Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / The Making Of A Classic: Queen's 'A Night At the Opera' [Episode 267]

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The Making Of A Classic: Queen's 'A Night At the Opera' [Episode 267] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

0:00
Speaker 1: On this episode of Booked on Rock, Queen's groundbreaking album
0:03
Speaker 1: A Night at the Opera turns fifty, how it would
0:06
Speaker 1: change the course of the band's future, the tape disaster
0:08
Speaker 1: that almost was with the song of Bohemian Rhapsody, the
0:11
Speaker 1: album track that almost led to a lawsuit, and more
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Speaker 1: coming up next. We're totally rock and roll.
0:19
Speaker 2: I mean, I'll leave you. You're reading.
0:21
Speaker 1: Little Hands says it's time to rock and roll.
0:23
Speaker 2: Roll up, I totally booked.
0:31
Speaker 1: Welcome to the latest episode of book don Rock. Americ
0:33
Speaker 1: Senich Jillian garr is back on the podcast. She's the
0:37
Speaker 1: author of Queen and A Night at the Opera fifty years,
0:40
Speaker 1: part of Motorbooks Excellent Album series. Welcome back, Jillian, Good
0:45
Speaker 1: to see you again.
0:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great to be back.
0:47
Speaker 1: A Night at the Opera boy, that's the album that
0:49
Speaker 1: changed everything for Queen.
0:50
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, I mean before the end they were promising,
0:53
Speaker 2: and then afterwards boom and.
0:55
Speaker 1: You write quote before it's release, they were promising. Afterward
0:58
Speaker 1: they had finally a rot So if you could set
1:01
Speaker 1: the scene for us, where is Queen at As they
1:04
Speaker 1: head into recording this album, which is late summer of
1:06
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. At this point, they'd released three studio albums.
1:11
Speaker 1: What's interesting does the band seem to be in a fearless,
1:14
Speaker 1: no barrier's mindset going in? Is there pressure from the
1:17
Speaker 1: label to come up with a hit?
1:18
Speaker 2: Well, I think they probably felt more pressure than the
1:21
Speaker 2: label did back in those days. Really, you look at
1:24
Speaker 2: some big acts and they would put out a couple
1:27
Speaker 2: albums before they really had a big one, And it's
1:29
Speaker 2: not like today or that really started changing maybe more
1:33
Speaker 2: of the nineties and after that, especially this century, where
1:35
Speaker 2: your first album didn't make it, then bam you were dropped.
1:39
Speaker 2: But in the old days, they gave you time to develop.
1:42
Speaker 2: And yeah, they'd had three albums out and had done
1:46
Speaker 2: moderately well. They'd begun headlining their own tours in Britain
1:50
Speaker 2: and had toured the US, not yet a headliner, but
1:53
Speaker 2: it had a hit in the US, Killer Queen. That's
1:55
Speaker 2: the first song I remember hearing, you know, good solid hit,
1:59
Speaker 2: but still, well, it is just one hit, and what
2:01
Speaker 2: were they going to do on the next on the
2:03
Speaker 2: next album, And I know Brian said they felt that
2:06
Speaker 2: it was just make or break time. So I think
2:09
Speaker 2: that's what made them especially fearless with this album, because yeah,
2:13
Speaker 2: they really did have nothing to lose. Brian even said
2:16
Speaker 2: that he thought of it didn't If they didn't have
2:18
Speaker 2: a big hit with this one, the band might well
2:20
Speaker 2: have broken up eventually.
2:22
Speaker 1: Crazy to think. Yeah, the lineup is Freddie Murky on
2:25
Speaker 1: lead vocals, Brian Mayn guitar and vocals, Roger Taylor on
2:28
Speaker 1: drums and vocals, and we have John Deacon on bass.
2:31
Speaker 1: The producer Roy Thomas Baker, who's so important and we'll
2:34
Speaker 1: talk about him in just a second, but let's start
2:35
Speaker 1: with the extensive rehearsals. They were intense, but also it
2:38
Speaker 1: seemed like the guys were they were having a good time.
2:40
Speaker 1: According to the book, Freddy's was a great tennis player.
2:43
Speaker 1: I found that out about him. We're here. Where were
2:46
Speaker 1: those held?
