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
Somebody To Love
Composer: Freddie Mercury
Meter: 3/4
Key: Ab-Major
Form:
Intro I-II | Verse / Chorus ||
| Verse'/ Chorus'| Bridge |
Solo (Verse)/ Chorus"|
| Verse | Vocal Break (AAAAAAAA'AABBB'...Intro I') | Coda (CCCCCCC-) / outro |
"Somebody To Love" was the leading single of the "...Races" album and as such it is an obvious target of comparison with "Bohemian Rhapsody". "Somebody..." is one minute shorter, has a more simple cyclic design til the gospel break. This gospel break sounds just as big as the opera choir in "...Rhapsody", but its more simple in terms of functional harmony and rhythm. The Bridge has ambigous harmony, but the rest of the song uses mostly basic chords: Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, Fm. The key is Ab-Major (four flats) which is a rare occassion of Mercury playing beyond Eb-Major (three flats).
The arrangement of the song is mainly the basic piano-ballad enseble with spare use of guitar and rich use of vocal harmonies, many antiphonal ones among them.
The gospel influence is not without precedent in pop music (eg. songs from the "Hair" musical), Brian May in an interview suggested the influence of Aretha Franklin.
Intro I
The song starts with an almost acapella intro (with soft piano backing) with five phrases of irregular length (roughly transcribed: 5/4 > 10/4 > 8/4 > 6/4 > ? ).
Both first and last phrase has merely one syllable each. A variant of this section will be shown up in the end of the gospel section, that is also a variant of the end chorus.
| Ab1 |
| Ab Gdim Fm7 Dbmaj7,13 |
| Eb4,7* |
| Db Ab/C Eb7 |
| Ab1 |
In the live version this acapella section was substituted by a piano + solo vocal intro. In 1981 (Velez') the intro followed this chord progression:
| Ab - G | Ab Bb7/Ab Ghalfdim7 Db Eb Ab |
| I VII | I V/V biidim IV V I |
Intro II
The second part of the intro is played on piano, drums and bass enter for the upbeat before m7.
upbeat | Ab | Eb/G | Fm | - | Db | - | Eb | - |
While the piano line instantly establishes the 3/4 meter, from m3 on we have a chain of disorienting hemiolas (2+2+2+2 groupings of chord-bass-chord-bass playing style).
Verse
The 24 measure Verse has six four measure phrases. The harmony is simple, it features the I > V6/3 > vi cliche. The third phrase is harmony-wiise same as the first.
| Ab | Eb7/G | Fm7 | - |
| I | V6/3 | vi | - |
| Ab | Bb7 | Eb | - |
| I | V/V | V | - |
| Ab | Eb7/G | Fm7 | - |
| I | V6/3 | vi | - |
| Bb7 | - | Eb | - |
| V/V | - | V | - |
| Ab | Bb7 | Eb | - |
| I | V/V | V | - |
| Eb | Bb7/D | Eb | Db |
| V | V/V | V | IV |
The section features many vocal harmonies both antiphonal and lead-harmonizing ones.
The second Verse is completely alters the first three melodic phrases and also the related vocal harmonies.
The third verse is for the melodic guitar solo with often flexible rhythmical phrasing.
The last verse is a closer variant of the fist one. The antiphonal vocal harmonies are completly changed.
Chorus
The 10 measure chorus is not sharply separated from the verse except the phrase lengths are not four measured anymore.
| Ab | - |
| I | - |
| Ab | - |
| I | - |
| Ab | Eb7/G | Fm7 | Dbmaj7,9 | Eb7 | - |
| I | V6/3 | vi | IV | V | - |
The last syllable of the last vocal phrase falls on the downbeat of the next connector subsection. In the first and third cycle this connector follows mainly the same chord progrsession as the previous vocal phrase.
| Ab | - | Ab/G | - | Ab/F | - |
| I | - |"V6/3"| - | "vi" | - |
| Db | - | Eb | - |
| IV | - | V | - |
In the second cycle right before the bridge we have rather an extension of the chorus than a connector subsection.
It prolonges one chord with melodic bassline while Mercury prolonges a single syllable throughout.
| Ab | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
The 2+2+2 hemiola motif appears again in the last measures.
Bridge
The bridge has not clear tonal center due to lots of leaps of fifths (Ab > Db > Gb, Bb > Eb > Ab ), thus no roman numerals here. The two blocks of chain of fifths is connected with a parallel and relative chord change respectively.
| Db | - |
| Db | - |
| Db7 | - | - | - |
| Gb | - | - | - |
| Gbm | - | - | - |
| Bb7 | - | - | - |
| Bb7 | - | - | - |
| Eb | - |
| Ab/Eb| - | - | - |
The first half of section uses this simple rhythmical motif thoughout reinforced by guitar chords as well:
1 2 3 1 2 3
* * * *
"Gospel" Vocal Break
The first subsection of the vocal break uses the concept of repeating a melodic phrase with always thickening arrangement. Phrase by phrase:
1st phrase: the main tune for bass voices.
2nd phrase: octave harmony added and also drums with slow gradual cresendo throughout the subsection.
3rd phrase: fifth and thirds
4th phrase: soprano octaves added
5th phrase: soprano thirds with different punctuation also handclaps and bass fade in.
8th phrase: phrase extension with oscillating last syllable
9th phrase: extra high notes on "...love".
From the 11th phrase it really sounds like a big gospel choir
/----- 2x ----\
| Ab1 | Ab |
| 1st | I |
9>8
| Ab1 | Db/Ab 6>5 |
| 1st | IV |
| Ab | - | - | - |
| I | - | - | - |
| Ab | Gdim | Fm7 | Dbmaj7,9 | /Eb ...
| I |"V6/3"| vi | IV | "V"
This phrase is a variant of the opening phrase of the song (or vica versa).
The last phrase is for solo vocal. The last syllable is 11-note pentatonic melisma. Noteworthy how accurately the crowd was able to sing it on the tribute concert.
Coda
The coda sings the same eight measure phrase seven times with Mercury singing along semi-improvised vocals. The chord progression is mainly the same as the connector after the (first) chorus, only the harmonic rhythm is faster for the last two chords. The vocal harmony is tightly arranged.
Outro
The short outro is an extension of the ending phrase of the coda. It starts with a slow down. Piano plays some trills and ad-lib figures. The song closes with a staccato chord on the tonic.