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: Save Me

Save Me

Composer: Brian May
Album: The Game
Single: 25 january 1980 (UK)
Meter: 4/4 (occassional anomalies?)
Key: G Major, D Major
Form:

      | Verse (ABCD) | Bridge (EFCD")  | Chorus |
      | Verse        | Bridge          | Chorus'|
      | Instr. Verse | half Bridge (CG)| Solo (Chorus') - Chorus ending | Outro |


Save Me is a two-faced rock ballad. The Verses a have a more balladistic instrumentation dominated by piano and acoustic guitars, while the louder Choruses are dominated by distorted guitar chords, and vocal harmonies.
We don't know whether this song was composed on piano or guitar or simply in head as May have claimed writing many of his tunes. Neverheless he plays both piano and guitars on this record.
The songform is tad problematic to interpret. The first section is definitely a Verse, and the third section is definitely a Chorus, but the second section is not really a textbook-like Bridge because the arrangement arrangement does not creates bridge-like contrast with the verse, moreover the second half of the section is close variant of those of the Verse, which makes one tempted to treat this section as an alternate Verse. On the other hand the section puts less emphasis on the tonic (as Bridges often do). Queen-esque detail in the form department is the use of half-sections and reprised phrases. We have two instrumental sections, second of which is a traditional guitar solo, the first one is rather "just" an interlude, the two are intervened by a short half-section. On the simple side the song has square phrasing (8 measure sections with 2 measure phrases) most of the time.
The harmony of the song makes use of function-wise simple chords: five of the six basic chords (no iii) plus two borrowed chords in the Chorus (iv and bVII). The often scalar descending bassline puts many chords into inversion, a classic Queen trademark. The verses and bridges both are in G Major, the choruses modulate to its dominant.
The rhythm deserves special attention. Unless you don't have a trained sense of rhythm, the 4/4 beat end of the Verses will be problematic to follow, just try it out!


Walktrough
-----------

Verse, interlude
The song starts without intro, with a 1/8 upbeat. All phrases start with an upbeat. The second phrase parallels the first a fourth higher both melodically and chord-wise.

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

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

| C  D -7| G  C   |
| IV V   | I IV   |

| G (C G)| D      |
| I      | V      |


Compared to the loud Chorus the first Verse is seemingly low mixed, partly because it's accompanied only by piano (shades of "...Lover Boy"). Freddie sings with a relatively soft voice here.
The second Verse has richer ensemble: drums, bass, acoustic and eletric guitars (tone setting is similar to "... Seven Days"). Piano is buried, hardly audible.
The interlude follows the chord progression of the Verses. The first half of the section is arranged for acoustic guitars (mostly arpeggios), the second half has harmonized (4 parts) lead guitar with a tone setting similar to what we heard in "... Seven Days".
In the last two phrases of the Verses in the catchy and natural lead melody there is a disorienting rhythm casued by the main accents being displaced. This is a gambit that we have seen earlier (eg in "The Prophet's Song"), but never (?) afterwards. What is this about? For first try to pick up the beat (1-2-3-4...) at "how i LOVED you", or earlier at "glory and your LOVE" (3-4-1-2...). Except the transition to the Bridge it sounds natural, doesn't it? This approach results in metric anomalies with measures in 4/4, 7/8, 4/4, 9/8 (mm. 5-8).
There is another rhythmic interpretation with 4/4 measures throughout, but this approach is very disorienting, just try out!


Bridge
Similarly to the Verses the Bridges are 8 measure long and have square phrasing. The third phrase is musically more or less identical with those of the Verse.

G:
| Am  G  | C      |
| ii  I  | IV     |

| Am  C G| D      |
| ii IV I| V      |

| C  D -7| G  C   |
| IV V   | I  IV  |

| G/B G C| G      |
| I    IV| I      |

The arrangement is joined by doubletracked acoustic guitars and bass guitar. Despite the imported third phrase this time it's easier to stay in 4/4 instead of using 7/8 and 9/8 masures, because the "TILL i die" syllable falls on a strong 4/4 beat (3).
Comaperd to the first Bridge the second one adds drums and piano overdubs, simple vocal harmonies, but drops the acoustic guitar arpeggios.
The third Bridge is represented by only its second half. The acoustic guitars are back, no vocal harmonies.


Chorus
The chorus is the loudest section of the three. The phrasing is square except the second chorus which ends with a deceptive cadence prolonged for an extra beat longer.
All phrases start on the tonic chord the first and the last also close on that. The often step-wise (bot diatonic and chromatic) descending bassline creates many inverted chords. The I > V6/4 > I7  cadence is familiar from "Teo Torriate". The last phrase ends with the modally inflected double-plagal cadence. These chords creat a smooth transition to the Verses (in G Major), where these three chords (C, G, D) will be the basic chords.


D:
| D A/C# | G(9)/B D |
| I V    | IV     I |

| D  E   | A   G  |
| I V/V  | V  IV  |

| D A/C# | D7/C G/B Gm/Bb |
| I  V   | V/IV IV  iv    |  

| D   C  G/B | D      |
| I bVII  IV | I      |



the alternate ending in the second Chorus:

| D  C G/B | Am     | -     |
| I bVII IV|
      G: I | ii     | -     |


The arrangement adds electric guitars along the strummed acoustic guitars, the piano (buried in the mix) cannot be heard. The second half has simple (ie. strictly follow the chords) vocal harmonies. Note Freddie's five-note ornament on the "aLONE" syllable.
The second Verse has more vocal harmonies (still simple), and also background guitar harmonies. The modified ending adds acoustic guitars introducing the instrumental Verse, and also guitar feedback noise (B) can be heard, which is sustained further in the next section.
The third Chorus is reserved for the guitar solo. It drops the lead vocal but keeps the backing vocals. The solo lasts until the last phrase, where the lead vocal returns (overlapped with the lead guitar). The solo is very passionately performed.
This last Chorus closes on the subdominant chord providing tension to resolve for a tag-like repetition of the last two phrases. After this two phrase tag (with slow down), there is an instrumental one phrase "tag" for piano only (reminding to the ending of "No One But You").