves him.

The song finishes with the speaker as an elderly man, puffing his pipe and pondering the lessons of his life, which he has no one left to share with.

11. Bohemian Rhapsody

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was written by Freddie Mercury. Is in the style of a stream-of-consciousness nightmare that has unusual song structure, more akin to a classical rhapsody than popular music. The song has no chorus, instead consisting of seemingly disjointed sections including operatic segments, an a cappella passage, and a heavy rock solo.

When it was released as a single, "Bohemian Rhapsody" became an unlikely commercial success, staying at the top of the UK Singles Chart for nine weeks. It has become one of the UK's best ever selling singles (with sales of 2,176,000), bettered only by Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and Elton John's "Candle In The Wind 1997".

The single was accompanied by a promotional video; considered groundbreaking, it helped establish the visual language of the modern music video. Although critical reaction was initially mixed, especially in America, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is often considered to be Queen's magnum opus and one of their all-time greatest songs. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Bohemian Rhapsody" at number 163 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Freddie Mercury wrote most of "Bohemian Rhapsody" at his home in Holland Road, Kensington, in West London. The song's producer, Roy Thomas Baker, related how Mercury once played the opening ballad section on the piano for him: "He played the beginning on the piano, then stopped and said, "And this is where the opera section comes in!" Then we went out to eat dinner." Guitarist Brian May says the band thought that Mercury's blueprint for the song was "intriguing and original, and worthy of work". Much of Queen's material was written in the studio according to May, but this song "was all in Freddie's mind" before they started. Music scholar Sheila Whiteley suggests that "the title draws strongly on contemporary rock ideology, the individualism of the bohemian artists' world, with rhapsody affirming the romantic ideals of art rock". Commenting on bohemianism, Judith Peraino said that "Mercury intended... [this song] to be a 'mock opera', something outside the norm of rock songs, and it does follow a certain operatic logic: choruses of multi-tracked voices alternate with arialike solos, the emotions are excessive, the plot confusing."

The song was recorded over three weeks, beginning at Rockfield Studio 1 near Monmouth on 24 August 1975, after a 3-week rehearsal in Herefordshire. During the making of the track, an additional four studios – Roundhouse, SARM (East), Scorpion, and Wessex – were used. According to some band members, Mercury mentally prepared the song beforehand and directed the band throughout. Mercury used a Bechstein "concert grand" piano, which he played in the promotional video and the UK tour. It was the most expensive single ever made and remains one of the most elaborate recordings in music history.

May, Mercury, and Taylor sang their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs. Since the studios of the time only offered 24-track analogue tape, it was necessary for the three to overdub themselves many times and "bounce" these down to successive sub-mixes. In the end, eighth-generation tapes were used. The tapes were passed over the recording heads so frequently that the oxide layer began to wear off, and the normally opaque tapes turned nearly transparent. The various sections of tape containing the desired submixes had to be spliced (cut with razor blades and assembled in the correct sequence using adhesive tape).

The song consists of six sections: introduction, ballad, guitar solo, "opera", rock, and outro. This format, with abrupt changes in style, tone, and tempo, was unusual to rock music. An embryonic version of this style had already been utilised by the band in "My Fairy King". The New York Times commented that "the song's most distinct feature is the fatalistic lyrics". Mercury refused to explain his composition other than saying it was about relationships; the band is still protective of the song's secret. Following the single's release, Mercury said:

"It's one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them...'Bohemian Rhapsody' didn't just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research although it was tongue-in-cheek and mock opera. Why not?"

Brian May confirms suggestions that the song contained veiled references to Mercury's personal traumas. He recalls "Freddie was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood. He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song." May, though, says the band had agreed that the core of a lyric was a private issue for the composer.In a BBC Three documentary about the making of "Bohemian Rhapsody", Roger Taylor maintains that the true meaning of the song is "fairly self-explanatory with just a bit of nonsense in the middle".

However, when the band released a Greatest Hits cassette in Iran, a leaflet in Persian was included with translation and explanations (refers to a book published in Iran called "The March of the black Queen" by "Sarah Sefati" & "Farhad Arkani", which included the whole biography of the band & complete lyrics with Persian translation [2000]). In the explanation, Queen states that "Bohemian Rhapsody" is about a young man who has accidentally killed someone and, like Faust, sold his soul to the devil. On the night before his execution, he calls for God in Arabic, "Bismillah" (Basmala), and with the help of angels, regains his soul from Shaitan.

Despite this, critics, both journalistic and academic, have speculated over the meaning behind the song's lyrics. Some believe the lyrics describe a suicidal murderer hunted by demons or depict events just preceding an execution. The latter explanation points to Albert Camus's novel The Stranger, in which a young man confesses to an impulsive murder and has an epiphany before he is executed, as probable inspiration. Others believe the lyrics were only written to fit with the music, and have no meaning; Kenny Everett quoted Mercury as claiming the lyrics were simply "random rhyming nonsense."

Still others interpreted them as Mercury's way of dealing with personal issues.[4] Music scholar Sheila Whiteley observes that Mercury reached a turning point in his personal life in the year he wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody".[6] He had been living with Mary Austin for seven years but had just embarked on his first gay love affair. She suggests that the song provides an insight into Mercury's emotional state at the time, "living with Mary ("Mama", as in Mother Mary) and wanting to break away "Mama Mia let me go")".

Introduction (0:00–0:48)

The song begins with a close four-part harmony a cappella introduction in B♭ - entirely multi track recordings of Mercury although the video has all four members lip-syncing this part. The lyrics question whether life is "real" or "just fantasy" before concluding that there can be "no escape from reality." Scholar Sheila Whiteley comments:

"The multi-tracked vocals... the rhythm following the natural inflection of the words, the block chords and lack of foreground melody creating an underlying ambiguity... heightened by the harmonic change from B♭ (6) to C7 in bars 1 and 2; the boundaries between "the real life" and "fantasy" are marked by instability and "caught in a landslide"."

Highlighting the phallic nature of guns, Peraino also suggests that the song is a "melodrama of homoeroticism", although, unlike Whiteley, she does not draw upon biographical details. Peraino gives an Oedipal reading, quoting some lyrics with sexual connotations ("Too late, my time has come/Sends shivers down my spine/Body's aching all the time"). Like Whiteley, Peraino identifies the themes of both guilt and desire.

"For many adolescents listening to the song, these phrases could describe the physical sensations of sexual awakening and the conflicting emotions that accompany them. If that sexual awakening is queer, then the greater the guilt and the need for confession."

After 15 seconds, the grand piano enters, and Mercury's voice alternates with the other vocal parts. The narrator introduces himself as "just a poor boy" but declares that he "needs no sympathy" because he is "easy come, easy go"; chromatic side-slipping on "easy come, easy go" highlight the dream-like atmosphere. The end of this section is marked by the bass entrance and the familiar cross-handed piano vamp in B♭.

Ballad (0:48–2:36)

The piano continues the 4-bar vamp in B♭. Deacon's bass guitar enters playing the first note, and the vocals change from harmony to an impassioned solo performance by Mercury. The narrator explains to his mother that he has "just killed a man", with "a gun against his head" and with that act thrown his life away. This "confessional" section, Whiteley comments, is "affirmative of the nurturant and life-giving force of the feminine and the need for absolution."

The chromatic bass line brings about a modulation to E♭, underpinning the mood of desperation. Taylor's drums enter (1:19), (this features the 1-1-2 rhythm of "We Will Rock You" in ballad form) and the narrator makes the second of several invocations to his "mama" in the new key, reusing the original theme. The narrator explains his regret over "mak[ing] you cry" and urging mama to "carry on as if nothing really matters" to him. A truncated phrase connects a two repeat of the vamp in B♭.

As the ballad proceeds into its second verse, the narrator shows how tired and beat down he is by his actions (as May enters on guitar and mimics the upper range of the piano at 1:50). May sends "shivers down my spine" by scratching the strings on the other side of the bridge. The narrator bids the world goodbye announcing he has got to go and prepares to "face the truth" admitting "I don't want to die / I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all". Another chromatic bass descent brings a modulation to the key of A, and the "Opera" section.

Guitar solo (2:36–3:03)

As Mercury sings the rising line "I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all", the band builds in intensity, leading up to a guitar solo by May that serves as the bridge from ballad to opera. The intensity continues to build, but once the bass line completes its descent establishing the new key, the entire band cuts out abruptly at 3:03 except for quiet A major quaver chords on the piano.

Producer Baker recalls that May's solo was done on only one track, rather than recording multiple tracks. May stated that he wanted to compose "a little tune that would be a counterpart to the main melody; I didn't just want to play the melody".[3] The guitarist said that his better material stems from this way of working: in which he thought of the tune before playing it: "the fingers tend to be predictable unless being led by the brain".[3]

Judith Peraino comments that the "young hero, having confessed his (sexual) crime to his mother leaves home to "face the truth" and finds himself in a queer world of Italian opera." His voyage is represented by a melodious guitar solo that abruptly segues to a simple piano beat."[14] She compares the instrumental interlude to the "same structural moment" in The Beatles' "A Day in the Life", when "the grand orchestral texture of the first dreamy section suddenly comes to a crashing cadence and is followed by a simple piano beat."

Opera (3:03–4:07)

A rapid series of rhythmic and harmonic changes introduces a pseudo-operatic midsection, which contains the bulk of the elaborate vocal multi-tracking, depicting the narrator's descent into hell. While the underlying pulse of the song is maintained, the dynamics vary greatly from bar to bar, from only Mercury's voice accompanied by a piano, to a multi-voice choir supported by drums, bass, piano and a timpani. The choir effect was created by having May, Mercury, and Taylor sing their vocal parts continually for ten to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs. These overdubs were then combined into successive submixes. According to Roger Taylor, the voices of May, Mercury and himself combined created a wide vocal range: "Brian could get down quite low, Freddie had a powerful voice through the middle, and I was good at the high stuff." The band wanted to create "a wall of sound, that starts down and goes all the way up".[8] The band used the bell effect for lyrics "Magnifico" and "Let me go". Also, on "Let me go", Taylor singing the top section carries his note on further after the rest of the "choir" have stopped singing.

Lyrical references in this passage include Scaramouche, the fandango, Galileo Galilei, Figaro and "Bismillah," as rival factions fight over the narrator's soul. Peraino calls the sequence both a "comic courtroom trial and a rite of passage ... one chorus prosecutes, another defends, while the hero presents himself as meek through mily."[14] The song's introduction is recalled with the chromatic inflection on "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me." The section concludes with a full choral treatment of the lyric "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me!", on a block B♭ major chord. Roger Taylor tops the final chord with a falsetto B♭ in the sixth octave (Bb6).

Using the 24-track technology available at the time, the "opera" section took about three weeks to finish.[4] Producer Roy Thomas Baker said "Every time Freddie came up with another 'Galileo', I would add another piece of tape to the reel.[5] Baker recalls that they kept wearing out the tape, which meant having to do transfers.[4]

Relating the theme of entrapment to Mercury wanting to express his sexuality, Whiteley points out the "heavy timbres of the lower voices ... traditionally connote the masculine ("We will not let you go") while the shrill higher voices in the first inversion chords imply the feminine 'other' ("Let me go"). They signal entrapment and a plea for release."

Hard rock (4:08–4:55)

The operatic section leads into an aggressive hard rock musical interlude with a guitar riff written by Mercury. At 4:15, a double-tracked Mercury sings angry lyrics addressed to an unspecified "you", accusing him/her of betrayal and abuse and insisting "can't do this to me, baby" - which could be interpreted as a flashback to certain events that led to the earlier ballad section ("just killed a man"). Three ascending guitar runs follow, which May described as something he had to battle with when performing the song live. Mercury then plays a similar run on the piano. It took three attempts for Mercury to hit the C5 in the "die" of "So you think you can love me and leave me to die", further explained by the more than one vocal track for just that one word.

Peraino writes that following the courtroom trial "the hero becomes defiant ["So you think you can stone me..."] and emerges victorious from the trial by opera as a rock and roll rebel".[15] Critic Sheila Whitely related this "heightened sense of urgency" to Mercury's "inner turmoil [of] leaving the security of Mary Austin, coming to terms with gay life, and living with a man." Although she comments that Austin was understanding and remained a close friend, "the "just gotta get out" supplies a metaphor for desperation as it moves towards the climax".

Outro (4:55–5:55)

After Mercury plays ascending octaves of notes from the B♭ mixolydian scale, the song then returns to the tempo and form of the introduction. A guitar accompanies the chorus "ooh, ooh yeah, ooh yeah". A double-tracked twin guitar melody is played through an amplifier designed by John Deacon, affectionately nicknamed the "Deacy Amp". Mercury's line "Nothing really matters..." appears again, "cradled by light piano arpeggios suggesting both resignation (minor tonalities) and a new sense of freedom in the wide vocal span."[13]

According to music scholar Judith Peraino, this final section adds "a level of complex resistance to the song's already charming subversion of macho rock and roll." This resistance is achieved through the "bohemian stance toward identity, which involves a necessarily changeable self-definition ("Any way the wind blows")."[15] The final line, "Any way the wind blows", is followed by the quiet sound of a large tam-tam that finally expels the tension built up throughout the song.

When the band wanted to release the single in 1975, various executives suggested to them that, at 5 minutes and 55 seconds, it was too long and would never be a hit. According to producer Roy Thomas Baker, he and the band bypassed this corporate decision by playing the song for Capital Radio DJ Kenny Everett: "we had a reel-to-reel copy but we told him he could only have it if he promised not to play it. 'I won't play it,' he said, winking..."[5] Their plan worked – Everett teased his listeners by playing only parts of the song. Audience demand intensified when Everett played the full song on his show 14 times in two days.[4] Hordes of fans attempted to buy the single the following Monday, only to be told by record store that it had not yet been released.[5] The same weekend, Paul Drew, who ran the RKO stations in the States, heard the track on Everett's show in London. Drew managed to get a copy of the tape and started to play it in the States, which forced the hand of Queen's USA label, Elektra. In an interview with Sound on Sound, Baker reflects that "it was a strange situation where radio on both sides of the Atlantic was breaking a record that the record companies said would never get airplay!"[5] Eventually the unedited single was released, with "I'm in Love with My Car" as the B-side.

The song dominated the 1975 UK Christmas number one, holding the top position for nine weeks.[13] "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the first song ever to get to number one twice with the same version,[16] and is also the only single to have been UK Christmas Number 1 twice with the same version. The second was upon its re-release (as a double A-side single with "These Are the Days of Our Lives") in 1991 following Mercury's death, staying at number one for five weeks.

In the United States, the single was a success (although on a smaller scale from that of the UK release). The original single, released in early 1976, reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, while a re-release in 1992 (released to tie in with the song's appearance in the hit film Wayne's World) hit #2. In a retrospective interview, Anthony DeCurtis from Rolling Stone magazine explains the song's relatively poor performance in the US charts by saying that it's "the quintessential example of the kind of thing that doesn't exactly go over well in America."[3] Queen's popularity in America was also harmed when they appeared in drag for their "I Want to Break Free" video, Americans not knowing it was a parody of the British soap opera Coronation Street. However, according to Anthony DeCurtis, its use in Wayne's World "masculinised the song and made it OK for people."

