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

Repetitions and variants

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

Path: Queen Songs - The Book - Songwriting Analyses - A Kind Of Magic - A Kind Of Magic - A Kind Of Magic: Who Wants To Live Forever

Who Wants To Live Forever

Composer: Brian May
Orchestration: Michael Kamen
Single:
Meter: 4/4
Key: e-minor, G-Major
Form:
 
      Intro | Verse  | Chorus 1 |
            | Verse  | Chorus 1 - Chorus 1' |  Solo  |
            | Bridge | Chorus 2 | Chorus 2 - Outro I-II-III |


This power ballad is one of Brian May's finest peice of work, written for the movie "Highlander".
The arrangement is dominated by synths and orchestra. Michael Kamen's orchestration perfectly underscores the dramatic ***. It makes frequent and artistic use of appoggiaturas.
The songform looks relatively ordinary except the length over five minutes and the feature of an alternate Chorus (see also "...Christmas"). The outro has long instrumental parts which is partly cut out from the single version.
The first cycle of Verse-chorus is sung by May, the rest of the song by Mercury.

Intro:
The songs starts with instrumental intro played by May on synth-organ. The 4/4 meter is still very weakly recognisable.

e:
| Em  C | Em  E1 |
| i  VI | i      |

Verse
The 8 measure verse has 2+2+4 phrases all starting with an upbeat. The harmony is full with inverted chords. The approach of the halfdim chord in m.4 is reminiscent to "Spread Your Wings" and "... revisited" (Wembley version).
The tonality is ambiguous with hints for both e-minor and a-minor.

e:
 | Am   | - /F# |
e: iv   |       |
a: i    |       |

| Em   | /D /C#halfdim |
e: i   |               |
a: v   |               |

 | G/D  | A/E   | Dsus4 | D    |
e: III  | V/VII | VII   | -    |  
a: VII  | V/IV  | IV    | -    |  

The shape of the tune shows two arches. The second verse has different orchestration, and also added a double kick on bass drum.


Chorus
The first chorus has three phrases the first two of which paralelling each other.
 
| C  G/B | Am (6>5) |
|III VII | i        |

| C Gmaj7/B | Am7  |
|III VII    | i    |

| D7sus4>3 |
| IV       |

The second chorus is altered from the third phrase...

| C/D D3,7 G/B |
|              |

...which is followed by an instrumental first phrase followed by a vocal second phrase extended with climactic ending reflected in the high notes.


| C Gmaj7/B | Am   | D (6>5, 4>3) | Em    |
|III VII    | i    | IV           | v     |
                        e: VII    | i     |


Solo:
The guitar solo ispereced by a one meausre spacer introducing the 5-6-5-4-5 motif played in each phrases of the solo afterwards. The melodic phrasing is 2+2+2+2 AA'BC, while the harmonic phrasing shows AAAA form.

e:
| Em   | C    |
| i    | VI   |

| Em   | C    |
| i    | VI   |

| Em   | C    |
| i    | VI   |

| Em   | C    |
| i    | VI   |

The slow paced guitar solo with lots of fingerpicked notes is one of Brian May more simple but also most dramatic works.


Bridge:
This short, four measure section could be threated as pre-chorus.

e:
| Em   | C    |
| i    | VI   |

| Em   | C    |
| i    | VI   |

The arrangement is based on fade in guitar power chords sliding down, and a one-measure synth-string motif repeated.

Chorus 2
The first two phrases alternate chorus is partly paralelling the first Chorus, but the walk down to the C#-half-diminished chord is taken from the Verse.

G:
| G D/F# | Em    |
| I  V   | vi    |

| G D/F# | Em  /D|
| I  V   | vi    |

| C#haldfim A/C# | G(6>5)/D | Bb/D  |
|           V/V  | I        | bIII  |

The ending chord is Bb/D which is one of Brian favourite chord in the eighties ("...Created", "One Vision", "Hang On...")
The second Chorus 2 is added vocal harmonies and slightly changes the last chord (Gm7)  prolonged twice as long, and added a final phrase.

| Gm7  | -    |

| Em   |

Outro:
The instrumental outro can be divided to three subsections the first of which is characterized by a chain of minor chords with leaps of decsending thirds creating an ambiguous dramatic tonality hence the lack of functional analysis. This type of chord progression is frequently used in film scores for thillers and dramatic parts. It was probably Kamen's contribution, and was cut out from the single version to make the song shorter and more radio-friendly. It is also absent from Brian's piano version.

| C    | Em   | Cm   | Am   | Fm   | Dm   | Bm   | Em   | -   |

The second subsection starts with a minimalistic slow guitar solo with some nice countermelodies.

| Em   | - Bm | C/E  | Cadd6/E |
| i    | - v  | VI   |  -      |

It is followed by a harmony progression combining pedal point an descending parallel thirds. The whol harmony is enveloped by the Em tonic chord.

| G  F#| E  D | C# B | A  G | : top harmony
| E  D | C# B | A  G | F# E | : low harmony
| E  -   -  -   -  -   -  - | : bass
| Em   | A    | A    | D  Em|
| i...

| Em   | -    |

The last subsection starts with an ascending synth organ arpeggio similar to the intro. It is resolved by a string chord.

e:
| D    | -    | E5   |
| VII  | -    | i    |

The solo piano version closes on D without resolution.