The Book
Introduction What is it all good for? Scope of work Project History
Music theory in nutshell Harmony Chord notation used in the analyses The degrees of notes Chord functions Keys, Sharps and flats, neighbour keys Guitar friendly and piano-friendly keys Modulations, key changes Parallel key modulations Relative key modulations Neighbour key modulations Combined modulations Step-up/down modulations Unusual modulations Key-shifts Pivot Modulation Borrowed chords Cliche chord progressions Modes Ambigous harmony Rhythms Exercies Syncopations Shuffle beat Metrical modulations, metrical anomalies Compound meters Disorienting Rhythms Songforms General aesthatics of popular and rock music
Queen - The four of them as musicians Brian May Roger Taylor Freddie Mercury John Deacon
Songwriting Analyses
Smile
Ibex
"No Synth" era
Queen
Keep Yourself Alive
Doing All Right
Great King Rat
My Fairy King
Liar
The Night Comes Down
Modern Times Rock'n'roll
Son And Daughter
Jesus
Seven Seas Of Rhye
Silver Salmon
Hangman
Mad The Swine
Queen II
Procession
Father To Son
White Queen (As It Began)
Some Day One Day
The Loser In The End
Ogre Battle
The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
Nevermore
March Of The Black Queen
Funny How Love Is
Seven Seas Of Rhye
See What A Fool I've Been
Sheer Heart Attack
Brighton Rock
Killer Queen
Tenement Funster
Flick Of The Wrist
Lily Of The Valley
Now I'm Here
In The Lap Of The Gods
Stone Cold Crazy
Dear Friends
Misfire
Bring Back That Leroy Brown
She Makes Me
In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited
A Night At The Opera
Death On Two Legs
Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon
I'm In Love With My Car
You're My Best Friend
Sweet Lady
'39
Seaside Rendezvous
The Prophet's Song
Love Of My Life
Good Company
Bohemian Rhapsody
God Save The Queen
A Day At The Races
Tie Your Mother Down
You Take My Breath Away
Long Away
The Millionaire Waltz
You And I
Somebody To Love
White Man
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
Drowse
Teo Torriate
News Of The World
We Will Rock You
We Are The Champions
Sheer Heart Attack
All Dead All Dead
Spread Your Wings
Fight From The Inside
Get Down Make Love
Sleeping On The Sidewalk
Who Needs You
It's Late
My Melancholy Blues
Feelings
Jazz
Mustapha
Fat Bottomed Girls
Jealousy
Bicycle Race
If You Can't Beat Them
Let Me Entertain You
Dead On Time
In Only Seven Days
Dreamers Ball
Fun It
Leaving Home Ain't Easy
Don't Stop Me Now
More Of That Jazz
Live performances in the 70s
Modern-era Queen
The Game
Play The Game
Dragon Attack
Another One Bites The Dust
Need Your Loving Tonight
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Rock It (prime Jive)
Don't Try Suicide
Sail Away Sweet Sister
Coming Soon
Save Me
Human Body
Sandbox
Flash Gordon
Flash's Theme
In The Space Capsule
Ming's Theme
The Ring
Football Fight
In The Death Cell
Execution Of Flash
The Kiss
Arboria
Escape From The Swamp
Flash To The Rescue
Vultan's Theme
Battle Theme
The Wedding March
Marriage Of Dale And Ming
Flash's Theme Reprise
Crash Dive On Mingo City
The Hero
Hot Space
Staying Power
Dancer
Back Chat
Body Language
Action This Day
Put Out The Fire
Life Is Real
Calling All Girls
Las Palabras De Amor
Cool Cat
Under Pressure
Soul Brother
The Works
Radio Ga Ga
Tear It Up
It's A Hard Life
Man On The Prowl
Machines (or 'Back To Humans')
I Want To Break Free
Keep Passing The Open Windows
Hammer To Fall
Is This The World We Created?