Though some artists, including Queen themselves (for example, "Keep Yourself Alive," "Seven Seas Of Rhye," "Killer Queen" and "Liar" already had "pop promos", as they were known at the time), had made video clips to accompany songs, it wasn't until after the success of "Bohemian Rhapsody" that it became regular practice for record companies to produce promo videos for artists' single releases. These could then be shown on television shows, such as the BBC's Top of the Pops, without the need for the artist to appear in person. A promo video also allowed the artist to have their music broadcast and accompanied by their own choice of visuals, rather than dancers such as Pan's People. According to May, the video was produced so that the band could avoid miming on Top of the Pops, since it did not fit their style.[3] He says "it was a reaction to having to go on the normal programmes and do the normal mime, so we sold our story" with the video.[17] May explains that they would have looked off miming to such a complex song.[11] Also, the band knew that they would be touring and unable to appear on the programme anyway.[3] The video has been hailed as launching the MTV age.[8][11]

The band was signed to a company called Trillian, who supplied sports coverage for ITV. They hired one of their trucks and got it to Elstree Studios, where the band were rehearsing for their tour. The video was directed by Bruce Gowers, who had directed a video of the band's 1974 performance at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and was filmed by cameraman Barry Dodd and assistant director/floor manager Jim McCutcheon.[3] The video took only four hours to film and cost between £40,000[5] and £45,000.[3] The director says that the band was involved in the discussion of the video and the end result, and "was a co-operative to that extent, but there was only one leader."

The video opens with a shot of the four band members in near darkness as they sing the a cappella part. The lights fade up, and the shots cross-fade into close-ups of Freddie. The composition of the shot is the same as Mick Rock's cover photograph for their previous album Queen II. The photo, inspired by a photograph of actress Marlene Dietrich, was the band's favourite image of themselves.[3]

All of the special effects were achieved during the recording. The effect of the face zooming away was accomplished by pointing the camera at a monitor, giving visual feedback, a visual glare, analogous to audio feedback. The honeycomb effect was achieved by using a shaped lens.[3]

Then it fades into them playing their instruments. In the opera section of the video, it goes back to them just standing there, then performing on the stage in the heavy metal part, and in the closing seconds of the video Roger Taylor is depicted stripped to the waist, striking the tam tam in the manner of the trademark of the Rank Organisation's Gongman, familiar in the UK as the opening of all Rank film productions.

The video was edited within five hours because it was due to be broadcast the same week in which it was filmed. It was shipped to the BBC as soon as it was completed and aired for the first time on Top of the Pops in November 1975.[3] After a few weeks at number 1, an alternative edit of the video was created. The most obvious difference is the flames superimposed over the introduction.

Nearly a third of respondents in a 2007 poll commissioned by the UK telephone company O2 voted this video as "the UK's best music video of all time".

Although the song has become one of the most revered in popular music history, some initial critical reaction was poor. Melody Maker said that Queen "contrived to approximate the demented fury of the Balham Amateur Operatic Society performing The Pirates of Penzance".[3] The newspaper's critic Allan Jones heard only a "superficially impressive pastiche" of operatic styles.[11]

The song has won several awards, and has been covered and parodied by many artists. In 1977, only two years after its release, the British Phonographic Industry named "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the best British single of the period 1952-77.[8][20] It is a regular entry in greatest-songs polls, and it was named by the Guinness Book of Records in 2002 as the top British single of all time.[4]

It also came in tenth in a BBC World Service poll to find the world's favourite song.[21] In 2000 it came second to "Imagine" by John Lennon in a Channel 4 television poll of The 100 Best Number 1s. It has been in the top 5 of the Dutch annual "Top 100 Aller Tijden" ("All-Time Top 100 Singles") since 1977, reaching #1 eight times.[22] In the annual "Top 2000" (maintained since 1999) it had, until 2005, been #1 every year. In 2005, it went down one place to #2, only to reclaim #1 in 2006 again. In the 2007 and 2008 editions, it once again ended at the top. For popularity comparison: the 2005 edition of the top 2000 was listened to by more than 60% of the total Dutch populace.

In 2004 the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[23] As of 2004, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the second most played song on British radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes collectively, after Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale".[24] On 30 September 2007 on the Radio 1 Chart Show, for BBC Radio 1's 40th birthday, it was revealed that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the most played song since Radio 1's launch. In 2004, BBC Three featured the song as part of their The Story of... series of documentaries dedicated to specific songs. First broadcast in December 2004, the programme charted the history of the song, discussed its credentials, and took some members of Queen back to one of the studios in which it was recorded.

The song enjoyed renewed popularity in 1992 as part of the soundtrack to the film Wayne's World. The film's director, Penelope Spheeris, was hesitant to use the song, as it did not entirely fit with the lead characters, who were fans of harder rock and heavy metal. However, Mike Myers insisted that the song fit the scene.[25]

According to music scholar Theodore Gracyk, by 1992, when the film was released, even "classic rock" stations had stopped playing the six-minute song.[20] Gracyk suggests that beginning the tape in the middle of the song after "the lyrics which provide the song's narrative ... forces the film's audience to respond to its presence in the scene without the 'commentary' of the lyrics."[20] Helped by the song, the soundtrack album of the film was a major hit.[26]

In connection with this, a new video was released, intercutting excerpts from the film with footage from the original Queen video, along with some live footage of the band. The Wayne's World video version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" won Queen its only MTV Video Music Award for "Best Video from a Film".[27] When surviving members Brian May and Roger Taylor took the stage to accept the award, Brian May was overcome with emotion and said that "Freddie would be tickled".

Myers was horrified that the record company had mixed clips from Wayne's World with Queen's original video, fearing that this would upset the band. He said, "they've just whizzed on a Picasso." He asked the record company to tell Queen that the video was not his idea, and that he apologized to them. The band, though, sent a reply simply saying, "Thank you for using our song." This shocked Myers, who said it should be more like him telling Queen, "Thank you for even letting me touch the hem of your garments!"[28]

The final scene of the video was notable, where a pose of the band from the video from the original "Bohemian Rhapsody" clip morphs into an identically-posed 1985 photo, first featured in the "One Vision" video. This re-release (with "The Show Must Go On" as a double-A side) hit #2 in the US in 1992, sixteen years after the original 1976 US release peaked at #9.

The a cappella opening was too complex to perform live, so Mercury tried ways of introducing the song. When the song "Mustapha" became a live favourite, Mercury would often sub in that song's a cappella opening, which was easier to reproduce live as it was only one voice. During the Hot Space tour, and occasionally at other times, Mercury would do a piano improvisation (generally the introduction to "Death on Two Legs") that ended with the first notes of the song. Often, the preceding song would end, and Mercury would sit at the piano, say a quick word and start playing the ballad section.

Initially following the song's release, the operatic, middle section proved a problem for the band. Because of extensive multi-tracking, it could not be performed on stage. The band did not have enough of a break between the "Sheer Heart Attack" and "A Night at the Opera" tours to find a way to make it work live, so they split the song into three sections that were played throughout the night. The opening and closing ballads were played as part of a medley, with "Killer Queen" and "March of the Black Queen" taking the place of the operatic and hard rock sections. Those two sections, in virtually all gigs, were played as an introductory piece leading into "Ogre Battle".

Starting with the "A Day at the Races" tour in 1977, the band adopted their lasting way of playing the song live. The opening ballad would be played on stage, and after Brian May's guitar solo, the lights would go down, the band would leave the stage, and the operatic section would be played from tape. A blast of pyrotechnics after Roger Taylor's high note on the final "for me" would announce the band's return for the hard rock section and closing ballad. Queen played the song in this form all through the Magic Tour of 1986. This style was also used for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, with Elton John singing the opening ballad and then after the taped operatic section, Axl Rose singing the hard rock section. John and Rose sang the closing ballad part together in a duet.

The Queen + Paul Rodgers tours play a video of Mercury performing vocals and piano for the first segment, while the other musicians played along, with Paul Rodgers sitting out.[29][30] Footage from the Live at Wembley '86 was used for the 2005/6 tour, and the 1981 Montreal performance used for the Rock the Cosmos Tour. As with the Queen tours, the band went backstage for the operatic section, which was accompanied by a video tribute to Freddie Mercury and John Deacon, the latter having retired from touring. When the hard rock section began, the lights came back up to the full band on stage, including Rodgers, who took over lead vocals. Rodgers duetted with the recording of Mercury for the "outro" section, allowing the audience to sing the final "Nothing really matters to me", while the taped Mercury took a bow for the crowd. Rodgers would then repeat the line, and the final line ("Any way the wind blows") was delivered with one last shot of Mercury smiling at the audience. Commenting upon this staging, Brian May says that they "had to rise to the challenge of getting Freddie in there in a way which gave him his rightful place, but without demeaning Paul in any way. It also kept us live and 'present', although conscious and proud of our past, as we logically should be."[4]

The only time the song has been performed live in its entirety was in London on June 3, 2002 at the Party at the Palace, a gala concert event celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's 50th year as England's monarch. Roger Taylor and Brian May were joined by the cast of We Will Rock You, a popular musical in London theater at the time based on the music of Queen. The large chorus sang the multi-layered vocal parts, while the lead vocals were split between show leads Tony Vincent, Sharon B. Clarke, and Hannah Jane Fox.

12. God Save the Queen

Brian May recorded the anthem in 1974 before their Sheer Heart Attack tour. He played a guide piano which was edited out later and added several layers of guitars. After the song was completed it was played as an outro at virtually every concert Queen played. When recording the track May played a rough version on piano for Roy Thomas Baker. He called his own skills on the piano sub-par at the time. He performed the song live on the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's golden jubilee in 2002.

Brian May has stated that he performed the song on the roof of Buckingham Palace as a homage to Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner[6]

Guitar layering is one of May's distinctive techniques as a rock guitarist. He has stated, the technique was born in his mind looking for a violin sound. For tracks like this, he stated he can use "up to 30" layers, using a small Vox amplifier built by John Deacon, and later released commercially like the "Brian May" amplifier by Vox.

Chapter 5: Sheer Heart Attack

2009-06-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

Sheer Heart Attack is the third Queen album and the first with a name different than the name of the band or than the name of a song, even though three years later they released a song called Sheer Heart Attack on the News Of The World album.

1. Brighton Rock

Brian May wrote "Brighton Rock" in 1973 but they couldn't finish recording it for the second album so they did it in the third. The title is something of a pun: Brighton rock is a long, cylindrical sugar candy traditional to that seaside resort. The term was also iconic in UK pop culture as the title of a dark Graham Greene thriller/noir novel later adapted into a successful film starring Richard Attenborough as a teenage sociopath. It tells the story of two young lovers meeting in Brighton on a public holiday. Jenny cannot linger because she is afraid her mother will find out "how I spent my holiday", but afterwards "writes a letter every day"; Jimmy, eager on the day, is not so happy with her "nothing can my love erase": now he is the one afraid of discovery by "my lady". The song was originally intended to be a duet but Freddie Mercury ended up doing both female and male parts of the vocals.

A brief whistled snatch of I Do Like To be Beside the Seaside appears over the noise that opens this track, the first on the album. This mirrors its previous appearance as the playout of Seven Seas of Rhye, the final track on their previous album.

The song is probably best-known for its lengthy guitar solo interlude. This featured May's technique of using multiple echoes used to build up guitar harmony and contrapuntal melodic lines. The studio version only contains one "main" guitar and one "echoed" guitar for a short section, but live, he would usually split his guitar signal into "main" and two "echoed", with each going to a separate bank of amplifiers.

Variations of this solo often featured during live Queen concerts, either as part of a rendition of Brighton Rock, a medley of it with some other songs (as witnessed on the News of the World tour where it segued after Freddie Mercury's multiple echoed vocal solo at the end of White Man and Brian May's solo would segue into "The Prophet's Song" or "Now I'm Here"), or on its own as a guitar solo.

Originally the solo was part of the song "Blag", from May and Roger Taylor's previous band Smile. May would then play it live in the Queen song "Son and Daughter", and this arrangement also appeared on a session for the BBC in late 1973. Later, the first half of "Brighton Rock" segued, via the guitar solo, to the closing section of "Son and Daughter", and as of the 1977 A Day at the Races tour was eventually played as a track in its own right until 1979. However, during the News of the World tour of 1977 and 1978, a shortened version of the song was played without the lengthy guitar solo during the beginning of the concert. Proof of that can be heard on bootlegs from the tour.

In the late seventies, the guitar solo was adapted to include some bass and drums, including a timpani solo by Taylor (from October, 1978 to November, 1981). In 1980 and 1981, the solo was included as a medley with Keep Yourself Alive, before becoming a performance in its own right. During the recent tour of Queen + Paul Rodgers, a modified version, incorporating bits of "Chinese Torture" (from the album The Miracle) and the introduction from "Now I'm Here" was featured in the concerts. The live piece is often between nine to sixteen minutes long.

2. Killer Queen

"Killer Queen" was their breakthrough hit, reaching #2 in the UK and #11 in the United States. The song was taken from Queen's 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack, and was written by pianist and lead singer Freddie Mercury. In 1986, it was featured as the B-side to "Who Wants to Live Forever".

Mercury commented that he wrote the lyrics first before adding the musical arrangements. The recording features elaborate four-part harmonies (particularly in the choruses, and also providing backing parts in the verses), and also an elaborate multitracked guitar solo by Brian May, including use of the "bell effect".

Besides using a grand piano as usual, Mercury overdubbed the song with an upright (credited as "jangle piano"), to give the track a vaudeville sound. At one point there are two bass guitars, one of which does a descending run. Contrary to songs for the first two Queen albums, this one was partly recorded outside England, at Rockfield Studios in Wales.

The song was played from 1974–78 live in a medley. In 1974, the song was played following "In the Lap of the Gods", and in 1975–76, the song was played after "Bohemian Rhapsody". In 1977, the song was played as the introduction to a medley, followed by "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", and in 1978, preceded "Bicycle Race". In 1979, the band played most of the song, and after the guitar solo ended, the opening bars of "I'm in Love With My Car" were played. This form was kept until 1982, when it was removed from the setlist. In 1984 and 1985, during The Works Tour, it was reintroduced in a medley following a truncated version of "Somebody to Love". The song would not make it past the Magic Tour cutting room floor.

