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 - "No Synth" era - A Day At The Races: Long Away

Long Away

"Long Away" is a light folk-rock influented song sung by May, the obvious pair-song of 39'. Compared to 39' the song is more repetitive, the guitars are electric twelvestrings, the bassline is melodic. The folk influence is reflected in the dominance of the dominance of simple chords: I, IV, V, vi in the guitarfriendly A-Major key. Beside these we have also some borrowed chords. Both lead vocal and the backing track make heavy use of off-beat rhythms.
The songform is built up from two cycles intervened by a verse-derivant guitar solo section.

Intro, Link
The intro plays the two main guitar hooks that are built into the verses and bridges respectively. The first of these (referred as A-riff) is played by just one guitar the second one joining for only the last chord (shade of 39" outro). The riff itself starts with the famous D/A lick which also incorporates the opening tune of the verse. It's rhythm is heavily infected with off-beat accents.

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

This A-riff has many variants throughout the song, but its first half remains more or less the same.

The second half of the intro exposes the bridge opening riff (referred as B-riff) played twice. It is a combination of pedal point on both bottom and top and a step-wise descending inner line from the 5th degree to the 1st, off-beat most of the time.

/------- 2x--------\
| A sus4 | A 2>1 |
| I | - |

Bass and drums enter for the downbeat.

The first verse is
In the middle of both Verse-Bridge cycle there is a link section. The first of these plays both A and B riff respectively. The A-riff variant:

| A-riff... | D6 | G#halfdim/D|
| | IV | |

The second link plays only the B-riff after a fermata chord and tamburine shake.

Verse
The verse has simple tune. The phrasing is 4+4+4+4+5 AACC'A' where the last melodic phrase overlaps the subsequent link section. The A-phrases are accompanied by the A-riff variants. The C-phrases are characterized by melodic bass line. The section closes with a bVI > bVII > I cadence (see also in Drowse).

| A-riff ... E |
| I... V |

| A-riff |

| D | Bm7 | E sus4 | A sus4 |
| IV | vi | V | I |

| D | Bm7 | E5,7,9 | E(6) |
| IV | vi | V | V |

| A-riff ... | D | Fmaj7 (G5) || A...
| | IV | bVI (bVII)|| I

The second verse starts with only one palm-muted rhythm guitar which directs our attention to the pumping bassline played one octave higher than elsewhere. The third and fourth phrases add backing harmonies, the second half of the third phrase adds a tigth lead vocal harmony while the final words of the fourth phrase are doubletracked.

Bridge
This bridge does not creat harmonic contrast. The phrasing is based on two measure units: 2+2+2+2+2 BBDBE. The lead vocals are harmonized, except the last phrase which is sung by Taylor. Note the second B phrase is harmonized differently from the other two with purely parallel harmonies. In the third and fifth phrase we find again off-beat rhythms in the lead vocal and the accompaniment respectively.

B-riff x 2

| D | - D6 |
| IV | - |

B-riff

The second bridge alters the ending after the third B-riff with a cascading blocks of harmony ("... with My Car", "...Breath Away"). The song closes on the tonic fermata. There is a descending chromatic line from A to E bult in the chord progression of the altered ending.

m.7
| A | - | -maj7 | -7 |
| I | - | - | - |

| D | Dm/F | Asus2...
| IV | iv | I

solo
The solo section is an instrumental verse-variant omitting the last phrase. The first two phrases play only the A-riff with pedal point added on tp to the D/A lick. The A-riff variant in the first phrase:

The second A-riff ends with an off-beat scale fragments

The lead guitar solo itself starts in the third phrase. It has fragmentary structure with some counterpoint, some parallel harmonies built in. The final guitar harmony is a nice example of what they call cluster. Together with the bass and rhythm guitar we can hear the combination of six notes: F# G# A B C# D

| C#, A, G#, F# : cluster chord of harmony guitars
| B : bass
| D : guitar chord

This crazy harmony fades out during the first bars of the final verse.