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
My Melancholy Blues
Composer: Freddie Mercury
Album: News Of The World (1977)
Meter: 2/4, shuffle beat (except intro)
Key: Eb-Major
Form:
| Intro I - II | A | A'-ext. |
| B | Solo |
| B | Solo (fade out)
Second half of Solo = instrumental last two phrases of the "A'-extension" section.
BBC-version:
| Intro II | A | A'-ext. |
| B | Solo |
| B | Intro I |
This song was influenced rather by piano accompanied jazz standards than by blues songs. Blues influence is the "my baby left me" lyrics. The shuffle beat with 2/4 meter (the only Queen song in 2/4) could be influenced by both genre. While on the surface it sounds like a jazz standard type of song (foreshadowing the "Jazz" album?), the form is unusually novel for the genre which is dominated by AABA form. The chord progression makes spare use of the typical jazz dissonances (such as M9, m11, m9, m13, Mb13) but heavy use of diminished 7th chords, chromatic inner lines and bass lines. In this point of view "You Take My Breath Away" is a close forerunner. Stylistically the closest forerunner of Mercury's melancholy blues was the slow middle break of "... Leroy Brown" three years before.
The arrangement is economic (piano, brush played drums, bass) demonstrating the minimalistic trends of the post-Races period. The BBC version also features "jazz" guitar fills (another nice example of May's versatility - check out that clarinet-mimicking fill in the solo).
The chromatic piano fills between the chords are also jazz influences. The use of the dominant and the non-inverted tonic chord is restricted to the beginning/end of the sections. Note the major-to-minor chord changes in descending chromatic context: I > i, IV > iv, V > v. The second one is familiar in contrast with the other two (here in second inversion). The homekey is Eb Major, one of those piano-friendly keys.
The form cannot really be interpreted as a sequence of textbook sections (ie: Verse, Chorus, Bridge). Some features:
- The title phrase closes the B section.
- The A-B transition is so smooth that it doesn't sound like a real section transition (note: no tonic is used there).
- long non-repetitive sections.
- Except three (2+1) Mercury-esque "import" phrases there is no "crosstalk" between the two halves of the song.
- the BBC version starts with Intro II and closes with the Intro I' figure.
Intro I-II
The intro consists of two subsections, first of which is instrumental. The intro is performed ad-libitum with free-phrasing, it's hard to point out where the measures start.
Intro I:
It consists of two phrases:
| Eb5,7, Eb |
| I |
| ... Eb |
| I |
We have here mostly pentatonic figures with trills and heavy use of sustain pedal.
Intro II
Following a two-beat "harmonic upbeat" the lead vocal enters after the downbeat. The music is still ad-libitum, but the measures can be outlined:
... Eb Bb || Cm | - | Gm | - |
... I V || vi | - | iii | - |
| D/F# | Fm6no5 | Gdim7 | Ghalfdim |
| V/iii| ii | iiidim | - |
| Fm | - | Abm | - |
| ii | - | iv | - |
| Eb/G | Ebm/Gb |Bb7sus4/F| Bb1 |
| I | i | "ii" | V |
Some harmony-related points of interest:
A jazzy dim7 > halfdim chord change in m.7-8.
Chromatic descending bassline in m.13-15
Double pedal notes on top (E-flat, Ab-flat) in m.13-15.
Chromatic borrowed chords: i, iv.
Measure 14 features an octave jump up and back (shades of the "Leroy Brown" bridge). Octave jumps also appear in the piano accompaniment.
Fermata ending in m.16. on the dominant chord resolved for the downbeat of the next section.
"A" - "So come and..."
Shuffle beat mode on, drums and bass and (guitar in the BBC version) enter.
| Eb | - | G | 7 |
| I | - | V/vi| - |
| Ab(6)| Abm | Eb6/G| Gbdim7 |
| IV | iv | I | biiidim|
1st ending:
| Fm7 | - |Ddim7 | - |
| ii | |"V" | - |
2nd ending + extension:
| Fm7 | - |Gbdim7 | - |
| ii | |biiidim| - |
| Eb/G | Edim7 | Fm | -7 |
| I | biidim| ii | - |
Both I > III > IV and IV > iv are jazz-favoured cliches.
Chromatic lines: m.9-13, m.13-15, m.15-16.
I/3 > biiidim > ii7 progression also used in "You Take My Breath Away".
No dominant chord used here except a surrogate dominant Ddim7 in m.11. That Ddim7 chord is added a blue Gb in the lead vocal.
"B" - "I'm causing..."
the first phrase is a close variant of the third phrase of Intro II. (where we have Fm instead of Ab - its relative minor chord). Last phrase is the title phrase with step wise ascending bassline (2,b3,4,5).
| Ab | - | Abm | - |
| IV | - | iv | - |
/--- 2x ----\
| Gm7 | Cm |
| iii | vi |
| Fm7 | - | Gbdim7 | - |
| ii | - | iiidim | |
| Fm7 Gbdim | Abm7 Bb7| Eb | - |
| ii iiidim| iv V | I | - |
Solo:
Mercury rarely used the piano as solo lead instrument. In spite the built in melodic line this section is not a perfect example for a piano solo as in the BBC version it serves as mere backing for the guitar solo.
| Eb | Bb/D | Bbm/Db | C |
| I | V | v | V/ii |
| Ab | Abm | Eb/G |Gbdim7|
| IV | iv | I |iiidim|
| Fm7 | - | Gbdim7 | - |
| ii | - | iiidim | - |
| Eb/G | Edim7| Fm | -7 |
| I |biidim| ii | - |
Among the chromatic lines we have cromatic bass progression in m.1-4, m.7-13.
Last phrase is identical with the last phrase of the A'-ext section providing a smooth transition to section B.