Freddie Mercury:
“ People are used to hard rock, energy music from Queen, yet with this single you almost expect Noel Coward to sing it. It's one of those bowler hat, black suspender belt numbers – not that Coward would wear that. (...) It's about a high class call girl. I'm trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. That's what the song is about, though I'd prefer people to put their interpretation upon it – to read into it what they like. ”

Brian May:
“ 'Killer Queen' was the turning point. It was the song that best summed up our kind of music, and a big hit, and we desperately needed it as a mark of something successful happening for us... I was always very happy with this song. The whole record was made in a very craftsman-like manner. I still enjoy listening to it because there's a lot to listen to, but it never gets cluttered. There's always space for all the little ideas to come through. And of course I like the solo, with that three-part section, where each part has its own voice. What can I say? It's vintage Queen. The first time I heard Freddie playing that song, I was lying in my room in Rockfield [a residential recording studio in Wales], feeling very sick. After Queen's first American tour I had hepatitis, and then I had very bad stomach problems and I had to be operated on. So I remember just lying there, hearing Freddie play this really great song and feeling sad, because I thought, 'I can't even get out of bed to participate in this. Maybe the group will have to go on without me.' No one could figure out what was wrong with me. But then I did go into the hospital and I got fixed up, thank God. And when I came out again, we were able to finish off 'Killer Queen.' They left some space for me and I did the solo. I had strong feelings about one of the harmony bits in the chorus, so we had another go at that too."

3. Tenement Funster

"Tenement Funster" is Roger Taylor's song on the album. He sang the lead vocals. Backing track consisted of Taylor's drums, Mercury's piano, Deacon's bass and May's Red Special guitar. It's a typical Taylor track about youth and rebellion. It also includes echo effects with May's guitar, like in "Brighton Rock". The last couple of guitar notes overlap into "Flick Of The Wrist".

4. Flick of the Wrist

"Flick of the Wrist" was the Double A-side of "Killer Queen" but it was much less promoted and therefore not as popular outside the Queen fandom. The song includes Mercury singing octave vocals. When May returned to work having recovered from his hepatitis, he had not heard the song before he recorded his guitar and backing vocals. It is a heavy track with quite dark lyrics and an aggressive tone, something that may seem unusual for later Queen-songs, but in the early days (especially on Queen II) Mercury and May would often write grim songs, such as "Great King Rat" and "Son and Daughter". At about 1:14 - 1:16, the line "Baby you've been had" can be heard. This line is also the opening to the next song on the album, "Lily of the Valley", making a 3-song overlap (Tenement Funster into Flick Of The Wrist, Flick Of The Wrist into Lily Of The Valley).

5. Lily of the Valley

"Lily of the Valley" is one of May's favorite songs by Mercury. Mercury played piano and did all of the vocals. The song has a reference to Seven Seas of Rhye in the line "messenger from Seven Seas has flown to tell the King of Rhye he's lost his throne"

The song, together with Tenement Funster and Flick of the Wrist, was covered by Dream Theater on the Bonus Disc of their album Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

6. Now I'm Here

"Now I'm Here" is the band's second single in the album. Written by May while at the hospital, it was recorded during the last week of the sessions, with May playing piano. The song relies a lot on delay machines, foreshadowing "The Prophet's Song".

7. In the Lap of the Gods

"In the Lap of the Gods" is, according to Mercury himself, the direct prelude to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the A Night at the Opera album in general. There are fast piano arpeggios as in "Death on Two Legs" and some multi-tracked harmonies. Taylor provided the screams, which he proved weren't artificially created when he did them every night during their world tour.

8. Stone Cold Crazy

"Stone Cold Crazy" was allegedly written by Mercury whilst in Wreckage, one of his pre-Queen bands. Queen played it live as early as 1972, apparently as the first song they performed on stage[1] and, in late 1974, they finally decided to record a studio version. Amusingly enough, nobody seemed to remember who wrote the lyrics when the album was released, hence the shared writing credit. The lyrics themselves deal with gangsters, making a reference to Al Capone.

The song was amongst the fastest song in Queen's repertoire and, at the time, was uncommonly quick-paced in the rock and roll genre.

"Stone Cold Crazy" is a precursor to the metal sub-genres of speed and thrash metal. Even beyond the fast tempo, May's staccato riffs and Taylor's jackhammer drums are similar to later metal styles. Songs such as this one influenced metal bands for years to come. In Leather Charm's (Metallica's) first recorded song, Hit the Lights, roots of Brian May's staccato riffs for "Stone Cold Crazy" can be heard near the end of the song. Though Hit the Lights is the first known song under the sub-genre thrash metal, it is apparent that "Stone Cold Crazy" influenced the development of the sub-genre and other forms of metal to come in future years. Metallica covered this song on the "Rubaiyat – Elektra's 40th Anniversary" album released in 1990 and subsequently won a Grammy Award for their version (which also appeared in their covers' album Garage Inc.). It was also released in 1991 as a b-side track on the single release of Metallica's Enter Sandman. It was also performed live with Brian May (lead guitar), Roger Taylor (drums), and John Deacon (bass guitar) of Queen, James Hetfield (vocals) of Metallica, and Tony Iommi (rhythm guitar) of Black Sabbath on 20 April 1992 for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

9. Dear Friends

"Dear Friends" was May's song featuring him on the piano and backing vocals, Mercury doing lead vocals.

Def Leppard covered this song for a Wal Mart bonus EP for their cover album, Yeah!

10. Misfire

"Misfire" was John Deacon's first composition, and has a light-hearted Caribbean theme. Deacon played most of the guitars including the solo, and Mercury sang all the vocals.

Neko Case performed a country version of the song on her 1997 solo debut album, "The Virginian."

11. Bring Back That Leroy Brown

"Bring Back That Leroy Brown" was written by Mercury and features him doing most of the vocals (with production techniques using tape speed to make it sound really low in the harmonies) as well as grand piano and jangle piano. May played ukulele-banjo and Deacon did a line with a double bass. The song's title alludes to the standard Bad Bad Leroy Brown by the American singer-songwriter Jim Croce (little known in Queen's native UK) who had died in a plane crash the previous year.

12. She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes)

"She Makes Me" was written and sung by May with Deacon playing acoustic guitars. The song's finale features what May referred to as "New York nightmare sounds", which include NYC police vehicle sirens and deep-breathing sounds which accompany the closing bars.

13. In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited

With its powerful chorus and stadium rock-esque sound, "In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited" is, in many ways, the forerunner to "We Are the Champions". The explosion heard at the end of the song was achieved through tape-saturation. Live, it was achieved with actual pyrotechnics, the first use of such effects by the band.

Chapter 4: Queen II

2009-06-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Queen II is the second album by English rock band Queen, originally released in 1974. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London in August 1973, and engineered by Mike Stone. The two sides of the original LP were labelled "Side White" and "Side Black" (instead of the conventional sides "A" and "B"), with corresponding photos of the band dressed in white or in black on either side of the record's label face. The album is also a loose concept album, with the white side having songs with a more emotional theme and the black side almost entirely about fantasy, often with quite dark themes.

Mick Rock's album cover photograph was frequently re-used by the band throughout its career, most notably in the music video for the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975). There are two versions of this photograph, one with black for the background and foreground, the other with a brown foreground.

Numerous problems beset the album's release. Its completion coincided with the 1973 oil crisis and consequently, government-enforced measures for energy conservation delayed its manufacture by several months. Once the long-overdue first pressing arrived in record shops, the band noticed a spelling error on the sleeve, and had to complain persistently to correct it.

The lead vocalist Freddie Mercury composed the entire "Black" side, contributing virtuosic piano and harpsichord pieces and a wide range of distinctive vocal performances. The "White" side is very diverse: four of the five numbers were composed by Brian May, where one is instrumental, one is sung by Mercury and Taylor (with May at the piano), the next is sung by Mercury, and the last by May. The closing track of The "White" Side is Taylor's only composition in the album. John Deacon played acoustic guitar as well as bass on most of the album, except the songs "White Queen" and "Some Day One Day", which were performed by May — partly on an inexpensive Hairfred guitar that he had owned since his childhood.

The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

After their debut album Queen was recorded and mixed by the end of November 1972, Queen set about touring and promoting it. Management problems forced the album to be released under the independent Trident label, but only after eight months had gone by since completion. During that time, Queen were writing new material and anxious to record it. Several new songs were written immediately after the first album, and some dated from even earlier. "See What A Fool I've Been" was left over from the Smile days (and was actually built around May's recollection of a blues ditty he had heard on a television program; the song was "That's How I Feel" by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, which May finally re-discovered in 2004 after an eager fan tracked it down for him). "Ogre Battle" was written during the debut album sessions, as was "Father To Son", but the band decided to wait on recording them until they had more ample studio time.

August 1973 found the band back in Trident, now allowed to book proper hours there, with an album under their belts. For what is generally considered a complex album (with layered vocals, harmonies and instruments), it took a very short time — only one month — to record Queen II. A full version of "Seven Seas of Rhye" was laid down, recorded with the specific intention of being the album's leading single. After the commercial failure of "Keep Yourself Alive", which was taken from the first album, Queen decided it needed a single that did not take "too long to happen" (without a lengthy guitar intro). So, Queen and Baker made sure that "Rhye" began in a way which would grab people. Mythology and art were passions of Mercury's, and Richard Dadd's painting "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" (which currently hangs in the Tate Gallery) sparked his creativity. This scene from Dadd's imagination was inspired by characters from faery myths, which in the painting are gathered around the Feller of Trees to watch him crack a walnut for Queen Mab's new carriage.

Mick Rock was employed to do the photography for the album's artwork. This single picture of Queen, used on the Queen II album cover, would become one of the band's most iconic images, revisited and brought to life for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional film.

Robin Cable, with whom Mercury had worked during the "I Can Hear Music" session, was recruited to reproduce the Spector production sound for "Funny How Love Is".

The album was completed by the end of August 1973. Queen added "Ogre Battle", "Procession" and "Father to Son" to their live setlists immediately and toured extensively. Once again, however, Trident delayed the record since Queen's first album had only just been released in the UK and had yet to be issued in the US. Queen II finally entered stores in the UK on 8 March 1974.

The only single released from the album worldwide in 1974 (23 February in the UK) was "Seven Seas Of Rhye", with the non-album B-Side "See What A Fool I've Been" in most territories. Japan's B-Side was album track "The Loser In The End".

In 1977, Queen's First E.P. was released, featuring a version of "White Queen" which is a stand-alone version, eliminating the segue (from "Father To Son") which appears on the album.

In 1987/1988 the UK three-inch CD single reissue of "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" featured "See What A Fool I've Been" and a unique edit of "Funny How Love Is" (featuring the last verse of the album track "The March Of The Black Queen" as an intro).

In 1991 the same three-inch singles as previously released in the UK are issued in Japan. "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" single in this set features the standard "See What A Fool I've Been" track and a stand-alone version of "Funny How Love Is" (different from the UK CD3 release).

Also in 1991, Hollywood Records re-released Queen II in the US and Canada with "See What A Fool I've Been" as a bonus track plus updated remixes of "Ogre Battle" and "Seven Seas Of Rhye".

Queen II was Queen's first UK Top 5 album, while it sold poorly on the US peaking in the lower reaches of the Top 100 on Billboard's album chart and remains the only 1970s era Queen album not to be certified either Gold or Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

1. Procession

"Procession" is a short instrumental song performed by Brian May on multi-tracked guitar. He recorded it by playing overlapping parts on the Red Special through John Deacon's custom-made amplifier (the Deacy Amp).

2. Father to Son

"Father to Son" was written by May and features heavy metal sections as well as a quiet piano part, which May played. Like the preceding number, "Father to Son" has parts with May on multi-tracked guitar, played through John Deacon's custom-made amplifier (the Deacy Amp). It is written in the father's perspective when talking or thinking about his son. Queen added "Father to Son" to their live setlists immediately and toured extensively, but the song was dropped from the setlists in 1975.

3. White Queen (As It Began)

"White Queen (As It Began)" was composed by May. It concerns his feelings about a girl whom he had a crush on; he never had the courage to express his feelings to her.

4. Some Day One Day

May got the inspiration for "Some Day One Day" from the idea of a place where relationships could be perfect. May would revisit that theme many years later on his solo record Another World.

This is the first song sung entirely by May on lead vocals. It features May on acoustic guitar and electric guitar and the last guitar solo (during the fade-out) features three solo guitars. This kind of complex guitar arrangement is typical of May, however, usually the guitars are harmonious, but in this case all the guitars are all playing different parts. It almost sounds like the guitar plug is being plugged into the guitar as the last solo begins just before the fade-out.

5. The Loser in the End

"The Loser in the End" was Taylor's sole contribution on the album both as a songwriter and lead singer. Although Queen II is not a true concept album, all of the songs seemed to be connected, either lyrically or in general tone (or both), this one seems to be the lone track lacking either attribute.

6. Ogre Battle

Mercury wrote "Ogre Battle" on guitar (as confirmed by May in several interviews)in 1972. The band didn't want to record it for their first album, but rather waited until they could have more studio freedom to do it properly.

The ogre-like screams in the middle are Mercury's, and the high harmonies at the end of the chorus hook are sung by Taylor. As the title suggests, it tells the story of a battle between ogres, and features a May guitar solo and sound effects to simulate the sound of a battle. The beginning of the song is the end of the song played backwards including the final gong which when played backwards at the start of the song creates the building wave sound.

The song is one of Queen's heaviest works. The guitar riff along with Roger Taylor's drumming give it a very "thrash" sound. It was a longtime live favorite, although on stage Queen played it slower than in the studio. They stopped playing the song somewhere around 1977-1978, playing it on almost every concert up until then.

A different version of "Ogre Battle" exists, recorded in December of 1973 for the BBC Radio 1 "Sound of the 70s" programme. This version starts right away with its riff (without any long intro), doesn't have any effects that the version on "Queen II" has and sounds much less polished. The BBC version of "Ogre Battle" did originally have a long intro featuring a grand guitar build up; it was not used for this release, allegedly because the original tape was damaged.

7. The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke

Mercury was inspired to write "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" after seeing Richard Dadd's painting The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke. For the intricately-arranged studio recording, Mercury played harpsichord as well as piano, and Roy Thomas Baker played the castanets. Taylor called this song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment", referring to the intricate use of panning in the mix.

The song, like most of the songs on the album, features medieval fantasy-based lyrics, and makes direct reference to the painting's characters as detailed in Dadd's poem, such as Queen Mab, Waggoner Will, the Tatterdemalion, and others. Apparently whenever Queen had spare time, Mercury would drag them to the London's Tate Gallery, where the painting was, and still is today.

The complex arrangements are based around a backing track of piano, bass guitar and drums, but also included harpsichord, multiple vocal overdubs, and overdubbed guitar parts. The lyrics follow the claustrophobic atmosphere of the painting, and each of the scenes are described. The use of the word "Quaere" has no reference to Mercury's sexuality, according to Taylor. The band never performed this song live.

8. Nevermore

The previous track ends with a three-part vocal harmony from May, Mercury, and Taylor which flows into Mercury playing the piano on this track. All the vocal parts were by Mercury, who added some contemporary piano 'ring' effects as well. These effects were widely suspected to be synthesizers, however they were created by someone plucking the piano strings while Mercury played the notes. Nevermore is quite a short ballad about the feelings after a heartbreak.

9. The March of the Black Queen

Mercury composed it at the piano in 1973, and the song is the only Queen song containing polyrhythm/polymeter (two different time signatures simultaneously 8/8 and 12/8), which is very rare for popular music.

