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
The Show Must Go On
Composer: Queen
Album: Innuendo
Single: 14 october, 1991
Meter: 4/4
Key: b minor, c#-minor, a minor
Form:
| Intro (Verse)| Verse | Verse | Chorus (Verse') |
| Verse | Verse | Chorus - Solo 1 |
| Bridge | Chorus | Solo 2 (Chorus I) - Chorus II' - Outro |
This time we are going to analyse probably the last Queen song that reached the "anthem" status. The songwriting credit is shared between more of them. The intro sequence is created by Deacon and Taylor, a really unusual contribution inside the band. Note that this intro sequence is used during the biggest part of the song shifted in different keys. Brian May is considered to be the main songwriter of TSMGO, he wrote the majority of the lyrics and developed the song from the sequence. David Richard producer also participated in the songwriting process by suggesting key shifts, which was in fact a very good and important idea.
Except the Bridge the whole song (more closely the Intro, the verses, choruses and solos) is built upon the same harmonic background, even though it's not *** In the songbook of Queen this is something unique, the closest technique is the use of alternate verses in early Taylor songs. (Non-Queen example is ABBA's "The Winner Takes It All")
The bassline is played relatively melodic. Note the 1>5>8 arpeggios occassionally continued with 8>9 appogiaturas that also characterize the bassline of "These Are The Days..."
Walkthrough
-----------
Intro
It's a seven measure harmonic pattern played on synth-strings that will be repeated behing the Verses and the choruses as well. The sus4-sus2 appogiatura applied on the basic chords resembles on to the main hook of Scandal, so it's tad surprising, that John and Roger came up with it.
b:
| B A G F#
| Bm sus2 > | sus4 > m3 | G b5 | > 6 > 5 |
| i | - | VI | - |
| Em7 > 6 | F#sus4 F# | Em Edim |
| iv | V | iv |
Bass enters on the upbeat of measure 3. Drums enter in measure 3 with this pattern played on descending pitched drums.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 : 8/8
* * * * : drumbeats
Verse
The chord progression is the same as in the Intro, so let us concentrate on the lead vocal and the arrangement. The lead tune of the first two phrases (2x2 measures) start identically, but while the ending of the first phrase is descending, in the second phrase the lead melody ascends, and the rest of the section closes the arch-shape. The same technique is used in the Verse of Killer Queen.
We have a nice melodic bass-line with lot of treble figures. Note the spare use of guitar (some tremolo-glissandos, later some antiphonal countermelodies) and the percussive use of drums in the beginning. The first Chorus is briefly introduced with a drums.
Second Verse is in c# minor. Drums play the beat, lead guitar plays continuosly countermelodies for the lead vocal. The only major variation of the lead vocal is the ascending ornament that closes the section. The third Verse adds echo-like antiphonal vocals in two blocks where the second has doubled frequency. Note the countermelodies played on guitar: very nice. The third Verse is added and extra measure to modulate back to b minor. The pivot chord is Em which sounds "exotic" (iii) in context of c# minor, while nicely introduces the b minor (iv).
Chorus
The intro chord progression keeps repeated during the Choruses. The drums play steady beat, and we also have rhythm guitars. The lead vocal starts one octave higher than the closing note of the Verse. The first two melodic phrases are descending, short and close variants. The third melodic phrase is longer, and after a long step wise oscillation (see also in Miracle) it descends (first Chorus). The key is shifted up by a whole step for second Verse. This change is assisted by a nice guitar fill.
The second Chorus has harmonized title phrases, and backing vocal blocks in the last phrase. The last melodic phrase is extended to overlap the instrumental section (solo).
The Chorus after the Bridge uses similar echo-motif we heard in the second Verse, and what will close the song. The last melodic phrase is altered to drive the song to climactic highs. Guitar harmonies introduce the last Chorus. The first half of the last Chorus is guitar solo,
which has similar ascending runs to the first guitar solo. The lead vocal returns for the second half of the section. The ending is extended. Chords from measure 7:
b:
half
| Em | Edim7 | Em | - |
| iv |
The lead tune is carried by cascaded harmonies, the lead vocal returns only for the last word ("show") with a 6-7-6-5 appogiatura (Em).
The outro consists of cascaded repetition of the upbeat of the Chorus.
Solo
The solo is backed with the same chrod progression as the other sections. The solo has a beutiful arch-shape closed with unisono bends. The closing B-A# chromatic line is continued to A, in order to help the distant modulation to a-minor
Bridge:
This section is six measures long. A classic Bridge contrasting gambit is used when key changes to the distant (from b minor) a-minor. The modulation back to b minor is one of the starkest key change in Queen's songbook. A nice Bach-like dissonance is used in measure 1: F > G/F > Em.
/--------- 2x ---------\
| F G/F | Em Am (G) | | C#halfdim | Dsus4 D |
| VI VII | v i (VII)| | | IV |
b: iihalfdim | III |
The arrangement is completed with drum-rolls, guitar arpeggios, and guitar trills (shades of God Save The Queen's ending).