Guitarist reflects on the band’s willingness to make songs with great variations and how this characteristic became something natural
The music “Bohemian Rhapsody”present on the classic album A Night at the Opera (1975), is commonly cited as the inventive and artistic apex of queen. The tempo changes, the dramatic vocals of Freddie Mercury and the operatic part in the middle are some of the elements that support this thesis.
For the guitarist Brian MayHowever, the song was a natural continuation of what the English band had already been doing in specific compositions on previous albums. He recognizes the greatness of “Bohemian Rhapsody”of course, but consider that this is not something done overnight in a creative burst.
To justify his point of view, Brian cites two other songs from before “Bohemian Rhapsody”. They are: “My Fairy King”from the debut album, and “The March of the Black Queen”from Queen II (1974).
In the new edition of the magazine Classic Rockin celebration of 50 years of A Night at the Operathe guitarist reflects on this:
“People have a hard time understanding how natural’Bohemian Rhapsody‘ was for us. If you look at the first album you will see ‘My Fairy King’which is very complex and varies a lot.”
Then, May chooses what she considers to be an even more intricate song than “Bohemian Rhapsody”:
“And then we have’The March of the Black Queen’ on the second album, which is extremely complex. It’s much more complex than ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”
The guitarist of queen finishes:
“So it wasn’t a big surprise to us. It was just, ‘Let’s do one more of these things.'”
Freddie Mercury on Queen’s complex music
At the time of launch, Mercury also highlighted the complexity of “March Of The Black Queen”. During a 1974 interview with Melody Maker (via Queen Net), the singer stated:
“’The March of the Black Queen’? I needed centuries of work.”
He added:
“It took me forever to finish this song. I wanted to give it my all, be self-indulgent or something.”
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Brian May
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Freddie Mercury
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queen
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