The full piece was too complicated to perform live by the band, however the uptempo section containing the lines (sung by Taylor) "My life is in your hands, I'll foe and I'll fie..." etc was sometimes included in a live medley during the 1970s.

The song segues into the next track, "Funny How Love Is". This song ends with an ascending note progression, which climaxes in the first second of the following track.

10. Funny How Love Is

"Funny How Love Is" was born in the studio. Mercury wrote it and played the piano while Robin Cable produced. It was produced using the "wall of sound" technique. The song was never performed live, largely due to the demanding high-register vocals from Mercury throughout the song.

11. Seven Seas of Rhye

"Seven Seas of Rhye" had been half-written at the time of recording for Queen's first album, so a short clip of it was included there. However, when Queen finished the song, it ended up being much different from what they'd first envisioned. It was the band's first hit single, peaking at #10 in the UK charts.

The song, like "My Fairy King" from the debut album, is about Mercury's childhood fantasy world named Rhye. The song became a live favourite throughout Queen's existence. It features a distinctive arpeggiated piano introduction — on the Queen II recording, the arpeggios are played with both the right and left hands, an octave apart, whereas on the Queen recording, and most live performances, Mercury played the simpler one-handed version of these arpeggios. The theme also appears at the end of "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)".

This version ends with a cross fade, instruments blending into a "singsong"-style rendition of "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside".

The Seven Seas of Rhye are also mentioned in another Queen song, "Lily of the Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack; in the lyric "Messenger from Seven Seas has flown/To tell the king of Rhye he's lost his throne".

“ For some strange reason, we seemed to get a rather different feel on the album because of the way we were forced to record it, and even allowing for the problems we had, none of us were really displeased with the result. Led Zeppelin and The Who are probably in there somewhere, because they were among our favorite groups, but what we are trying to do differently from either of those groups [is] this sort of layered sound. The Who had the open chord guitar sound, and there's a bit of that in "Father To Son", but our sound is more based on the overdriven guitar sound, which is used for the main bulk of the song... but I also wanted to build up textures behind the main melody lines. To me, Queen II was the sort of emotional music we'd always wanted to be able to play, although we couldn't play most of it onstage because it was too complicated. We were trying to push studio techniques to a new limit for rock groups — it was fulfilling all our dreams, because we didn't have much opportunity for that on the first album. It went through our minds to call the album Over the Top.”—Brian May

“ We took so much trouble over that album, possibly too much, but when we finished we felt really proud. Immediately it got really bad reviews, so I took it home to listen to and thought, 'Christ, are they right?'. But after hearing it a few weeks later, I still like it. I think it's great. We'll stick by it.Considering the abuse we've had lately, I'm surprised that the new LP has done so well. I suppose it's basically because people like the band.”—Roger Taylor

“ Well... that was a concept that we develop in that time was... it doesn't have, any special meaning. But we were fascinated with this type of things... the wardrobe that we used at the time described it perfectly well... ”—Freddie Mercury

Chapter 3: Queen

2009-05-29T07:15:00.000-07:00

Queen is the self-titled debut album from the English rock band Queen, released in 1973. It was recorded at Trident Studios and De Lane Lea Music Centre, London, England, with production by Roy Thomas Baker (as Roy Baker), John Anthony, and Queen.

The album was influenced by the seaside rock, hard rock, and heavy metal of the day and covers subjects such as folklore ("My Fairy King") and religion ("Jesus"). Lead singer Freddie Mercury composed five of the ten tracks. Lead guitarist Brian May contributed four songs, including "Doing All Right" which was co-written by Smile bandmate Tim Staffell. Drummer Roger Taylor composed and sang "Modern Times Rock and Roll." The final song on the album is a short instrumental version of "Seven Seas of Rhye." The full version, including vocals, appeared on the band's next album, Queen II. The band included the comment 'No synthesizers' on the album sleeve, as some listeners had mistaken their elaborate multi-tracking and effects processed by guitar and vocal sounds as synthesizers. Bassist John Deacon was credited on the sleeve notes of the original vinyl release as "Deacon John", as Mercury and Taylor thought this may make him sound more interesting. Shortly after the release, Deacon preferred to use his own name later on.

1. Keep Yourself Alive

Brian May wrote it when the band had already been formed, but before John Deacon joined (that's known thanks to Barry Mitchell, a former bassist of the band). According to what May said in a radio special about their 1977 album News of the World, he had penned the lyrics thinking of them as ironic and tongue-in-cheek, but their sense was completely changed when Freddie Mercury sang them.

It's been suggested by some fans and Queen scholars that Mercury could have helped on the musical songwriting, based on the fact that (as it's been recalled by former bassists and the band themselves) they were in a more collaborative period in the pre-studio days and Mercury was usually the one getting his way with structural ideas. While it's highly possible that he contributed ideas to the song (the modulation types and the expanded form are closer to his style than May's), the bottom line is that even in that case Mercury would be more a co-arranger than a co-writer per se (like George Martin on The Beatles' songs).

The newly-formed Queen quickly added "Keep Yourself Alive" to the live set. Mercury commented that the song "was a very good way of telling people what Queen was about in those days" (RAM, 21 May 1976, p 17). Indeed, the number included a drum solo by Roger Taylor and one line sung/spoken by him.

"Keep Yourself Alive" was part of the band's live set until the early 1980s. On the 1980 and 1981 tours, the band would play an improvisational jam before the start of the song then after the drum solo, it would morph into Taylor's tympani drum solo followed by May's echo-plexed guitar solo spot before either segueing into the "Brighton Rock" finale or a drum and guitar climax or segued into a Flash Gordon medley (which consisted of "Battle Theme"/"Flash's Theme"/"The Hero"). The band would not play it again until 1984 on The Works tour as part of a medley of old songs (with "Somebody to Love", "Killer Queen", "Seven Seas of Rhye", and "Liar").

In live performances, Mercury would often sing the line "all you people keep yourself alive" (which is sung only two times in the studio version) in place of the more-repeated line "it'll take you all your time and a money honey you'll survive".

The first version of "Keep Yourself Alive" is from summer 1971 at De Lane Lea Studios. It was produced by Louie Austin and includes the intro played on Brian May's Hairfred acoustic guitar. All of the song elements were already present, including call-and-response vocals by Freddie Mercury (verses) and during the break, where Roger Taylor sang a line and Mercury answered it. This demo version remains Brian May's favourite take of the song.

Subsequently they did several attempts to "recapture the magic" when they went on to do the "real" version at Trident Studios. The one mixed by Mike Stone was the only one moderately accepted, and it's the one released as single. It includes Freddie Mercury doing all of the harmony vocals in the chorus (multi-tracking himself) and Brian May singing the "two steps nearer to my grave" line instead of Mercury (who did it live and in earlier versions). This recording does not use acoustic guitar; the printed transcription on EMI Music Publishing's Off the Record' sheet music lists at least seven electric guitar parts, one of which uses a prominent phasing effect. It can also be noted that this recording includes the line "Come on and get it, get it, get it boy, keep yourself alive," which was not in the original version.

2. Doing All Right

The song changes many times throughout, from light pop music to acoustic guitars and even contains a section that could only be referred to as heavy metal.

This is one of the few Queen songs to feature Brian May on the piano. He also played his old Hairfred acoustic guitar on this track and on later tracks such as "White Queen (As It Began)" and "Jealousy".

The band played this song as early as 1970, and it was notable as the band's first song Freddie Mercury played live on the piano for. Staffell sang it when it was a Smile song, and Mercury tried to sing in the same manner when it became a Queen song.

The version on the album At the Beeb features Roger Taylor singing lead vocals on the last verse.

3. Great King Rat

"Great King Rat" was written by Freddie Mercury. At the Beeb features a different version of the song recorded in December 1973. This song is an example of Queen's earliest sound, with lengthy, heavy compositions with long guitar solos and sudden tempo changes. In the middle part of the song, the lyrics contain some lines that can be interpreted as anti-religious, such as "Don't believe all you read in the Bible / You sinners get in line / Saints you leave far behind...". One of the riffs near the end of the song was later used in the more popular Stone Cold Crazy, from 1974's Sheer Heart Attack.

4. My Fairy King

"My Fairy King", written by Mercury, deals with Rhye, a fantasy world created by vocalist Freddie Mercury and featured in other Queen songs, most notably "Seven Seas of Rhye".

"My Fairy King" is the first song on the album to feature Mercury's piano skills – as the piano on "Doing All Right" was played by guitarist Brian May who was quite impressed by Mercury's piano playing on the track, and from this point on Mercury handled most of Queen's piano parts.

Before writing this song Mercury was known as Freddie Bulsara, and this song is said to have inspired him to change his surname. Its lyrics contain a verse with the words "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me." Brian May has said that after the line was written, Freddie claimed he was singing about his mother. Subsequently, Freddie Bulsara took the stage name Freddie Mercury. This was another attempt to separate his stage persona ("extroverted monster", as Mercury himself once described it) from his personal persona (introverted).

Written during the band's time in the studio, the song contains many voice overdubs and vocal harmonies, which Mercury was fond of. Drummer Roger Taylor also displays his vocal skills here, hitting some of the highest notes in the composition. The vocal overdubs technique would later be used in many Queen songs, most notably "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Mercury borrowed some lines from Robert Browning's poem, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".

5. Liar

"Liar" was written by Freddie Mercury in 1970 while he was still Freddie Bulsara.

In the earlier years of Queen, this song was regarded as one of the most impressive performances of a live show, often going over 8 minutes long. However over time the song eventually fell off the setlist, with the exception of The Works Tour. The song though was cut down to 3 minutes or less. At Wembley right before "Tear It Up," the beginning of "Liar" guitar riff is played by May.

During live performances, it one of the few songs when bass player John Deacon sang backing vocals at all. This was done during the part where the band says "all day long." He mimics the promotional video for the song, where Deacon stands behind Freddie, and sings into his microphone.

As confirmed by the transcription on EMI Music Publishing's Off The Record sheet music for the song, this is one of three Queen tracks, the others being "Now I'm Here" and "Under Pressure" (their collaboration with David Bowie), to feature a Hammond organ.

6. The Night Comes Down

Brian May wrote the song shortly after the band's formation in 1970, following the break up of Smile. It was first recorded at De Lane Lea Studios in September 1971, when the band was hired to test the studio's new equipment in exchange for being allowed to record proper demos for their attempt to find a record company. The agreement was mutually beneficial and Queen took full advantage of the state-of-the-art equipment to put five of their tracks to tape ("Keep Yourself Alive", "The Night Comes Down", "Great King Rat", "Jesus", and "Liar").

In 1972, Trident Studios signed Queen to a recording contract which limited them to only down-time studio access (when paying artists weren't recording) and they began working with producer Roy Thomas Baker. Baker and Studio owners/management Norman and Barry Sheffield insisted on re-recording the five De Lane Lea demos. A new studio version of "The Night Comes Down" was recorded, but in the end, it was decided that the De Lane Lea version was still superior, and this was the version which appears on the debut album. As of 2006, the unused Roy-Thomas-Baker-produced version remains unreleased and has not surfaced even on bootlegs.

Bootleg recordings of the original De Lane Lea demos are in circulation, and the difference in quality of "The Night Comes Down" is noticeable compared to the 1973 LP and even more noticeable compared to the latest series of digital remasters of that album from Parlophone and Hollywood Records. Otherwise, the demo is the same mix that appeared on the demo tape, with little to no alteration (the quality of the bootlegs makes it difficult to tell if the improvements are from proper mastering or additional mixing).

In 1998, Queen released "Queen: The Eye". The PC computer game features four discs with tracks playable on regular CD players. An edit of the familiar version of "The Night Comes Down" is among the tracks used in the game. This version is the first minute and a half of the track, before a phased fade out.

The song follows what would become trademark Brian May themes such as coming-of-age, nostalgia over the loss of childhood to the past, and the difficulties of life as an adult. Other May songs which deal with similar issues would be: "Some Day One Day", "Long Away", "All Dead, All Dead", "Leaving Home Ain't Easy", and "Too Much Love Will Kill You", among others.

There is also what could be an ambiguous reference to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", in the lyric: "When I was young it came to me; And I could see the sun breaking; Lucy was high and so was I; Dazzling, holding the world inside." May is admittedly a Beatles fan and has commented in numerous interviews on their impact on him.

7. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

The lead vocal is performed by drummer Roger Taylor, who wrote the song. The song was re-recorded on two occasions for the BBC. The first was re-recorded in December 1973 and broadcast on John Peel's show. This version was released on the 1989 Queen album At The Beeb, and sounds very similar to the original album version. The second re-recording was done in April 1974 and broadcast on Bob Harris's show. This version has not seen the light of day outside of bootleg recordings and it differs in style from the original album version, with a slower tempo and extra vocals from Freddie Mercury. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll would be played live on the Sheer Heart Attack Tour, however Mercury would sing lead vocals.

8. Son and Daughter

"Son and Daughter" was written by guitarist Brian May and was the B-side for the single "Keep Yourself Alive". Written in 1972 for their first album and a regular feature in Queen's live set until well into 1975, the song originally housed Brian May's famous guitar solo. The solo features in both 1973 BBC sessions' (Queen's second and third sessions respectively) versions of "Son And Daughter". The album version of the song does not feature the guitar solo (thereby keeping the song to a tight, marketable, three and a half minutes). The solo wouldn't be properly recorded until 1974, for the track "Brighton Rock" of their Sheer Heart Attack album. Until this time, and occasionally afterward, the guitar solo would take over the middle of "Son And Daughter" during concerts, allowing the rest of the band a bit of a rest and costume change.

The third BBC session recording would eventually see an official release in 1989, along with Queen's first BBC session, under the title Queen at the Beeb. "Son And Daughter" ends the session and the album, complete with the guitar solo, which runs over seven minutes. Because this version was originally recorded for radio broadcast, Mercury censors himself, singing, "Buckle down and a-shovel it!" instead of the original lyric, "shovel shit!". The second, unreleased BBC session version of the song has Mercury singing, "Shovel shhhhh...".

Unlike other songs from Queen's early period which crept back into circulation in the live set of their '84 through '86 tours, such as "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "The Seven Seas of Rhye" and "In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited", "Son And Daughter" stayed off the set-lists after Queen's hit singles began to dominate their live show. The song is indicative of their very earliest sound, influenced by blues rock and heavy metal.

9. Jesus

The lyrics tell part of the story of Jesus of Nazareth – interesting considering Freddie Mercury, who wrote the song, was a follower of Zoroastrianism. The track features a two-chord rhythm section during the verses with a long instrumental break toward the end of the song. Because of the effects created by Brian May's Red Special guitar, among other things, many early followers of Queen viewed the band as something of a psychedelic rock band.

10. Seven Seas of Rhye

"Seven Seas of Rhye" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and performed by English rock group Queen. It is the final track on both their debut album Queen, and its follow-up Queen II, released in 1973 and 1974, respectively. However, only a less-developed instrumental version was featured on the former. The completed version served as the band's second single, the earliest-released song to appear on their first greatest hits album (with the exception of "Keep Yourself Alive", which appeared on the 1981 U.S. version).

