Whatever you do, don’t take this album for granted.
One of the strangest, most varied concoctions in the history of rock, the popularity of this album is somewhat shocking. The novelty of it all brings people in, but novelty alone wouldn’t keep fans listening. At some point, people heard this album and were entertained enough to stick around and appreciate the sheer audacity, joy and incredible musicianship on display.
Obviously, the major draw of this record is “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a magnum opus by any definition, a song that thrills no matter how many times you’ve watched Wayne’s World. It’s nearly six minutes long. And doesn’t have a chorus.
The operatic section is like nothing else in recorded rock music. According to Classic Rock Review, “This was accomplished through an elaborate choir effect created by Mercury, (Brian) May and (Roger) Taylor singing their specific vocal parts for hours on end, with over 180 separate overdubs mixed and sub-mixed onto the 24-track master tape, with the entire process taking about three weeks to complete.” It’s an incredible accomplishment.
However, several other songs have a healthy amount of creative juice flowing through them.
The album kicks off with metal teardown of “Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To…)” then jumps to the brief “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon”, a song where the vocal was recorded through headphones into a mic’d tin bucket. “39” is a catchy Brian May folk song, that you may think is about 1939. But it’s actually about 2039…a sci-fi folk song!
To ground the album, the band included two wonderfully sappy songs: “You’re My Best Friend”, a rare song written by bassist John Deacon, and Freddie Mercury’s “Love of My Life.”
One of my favorite series is the Classic Albums series from Eagle Rock. The Queen: The Making of A Night at the Opera DVD goes in-depth on how the band constructed the album. While “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the big song of the album, a humble little song called “Good Company” displays how incredibly creative this band could be. Here’s my favorite clip from the DVD, where Brian May shows how he used guitar overdubs to create a Dixieland band sound. It’s incredible playing and production.
To see more about how this amazing album was made, you can get a copy of this great DVD here:
