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
Sweet Lady
Composer: Brian May
Meter: 3/4, 4/4 (Bridge)
Key: E-Major
Form:
Intro (AAAA)| Verse | A | Chorus |
| Verse | Chorus |
| AA | Bridge | BB | Chorus | Solo (chorus) - Outro solo |
"Sweet Lady" is arrangements-wise the only true hard rock number on the album. For this reason its presence is very important since Queen was supposedly a hard rock band. Still it gets often criticized by the lyrics especially the "...cheese" line. Music-wise there's nothing to be criticized.
The form simplified written is I-ABABCB(B)-O. Many section transitions are executed through instrumental connectors in a relatively irregualar way.
The key is the guitarfriendly E-Major without any hint of modulation. The harmony uses relatively few - six chords: I, IV, V, vi, bVI and bVII.
Intro
The instrumental 16 measure intro consists of four variant phrases each using the double-plagal cadence. We have three rhythm guitars in the mix, one of which is joining in m.4. along with the bass and drums. The proper back-beat of the song establishes for the fourth phrase.
| E (sus4) | D(sus4) | A(sus4) | E1... |
| I | bVII | IV | 1st |
| E (sus4) | D(sus4) | A(sus4) | E1... |
| I | bVII | IV | 1st |
| E (sus4) | D(sus4) | A(sus4) | E |
| I | bVII | IV | 1st |
| E (sus4) | D(sus4) | A(sus4) | E |
| I | bVII | IV | 1st |
Verse
The 20 measure Verse has some phrases of uneven length: 4+4+3+5+3 AA'A"BC where A" is the ending of the A'. Note the last four measure is backed with the main-hook guitar riff but this time the lead vocal phrases don't follow it slavishly.
/------------ 2x---------------\
| E | A | B A | E |
| I | IV | V IV | I |
| A | B A | E |
| IV | V IV | I |
| B | - | C#m | A | E |
| V | - | vi | IV | I |
| D(sus4) | A(sus4) | E |
| bVII | IV | I |
The last instrumental connector in contrast with the previous ones can be derived from the verse's harmony between m.5-12. The two phrases are overlapped resulting in uneven (7) phrase length.
| E | A | B A |
| I | IV | V IV |
| E | A | B A | A |
| I | IV | V IV | IV |
Chorus
The chorus is 10 measure long and has four phrases: 2+2+2+4, AAAB. The arrangement is added multitrack guitar harmonies with many chromatic motions. The rhythm guitars play mostly pentatonic figures.
/----- 3x-----\
| E7 | A |
| I | IV |
| C | A | E | - |
| bVI | IV | I | - |
The lead melody is antiphonal arranged between solo and harmony vocals. In the last chorus most of the solo vocals are omiitted.
Bridge
This bridge is a relatively usual "middle-eight", except it changes the meter to 4/4. The latter helps to create the bridge-esque contrast with the rest of the song along with the harmony that is open at both end. The 3/4 meter returns for the last measure.
| B | D A | E | - |
| V |bVII IV | I | - |
3/4
| B | C#m D | A D/A | - |
| V | vi bVII| IV bVII| - |
The phrases start with harmonized vocals, and the section closes with in a very Queen-esque bent vocal harmony.
Outro
The outro starts as an instrumental chorus. The backbeat is gradually turning to a proto-punk double-time feel. The rythm guitar departures from the original riff from the third phrase on.
/---- 3x ----\
| E7 | A |
| I | IV |
| C | A | E | A |
| bVI | IV | I | IV |
After the instrumental chorus harmony-wise we have yet another chorus, but this time without the guitar harmonies. The rhythm guitars change to bluesy 5-6-7-6 figures, bass switches to boogee-woogee mode until the end of the song.
/---- 3x ----\
| E7 | A |
| I | IV |
| C | A |
| bVI | IV |
From here on the harmony is vamping between the tonic and subdominant chords fading gradually out.
/---- 16x ----\
| E | A |
| I | IV |
Beside the lead guitar there are some additional guitars playing repetitive chromatic and triadic (these ones in triplets) and pentatonic motifs.