The song was released as a single, and after the band performed it on Top of the Pops it became their first hit, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.

The song is about Freddie Mercury's childhood fantasy world named Rhye. The land of Rhye was originally made up by Freddie Mercury and his sister, Kashmira, when they were children. After joining Queen as an adult, Mercury wrote some songs about that country, including Seven Seas of Rhye, Lily of the Valley, "My Fairy King", Ogre Battle, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, and The March of the Black Queen.

The song became a live favourite throughout Queen's existence. It features a distinctive arpeggiated piano introduction (on the Queen II recording, the arpeggios are played with both the right and left hands, an octave apart, whereas on the Queen recording, and most live performances, Mercury played the simpler one-handed version of these arpeggios), and is relatively short, however containing several of Brian May's heavy guitar fill-ins. The theme also appears at the end of "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)".

The version on Queen II ends with a cross fade, instruments blending into several people singing "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside". Its inclusion here on the final track of Queen II is briefly mirrored in the first few seconds of Brighton Rock, which opens their next album, Sheer Heart Attack. (A few whistled bars can be heard over the introductory noise).

The Seven Seas of Rhye are also mentioned in another Queen song, "Lily of the Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack; in the lyric "Messenger from Seven Seas has flown/To tell the king of Rhye he's lost his throne".

In the Queen musical We Will Rock You, the Seven Seas of Rhye is a place where the Bohemians are taken after they are brainstormed by Khashoggi.

There are three versions of the music video. The first version is in black and white and is from Top Of The Pops; some copies of this version have a short part in color. The second version of the video is also from Top Of The Pops and is completely black and white, with no color. The second video is the rarest to find of the three. The third video is a mash-up of Queen in the Final Live in Japan 1984 concert with clips from Queen's Sheer Japan Attack tour in 1974.

“So we really had matured as a group and had our audience before the press caught on to us. I think that actually gave us a better start because we were better prepared.”—Brian May

“ The album took ages and ages – two years in total, in the preparation, making and then trying to get the thing released.”—Brian May

“ There were lots of things on the first album I don't like, for example the drum sound. There are parts of it which may sound contrived but it is very varied and it has lots of energy.”—Roger Taylor

Chapter 2: Early Times

2009-05-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

“I thought up the name Queen. It's just a name, but it's very regal obviously, and it sounds splendid . It's a strong name,very universal and immediate. It had a lot of visual potential and was open to all sorts of interpretations. I was certainly aware of gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it.” Freddie Mercury

In 1969, the guitarist Brian May, student at London's Imperial College, and the bassist Tim Staffell decided to form a group. May placed an advertisement on the college notice board for a "Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker" type drummer. Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. They called the group Smile.

Smile signed to Mercury Records in 1969, and had their first session in a recording studio in Trident Studios that year. Tim Staffell was attending Ealing Art College with Farrokh Bulsara, and introduced him to the band.
Farrokh was born on the spice island of Zanzibar on the 5th of September, 1946. He spent most of his childhood in India, and went to school at St. Peter's British College School a boarding school in Panchgani near Mumbai. While he was there he was very good at sports, especially boxing, in which he even entered competitions. Also, it was around this time his friends started calling him Freddie. Freddie was a keen artist and enjoyed both drawing and singing, playing piano at every opportunity, and eventually getting to Grade IV. His first onstage performance was also at St. Peters, with his five-member school band, the Hectics.

His family eventually settled in England in 1964, the same year he enrolled at Ealing College of Art. In 1969, Freddie graduated from Ealing with a Diploma in Art and Design. This proved to be useful later, when Freddie designed Queen's famous lion and phoenix crest.
At Ealing, Freddie met Tim Staffel, who was in the band called Smile, with Brian May and Roger Taylor. Freddie attended many performances and rehearsals with Tim. By this stage Freddie had started to use the name Mercury after the mythical God.
Bulsara soon became a keen fan. Staffell left in 1970 to join another band, Humpy Bong. The remaining Smile members, encouraged by Freddie, changed their name to "Queen" and continued working together, prior to Mercury himself joining as vocalist. The band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the band's chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and began to rehearse for the first album.
In 1973, after a series of delays, Queen released their first album, a self-titled project influenced by the heavy metal and progressive rock of the day. The album was received well by critics. Gordon Fletcher of Rolling Stone said "their debut album is superb," and Chicago's Daily Herald called it an "above average debut". However, it drew little attention and the lead single "Keep Yourself Alive," a Brian May composition, sold poorly. Greg Prato of Allmusic called it "one of the most underrated hard rock debuts of all time."
The album Queen II was released in 1974. The album reached number five on the British album charts, while the Freddie Mercury-written lead single "Seven Seas of Rhye," reached number ten in the UK, giving the band their first hit. The album is their heaviest and darkest release, featuring long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics and musical virtuosity. The band toured as support to Mott the Hoople in the UK & United States during this period, and they began to gain notice for their energetic and engaging stage shows. However, album sales in the US were, like those of its predecessor, low.

Because of medical complications, May was absent when the band started work on their third album, Sheer Heart Attack, released in 1974. The album reached number two in the United Kingdom, sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the United States. It gave the band their first real taste of commercial success. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including British Music Hall ("Killer Queen"), heavy metal ("Flick of the Wrist", "Brighton Rock", "Tenement Funster", "Now I'm Here", and "Stone Cold Crazy" – a song which Metallica later covered, earning them a Grammy Award), ballads ("Lily Of The Valley" and "Dear Friends"), ragtime ("Bring Back That Leroy Brown") and Caribbean ("Misfire"). At this point Queen started to move away from the progressive tendencies of their first two releases into a more radio-friendly, song-oriented style. Sheer Heart Attack introduced new sound and melody patterns that would be refined on their next album A Night at the Opera.
The single "Killer Queen" reached number two on the British charts, and became their first U.S. hit, reaching number twelve in the Billboard American Top 40. It combines camp, vaudeville, British music hall with May’s guitar virtuosity. The album’s second single, "Now I’m Here", a more traditional hard rock composition, was a number eleven hit in Britain.

In 1975, the band left for a world tour with each member in Zandra Rhodes-created costumes and banks of lights and effects. They toured the US, headlining for the first time, and played in Canada for the first time in April. At the same time, the band's manager Jim Beach successfully negotiated the band out of their Trident contract. Of the options they considered, was an offer from Led Zeppelin’s manager, Peter Grant. Grant wanted them to sign with Led Zeppelin’s own production company, Swan Song Records. The band found the contract unacceptable and instead, contacted Elton John’s manager, John Reid, who accepted the position. In April 1975 the band toured Japan for the first time.

Later that year the band recorded and released “A Night at the Opera”. Now the band was at that point, when it was so big that even someone who isn’t involved in music could recognize who they were, when listening for the first time on radio one of their new songs. At the time, it was the most expensive album ever produced. Like its predecessor, the album features diverse musical styles and experimentation with stereo sound. They were subconsciously influenced from The Beatles’ albums “Rubber Soul”, “Revolver” and “Abbey Road” as Roger Taylor said in one interview and it was a very eclectic album. On this album they took the recording techniques to an area they never gone before, they pushed the technology to its very limits. Brian considers they are a kind of disciples of Jimmy Hendrix and The Beatles for using the studio almost like an instrument, but obviously Queen had more technology than they have had, so they could push things a lot further. They were such perfectionists that they could work one day for just 15 seconds of what actually ended up on the record. The album was very successful in Britain, and won triple platinum in the United States. It is considered their “magnum opus”. In 2003, it was ranked number 230 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album also featured the hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody", which was number one in the United Kingdom for nine weeks, and is Britain’s third-best-selling single of all time; it also reached number nine in the United States. It was re-released in 1992, because it was used in the movie “Wayne’s World” and reached number two. Bohemian Rhapsody has been voted, several times, the greatest song of all time. The band decided to make a video to go with the single: the result is generally considered to have been the first "true" music video ever produced. Although other bands (including The Beatles) had made short promotional films or videos of songs prior to this, generally those were made for specific showings or programs (such as the Beatles' videos for "Hey Jude" and "Revolution", which were specifically made to be aired on the Smothers Brothers' television show. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the first musical video offered free of charge, to any program, network or station which would air it. The second single from the album, "You're My Best Friend", peaked at sixteen in the United States and went on to become a worldwide Top Ten hit.

By 1976, Queen was back in the studio, where they recorded A Day at the Races, what may be mistaken simply as a companion album to “A Night at the Opera”. It again borrowed the name of a Marx Brothers' movie, and its cover was similar to that of A Night at the Opera, a variation on the same Queen Crest. Musically, the album was by both fans’ and critics’ standards a strong effort, and reached number one on the British charts. The major hit on the album was "Somebody to Love", a gospel-inspired song in which Mercury, May, and Taylor multi-tracked their voices to make a 100-voice gospel choir. The song went to number two in the United Kingdom, and number thirteen on the U.S. singles chart. The album also featured one of the band's heaviest songs, Brian May’s "Tie Your Mother Down", which became a staple of their live shows. Also in 1976, Queen played one of their most famous gigs, a 1976 free concert in Hyde Park, London. It set an attendance record, with 150,000 people confirmed in the audience.

“News of the World” was released a year later. It contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including "We Will Rock You" and the rock ballad "We Are the Champions", both of which reached number four in the United States and became enduring international sports anthems. Roger Taylor released his first solo effort in 1977 in the form of a single: the A-side was a cover of a song by The Parliaments "I Wanna Testify", and the B-side was a song by Taylor called "Turn-On the TV".

In 1978 the band released Jazz, including the hit singles "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race" which were also released as a double-A-side single. The word "jazz" was not used in a strict sense, and the album was noted by critics for its collection of different styles, jazz not being one of them. Rolling Stone Magazine criticised it for being "dull", saying "Queen hasn’t the imagination to play jazz – Queen hasn't the imagination, for that matter, to play rock & roll." Important tracks of the album include "Dead on Time", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Let Me Entertain You", and "Mustapha", in which Arabesque music is combined with heavy rock guitar.

The band’s first live album, Live Killers, was released in 1979; it went platinum twice in the United States. They also released the very successful single "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", a rockabilly song done in the style of Elvis Presley. The song made the top 10 in many countries, and was the band’s first number one single in the United States.

Chapter 1: Short History

2009-05-15T02:52:00.000-07:00

"When I listen the first Queen albums I have an explosive feeling of joy, the next albums give me power and the last ones are full of power too but combined with sorrow"

Queen is an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by the former members of Smile: guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara) who came with the idea of the bands new name. The following year bassist John Deacon joined the band and this was the most enduring format who lasted since Freddie died on November 24th, 1991. Then, Brian, Roger and John continued playing together featuring other artists until Deacon retired from the music business in 1997. In 2004 Brian and Roger begun touring featuring Paul Rodgers, as "Queen + Paul Rodgers" with other Queen friends: Spike Edney, Danny Miranda and Jamie Moses, who accompanied them in other concerts too.

The band was noted for their musical diversity, multi-layered arrangements using delays, vocal harmonies, and for their impressive live performances where, especially Freddie had a special interaction with the audience. Their 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best live rock performance of all time in an industry poll. The band is also known for their peculiar and extravagant appearances on stage.

Queen enjoyed success in the UK in the early 1970s with the albums “Queen” and “Queen II”, but it was with the release of “Sheer Heart Attack” in 1974 and “A Night at the Opera” the following year that the band gained international success. They have released fifteen studio albums, five live albums, and numerous compilation albums. Eighteen of these have reached number one on charts all around the world.

The History of Queen

2009-05-15T02:35:00.000-07:00

Incepand de azi voi publica istoria trupei Queen, cu tot ce stiu si ce voi putea gasi despre ei.

Toate postarile vor fi in limba engleza. Am ales limba engleza pentru a nu fi nevoit sa modific prea mult esenta prezentarii prin traducere, mai ales ca voi incerca sa gasesc si interviuri.

Asa ca, pentru cunoscatorii de limba engleza si pentru toti ascultatorii de muzica Queen din lume care vor avea prilejul sa afle de acest blog sper ca va fi o placere sa citeasca "The History of Queen"

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Today I'll start posting the history of the Queen band, with everything I know or I will find about them.

Every post will be in English. I've chosen this language so I won't be forced to change too much the essence of the presentation by translating, especially 'cause I'll try to find interviews too.

So, I hope to be a pleasure for everybody who knows English and for all the Queen music listeners all around the world, who will have the luck to visit this blog, to read "The History of Queen".

Ladies - Love of My Life

2009-04-23T09:29:00.001-07:00

Paul McCartney

2008-11-29T11:51:00.000-08:00

Queen - Keep Yourself Alive

2008-11-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

Alegeti stapanii

2008-11-12T12:02:00.000-08:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1938 - Swiss Miss (fragment)

2008-08-20T02:48:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1933 - Busy Bodies (fragment)

2008-08-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1937 - Pick a Star (cameo)

2008-08-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1932 - Towed in a Hole

2008-08-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1932 - County Hospital (fragment)

2008-08-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1934 - Hollywood Party (cameo)

2008-08-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1932 - Pack Up Your Troubles (fragment)

2008-08-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1933 - Sons of the Desert (fragment)

2008-08-01T13:30:00.001-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1938 - Blockheads (fragment)

2008-08-01T13:17:00.001-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1934 - The Live Ghost (fragment)

2008-08-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1931 - Come Clean (fragment)

2008-08-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - A Good Laugh (Blotto - 1930)

2008-08-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - The Lonesome Pine (Way Out West - 1937)

2008-07-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Laurel & Hardy - 1941 - Great Guns

2008-07-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Shaggy ft. Trix & Flix - Like a Superstar

2008-06-26T02:34:00.000-07:00

UEFA EURO 2008 Anthem: Shaggy - Feel The Rush

2008-06-15T05:17:00.000-07:00

Incredibilul Hagi

2008-06-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

UEFA EURO 2008

2008-06-13T02:39:00.001-07:00

John & Sir

2008-02-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

- John, ai pus apă la peşti?
- Da, Sir, dar nici ieri n-au băut nimic!

Sir şi John sînt la vînătoare pe domeniul castelului. John (privind prin binoclu înspre castel):
- Sir, cred că ar trebui să vă informez că doamna este în compania unui domn.
- Nu se poate, te înşeli. Doamna mi-a spus că primeşte o prietenă în vizită. Dă-mi şi mie binoclul...
Se uită spre castel, apoi îi spune lui John:
- Acest binoclu nu este suficient de puternic. Dă-mi puşca cu lunetă.

- John!
- Yes, Sir .
- Adu-mi un pahar cu apă!
- Ok, Sir.
- John!
- Yes, Sir.
- Mai adu-mi încă unul.
- Bine, Sir .
- John!
- Mai adu-mi un pahar cu apă...
- Dar, Sir, nu vă face bine atîta apă...
- John, eşti nebun, nu vezi că arde biblioteca?