I Go Crazy
A Kind Of Magic
One Vision
A Kind Of Magic
One Year Of Love
Pain Is So Close To Pleasure
Friends Will Be Friends
Who Wants To Live Forever
Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme)
Don't Lose Your Head
Princes Of The Universe
The Miracle
Party
Khashoggi's Ship
The Miracle
I Want It All
The Invisible Man
Breakthru
Rain Must Fall
Scandal
My Baby Does Me
Was It All Worth It
Hang On In There
Chinese Torture
Hijack My Heart
My Life Has Been Saved
Stealin'
New Life Is Born
Dog With A Bone
Guess We're Fallin Out
Innuendo
Innuendo
I'm Going Slightly Mad
Headlong
I Can't Live With You
Don't Try So Hard
Ride The Wild Wind
All God's People
These Are The Days Of Our Lives
Delilah
The Hitman
Bijou
The Show Must Go On
Lost Opportunity
Face It Alone
Self Made Man
My Secret Fantasy
Made In Heaven
It's A Beautiful Day
Made In Heaven
Let Me Live
Mother Love
My Life Has Been Saved
I Was Born To Love You
Heaven For Everyone
Too Much Love Will Kill You
You Don't Fool Me
A Winter's Tale
My Life Has Been Saved
It's A Beautiful Day (reprise)
No-One But You
Live performances in the 80s
Appendix Special instruments Special effects Special playing techniques Classical quotes Musical terms Index References
One Vision
Composer: Queen
Single: 1985
Meter: 4/4
Key: D Major
Form:
| Intro I-II-III(AAB)-IV(CCC)| Verse (CCC) | Chorus |
| Verse'(CC) | Chorus | Bridge (Intro III') |
| Solo (C) | Verse"(C'C')| Chorus-ext || Interlude |
| Chorus' / Outro |
"One vision" is a perfect hard driving opening track for both the album and the concerts of the Magic tour as well. While it is credited to the whole band, Brian May must have created the main instrumental hooks of the song.
The arrangement is simple on paper: bass, synth drums, synths, guitars, vocals. The rhythm guitar tracks are relatively fragmentary with lots of different tone settings. Many psychadelic tape-wizardy is applied on both vocals and guitar tracks. The drumtrack is simple, but the rhythm guitar track apply some clever rhythms. The bassline is also simple on the video Deacon plays his instrument with thumb.
The songform shows cyclic design with a bridge and a also bridge-like instrumental interlude.
Intro
The intro can be divided to four subsections. The first one is a vollage of psychadelic noises achied by tape trickery (slow down, reverse play, harmonizer) on voices. The slow down voice must be a Jimmy Hendrix influence.
Te second subsection consists of five phrases with pedal bass. The whole thing starts with a 1-b2-1-b7-1 ornament (see also in "...Forever"). Rhythm track enters in the second phrase. Third phrase adds synth and guitar glissandos.
/--------- 3x ----------\
| D1 | - | - | - |
In the fourth phrase the pedal bass is added a synth hook played (and most probably also composed) by Brian May. The pedal bass combined with parallel sixth motion is a trademark of his. since the beginning ("Doing All right").
D:
| F# | G | A | G E | : inner line
| A | B | C | B - | : inner line
| D | - | - | - - | : bass
| D | G/D | D5,7 | G/D * | : chords
| I | IV | V | IV |
| D | G/D | D5,7 | G/D |
| I | IV | V | IV |
The last phrase of the synth hook subsection uses borrowed chords. The Bb/D chord is also a late period May trademark (see also in "Hang On In There"). Synth arpeggios are added. Its probably sequenced or speed-up recording. Its not arpeggiator as the arpeggio cycles are changing both shape-wise (AAAB'BBBBBB) and length-wise: 12/32 x3, 9/10 x1, 10/32 x 6 (last one cut off). Beside the Bb triads the "A" and "B" arpgeggios are enriched with 2th and M7th degrees respectively.
| D | E | F | - |
| Bb | C | D | - |
| F | - | Bb | - |
| D | - | - | - |
| Bb/D | * | Bb/D | - |
| bVI |"bVII"| bVI | - |
The final chord sustained unresolved creating lots of tension for the start of the next subsection. This tension is stregthened by same so called "dead notes" or rakes.. The drumtrack also holds a pause here.
