Path: Queen Songs - Album Analysis: Intro
Album Analysis
Dear visitors
American musician Laurie Anderson (Lou Reed's wife, BTW) is quoted as claiming that 'writing about music is like dancing about architecture.' So, quoting David Bowie (Lou Reed's former producer, BTW): 'let's dance'. BTW, this research has nothing to do with The Velvet Underground. It's instead a small study about Queen albums.
It differs from Denes' outstanding 'Song Analysis' in that it's focused on the whole records, the way they're sequenced and some of their unifying features. Of course, it'd be unfair not to credit his section as the primary influence for this one. Special thanks to Libor for hosting and support, and to everybody in the Song Analysis forum.
Queen's first professional recording session was held in September 1971. Some months after that they began their debut album, and up until 'Innuendo' (finished in November 1990) the idea for each project was to come up with a collection of songs which would almost always be written, composed and arranged by one of the band members. Then, some changes would be made, backing tracks (piano, bass and drums or guitar, bass and drums) would be laid down, long and painstaking overdubbing sessions would take place and the album would be ready around Christmas, to be followed by concert tours promoting around half a dozen numbers and usually including two or three continents.
The songs would be new, with some occasional exceptions, and there wouldn't be any 'concept' or common denominator; instead, the album would take shape according to the individual 'personality' of the tracks, which the band would always respect. That's probably why some albums ended up with a lot of non-rock material (e.g. 'A Night at the Opera') and others featured tracks in opposite extremes (e.g. Stone Cold Crazy and Dear Friends).
IMO, it's always been way more interesting to listen to the albums as a whole instead of compilations. It's the same as classical music: rather than having a collection of famous arie, it's better to listen to an opera in its entirety and actually get to grasp the whole plot, character development, etc. While Queen albums, again, lacked deliberate concepts, the sole track order is already 'something' that was made for a reason, and which has an effect on the listeners if they bother sitting down to enjoy the music, even if there's a song or two that they dislike.
'Innuendo' is a good example of that: playing the record from beginning to end is a wonderful experience, almost as if it'd been scripted that way all along. As Dr May once wrote in his Soapbox, 'sometimes, if you look hard enough, the door will open.'
Sebastian
30th January 2010
It differs from Denes' outstanding 'Song Analysis' in that it's focused on the whole records, the way they're sequenced and some of their unifying features. Of course, it'd be unfair not to credit his section as the primary influence for this one. Special thanks to Libor for hosting and support, and to everybody in the Song Analysis forum.
Queen's first professional recording session was held in September 1971. Some months after that they began their debut album, and up until 'Innuendo' (finished in November 1990) the idea for each project was to come up with a collection of songs which would almost always be written, composed and arranged by one of the band members. Then, some changes would be made, backing tracks (piano, bass and drums or guitar, bass and drums) would be laid down, long and painstaking overdubbing sessions would take place and the album would be ready around Christmas, to be followed by concert tours promoting around half a dozen numbers and usually including two or three continents.
The songs would be new, with some occasional exceptions, and there wouldn't be any 'concept' or common denominator; instead, the album would take shape according to the individual 'personality' of the tracks, which the band would always respect. That's probably why some albums ended up with a lot of non-rock material (e.g. 'A Night at the Opera') and others featured tracks in opposite extremes (e.g. Stone Cold Crazy and Dear Friends).
IMO, it's always been way more interesting to listen to the albums as a whole instead of compilations. It's the same as classical music: rather than having a collection of famous arie, it's better to listen to an opera in its entirety and actually get to grasp the whole plot, character development, etc. While Queen albums, again, lacked deliberate concepts, the sole track order is already 'something' that was made for a reason, and which has an effect on the listeners if they bother sitting down to enjoy the music, even if there's a song or two that they dislike.
'Innuendo' is a good example of that: playing the record from beginning to end is a wonderful experience, almost as if it'd been scripted that way all along. As Dr May once wrote in his Soapbox, 'sometimes, if you look hard enough, the door will open.'
Sebastian
30th January 2010
Latest updates:
- 30 Jan 2010: Queen - edited
- 06 Jul 2007: Innuendo - new
- 06 Jul 2007: The Miracle - new
- 06 Jul 2007: A Kind Of Magic - new
- 06 Jul 2007: The Works - new
- 29 Jun 2007: Hot Space - new
- 29 May 2007: Flash Gordon - new
- 24 May 2007: The Game - new
- 21 May 2007: Live Killers - new
- 20 May 2007: Jazz - new