- Iertaţi-mă, Sir, dar cred că vă caută cineva la telefon...
- Cum adică "crezi", John, mă caută sau nu mă caută?
- Să vedeţi, Sir, cînd am ridicat receptorul, o voce de femeie mi-a spus:
- Tu eşti tîmpiţelul meu, pleşuv şi idiot?

- Sir, Sir! vine John ţipînd, au intrat hoţii în bibliotecă!
- Da? spune Sir, şi ce citesc?

Sir stătea la masă şi se chinuia să înţepe cu o scobitoare nişte măsline.
- John, strigă el, măslinele fug?
- Nu, Sir! Dar de ce?
- Înseamnă că iar am mîncat gîndaci de bucătărie…

- John!
- Da, Sir.
- Lămîile ţipă?
- Nu, Sir, dar de ce?
- Înseamnă că din nou mi-am stors papagalul în ceai..

- John, spune Sir, care citea ziarul, pe acoperiş circulă tramvaie?
- Nu, Sir?! Dar de ce întrebaţi?
- Uite, aici scrie că un tramvai a călcat un hornar…

- John, spune Sir, care îşi spăla picioarele în lighean, te rog aruncă apa asta şi adu-mi un prosop.
John ia ligheanul şi îl aruncă pe geam, iar de afară se aude un ţipăt însoţit de înjurături, la care Sir impasibil:
- John, era cineva în lighean?

Sir se urcă pe cal invers, cu spatele în faţă...
- Sir, spune John, dar nu aşa se urcă pe cal!
- Taci, mă, de unde ştii tu încotro vreau să merg…

Lordul îşi întreabă valetul:
- John, nu s-a întors încă soţia mea de la partida de călărit?
- Încă nu, Sir, dar cred că trebuie să vină. Calul s-a întors de o jumătate de oră…

- John!
- Da, sir!
- Unde este cainele?
- Facea politica si l-am impuscat!
- Cum ti-ai dat tu seama ca facea politica?
- Manca rahat in gradina.

- John?
- Yes, sir!
- Adu-mi, te rog, pianul.
- Vreti sa cantati la pian, sir?
- Nu, John... dar mi-am uitat tigarile pe el si ma gandeam sa nu te deranjez pentru un fleac!

Lordul George da telefon acasa, de la club:
- Alo? John?
- Da, Sir.
- Du-te in dormitorul doamnei si vezi daca e singura! Daca e cu un barbat, ia pusca mea de vanatoare pentru elefanti si impusca-i pe amandoi!
- Prea bine, Sir!
In receptor se aud doua bubuituri , apoi vocea lui John:
Pe Lady am impuscat-o dar barbatul a sarit in piscina si a scapat...
- Stai putin John! De cand avem noi piscina?
- Nu va suparati Sir ce numar ati format?

Sir il cheama pe John si il intreaba:
-John,spune-mi cate grade mai exact se afla in aceasta camera?
John consultandu-si termometrul zice:
-21 de grade.
-Si afara?
-6 grade domnule.
-Ok,atunci deschide geamul sa intre si celelalte!

- John, unde e palaria mea?
- O aveti pe cap, sir.
- Bine, o gasesc eu mai tarziu.

Micul Lord, educat in toate cele ale vremii, avea o problema care ingrijora pe toata lumea: desi avea deja 6 ani, nu vorbise niciodata.
Intr-o zi, la micul dejun, se produse minunea:
- John, ceaiul asta este prea rece!
Stupoare! Incantare!
- Dar, Sir - intreba John cu respect - cum de nu ati spus nimic pana azi?
- Pentru ca pana azi serviciul a fost ireprosabil!

Sir si John erau naufargiati pe o insula. Dupa multe luni John vine la Sir tipand:
- Sir, Sir, se vede un vapor la orizont!!!
La care Sir ii spune cu un calm tipic englezesc:
- Linisteste-te John, ce n-ai mai vazut vapoare?

Sir si trei prietenii jucau poker pe marginea santului. La un moment dat trece un camion si il spulbera pe cel care statea cu fundul pe sosea. Nici o reactie. Dupa ce ridica potul, Sir ii spune lui John:
- Fii, te rog, amabil. Scoate septarii si optarii.

Bancuri cu Betivi

2008-02-18T11:14:00.000-08:00

La un proces plictisitor din cale-afara, cand toti aproape ca

adormisera, un betiv exclama catre procuror:
- Sa ma pupi in fund !
- Afara !
- Nuuu ! Aici, sa vada toata lumea !

Un betiv si o blonda se intalnesc pe strada. Betivul spune:
- Proasto!
Iar blonda spune:
- Betivule!
La care betivul zice:
- Da, dar mie maine-mi trece!

Un tip in stare de ebrietate, isi duce prietenii de pahar in apartamentul lui, sa-i culce... Langa pat se afla un gong.
- Ce-i cu gong-ul ala? intreaba prietenii, clatinindu-se.
- Nu-i gong, e un ceas vorbitor...
- Serios? Un ceas vorbitor?
- Ca sa va conving, priviti... spuse tipul si apucand gongul trase o lovitura puternica in el.
Curand, o voce de cealalta parte a peretelui, striga:
- E trei dimineata idiotule...

Un betiv intra intr-o biserica catolica si se duce direct la confesare. Intra in cabina si nu zice nimc. Popa, nedumerit, isi drege vocea incercand sa-i atraga atentia omului. Asta nimic. Dupa un timp, bate popa de 3 ori in peretele despartitor, la care betivul raspunde:
- N-are rost sa bati, nici eu nu mai am hartie.

- Nu po's'nteleg de ce am fost adus la pol .. politie! exclama un betiv, plin de indignare!
- Pentru bautura! ii raspunde ofiterul de serviciu.
- Pai, de ce nu zici asa? Adu-mi un coniac!

Intr-o seara un betiv trece pe langa o casa cu demisol. La un moment dat, betivul se opreste sa se pise. In timp ce...o femeie iese la geam si exclama:
- Doamne, ce grosolanie!
- Ei, dar de lungime ce zici?

O balerina se tinea in autobuz de bara de sus... si avea un par extraordinar la subrat (padure tropicala). Jos pe scaun statea un betiv. La un moment dat o intreaba betivu' pe tipa:
- Don'soara, esti cumva balerina?
La care tipa flatata:
- Da... dar cum v-ati dat seama?
- Pai... numai tu puteai sa ridici piciorul pana acolo...

Esti betiv atunci cand:
1. Ai discutii in contradictoriu cu obiectele din jur si mai si pierzi.
2. Trebuie sa te tii de asfalt ca sa nu cazi de pe trotuar.
3. Serviciul te impiedica sa bei destul.
4. Doctorul tau gaseste sange in alcool la analize.
5. Scaunul de la WC se loveste repetat si cu inversunare de capul tau.
6. Ajungi sa crezi ca alcoolul e una dintre grupele de alimente.
7. 24 de ore pe zi, 24 de beri intr-o lada - coincidenta? S-o crezi tu!
8. Doua maini si doar o gura - asta chiar ca e o problema cu bautura.
9. Vezi mai bine daca tii un ochi inchis.
10.Nenorocita aia de parcare s-a mutat mai incolo cand erai tu la carciuma.
11. Cazi de pe podea.
12. Pe baietii tai ii cheama Tuborg si Heineken.
13. Auzi, stii ce, da-o-ncolo de masa de seara, 5 beri fac cat o friptura.
14. Ţînţarii încep să zboare aiurea după ce te-nţeapă pe tine.
15. Te trezeşti în dormitor, chiloţii sînt în baie, adormi îmbrăcat...
16. Toată cîrciuma te salută cînd intri înăuntru.
17. Ai impresia că cele patru grupe de alimente sînt cofeina, nicotina, alcoolul şi femeile.
18. Pisica vecinului devine tot mai apetisantă, pe zi ce trece.
19. Zoe Petre arată bine.
20. Nu-ţi recunoşti nevasta decît dacă te uiţi la ea printr-un fund de pahar.
21. Bestia aia de elefănţel roz iar te-a urmărit pîn-acasă.

Doi betivi intr-un bar, unul dintre ei zice:
- De 2 saptamani nevasta ma tot da afara din casa cind vin beat. Ce sa fac?
- Cand ajungi in fata usii te dezbraci, si ea nu poate sa te lase afara ca doar vecinii ce or sa zica?
- Bine
Zis si facut. Dupa cateva zile se reintalnesc la bar:
- Ba, am facut cum ai zis tu...
- Da, si?
- Stai sa-ti zic, am ajuns in fata usii, m-am dezbracat, s-a deschis usa, am intrat si am auzit "Urmeaza statia Piata Sudului, cu peronul pe partea dreapta".

Miezul noptii. Un betiv se leagana din gard in gard, cand e oprit de un politist.
- Actele la control, va rog si sa-mi spuneti unde mergeti! Betivul se uita lung si raspunde:
- Ma duc la o conferinta despre efectele nocive ale alcoolului si despre riscul betivilor de a deveni ratati.
Politistul se uita la el fix si intreaba:
- La ora asta? Cine tine o conferinta despre asa ceva la miezul noptii?
- Nevasta-mea si mai mult ca sigur si soacra-mea.

Un betiv iese impleticindu-se dintr-o crisma si se ciocneste de o prostituata.
- Ce faci, fa?
- Fac trotuarul, ce nu se vede?
- Pai atunci fa-l... hic... mai lat!

Un betiv intra intr-un bar, se opreste in fata unui cuplu si ragaie.
Tanarul, furios:
- Cum indraznesti sa ragai inaintea prietenii mele?
- Scuze nu stiam ca e randul ei!

O femeie facea cumparaturi la supermarket-ul din colt. Cumpara ea o cutie de lapte 1,5%, un carton de oua, o cutie cu suc de portocale, o cutie cu cafea, o salata si niste costita afumata. In timp ce le descarca la casa, vine un tip beat in spatele ei si se uita lung la produse. Apoi spune:
- Tu esti mai mult ca sigur singura.
Femeia se uita contrariata la produsele de la casa si nu intelege de unde a tras betivul concluzia.
- Ai perfecta dreptate, sunt singura, dar de unde ti-ai dat seama?
Betivul raspunde clatinandu-se:
- Pentru ca esti urata!

Un client vine la barman si-i spune:
- Vezi paharul ala de acolo? Pun pariu pe 300$ ca ma pis in el fara sa dau o picatura pe jos.
Barmanul: nu te cred, ai ca sustin pariul.
Se pisa clientul peste tot, inclusiv pe barman, dar nu nimereste paharul.
Barmanul bucuros, incepe sa rada; clientul se duce in spate si vorbeste cu doi prieteni dupa care vine vesel. Vazand asta barmanul il intreaba nedumerit. De ce razi ca tocmai ai pierdut 300 de dolari.
Clientul: ii vezi pe clintii de acolo?
Barmanul: da
Clientul: am pus pariu cu ei pe 500$ ca ma pis peste tot, pe tine si pe bar dar ca tu nu o sa fii furios ba chiar ai sa razi!!!

Un betiv se intorcea intr-o seara acasa si se opreste in fata unui felinar si incepe sa bata in el. La scurt timp trece un alt betiv care ii spune :
- Insista, insista, ca e lumina aprinsa!

Un politist da tarcoale unui bar, unde se cam consuma mult alcool, in scopul de a prinde cativa soferi piliti. Un client al barului iese, se impiedica si incepe sa isi caute cheile cam vreo cinci minute. Dupa ce le-a gasit, se taraste si le incearca la vreo patru, cinci masini pana ce o gaseste pe a lui. Pana ce a ajuns in masina toti ceilalti s-au carat. Politistul il asteapta bucuros sa iasa in strada. Evident il opreste pe sofer, ii pune fiola si stupoare 0,00 alcool. Politistul complet buimac. Soferul in schimb ii spune:
- In seara asta eu am fost momeala...

Un tip la un bar, mort de beat, cu paharul in fata, plangea de rupea pamantul. Vazandu-l asa de dezamagit, barmanul il intreaba:
- Dar ce s-a intamplat?
- Pai, acum trei luni, a murit mama si mi-a lasat 10.000$...
- Condoleantele mele...
- Acum doua luni, a murit tata si mi-a lasat 25.000$...
- Imi pare rau, domnule, foarte rau...
- Luna trecuta a murit frate-meu si mi-a lasat 50.000$...
- Vai, trei persoane dragi, in asa scurt timp...
- Si luna asta nu mai pica nimic... nimic... fir-ar sa fie...

Un betiv la un bar comanda primul pahar. Apoi al doilea, al treilea...la al cinspelea se hotareste sa se opreasca. Cand se ridica de pe scaun sa plece cade pe jos.
- Drace, ce m-am imbatat! Ma tarasc pana in strada, dupa care ma ridic si ..
Ajunge la usa, vrea sa se ridice si iar cade.
- Ptiu, hai ca ma tarasc pana acasa, acolo ma ridic si intru in pat. Ajunge la usa vrea sa se ridice si cade. Nervos se taraste in pat, se pune langa nevasta-sa si se bucura ca aceasta nu-l auzise.
A doua zi scandal monstru.
- Betivule, te-ai imbatat de ai uitat de tine!!!
- De unde stii?
- M-au sunat cei de la bar si mi-au spus ca iar ti-ai uitat scaunul cu rotile.

Coada la racoritoare. Ultimul este un negru. Se apropie de el un betiv.
- Tigane, tu esti ultimul?
- Eu nu sant tigan, eu sant negru!
- Doamne, Dumnezeule, imi inchipui cum sunt la voi tiganii!

Un betiv urca in tramvai si zice:
- Toate femeile din dreapta sunt niste curve...celelalte femei, din stinga, sunt niste proaste...
O femeie revoltata din randul din dreapta spune:
- Cum domnule, eu sunt curva?
- Bine, bine treci in stanga...

Un suparat intra intr-un bar:
- Care vrea bataie?
Toata lumea terorizata. In sfarsit, se ridica un tip de 2 m pe 2 m si mai suparat decat primul si spune:
- Eu!
- Ei, atunci du-te dupa colt, ca de acolo am luat si eu!

Trei betivi bat la usa unei doamne.
Femeia deschide usa, dar ramane surprinsa!
Unul dintre betivi raspunde:
- Am venit sa-l conducem pe sotul dvs. acasa dar nu stim care dintre noi este.

- Ce ai in sticla aia?
- Apa. De ce intrebi?
- Credeam ca ai ceva de baut…

Un betivan intreaba barmanul:
- Cata bere vindeti pe zi?
- Cam patru butoaie...
- Vreti sa va spun cum ati putea sa vindeti cinci butoaie pe zi?
Barmanul interesat:
- Cum?
- Umpleti halbele ca lumea...

Un tip intra intr-un bar.
- Un whisky sau fac ce-a facut tata...
Barmanul, speriat, ii da un whisky. A doua zi, la fel. A treia zi, barmanul isi ia inima-n dinti si intreaba:
- Dar ce-a facut tatal dumneavoastra.?
- S-a dus la alt bar.