The last subsection of the intro exposes the four measure main guitar hook of the verses three times. The enter of the guitars is extremly impulsive due to some well placed rakes. The second phrase adds bass, drums and lead guitar.
Verse
The verses are built on the close rhythmic variant of the above exposed guitar hook. Later verses add more variants.
The first verse contain three the other verses two riff phrases. The lead vocal frequently uses bluesy flat thirds. The third melodic phrase end different than the first two (AAA') closing with three part harmonized title words.
| D A/C# | D G/B | C G/B | C A/C# D |
| I V | I IV |bVII IV |bVII V I |
The beat map for the rhythm guitar track:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
* * ** **** ** ** * * *
The second verse alters the lead melody but its rhythm remains the same for most of the time. The first riff ends with a different fill.
The first half of the third verse is completly changed melody-wise and also the rhythm guitar track closes with new figures. The second half is a melodic variant of the opening half-verse while the rhythm guitar track adds here another new riff using the 3+3+3+3+4 rhythmic grouping.
Solo
The solo is played over the main riff before the third Verse. May uses the tapping technique the first time on a record since "It's Late" (1977). The tapping part of the solo (m3-4) is triplet-driven with lost of chromatic steps.
Chorus
In terms of functional harmony this chorus seems rahter like a bridge. It is not sharply separated from the verse. The bassline in the first two phrases uses a motif reminiscent of one in "A Kind Of Magic". The phrasing is 2+2+4 (AAB).
/----- 2x ----\
| A | D/A |
| V | I |
| C | - | - |
| bVII | - | - |
| A1 A# B1 C1 C# ||(D)
| 5th chromatic ||(1st)
More precisely transcribed the first A-nat note is still in the previous meausre. See the beat map with off beat rhythm:
4 1 2 3 4 1
* * * * **
In the first cycle it is directly preceded by another off-beat downward scale featuring blue note (Eb>E)
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1...
** * * * * *******...
The lead vocal of the first chorus is two part harmonized a third lower throughout.
The second chorus alters the B melodic phrase (it starts two steps higher).
The first phrase of the third chorus is not harmonized. The second phrase is shifted up, while its harmony part remains the original lead part. The third phrase is altered and extended. The oscillating "wo-wo-yeah" phrase is three part harmonized this time.
| A | D/A | A | G | D | -(7) |
| V | I | V | IV | I | - |
The first two phrases of the fourth Chorus are just like in the first chorus with guitar harmonies added in the background. The rest of the section is completly changed melody-wise altough the harmony remains a variant:
| C | C4 | C |
| bVII| - | - |
The last phrase features an interesting echo antiphony, and close with the legendary "fried chicken" words.
The chromatic lick is executed twice expanding the figure from one to three measures. Its rhythm is more straithforward than it first sounds (since the bass steps are located on the pre-downbeat eigths):
4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
** ** ** ** * * * * *
Bridge
The Bridge is built around the intro (see also "Leaving Home Ain't Easy"). Only the third phrase is extended (this extension is also used in the live version intro). After two phrase pause the drum track enter for the third phrase. The "dark rain" phrase is also sung by Mercury.
| Bb/D | */D | Bb/D | */D | Bb/D | -b5 |
| bVI | bVII | bVI | bVII | bVI | - |
The Bb/D 5th > b5th lick also appeared in the live version of "Is This The World...". The 1-b2-1-b7-1 ornament is played on guitar this time. The lead melody is almost completly acyclic ecxept short fragments ("sweet illusion" vs "sweet union").
Interlude
After the bridge we have a long semi-instrumental interlude (shades of "Another One..."). The main ingredients are synth drums a hard to hear synth part centered to A-nat, and lead guitar fills. These lead guitar fills are done not in Brian"s usual melodic approach.
/---- 6x ---\
| A1 | - |
| A1 |Bb* | - |
In m14 the Bb chord sound like the familiar Bb/D chord as the lead guitar plays unisono bend combined with tremolo picking on the D note.
Outro
The outro is segued from the last chorus. Beside the tape-trickery with ots of borrowed fragments ofrom the intro we have two synth phrases. The first one is coupple of D-nat notes skowing down, the second one is fast arpeggio fragments around the Bb (bVI) chord.