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 - Jazz: Let Me Entertain You

Let Me Entertain You

Composer: Freddie Mercury
Meter: 4/4 shuffle beat, 3/4 (intro, outro)
Key: e-minor, b-minor, f#-minor pentatonic
Form:

    | Intro I-II-III | Verse | Chorus || Bridge I-II |
                     | Verse'| Chorus | Solo | Bridge II' |
                     | Verse"| Outro

"Let Me Entertain You" a driving hard rock number, the last one from Mercury until "Princes...". Instead of triadic chords we mostly have just riffs and powercords which suggests the song was written probably on guitar.
The songform shows cyclic design, with the usual changes. The third cycle is restricted to a single verse plus outro.
The song starts and closes in 3/4 while the body of the song is transcribed in 4/4 with shuffle beat. The shuffle pulse is not very convincing though due to the heavy use of full shuffle-triplets and triplets (hemiolas) and some phrase fragments in the first verse starting on the weak second eigth.

Intro
The intro has three subsections. What meter is the intro I-II in? Easy question: 3/4 throughout:

1 2 3 1 2 3...
* *   * *

You will be surprised that this SAME drum-pattern in the chorus will fit in straight 4/4 with the double beats kept starting on strong (1st and 3rd) beats! Impossible? Before you go to the chorus section think about it how would you solve this "problem"! You can test your friends as well.
The first subsection is eight measure long and charatcerized by double-beat pulses. A single bass slide and a brief guitar feedback dyad (A, G) is dropped in.

/------------ 2x -----------\
| E1(7)| -    | -    | -    |

The second subsection adds pentatonic guitar riffs with repeated one-measure fragments until m.16. The riffs are distant variants of the verse riffs.

m.9                                                4/4
| E5*  | -    | -    | -    | -    | -    | -    | G1   |

The last four bar subsection of the intro exposes the verse-riff.

Verse
The ten measure verse is built up of five two measure phrases creating three subsections the second of which is mainly a transposed up variant of the first. Both subsection are pentatonic the combination of the three uses the full e minor pitch-set.

The 2nd Verse is transposed down by a fourth except the closing title phrase. This is relatively hard to notice without knowing about it. The m.4 is turned to instrumental.

 b:
| B5    | B5  B5   |
| i     | -   III  |

| B5    | B1... D1 |
| i     | 1st  3rd |

| E5    | E5  G5   |
b: iv   | iv  VI   |
e: i    | -   III  |

| E5    | E1... G1 |
b: iV   | 4th...6th|
e: i    | 1st  3rd |

|  B1... G1 | B5    |
e: 5th...3rd| V     |

The low D note (!) in m.4 is probably achived by pushing the tremolo bar.

The third verse is harmony-wise a variant of the first one  but it closes with a triple-tag ending. Note the repeated tags start before the downbeat in sontrast with the first (m9). Two phrase fragments (m.4, m7) are sung semi-spoken.

Chorus
We have two seven measure choruses. The arrangement is economic in terms of harmony: single E notes in the first phrases the fifths are added by the lead vocal. The last phrase has pentatonic lead vocal doubled by the guitars.

/---- 2x ----\
| E5   | -   |

| E5   | E1...| B1   |

And now the solution of the rhythmial quiz of the Intro:

1 .2 .3 .4 .1 .2 .3 .4 .1
* *   * *   * *        -   : bass and drums
   * *   * *   * *         : vocals

Once you know it's in shuffle-beat, it's easy to learn.

Bridge
The section consists of two subsections that are preceded introduced by an "exposition" phrase:

| B5  | B1   |
| V   |      |

The body of the first subsection is eighth measure long of mostly spoken phrases with a touch of drunken feel. The accompaniment is narrowed down to drums and some ocassional bass notes. The last measure leads to the next subsection with a pentatonic figure.
The drums alter the backing beat to be dominated by hemiolas (2+2+2+2+2+2 pattern)

 |      | B1   |

|      | B1   |

| B1   | B1   |      | E1... |

The second subsection has the reachest harmony of all sections due to the three part harmonies. The tonal center is
ambiguos (a minor or e-minor), due to the absence of Am and Em chord in the neighbour subsections.

 | Am   | -    |

| Am   | -    |

| Am   | -    |

| G1   | F#1  | F#1  |

In the second cycle the bridge starts with the II subsection. May adds a triadic figure with guitar feedback in m.2 turning the chord to A7. The subsection changes more radically from the third phrase on. Retrospectively seen (from the next verse in e-minor) its functional analysis goes like this:

m.5
|  Am   | G    | F#5  | B   | -   |
e: iv   | III  | V/V  | V   | -   |

Note the  use of triplets (hemiolas) in m7.

Solo
The eith measure solo prolonges F# note throughout while the lead guitar plays pentatonic figures around it. The last measures are played with doublestops.

Outro
The outro reprises the 3/4 double beat of the intro. From m.3 starts a collage of chats-fragments fading out.