La popota era atarnat un afis ,,Bautura omoara incet dar sigur".
A doua zi, o mana necunoscuta adaugase ,,Soldatii nu se tem de moarte".

Sotia, nervoasa, ii deschide usa sotului, care traznea de la o posta a alcool:
- Presupun, urla ea, ca ai un motiv foarte serios sa vii acasa la 6 dimineata!
- Da, am, raspunde sotul, micul dejun!

Un betiv isi suna nevasta si-i spune:
-Draga mea, am o sedinta, raman sa dorm la ea!

Un betiv suna la farmacie dupa miezul noptii:
- Aveti lipitori?
- Da, raspunde farmacistul.
- Bine, atunci puneti-le in apa ca altfel mor.

- Ia uita-te in ce hal esti, de-abia te mai tii pe picioare... Faci rau ca bei asa mult.
- Nuuu,.... fac rau ca vreau sa umblu.

- Iar te-ai imbatat, Mitica? Ce-o sa spuna nevasta-ta cand o sa ajungi acasa?
- Ce-o sa spuna ea, stiu, ca-i cunosc repertoriul... Intrebarea e ce-o sa-i spun eu?

- Sa-ti fie rusine Mitica, zice nevasta. Iar ai venit beat acasa!
- Ca sa respectam adevarul nu eu am venit, m-au adus vecinii.

- Iar te-ai imbatat, Mitica? Si abia ieri mi-ai promis ca faci o cotitura!
- Da, dar stii si tu ca... hic, cotiturile nu se iau brusc.

Doi betivi scot un om pe jumatate inecat dintr-un lac.
- Vezi, asa patesti daca bei apa.

Draga mea, sa sti ca bautura te face mai frumoasa.
- Dar eu n-am baut nimic!
- Tu nu, dar eu da.

Un betiv, in drum spre casa, se impiedica si cade. Se ridica cu greu, porneste si iar cade.
- Daca stiam ca o sa mai cad o data, nu ma mai ridicam.

Dupa miezul noptii, un betiv se invartea in jurul unui stalp.

In vestul indepartat, la mijloc de secol XIX, un pistolar beat intra intr-o carciuma, scoate pistoalele, se indreapta spre bar, priveste barmanul si spune:
- Daca misti, esti mort !
Barmanul, scarbit de viata, raspunde:
- Esti idiot, daca misc sunt viu ...

Care este leguma cu cea mai mare concentraţie de alcool? Mazărea borîtă pe perete.

- Ai promis că te vei lăsa de băutură şi vei deveni un alt om!
- Aşa am şi făcut. Numai că şi omului aceluia îi place să bea.

Trei inşi, beţi turtă, merg în patru labe, unul după altul, pe calea ferată.
- Nu se mai termină odată scara asta? se plînge cel din coadă.
- Măcar are balustradă, oftează al doilea.
- Ura! băieţi, vine liftul, strigă cel din faţă.

- Te învăţ eu ce să faci dacă nu poţi dormi: ia cîteva pahare de coniac.
- Cîte?
- Nu, trebuie să le numeri. Pînă adormi.
- Şi dacă tot nu adorm?
- Păi, după atîtea pahare de coniac, puţin îţi mai pasă dacă dormi sau nu!

Unul beat reazemă un felinar. Altul, tot beat, arătînd felinarul, îl întreabă:
- Ce-i asta, domnule? Luna sau soarele?
- Nu ştiu, dom'le, că eu nu-s de prin partea locului...

După o masă bine stropită, la plecarea musafirilor:
- Unchiule Mitică, degeaba încerci să te încalţi cu sifonul, ia mai bine galoşul!

Un beţiv vede un şofer care încearcă să-şi pornească maşina dînd la manivelă.
- Aha! Tu eşti ăla de învarte strada!

De ce alcoolul la volan este periculos pentru un bărbat însurat?

Cînd e beat, bărbatul trebuie să-i dea cheile maşinii nevestei.

Soţia către soţ la petrecerea de Revelion:
- Bravo, Mitică! Mai cîntă vreo 3-4 cîntece!
- De ce să mai cînt că m-am săturat!?
- Cîntă! Cînd cînţi, nu bei

Un poliţist îşi făcea rondul de noapte, cînd aude un beţiv cîntînd:

- Lume, lume, soro lume...
Poliţaiul zise:
- Bă, beţivule, nu mai cînta cîntece de-astea, cîntă şi tu un cîntec patriotic.
- Bine, dom'le. Trei culori cunosc pe lume, lume, soro, lume...

Alcoolul este cel mai mare duşman al omului! Dar să nu uităm că cel care fuge din faţa duşmanului e un laş!

La restaurantul gării, la o masă, trei indivizi se cinstesc cu bere. Un rînd, altul, se anunţă plecarea trenului spre X. Unul zice:

- Hai să mergem că pleacă trenul. Ceilalţi mai cer un rînd şi încă unul, trenul şuieră şi pleacă. Cei trei se îmbulzesc, care să ia bagajele şi fug după tren; unul se urcă, îi încurajează şi pe ceilalţi, mai prind unul bara vagonului, se suie, strigă, trenul ia viteză, al treilea se opreşte pe peron, respiră şi începe să rîdă. Şi râde, şi rîde de nu se mai poate opri. Un trecător îl întreabă:
- De ce rîzi omule, ai pierdut trenul şi celălalt este peste 7 ore.
- Cum să nu rîd, cînd cei din tren au venit doar ca să mă conducă la gară.

Trei tipi rupţi de beţi la o masă:.

- Bă, io-s trimisul lui Dumnezeu pe pămînt!
- Taci, mă, că io-s trimisul lui Dumnezeu pe pămînt!
- Tăceţi, bă, că n-am trimis pe nimeni!

Un beţiv mergea pe şapte cărări spre casă. La un moment dat, îl vede pe unul care închidea un robinet. Se duce supărat spre el şi-i zice:

- Tu învîrteai, bă, strada?!

Puţin după miezul nopţii, un beţiv se învîrtea în jurul unui stîlp. Un poliţist, care îşi făcea rondul de noapte, se apropie de el şi îl întreabă ce face, la care beţivul îi zice că îşi caută cheile. Aşadar, se pun amîndoi pe căutat. După o vreme, căutînd în zadar, poliţistul îl întreabă pe om dacă e
sigur că le-a pierdut acolo, iar acesta îi răspunde:
- De fapt, le-am pierdut la stîlpul celălalt, dar aici e lumină…

Un beţiv mergea pe stradă. La un moment dat, se opreşte în faţa unui panou publicitar. Se uită... se uită... şi zice:
- La viaţa mea, beţi criţă am văzut, beţi morţi am văzut, dar beti pepsi niciodată.

Se consideră o turmă de bizoni a cărei viteză este egală, evident, cu viteza celui mai lent bizon. Vînătorii, de orice natură, vînează cei mai lenţi bizoni, făcînd prin aceasta un bine turmei, a cărei viteză de daplasare va creşte.
Analog, creierul uman lucrează cu viteza celui mai lent neuron. Se ştie că alcoolul distruge neuronii, dar îi distruge pe cei mai lenţi, deci…

Un beţiv care abia mai mergea vede o groapă destul de mare. Se apleacă şi strigă:
- Du-te naibii! şi încearcă să audă ecoul, dar nimic.
A doua zi... la fel. A treia zi, cînd vrea să se aplece să strige, pică în groapă şi începe să strige:
- Ajutor! Ajutor!
Şi ecoul:
- Du-te naibii!

Doi beţivi se plimbă. La un moment dat, ajung lîngă un rîu.
Unul dintre ei zice:
- Bă, sari tu primu'.
Al doilea betiv sare. Cade pe o şosea şi zice :
- Bă, rîu' ăsta-i îngheţat!

Un individ vine dimineaţa pe la 5 acasă. Intră tiptil în camera unde dormea soţia şi dă să-şi scoată pantalonii.
- Beţivule, iar vii la ora asta acasă?
- Nu, dragă, zice omul trăgîndu-şi pantalonii la loc, acuma plec.

Un beţiv mergea pe stradă într-o seară întunecoasă şi la un moment dat se loveşte de un stîlp de beton. Disperat, beţivul înconjoară stîlpul, pipăindu-l cu palmele, şi strigă:
- Ajutor, am fost zidit!

Nu po's'nţeleg de ce am fost adus la pol... poliţie! exclamă un beţiv, plin de indignare.
- Pentru băutură! îi răspunde ofiţerul de serviciu.
- Păi de ce nu zici aşa? Adu-mi un coniac!

Cînd Beethoven a murit, a fost înmormîntat în curtea bisericii. Peste cîteva zile, beţivul satului trece prin cimitir şi aude nişte sunete ciudate din zona în care era înmormîntat Beethoven. Speriat, acesta aleargă la preot, să vină să asculte. Preotul s-a aplecat şi el deasupra mormîntului şi a auzit şi el nişte sunete ciudate. Speriat, a alergat la primar. Acesta a venit, a pus urechea lîngă mormînt, a ascultat un moment şi a spus: "Da, într-adevar, e simfonia a IX-a a lui Beethoven, cîntată de-andoaselea". Ascultînd mai mult, zice: "Uite, acum e simfonia a VIII-a. . . , a VII-a. . . , a VI-a. . . ".
Imediat, dîndu-şi seama ce se întîmplă, se adresă mulţimii strînse în cimitir: "Stimaţi concetăţeni, nu aveţi de ce să vă îngrijoraţi. Este Beethoven. Se descompune!"

- Sînt neliniştit, nevastă-mea a început să umble prin restaurante.
- Nasol! Bea mult?
- Nu bea deloc. Mă caută pe mine.

Abia s-a deschis barul şi apare un bărbat slab, neras, cu o figură mahmură şi hainele mototolite, şi se adresează barmanului:
- Spune-mi, te rog, m-ai văzut astă-noapte pe aici?
- Bineînţeles.
- Şi am consumat de vreun milion?
- Cam aşa ceva.
- Bine, gata, m-am linişit. Credeam că i-am pierdut.

- Dimineaţa bei?
- Faceţi un sondaj de opinie sau mă trataţi cu un whisky?

- Aşa e că azi noapte n-ai simţit nici un zgomot cînd m-am întors de la întrunire? Am păşit cu mare grijă.
- Tu poate că ai păşit cu mare grijă, dar cei patru amici care te tîrau…

John este adus în faţa trinbunalului, sub acuzaţia de contrabandă cu băuturi alcoolice.
- Priviţi la acest om, spune avocatul apărării, adresîndu-se juraţilor. Priviţi ce figură de beţiv împătimit are. Credeţi domniile voastre că unul ca el ar vinde o sticlă de whisky, dac-ar avea-o?

Doi beţivi ies la un moment dat din cîrciumă şi vorbesc între ei:
- Bă Ioane, eu văd două luni pe cer!
Se uită şi Ion:
- Bă Vasile, sînt trei, nu două.
- Ba nu mă contrazice, eu îţi spun că văd două.
- Ba nu, că sînt trei!
Şi tot certîndu-se ei aşa, se întîlnesc cu un poliţist:
- Domnule poliţist, puteţi să ne spuneţi cîte luni sînt pe cer?
Se uită poliţistul în sus şi după puţin timp întreabă:
- Pe care cer, domnule?

- Cel mai eficace remediu împotriva ţînţarilor este tot whisky-ul!
- ?!?
- Seara, cu zece minute înainte de culcare, bei cinci pahare. În prima jumătate a nopţii, n-au decît să te pişte cît doresc, nu vei simţi nimic. În cea de-a doua parte, nu mai sînt capabili de nimic, dorm cu toţii buştean!

Un miliţian dă peste un beţiv lungit într-un şanţ. Îl trezeşte şi-i spune:
- Cetăţene, scoală şi du-te acasă!
- Nu pot! N-am voie să merg!
- Ce face? N-ai voie...?
- Da. Am băut nişte sticle de vin pe care erau lipite etichete cu următoarea recomandare: "A se păstra culcat"…

- Ieri eram puţin cherchelit şi-am băgat cheia maşinii în broasca uşii de la bloc.
- Şi atunci?
- Atunci blocul s-a pus în mişcare.

Într-un metrou din New York se urcă un beţiv, jegos, pătat de vin şi alte alea, cu hainele descusute, cu o sticlă de whisky îndesată într-un buzunar, clătinîndu-se în draci, vai de mama lui! Se aruncă pe un scaun liber; lîngă el, un preot, vizibil dezgustat de păcătos. Beţivul se scormoneşte, scoate un ziar, îl desface mormăind şi începe să citească. La un moment dat, îşi întoarce privirea aburită catre preot şi-l întreabă:
- Nu vă supăraţi... din ce cauze se îmbolnăveşte omul de artrită?
Preotul, stîrnit în misiunea sa de îndreptare a oilor rătăcite pe calea cea bună, îi răspunde:
- Artrita se capătă din obiceiuri desfrînate, din beţii, gînduri păcătoase şi preacurvie cu femei deşănţate!
Beţivul atunci face ochii mari:
- Tii, fir-aş al dracului!
Dupa un minut de tăcere, preotul gîndindu-se că a fost prea aspru, vrea să afle dacă nu cumva beţivul vrea să se întoarcă pe calea cea dreaptă:
- Dar de ce întrebi, fiule?
- Păi tocmai citeam in ziarul ăsta că Papa are artrită!

- De cîte ori am insomnie, beau o sticlă de whisky.
- Şi te ajută la ceva? Adormi?
- Nu, dar nu mă mai deranjează că stau treaz.

- De ce bei, prietene?
- Ca să-mi înec amarul. Dar nu reuşesc pentru că nesimţitul a învăţat să înoate.

- Nu mi-am putut închipui că whisky-ul te poate înfrumuseţa aşa de mult!
- Dar nici n-am pus gura pe băutură!
- Ştiu, eu însă sînt la al treilea pahar.

Un beţiv pe linia de tren:
- Bă, ce lungă e scara asta! A, uite că vine şi liftu'…

Cica se urcă unul beat mort în tramvai. Stă în picioare şi se ţine de bara de sus şi... stînga-dreapta şi tot aşa pînă i se face rău. La un moment dat, borăşte pe un tip ce stătea pe scaun.
Tipul: Nesimşitule, beţivule, porcule...
Beţivul: Io porc? Uită-te la tine cum arăţi!

Bancuri Scarboase

2008-02-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

Un tip intra intr-un bar tinanand in mana un cacat imens si zice:
- Fiti atenti in ce era sa calc!

Un tip cu o maimuta intra intr-un bar. Se duce omul la bar si comanda o bere. Maimuta incepe sa sara de colo colo si baga in gura tot ce gaseste: mananca maslinele si ciresele de pe bar, sare pe masa de biliard si inghite bila 8. Barmanul stupefiat, il intreaba pe tip ce-i cu maimuta. Acesta ii raspunde:
- Stai linistit, e maimuta mea, asa face. Nu-ti face griji, pune totul pe nota si platesc. Zis si facut. Dupa vreo 2 saptamani, acelasi tip, aceeasi maimuta, acelasi bar. Incepe maimuta sa sara ca nebuna. Sare pe bar, ia o maslina o baga in fund, o scoate si apoi o inghite. La fel si cu o cireasa. Barmanul, mirat, se adreseaza tipului:
- Ce-a patit ma maimuta ta? E de-a dreptul scarbos ceea ce face!
- De cand cu bila de biliard, mai intai le masoara!

