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 - The Game: Play The Game

Play The Game

Composer: Freddie Mercury
Meter: 4/4 (occasional 2/4and 6/8 measures)
Keys: C-major, F-major

Form:
    Intro | Verse | Chorus | Break 1 |
          | Verse | Chorus | Break 1'| Bridge |
 | Break 2 (Verse)| Solo (Chorus) | Chorus' | Chorus" |
 

"Play The Game" is a piano ballad, Freddie's stylistic homeland, "Jealousy" and the bridge of "Flash" are close neighbors. The song form can be derived from the one-bridge model. The phrasing is predominantly non-four squared.

Walkthrough

Intro
The first note is G (dominant) followed by several descending synth glissandos and reverse cymbals. Toward the end of the intro the glissando gets continuous, and the noises get more intense, and just before the glissando reaches G again, enter Freddie and the piano (shades of "Death On Two Legs").

Verse
It is unusually short for a Verse, only four measures (2+2), and it is followed by a Chorus.

C:
| C    | Bbmaj7 |
| I    | bVII   |

| Am   | Fm6/G# |     Fm6/G# = C#halfdim/G#
| vi   | iv     |

The tonality of the Verse is not very strong. The Bb chord is motivated by chromatic descent (C B A# A G#). Note the unusual maj7 leap in the lead vocal in measure 2. Bass enters in measure four, drums enter on the downbeat of the Chorus (except a short roll on the downbeat of the third measure). The lead vocal of the second phrase parallels the first. The fist phrase is closed with an exotic maj7th leap in the lead vocal.
In second Verse drums and bass play all the way; the bass imitates the lead vocal in measure 3. The last words are harmonized (four voices).
Break 2 is an instrumental Verse dominated by a guitar playing along with the chromatic descent. Synth glissando figures are added where the guitar holds the note. This hard section is "resolved" by substituting the rhythm guitar with piano in the next section(solo-Chorus)

Chorus
We have four Choruses plus an instrumental one, so this is the central section of the song. The phrasing is not square. The first phrase uses a cliche progression.

C:
| C  Am | Dm G |
| I  vi | ii V |

                               half
| C   -7   | F  Fm(6)| C  G/B | C  | Gm7* | Ab  Bb || C...
| I V-of-IV|IV  iv   | I   V  | I  |"bVII"|bVI bVII|| I...

The Gm7* chord/harmony is spelled from bottom: G Bb D F A C. This nice six-note chord superimposes Bb, Gm7, F and probably several other chords. The upbeat of the section ("it's so") features flat-6 and flat-7 degrees foreshadowing the end. The bass line is very jumpy.
The second Chorus has different lyrics for the first three measures.
The third Chorus is filled by the guitar solo. Note the ear-pleasing effect: how the noisy preparation switches to a mellow piano-driven accompaniment. The first two notes of the solo (notation with degrees: 5, 9 bent to 10)
are a recurrent element of May's soloing: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Flash/The Hero", "It's A Hard Life". The solo is not speedy; it presents another possible lead vocal melody. Talking about the lead melody, it returns for the end of the section.
The fourth Chorus: the lyrics are in their second variant. Some lead guitar fills are added, and the seventh measure has a 3+3+3+3+4 pattern of 1/16ths. Freddie's vocal closes on a seventh, slowly resolving upwards.
The last Chorus: the lyrics are in the first variant. We have more lead guitar figures and once again the 3+3+3+3+4 rhythm figure that fades out.

Break 1
The harmony of these three and a half measures section is driven by electric guitar walking down chromatically from C to G.

c:               half
Piano :| C  -  | C?   | Ab  G | Ab ...     ||
Guitar:| C5 B1 |Bb1 A1| Ab1 G1| Ab1  F Bb5 ||
       | I ... | .... |bVI  V | BVI IV bVII|| I

Note the delayed entry of the lead guitar and the sweet vibrato.

The variant Break 1 section is shorter and follows the original progression in the first two measures. In measure three the harmony modulates to F-major.

C:               half
Piano :| C  -  | C    | G   C || F
Guitar:| C5 B1 |Bb1 A1| G1  C5|| F1
       | I ... | .... | V   I ||
                    F:| II  V || I

Bridge
The four-in-a-bar beat gives one a "double time" feel. Note the effect when the staccato fill changes to legato in measure 3.

 | F  Bb/F | F     | Dm G(sus4)| C/G Em | C  | Em  C D  |
F: I  IV   | I     | vi V-of-V |        |    |          |
                  e: ii  III   | VI  i  | VI | i  VI VII|
                  C: ii   V    | I   iii| I  |iii  I II |

Four part harmonies:

  6/8       6/8
| Em7 C6 | C7/Bb Gm7 |

The metric frame is distorted here: a 3+3+3+3 rhythm pattern is used, where the 1/8 pulse is slowed down, and this phrase is followed by a pause of non-quantized length.

... |... Ab  Bb ||
        bVI bVII|| I