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

Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon

Composer: Freddie Mercury
Album: A Night At The Opera, 2nd track
Meter: 4/4, shuffle beat (except slow down section)
Keys: Eb Major, g minor, A Major
Form:

 Intro | Verse I  | Bridge (with slow down in the middle) | Solo (Verse') |

second half of Verse = second half of Bridge



This happy little track is in sharp contrast with the vicious preceding track (ie. "Death On Two Legs"). This dramatic change of style is a recurring element in more songs on the album. Stylistically this song is one of those four-five vaudevillian/musichall influented Mercury compositions in the pre-News period.
The body of the song consists of Verse-Bridge couplet. They is preceded by and intro and followed by a guitar solo that also serves as outro. The phrasing is four-squared througout except the tag-ending of the sung section.
The song is in Eb Major, the Solo is a tritone interval lower (A Major), which is a rarely used leap for key shifts. It gives a the song a lift the same effectively as if a ususal whole step or half step up was used. Try it out!
The middle of the song is in g minor. Partly these distant keys are responsible for the sum of no less than 19 chords (not counting different inversions and sevenths) in this one-minute track: Ab, A, Bb, Bbm, Bbaug, Bm, C, Cm, C#m, D, Dm, Eb, E, Em, Eaug, F, Fm, F#, Gm. Note the lack of chain of fifths.
The slowdown middle section (a musichall-related gambit, see also in "Good Company" and "... Leroy Brown") combined with compressed vocals is probably a Beatles influence ("Honey Pie").


Walkthrough
-----------

Intro
This four measure, two phrase section with its happy arpeggiated chords and altenating octave bass sounds like a playfull children song. The last piano run features a chromatic scale fragment. Only piano is played.

Eb:
| Eb   | -  Bb |
| I    | -  V  |

| Bb   | -  Eb |
| V    | -  I  |



Verse I
Square phrasing here: 2+2+2+2. The chord progression makes useof the six diatonic chords, plus some chromatic chords.

Eb:
| Eb Bbaug/Eb| Eb       |
| I  "V"     | I        |

| Eb Bbaug/Eb| Bbm/Db C7 |
| I     chromatic    V/ii|

| Fm   Eb    | Gm   Cm  |
| ii   I     | iii  vi  |

| Ab   Bb7   | Eb       |
| IV    V    | I        |

Note the 2+2+2 arpeggio pattern (in context of the 2+1+2+1 pulsing of the underlying shuffle beat) in the piano figure in measure 2. The third phrase features a double line cliche, similar to what is used in the opening of "Bicycle Race":

lead vocal : ....  G  G
inner voice: G  Gb F  E
inner voice: Eb D  Db C
inner voice: Bb Bb Bb Bb
       bass: Eb Eb Db C

The backing tracks have piano and bass and drums, no overdubes.  


Bridge
This section modulates abruptly to g minor which isthe relative minor key of Bb, which is the neighbour key (V) of Eb Major where we modualte back to in the fourth phrase. The middle two off the six two-measured phrases have slowed down ad-lib non-shuffle beat.

g:
| D     | Gm    |
| V     | i     |

  D   Db   C  <-- bass
| D   A7 | F7   |
| V   V/V| VII  |

slow down:
| Gm  Dm  | Eb/G  D/Gb |
| i   v   |  VI   V    |

| Eb/G Bb7/F | C (5+ > 5) |
g:  VI...  
Eb: I    IV  | V/ii       |

back to tempo:
| Fm   Eb   | Gm   Cm  |
| ii   I    | iii  vi  |

  Ab   Bb     C   D     Eb  F    E  <-- bass
| Ab   Bb7  | Ab  Bb7 | Ab Bb7 | Eb      |
| IV    V   | -       | -      | I       |


Overdubs: bicycle rings (echoing the lead vocal in measure 2), tight harmonies in phrase 2 and 4.
Roger plays only on cymbals in the slow-down sub-section. The last two phrases are identical with those of the Verse, except the triple-tag ending with that happy scalar ascending bassline creating some inverted chords.


Solo
Harmony-wise this section is key-shifted version of the Verse. The lead guitar plays a close variant of original lead vocal's melody. Here the lead guitar is three part harmonized except the third phrase.

A:
| A  Eaug/A | A        |
| I  "V"    | I        |

| A  Eaug/A | Em/Db F#7 |
| I    chromatic    V/ii|

| Bm   A   | C#m  F#m  |
| ii   I   | iii   vi  |

| D   E    | A       |
| IV  V    | I       |