Un azil de batrani inchiriaza un autocar pentru o excursie. La putin timp de la plecare, soferul simte o bataie usoara pe umar si o bunicuta il intreaba daca vrea niste alune. Soferul accepta bucuros pumnul de alune pe care i-l ofera batrana. Dupa vreo 15 minute, batrana vine din nou cu un pumn de alune.
Povestea se repeta inca de vreo cateva ori, dupa care soferul, nedumerit, o intreaba cand apare iar langa scaunul lui:
- Mamaie, da' de ce nu mancati alunele, ca sunt scumpe, si aveti pensii mici...
- Eee, da crezi ca mai avem dinti sa mancam noi alune?
- Pai bine, si atunci de ce mai dati banii pe ele daca nu le puteti manca?
- Eee, de fapt nici nu vrem alune, sugem doar ciocolata din jurul lor...

Un tip se duce intr-un restaurant si o intreaba pe ospatarita:
- Ce imi recomandati astazi?
- Chilli, spune ea, dar domnul de linga dv. a luat ultima portie.
- Bine, atunci voi bea doar o cafea.
In timp ce astepta cafeaua, il vede pe cel de linga el ca terminase de mincat, dar in fata lui mai era o farfurie neatinsa de chilli. Astfel ca il intreaba:
- Scuze, mai mincati portia aia?
- Nu, va rog, serviti-va!
Astfel, tipul nostru se apuca bucuros sa infulece. Cind ajunge pe la jumatatea farfuriei, gaseste un soarece mort in mijlocul mincarii. La vederea lui, i se face greata si vomita tot chilliul inapoi in farfurie. Tipul de linga el zice:
- Da, tot numai pina acolo am ajuns si eu!

Intr-un compartiment de tren stau 2 tipi. Dupa 2 ore de liniste, unul dintre ei isi spune ca sparge gheata si vrea sa se prezinte. Se concentreaza 2 secunde si scuipa spre celalalt. Scuipatul se apropie de tip dar la 5 cm de acesta face o bolta si trece pe langa. Primul tip (cel care a scuipat) se intinde spre al doilea (cel socat) si spune:
- Itic. Campion mondial la scuipat.
Al doilea (care si-a revenit intre timp) se concentreaza 2 secunde si scuipa si asta spre celalalt. Scuipatul zboara drept intre ochii lui Popescu. Apoi al doilea spune:
- Strul. Incepator.

Doua babe chioare mergeau pe stada, una dintre ele vede o flegma verde pe drum. Arata cu degetul:
- Ia te uita, am gasit un medalion!
Cealalta se apleaca si tinand cu degetele il ridica in sus:
- Ia te uita! Are si lantisooor...

- Putem face baie daca avem diaree?
- Da, daca aveti destula...

- Ce este mai rau decat sa gasesti un vierme atunci cand mananci un mar?
- Sa gasesti o jumatate de vierme.

I: De ce vomita betivii in tomberon?
R: Ca sa aiba aurolacii micul dejun la pat!

I: Care este diferenta dintre un termometru anal si unul oral?
R: Gustul...

I: Care e cea mai grea limba?
R: Prima!!

O femeie foarte seducătoare intră într-un bar, se duce la toaletă, iar cînd vine, se duce direct la barman şi începe să-l mîngăie tandru pe barba stufoasă: "Tu eşti şeful?", întreabă ea, mîngîindu-i faţa cu ambele mîini. "Nu, nu sunt eu", îi raspunde el. "Poţi să-l chemi pentru mine; vreau neapărat să vorbesc cu el?", spuse ea plimbîndu-şi mîinile prin faţa şi părul lui. "Mă tem că nu", răspunse barmanul vizibil excitat, "Pot să te ajut eu?". "Da", spuse ea, băgîndu-i două degete în gură şi lăsându-l să i le sugă, "Spune-i că nu e nici hîrtie igienică şi nici săpun la toaleta femeilor"

Ştiţi ce avea Scufiţa Roşie în coş? Puroi!

Mergeau doi sadici prin deşert şi nu mai puteau de foame. Unul dintre ei găseşte un şobolan mort şi îl înghite. Al doilea, cînd vede, zice:
- Băi dobitocule, tu ştii cîţi microbi are şobolanul ăla? Tu ştii din cîte cadavre s-a hrănit?
Al doilea nu mai rezistă şi vomită şobolanul.
- Mersi ca mi l-ai incalzit!

30 de bărbaţi şi o femeie naufragiază pe o insulă pustie. După 30 de zile, femeia, scîrbită de ce făcea, se sinucide. După alte 30 de zile, bărbaţii, scîrbiţi de ce făceau, o îngroapă. După alte 30 de zile, bărbaţii, scîrbiţi de ce făceau, o dezgroapă.

În tren, căldură mare. În acelaşi compartiment, se află o babă, un oltean şi un moldovean. Baba are un termos, pe care îl duce des la gură, apoi îl retrage satisfăcută. Ceilalţi mor de sete. La intrarea trenului într-un tunel, moldoveanu ia termosul şi trage o înghiţitură bune. Olteanul, mai simţit, îi cere babei o gură de "suc". Baba răspunde:
- Nu e suc, maică,acolo scuip eu că am TBC.

Bancuri Seci

2008-02-18T10:23:00.000-08:00

Un schelet intra intr-un bar.
- Baiete! O bere si un mop!

Olga mulgea vaca. Si in lac se vedea invers.

Doua vaci pasteau apa minerala in desert,la un moment dat una zice catre cealalta:
- Apropo de lapte...cat e ceasul?
Cealalta scoate termometrul si zice:
- Miercuri...

- De ce nu mananca elefantii mamaliga?
- Ca nu le da nimeni.

Intra o musca in gura unui cal.Cand sa iasa nu mai era calul!

Un om avea un cal si calul n-avea nimic impotriva.

Doua clatite mergeau prin desertul Sahara. Deodata una pica si ii sare gemu'.

Un moshneag shi o baba au murit de tineri

- De ce are veverita coada in spate?
- Pentru ca in fata sta ea.

Care e deosebirea dintre un vultur si o cartita?
Amandoi umbla pe sub pamant cu exceptia vulturului.

Doua submarine in desert:
- Catzi ?
- 5!
- Ce 5 ?
- Ce "catzi" ?

Doi vulturi stateau pe o creanga. Unul era plesuv si unul era sa cada!

- Cu ce seamana o jumatate de portocala?
- Cu cealalta jumatate!

Vasile avea 2 copii, unul mai mic si unul mai incolo.

Doua randunele stateau pe o creanga. Deodata una ii spune celeilalte:
- Vezi ca te imping!
Si-a impins-o!

Doi surzi se intalnesc pe strada:
- Te duci la pescuit?
- Nu. Ma duc la pescuit.
- A... Si eu care credeam k te duci la pescuit.

Un om avea 2 caini: unul de vanatoare si unul de bombardament.

- Ce zice Tarzan cand vede o mie de elefanti venind spre el?
- Ia, uite frate, o mie de elefanti vin spre mine!!

Un politist gandea.

Doi crocodili croshetau apa minerala sub tocul ushii. Vine mama lor, porcul, si ii intreaba:
- Plecati ma de aici !

- Ce faci, Bulă?
- Ba da!

Două vaci stăteau într-un copac şi croşetau apa folosind 2 cărămizi. La un moment dat, una dintre ele o întreabă pe cealaltă:
- Cît e ceasul, mă?
Cealaltă scoate termometrul din căciulă şi zice:
- Joi!
Morala: Nu îndoiţi sticle de Pepsi.

Care e diferenţa între întuneric şi tare? Întuneric e toată noaptea.

Armata

2008-02-18T09:40:00.000-08:00

Bagati la tartacuta, regulamentul nu poate fi incalcat absolut niciodata, cu exceptia situatiilor prevazute de regulament!

Va doare mana sa bateti 3 pasi de defilare?

Va tin in soare pana la 12 noaptea!

Bai, rahatilor, daca vin la voi va mananc!

- Soldat, dute si uda florile din curte...
- Dar ploua afara dom colonel.
- Nu-i nimic, iti iei umbrela.

Fruntasul Popescu va fi pedepsit cu 5 zile de arest pe motiv ca a fost gasit cu o persoana de sex feminin la gardul unitatii in loc sa fie in pat...

Caporalul, cam miop de felul lui:
- Drepti! Asta e valabil si pentru tine, tu ala cu boneta rosie, din spate!
La care Bula:
- Domnule caporal, permiteti sa raportez, sa traiti, ala e un Hidrant!
- Fie ce-o vrea el! Aici trebuie sa asculte si cei cu facultate!

Sunteti un pluton de prosti, iar in mijlocul vostru e un bou care zbiara ca un taur si rage ca un magar!

Daca ti se intampla sa cazi de pe transportor ori mori ori ramai prost. Eu am cazut de 3 ori.

O mana criminala a dat cu piciorul in chiuveta.

Dupa dush: V-ati parfumat ca niste curve! Numai nevasta-mea si fiica-mea se mai parfumeaza asa!!!

Am sa va tin cu ochii in soare pana la 12 noaptea.

Dati-mi o bara metalica din lemn.

- Soldat, de ce nu ai udat florile?
- Nu curge apa, domnule capitan!
- Atunci, fara apa!

Impartiti suprafata in 3 jumatati egale!

Sa nu va dati jos din mersul trenurilor.

Daca sunteti prea prosti sa va aduceti aminte scrieti-va pe ceva. Si eu imi sciu totul.

Sa nu mai prind un picior de soldat neras in unitate!

Spalati-va pe picioare pana la brau!

N-am spus, dar repet!

Ori nu a executat corespunzator ordinul, ori l-a executat necorespunzator!

Canal de ejaculare a gazelor.

Din formatie lipsesc 3 absenti.

Ce te uiti asa la mine ca la un bou? Ce, ori nu-i asa?

Sa nu mai prind televizorul mergand noaptea prin camera!

Sa fiti prezenti inclusiv toti!

Cand plecati acasa sa nu uitati vreo bricheta aprinsa in dulapuri!

Punct de aprovizionare cu raniti.

99,9% dintre voi sunteti nesimtiti, restul de 1% sunt la infirmerie.

- Soldat, tu nu ma auzi?
- Nu, domnule capitan.
- Cum ma nu ma auzi ca doar eu ma uit la tine.

Bateti trei pasi si incepeti sa cantati cu stangul!

Prima impresie pe care mi-am facut-o cand am intrat la voi in dormitor, am ramas cu clanta in usa

Invatam pana exersam!

Mi-am schimbat parerea despre voi cu 360 de grade!

Sergentul Popescu va fi pedepsit cu 5 zile de arest pe motiv ca, imitand vocea locotenentului Popescu, a urlat ca un bou...

Lipeste calcaiele pe langa corp!

Fratilor, mancati ca porcii!

Va inselati gresit daca va faceti aluzii ca plecati acasa mai devreme.

In Golf au murit 7000 de morti.

Sa nu mai prind picior de soldat cu mainile in buzunare!

Terminatzi cu tusitul... tusitzi in gand...

Ce-s cu urmele astea de talpi pe tavan?

Habar nu stiu ce se intapla in compania asta!

Iti fac ochii in cap ca giroscopul!

Aveti grija la pragul ala de sus. Daca va dati cu capul de el ramaneti prosti pe toata viata. Si eu mi-am dat de trei ori, de aia stiu...

Daca sunteti prosti si nu tineti minte cumparati-va un carnetel si un pix si tineti-le la buzunarul de la piept, si va puteti nota. Uite asa ca mine...

Instructia domnului medic militar Ionescu, cu tema "Cum raman sanatos" se amana pe motiv de boala...

Sergentul catre soldati:
- Trebuie sa tineti dusmanul tot timpul in ochi... ce te holbezi asa la mine soldat ?!

- De ce nu ati curatat zapada de pe platou?
- A nins!
- De ce a nins?

Numesc 3 nume: 14, 32 si 56.

Unuia i se face morala in fata plutonului:
- Aveti in fata un magar si un porc...
- Treci la loc in formatie magarule!

Chuck Norris

2008-02-01T01:16:00.000-08:00

De ce in calendarul lui Chuck Norris se trece direct de la 31 martie la 2 aprilie?
Nimeni nu il pacaleste de Chuck Norris!

Chuck Norris o singura data a lovit pe langa. De atunci cerul e albastru.

Daca Chuck Norris cade in apa, el nu va fi ud. Apa va fi cu Chuck Norris.

Multi oameni au pijamale cu Superman. Superman are pijamale cu Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris nu poarta ceas. El decide cat e ceasul.

De ce doarme Chuck Norris cu lumina aprinsa? Nu pt ca ii e teama de intuneric, ci pt ca intunericului ii e frica de el.

Chuck Norris nu va face niciodata atac de cord. Inima nu e atat de tampita sa-l atace.

Chuck Norris joaca ruleta ruseasca cu pistolul plin. Si castiga mereu.

In loc de picaturi de ochi, Chuck Norris foloseste sos picant.

Cand Chuck Norris taie ceapa, nu plange el, ci ceapa.

Chuck Norris nu are frunte. Ala e doar al treilea sau pumn.

Nu exista lesbiene. Doar femei care nu l-au cunoscut inca pe Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doarme cu perna sub pistol.

Chuck Norris a fost deja pe Marte, de aceea acolo nu exista viata.

Chuck Norris nu poate sa iubeasca, el poate doar sa nu ucida.

Chuck Norris stranuta cu ochii deschisi.

Cand merge la culcare, Bau-Bau se uita in dulap si sub pat sa nu fie cumva acolo Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris a reusit sa numere pana la infinit. De doua ori.

Chuck Norris poate sa aplaude cu o singura mana.

Chuck Norris nu doarme. El asteapta.

Chuck Norris poate sa dea foc la furnici cu lupa. Noaptea!

Chuck Norris a lovit odata un cal in barba. Descendentii acelui cal se numesc acum girafe.

Chuck Norris s-a nascut intr-o cabana construita de el.

Chuck Norris a inghitit odata un borcan de somnifere. L-au facut sa clipeasca.

Chuck Norris cand doneaza sange, el nu cere un ac. El cere un pistol si o galeata.

Chuck Norris a cerut un Big Mac intr-un Burger-King. Si a primit.

Chuck Norris a ars odata o padure cand facea experimente cu apa.

Cand Chuck Norris face flotari, nu se ridica pe el, el impinge pamantul in jos.

Chuck Norris e cunoscut pentru modestia lui, dar recunoaste ca este a 8-a minune a lumii.

Chuck Norris' dick is so big, it has it's own dick, and that dick is still bigger than ours.

Tu traiesti pentru ca te-a lasat Chuck Norris in viata.