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
All Dead All Dead
Composer: Brian May
Meter: 4/4, shuffle beat
Key: d-minor, F-Major
Form:
Intro | Verse | Verse | Chorus |
| instr. Verse | Chorus | instr. Bridge I - II (Intro') |
| Verse | Chorus - tag |
"All Dead, All Dead" is Brian May's first piano ballad accompanied and sung by the composer himself. The broken chord style is also used in the left hand piano part which is something Mercury rarely did. The form (AABABCAB) a combination of the ballad and the one-bridge form modells. The harmony uses the relative-key modulation to creat contrast between sections. The pace is slow enough to tempt one to transcribe in 2/4.
The arrangement shows less is more aesthetics. Bass and drums are absent during the verses and the first half of the Chorus. The vocal harmonies (only in the choruses) are changing cycle by cycle (see in many Queen song, eg. "Who Needs You").
Intro
The intro is arranged for solo piano. May originally wanted to sing there with the lyrics "memories, my memories" - included in the album sleve. The intro with it's adlib rhythm, the three octave piano run in measure 2 (with handcross?), dissonant chords show some jazzy influences (shades of My "Melancholy Blues").
F:
| Fmaj7 | Bb | F |
| I | IV | I |
| Bb F | C C Bb Db |
| Bb 2>3 | F Am Gm * | * = Db-F-G
| IV I | I iii ii *
Verse
The four measure verses have AA'BC phrasing with 1 measure phrases (two if we chose 2/4 meter) with upbeat. The harmony features C# (3rd of A - a leading tone to D) while the lead vocal's tune features both C# and C-natural (the minor 7th of the current d-minor key). The section shows a closed harmonic shape:
d:
| Dm A Dm |
| i V i |
| Dm A Dm |
| i V i |
| Dm C F |
| i VII III |
| Gm A Dm |
| iv V i |
There is an instrumental Verse for solo piano. The original accompaniment with microscopic changes is played one octave higher.
The last Verse has melancholic partly ad-lib slow tempo, both phrases 1 and 2 close with "heavy" bass note, the third phrase closes with a nice momentary release of the sustain pedal. The last phrase with double tracked vocals.
Chorus
The backbone of the harmony is the predominantly scalar bassline creating lots of (first) inversions.
The phrasing is ABCABDEFE 1+1+2+1+1+2+1+1+1 with a not resolved ending on subdodominant. The last chorus closes the harmony with ...EFEF phrasing and plagal cadence (i.e. IV > I) resolution.
F:
E F|| G A F | : bassline
C F|| Gm F |
V I|| ii I |
| Bb C F |
| IV V I |
| F E D C | Bb C D E F | G A F | : bassline
| F C Dm - | Bb C F | Gm F |
| I V vi | IV V I
| Bb C F |
| IV V I |
| C C# D... : tune
| F A Dm Am/C | Bb |
| I V/vi vi iii | IV |
| F |
| I |
| Bb/F |
| IV |
The first phrase is arranged for solo piano and vocal harmonies. Bass and drums held back until m.4. except in the last chorus which start with heavy punctuation supported by John and Roger. The vocal harmonies include some low F notes.
The tune of the title phrases makes use of ragtime-esque syncoption in contrast with the bassline walking in straight steps. This effect is held back until the bass:
m.4
1 .2 .3 .4 .1 .2 .3 .4 .1 .2 .3 .4 .1
* * * * * * * * * * **** : bass
* * * * : lead vocal
Instrumental Bridge I-II:
This 9 measure instrumental interlude can be divided two subsection, the first of which is dominated by piano pedal bass combined with parallel third motions. The multitrack guitars combine the pedal point with fade in sawtooth shaped figure faded in.
d:
| Dm |
| i |
| A | - | - | Dm F |
| V | - | - | i III|
F: vi I |
The second subsection is a variant of the last measures of the intro hence the return of the F-Major key. The arrangement dominated by guitar harmonies including some varispeed tracks, the piano is softly mixed.
m6.
| Bb |
| IV |
| F |
| I |
| G - - A Bb - | : inner voice
| Bb A G F D C | : inner voice
| D - - E F G | : inner voice
| Bb... | F Am Gm A+,7 | : chords
| IV | I iii ii V |
The two lower guitar counterparts are crossing eachother on at the 3rd beat in m.8. (note the F vs. E incidence). Brian in his interview told he liked this kind of harmonies better like the parallel ones in Dancer.