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 - Hot Space: Life Is Real

Life Is Real

Composer: Freddie Mercury
Album: Hot Space
Meter: 4/4
Key: G Major, Bm, (D Major)
Form:  

 Intro | Verse | Verse | Bridge - Chorus |
       | Solo (Verse)| Verse - Outro I - II (AAAAAA)|


This ballad is Mercury's (and the band's) tribute to John Lennon who was killed in late 1980.
The songform is simple (simplified: AAB(A)A ), on the other hand the sections are unusually long and non-repetitive. We have one Bridge with a chorus like ending, similarly to the Verse that also ends with title phrases. The arrangement is relatively economic: piano, bass, spare guitar works, some synth fills (octave harmonized). Among the chords you can find some with bass notes half or whole note below the root.


Intro:
The song is introduced with the piano playing a treble G note on the 3rd beat of each measure. By the start of the track it is still ambigous where the downbeat is (shades of "You Really Git Me" (Kinks, 1964))

|  G1 |  -  |  -  |  -  |
| 1th...


Verse:
We have three Verse plus an instrumental one. The harmony of the first two phrases is built around a stepwise descending bassline and a G note on top which was already exposed in the intro. The chord transcription is based on the guitar chords added for the second Verse and the outro.
The phrasing of the 20 measure Verse is 4+4+2+2+4, the first two phrases have the same harmonic backing.

G:
/---------- 2x ----------\
| G   | D/F# | Em  | D   |
| I   |  V   | vi  | V   |

| C   | C/B  | C   | Am  |
| IV  | "I"  | I   | ii  |

| G   | G/F# |
| I   | "V"  |

| Bm  | /D   |
| iii |  -   |

| F/C |  C   | G   | -   |
| bVII|  IV  | I   | -   |


The arrangement of the second Verse hardly changes: it adds soft guitar chords for the first two phrases in synchron with the treble G notes and drops the ending synth figure. The lead melody also changes for only these two phrases. The last Verse adds synth motifs in parallel octaves echoing the lead vocal. This Verse also starts with variant phrases that are closer to the first Verse. The instrumental Verse section is a triple solo (shades of "Dragon Attack" with drum solo followed by bass solo and guitar solo respectively). First the (probably fingerpicked) Red Special solo (first two phrases), then an acoustic guitar solo (middle phrases), synth solo with lots of slided notes (the last phrases). The latter copies the lead melody of the Verse, while the Red Special solo for just the first phrase.


Bridge:
The Bridge phrasing-wise similar to the Verse: 20 measures 4+4+4+2+2+4. The harmony is ambigous as the b-minor tonality does not supported by strong cadences. The dominant chord in m.7-8 does not resolves to the tonic, but to III (see also in "Death On Two Legs"). Similarly to the Verse the first phrase features stepwise descending bassline. The third phrase slides toward the relative Major key (D).

b:
| Bm   | F#/Bb| D/A  | G    |
| i    |  V   | III  | VI   |

| G    | -    | F#   | -7   |
| VI   | -    | V    | -    |

| D    | -    | C/D  | -    |
| III  | -   bVII/III| -    |

| Bm   | -    |
| i    | -    |

| B  C# | D    | : lead melody
| B  A# | A1   | : guitar notes
chromatic/contrapuntal


| Em   | -    | G   | G5/A  |
b: iv  | -    |
D: ii  | -    | IV  | "V"   |

The m.5-6 are melody-wise mainly identical with m.19-20. The last phrase starts with a dramatic Em chord up-stroked (a favourite lick of guitarists) with a dramatic rising lead melody. The last two chords suggest a D Major tonality, but the Chorus...

Chorus
... the chorus suggests the return of the G Major key, weakly though. At last it gets established with a double plagal cadence for the beginning of the next instrumental Verse. The phrasing is 2+2+2+2 AABB harmony-wise, AA'A" melody-wise. The last melodic phrase is a close variant of the closing of the Verse (without the "oh yeah").

 /----- 2x -----\
 | D    | C/D   |
D: I    | bVII  |
G: V    | IV    |


 /----- 2x -----\
 | F/C  | C     |
G: bVII | IV    |


This is the only section with harmonized vocals. The last phrase harmonized differently: pedal bass and parallel thirds. The section ends with long guitar trill faded in and out and also stereo crossfaded.

Outro
The outro has two subsection. The first one grows out from the last Verse, overalpping its last phrase. The harmony  alternates the first two measures of the Verse with guitar arpeggios added.

m.19-

/----- 4x -----\
| G5   | G5/F# | Cadd2 | D1   |
| I    |       | IV    | V1   |

Melody-wise it is mostly quotes the title phrases of previous sections.

The second subsection repeats the Verse-opening chord progression six times with more title phrase variants. After the synth hook in the fifth cycle (parallel fourths) the song fades out.