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
Headlong
Headlong
Composer: Brian May
Meter: 4/4
Key: modally inflected D Major
Form:
intro | Chorus - tag | Chorus | connector |
| Verse | Chorus' | Solo 1 |
| Verse | Chorus" | connector'|
| Solo 2 (Verse')| Chorus"'| "oooh" | Outro
Headlong is a relatively straightahead sounding hard rock song, a potential stage number. With five choruses and the repetitios inner phrasing "Headlong" counts as one of the most repetitive Queen song. The clever developments on the choruses preventing them sounding boringly repetitive.
The homekey is modally inflected D Major. Both Major and minor sevenths and thirds make prominent use in the lead melody, the minor thirds are turning the harmony into sounding occassionally in minor (or at least dorian) mode. The rhythm guitar plays powerchords most of the time. They are tuned to drop-D, the first time on a Queen record since "Fat Bottomed Girls".
The rhythm makes frequent use of groups of three type syncopation.
Intro
The six bar intro opens the song with 1/16 pulsing drums backing the single D-note on piano that provides pedal bass throughout the intro. For the second phrase enters rhythm guitar with arch-shaped powerchord progression. Additional guitar plays treble pedal point.
| D1 | D1 |
| F5/D | - G5 |
| D5 | - |
Chorus
The choruses vary much cycle by cycle. The first chorus has a stripped down arrangement with no chordal backing and harmony vocals. This first chorus is extended with two extra tag phrases with pumping guitar powerchords added. The phrasing is 2+2+3+1 AAA'i, followed by the tags with somewhat blurred 4+4 phrasing. Most of the phrases start with 2/4 upbeat.
The first chorus is directly followed by the second with an already more complete arrangement but with some motifs that are absent in the other choruses. Take for example the bVII chord in m1 (omitted in the harmony-table).
| G D | D5 |
| IV I | I |
| G D | D5 |
| IV I | I |
| G D | D5 |
| IV I | I |
| C5 | G5 |
| bVII | IV |
| D1 | D1 |
| I | I |
The third chorus starts without vocal pickup. Brian May plays individual rhythm guitar motifs in m2 and m4. The third phrase is extended to 3 measure and the last phrase has bIII chord instead of bVII.
m.5
| G D | D5 | G D |
| IV I | I | IV I |
| F5 | G | D(1) | - |
| bIII | IV | I | - |
In the fourth chorus the lead vocal leaves m2 empthy. The third phrase rhythmically changes the IV > I hook and the vocal phrase is extended to four measures instead of three. The melodic content of that extra one measure comes from the 3+3 syncopated "nothing you nothing you..." (6/8) and the "...at all" (2/8) words. The rhythm guitar work in m6-8 roughly combines the two connectors respectively (transcribed below).
The fifth chorus combines the second and the third one with two almost staccatto powerchords in m7-8:
m5
| G D | D5 |
| IV I | I |
| F5 | G | D(1) | - |
| bIII | IV | I | - |
This last chorus is followed by a four bar "oooh" vocal harmony that varies the harmony of m.7-10:
| G | F | D | D5 |
| IV | bIII | I | - |
Verse
The 16 measure verse starts with a repeated pair of phrases (2*(2+2)) with strong bluesy flavor due to the blue thirds and flat sevents (dorian inflection). The minor thirds turn the tonic power chord into minor. The second half of the phrases are sung in harmony.
/------------ 2x -----------\
| Dm | - | C | G7/B |
D: i | - | bVII | IV |
The next two phrases are dominated by the dominant chord re-establishing the major-mode feel. Brian uses here his signature A > D/A lick.
/----- 2x ----\
| A | D/A |
| V | "V" |
In the last vocal phrase the lead vocal follows the power chord progression.
| A5 | G5 | F#5 | A5 |
| V | IV |"iii" | V |
Instead of directly resolving to the tonic and the chorus we have an instrumental connector phrase.
| G5 F5 D5 | (D5) |
| IV bIII I | - |
Connector
We have three connector sections the last one built into the outro. The first connector is six measures long and starts with two measures of 3+3+... groupings. More precisely transcribed:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 : 4/4
234234231234234234 : root movement of powerchords (with flat-thirds).
the second connector also starts with 3+3 syncopated riffs. Note the two rhythmical "drop-outs" don't affect the 3/8 cycle time:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
34 3443 434434434434434434434311
Solo 1
The first solo is only 4 measure long backed by pulsing palm-muted tonic powerchord throughout.
Solo 2
The backing track of the second solo is an instrumental variant of that of the verse. The changes start from m9:
m9:
/----- 3x ----\
| A | G |
| V | IV |
| G | F#5 | A |
| IV |"iii" | V |
The same lead guitar track is effected differently for either stereo channels resulting in doubletracked feel.
Outro
m1-2 : pulsing tonic plus a simple motif
m3-4 : a variant of the motif is repeated while the rhythm guitar introduces a riff.
m5-8 : a variant of this riff is played twice
m9 : "headlong" vocal harmonies mimicking the first two chord of the riff. The phrase
m10-13 : a variant of the connector sections is played.
m14- : a final "headlong" vocal is sung this time syncopated and prolonged. This final "headlong" is played backwards four times. Guitar feedback and tremolo-bar dive closes the song.