Queen Rock of the Ages

Members of the Band Freddie Mercury –Lead vocals, piano Brian May –Guitar, vocals John Deacon –Bass Guitar Roger Taylor –Drums, vocals

Origins Despite their huge success in the US, the members of Queen formed their band in London. Brian May and Roger Taylor had been playing together when they met Freddie Mercury, who was still going by his birth name Freddie Bulsara. He joined their band and changed the name from Smile to Queen in It was 3 years before John Deacon joined the band, he was chosen prior to their first album release.

UK to International The band was received fairly well in the UK. A year after their initial album debut they reached new levels of success. Sheer Heart Attack was the album that took them to international success. Yet, the release of Night at the Opera firmly cemented them as an iconic international rock band.

The End of an Era After nearly 2 decades of playing together, and selling out Rock Stadiums worldwide, Queen’s era came to a close with the death of Freddie Mercury in Mercury died from a complication of AIDs. The band continued to play despite Mercury’s absence but the loss was felt and Deacon retired. You can occasionally still find May and Taylor playing together.

Bohemian Rhapsody Arguably the band’s most notable and famous hit, yet, it didn’t place higher then number 9 in American charts. It was written and composed by Freddie Mercury and kept the instrumental accompaniment minimal. Play-BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

Bohemian Rhapsody 0:00 Introduction Soft vocals sung accopella introduce us to the song. 0:48 Mama, just killed a man…. This is the line that tells us what exactly the song is about. We listen to the story and verse with added instruments. 1:48 Second verse begins with a short musical interlude. 3:02 This is where are operatic begins. Freddie Mercury shows his love of opera in this song and the rest of the album. 4:55 Interlude, the song becomes soft again, similar to how we started. 5:12 Finish, ties the emotion of what the singer is portraying…nothing really matters….

Somebody to Love You could say that some of the songs from Queen have become more recognizable long after their debut, thanks to films and the media. Sometimes the songs are left unaltered and used in the film, other times, as in the case of Ella Enchanted, they are covered by the people in the movie. Play-Somebody to Love

Somebody to Love 0:00 In a similar fashion to Bohemian Rhapsody, the song starts off accopella with the group harmonizing. 0:25 The first verse begins after a musical interlude played on the piano. It sets the tone as softer piece. 0:56 At this point we enter back into accompaniment. This was common of Queen to incorporate instrumentals throughout their music. 2:03 After listening to a verse with more speed and enthusiasm we hit a guitar solo.

Somebody to Love 2:28 With Freddie Mercury as lead vocalist the band backs him up in a great harmony. 3:02 After hitting the climax in the second minute the third minute enters with the band chanting in a low bass, gradually raising their pitch. 3:48 Freddie enters in with a high falsetto, repeating the phrase but ending in true rocker raspy voice. 4:36 Piano enters in with a repetitive tapping as the band continues chanting at an increasing pitch until the end of the song.

We Will Rock You If you feel you haven’t heard this song before, I challenge you to listen just to the underlying rhythm and think about all the places this is used. The stomp-stomp-clap is an iconic rhythm in our present day music. Not unlike ‘Somebody to Love’, ‘We Will Rock You’ is used in films, commercials, and many spoof videos. A quick youtube search will bring in DOZENS of people using it in some variation. Including this popular Minecraft parody. Play-We Will Rock You

We Will Rock You 0:00 The song starts with the stomp-stomp-clap rhythm. Its repeated throughout the song. 0:12 Mercury introduces the first line solo and to just the rhythm. 0:23 Band comes in to repeat the “We Will Rock You” line, it is powerful and portrays the theme of the song. 1:00 Mercury taking lead again with the verse, but repeating the same line as from the 1 st verse 1:20 Instrumental is being added in 1:31 Here we get the first glimpse of guitar in the song, which finishes as the solo to the end.

Fat Bottomed Girls Perhaps one of my favorite songs as a teenager is Fat Bottomed Girls. Though Freddie Mercury was acclaimed for the successful Bohemian Rhapsody, each band member wrote songs for the band. ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ was written by Brian May, he also wrote ‘We Will Rock You’. Play-Fat Bottomed Girls

Fat Bottomed Girls 0:00 Again we hear the band come in together accopella form. 0:21 Guitar interlude 0:42 We enter into the first verse of the song 1:32 After another guitar interlude we enter the 2 nd verse 1:53 The band comes together to sing the chorus 2:30 3 rd verse 3:17 We hear slight variation to the chorus with a repetition of the last line 3:21 Enter a bridge.

Under Pressure This song is interesting in that it often gets mistaken for ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’ by Vanilla Ice. Though ignorance is to blame, most don’t recognize the bassline of ‘Ice, Ice, Baby’ as original to Queen. This is a great example of how Queen has influenced many, many artists. Play-Under Pressure

Under Pressure 0:00 Here we hear the bass line that most people recognize for Ice, Ice, Baby. 0:29 The band comes in all together on vocals, emphasizing the title of the song 0:56 Here, David Bowie is the lead vocalist. 1:06 Mercury comes back in to blend with Bowie 1:20 Mercury sings falsetto 2:18 The song grows in pitch, reaching to the climactic point 2:53 Bowie remerges to sing a soft melodic version of the verse he has been repeating throughout 3:32 The title line emerges as well as the bass line we heard in the intro, the tempo slows until stops.

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