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

The Loser In The End

Title: Loser In The End
Composer: Roger Taylor
Album: Queen II, 5t track
Meter: 4/4
Key: A Major with bluesy inflection, D Major
Form:

      | Intro | Verse - Chorus |
              | Verse - Chorus | Solo 1 |
     | Bridge | Verse'- Chorus | Solo 2 - Outro |


This is the most simple song of the album: only four chords, more ore less square phrasing throughout. In spite it's easy to play, they have never performed it live. Thematically it does not fits the album very well, and this must be behind many critics the song gets. What can we do, Roger was not keen on the fairy tale imagery. In spite of this, the song is quite listenable and musically no worse (and not better) than most glam rock tracks of that era.
 The verse-riff (shades "Children Of The Revolution" by T-Rex, and "Sparks" by The Who) and the arrangement with its vibrating chorus-effect used on the guitar are primarly responsible for the song's glam-rock feeling. In fact the guitar does not sound very close to the classic Red Special tone at all.
The songform is the one bridge modell with solo sections added with different chord progression from the vocal sections. The only twist in the songform is that the last Verse is shortened.


Intro
It is "square" eight measure long slow drum solo. The accents of the drumline challenges ones feel of the downbeats. On the other hand Roger also helps the listener to pick up the lost downbeats again.
The drumkit is added cowbells (E and D#). Note the echo-imitation in measure 1.


Verse  
It is square 12 measure long. The phrasing is AAA (or AA'A").


/------- 3x --------\
| A5 | -  | -  | -  |
| I  | -  | -  | -  |

The lead vocal is pentatonic, the rhythm is syncopated, heavily dotted, moreover also heavily reverbed. The backing track consists of a pair of doubletracked rhythm guitar both eletric and acoustic, moreover bass and drums. At the end of the first and third Verse appaers the cowbell motif we heard in the Intro.
The verses are added lead guitar fills, the first Verse hardly, later Verses more.
Second Verse slightly varies the lead melody. Note the cowbell motif this time appears in the second phrase and only there. Interestingly not just the position is inverted compared to what it was in the first Verse, but also the figure is inverted.  
The last Verse is reduced to only one phrase. It has the cowbell motif again, and also does the last chorus that follows it.

Chorus
The choruses are not separated sharply from the Verses. The section is square 16 measures long with even harmonic rhythm. The verse-riff and it's shifted variants are carried further by the bass, rhythm guitar joins in for the last phrase, where also two part harmonies are added (by Roger).


| D  | -  | -  | -  |
| V  | -  | -  | -  |

| A  | -  | -  | -  |
| I  | -  | -  | -  |

| G  | -  | -  | -  |
|bVII| -  | -  | -  |

| A  | -  | -  | -  |
| I  | -  | -  | -  |


The rhythm guitar's tone (left side) gets effected. The lead guitar (left channel) keeps plaing short fills usually when the melodic phrases stop.
Second Chorus adds extra falsetto "Whoo" vocals and a short lead vocal bit in the last phrase.
Third Chorus adds second harmony to that extra "whoo".

Solo
The backing track repeats a two measure riff four times, the last time the closing chord is left ring throughout for an extra four measure filled with some drum (mostly toms) figures. The tad Hendrix-esque guitar solo is added some bent notes, left hand vibratos and "coin" harmonics, melodically it's just a pretty usual pentatonic rock guitar solo.

/--- 4x ---\
| A5 | - G5|___|(G5) - | -  | -  | -  |
| I  | bVII|...



Bridge
I don't know how conscious it was, but Roger applied the classic Bridge-gambit: steering away from the home-key (to D-Major). Also the change of harmonic rhythm makes contrast.

D:
| D  | G  | D  | G  |
| I  | V  | I  | V  |

| D  | G  | C  | A  |
| I  | V  |bVII| IV |

| D  | G  | C  | D  | -  |
| I  | V  |bVII| I  | -  |
             A:| IV | -  |

The lead melody moves in a tight range of three notes most of the time. Note the tune is not inflected modally thus the bVII chord is sounds more "special" especially in the context of the G > C > A > D progression with the built in chromatic line: B> C > C# > D. Similar progression in reversed form (V > bVII > I) we can hear in Modern Times RnR.
The phrasing of the lead melody is A A" A B A' C (two measure melodic phrases).
The last phrase is added and extra let-ring-throughout measure filled with drum figures similar to what closed the solo section, but shorter.
Considering the first two phrases are opened with tonic and closed with non-tonic chords the last phrase also sounds very open, and "provokes" the modulation/resolution back to A.

Solo 2 - Outro
The harmonic backing is very simple, a four measure figure of two chords is repeated about 10 times while it fades out slowly.

/------- 10x -------\
| A5 | -  | G5 | -  |
| I  | -  |bVII| -  |

The drum part gets more busy as the end closes. John Deacon shows how to keep the bassline interesting (both melodically and rhythmically) in a however repetitive context. Brian's guitar solo with that razor-sharp tone is played in the same style as Solo 1 and all the lead guitar fills in the song. The most interesting part is the fifth circle where Brian May makes his guitar "cry".