2:46
Speaker 2: I think it's Rockfield up in Wales, a place that
2:49
Speaker 2: catered to bands that needed a place to rehearse away from,
2:54
Speaker 2: you know, like a large city environment where there might
2:56
Speaker 2: be too many distractions and temptations. Here you were in
2:59
Speaker 2: the country side, and you know, they had a lot
3:01
Speaker 2: of amenities there. They had a swimming pool. I looked
3:04
Speaker 2: online and there was this Japanese magazine that was there
3:08
Speaker 2: at the time to interview and take pictures of Queen,
3:11
Speaker 2: and you see they there are so many pictures of
3:15
Speaker 2: those the time they spent there you can find online now,
3:18
Speaker 2: just this bucolic setting. And sometimes they're wearing you know,
3:22
Speaker 2: like the tight trousers and everything, even though they're amongst
3:25
Speaker 2: the shrubs and flowers. So that's an interesting dichotomy too.
3:31
Speaker 2: But because you usually see them in an urban environment,
3:33
Speaker 2: don't you pictures of them? It was always like a
3:35
Speaker 2: studio setting or the urban environment this album. I mean,
3:38
Speaker 2: it was such a complex album that the rehearsals were
3:42
Speaker 2: very beneficial because they did spend a lot of time
3:45
Speaker 2: in the studio anyway, but if you're not well rehearsed,
3:47
Speaker 2: then you have to spend even more time.
3:49
Speaker 1: This was a former farm right converted into.
3:52
Speaker 2: A studio, yes exactly, so it had, you know, the
3:55
Speaker 2: various outbuildings that the owners just refurbished so that people
3:58
Speaker 2: could live there or rehearse there and that sort of thing.
4:01
Speaker 1: And you write that the band's ingenuity in the studio
4:04
Speaker 1: was taken to a new level on this album. So
4:06
Speaker 1: talk about how ambitious the band was and how having
4:09
Speaker 1: a very open minded Roy Thomas Baker was also a
4:12
Speaker 1: big factor.
4:13
Speaker 2: You know, they were really lucky in finding someone like
4:17
Speaker 2: Roy who they'd worked with before and on Queen two.
4:21
Speaker 2: You know, Queen was interested in stretching the boundaries of
4:24
Speaker 2: the studio as well, and they told him working on
4:26
Speaker 2: Queen two that you know, if there's any trick you've
4:29
Speaker 2: wanted to try that other bands wouldn't let you do,
4:32
Speaker 2: try it with us. So they were a good match
4:34
Speaker 2: in that way. They wanted to push things and their
4:36
Speaker 2: producer as well, so I think that was very obviously
4:40
Speaker 2: that benefited them tremendously. Roy did this extensive interview with
4:45
Speaker 2: Sound on Sound that really got into the kind of
4:48
Speaker 2: technical details, and I think he's mainly talking about the
4:50
Speaker 2: son Bohemian Rhapsody, but of course it gets into the
4:53
Speaker 2: album as a whole. And they seemed to feel that
4:56
Speaker 2: he and the band hadn't really got sufficient credit for
5:00
Speaker 2: how innovative it was technologically, aside from the quality of
5:05
Speaker 2: the music and the songs, what they were like, but
5:07
Speaker 2: just all the things they had to do technically that
5:09
Speaker 2: he said we had to create. There wasn't you know,
5:13
Speaker 2: a switch you could hit and get that sound. One
5:17
Speaker 2: thing I learned. I was fascinating to learn this that
5:21
Speaker 2: the wind sound at the beginning of the Prophet song today,
5:24
Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe get a note on a synthesizer
5:26
Speaker 2: or something and distort it to how you want it.
5:28
Speaker 2: It was the sound of an air conditioner that they recorded,
5:31
Speaker 2: and yet it sounds, you know, just like the wind
5:34
Speaker 2: blowing off the high mountain top. So that kind of thing.
5:39
Speaker 2: It just showed an attention to such such detail. And
5:43
Speaker 2: then reading how Brian or even John they would put
5:47
Speaker 2: their instruments. They would record, say a guitar part, but
5:50
Speaker 2: record it three different ways, you know, either plugged directly
5:53
Speaker 2: into the amp or plugged into the console just and
5:56
Speaker 2: then mix all these together. Just things people wouldn't necessarily
6:00
Speaker 2: think of, but just how they took it down to
6:02
Speaker 2: the nth degree, that kind of detail.
6:05
Speaker 1: Also, you got four guys, all four of them can
6:07
Speaker 1: write songs, you know. That's all this. I think it's
6:10
Speaker 1: the only band ever to have each individual member with
6:13
Speaker 1: the number one single, whether it's a number one on
6:16
Speaker 1: you yeah, mainstream or rock charts or whatever. But it's amazing. Yeah,
6:20
Speaker 1: the talent in that band. The title of the album.
6:23
Speaker 1: There are a few stories behind what inspired it? What
6:26
Speaker 1: are the stories behind that one night at the album.
6:28
Speaker 2: I've always read the most common one that they wrote
6:30
Speaker 2: one of the studios and relaxing in the evening and
6:33
Speaker 2: watching a Marx Brothers film, So they thought of it
6:36
Speaker 2: that way. But there's a couple of magazines that have
6:40
Speaker 2: come out in Britain, All Good Queen Fans might have
6:44
Speaker 2: the Ultimate Music Guide to Queen, and it contains a
6:47
Speaker 2: lot of reprints of articles that ran in the British
6:51
Speaker 2: music press, from New Music Express and Melody Maker. You're
6:55
Speaker 2: not necessarily going to find all that stuff online. I
6:57
Speaker 2: don't know if those sites really have archives. I suppose
7:00
Speaker 2: of you search you could find them. But anyway, so
7:02
Speaker 2: these would have articles that came out at the time,
7:05
Speaker 2: and I found if you look at an interview that
7:08
Speaker 2: happened closer to the incident, then you're likely to get
7:12
Speaker 2: a more accurate version of that story because it's fresher
7:15
Speaker 2: in their memory, and people's memories change over the years.
7:19
Speaker 2: Though he don't realize it, so in one of these interviews,
7:23
Speaker 2: Freddy just he gave it completely different explanation and said
7:27
Speaker 2: it came at the end of recording. He and Roger
7:30
Speaker 2: were talking, and he just thought not at the opera,
7:32
Speaker 2: because the album just had these operatic elements and he
7:34
Speaker 2: thought that was a good theatrical title.
7:36
Speaker 1: Let's get into the tracks now. The lead track Death
7:39
Speaker 1: on Two Legs, written by Freddie. The most vicious lyrics
7:42
Speaker 1: I ever wrote is what Freddie said, but he never
7:45
Speaker 1: mentioned who it was about in interviews. Who is he attacking?
7:49
Speaker 1: And also there was a lawsuit that was filed by
7:52
Speaker 1: this person.
7:52
Speaker 2: In lawsuit I think ever quite quite filed it, but
7:56
Speaker 2: he was attacking Norman Sheffield, and I guess the Sheffield
8:00
Speaker 2: in general, who were their former management, and they also
8:03
Speaker 2: ran Trident Studios and they were doing management and recording,
8:08
Speaker 2: and it just yeah, it was too much of a
8:09
Speaker 2: conflict of interest that came to a head eventually, and
8:13
Speaker 2: Freddy felt they weren't paying them properly. Norman himself wrote
8:17
Speaker 2: a book later which is worth seeking out if you're
8:21
Speaker 2: interested in that subject, called Life on Two Legs twisting
8:25
Speaker 2: the title of the song about him, in which he
8:29
Speaker 2: talks about Queen and the plus between them. But Triden
8:34
Speaker 2: recorded many many well known artists too, you know the
8:37
Speaker 2: Beatles and David Bowie and so many others. So it's
8:39
Speaker 2: about the history of Trident Studios and he started it
8:42
Speaker 2: and kept it running and boy is that a job.
8:45
Speaker 2: But yeah, so this was a thinly veiled attack on
8:49
Speaker 2: Norman Sheffield, and yeah, they threatened legal action, but Norman
8:54
Speaker 2: didn't really want to go through with it because he
8:55
Speaker 2: didn't want to hold the band up that much. Even
8:57
Speaker 2: though they had their problems, he still didn't want to
9:00
Speaker 2: hurt them that much. So they came to an agreement
9:04
Speaker 2: and the album came out, and Sheffield continued getting a
9:07
Speaker 2: share of the albums until whatever the terms of the
9:10
Speaker 2: contract were, so you know, he got some financial compensation
9:14
Speaker 2: and I think that's why subsequently, Freddy never said anything
9:18
Speaker 2: just to avoid any legal action. He never mentioned any names.
9:22
Speaker 2: Maybe kind of dropped some hints. I think he might
9:24
Speaker 2: have said something to do with business, but he doesn't
9:27
Speaker 2: say his name, and I think, you know, he'd probably
9:29
Speaker 2: been warned. You know, this matter is settled, we want
9:32
Speaker 2: the album to come out, we don't want legal trouble
9:34
Speaker 2: in the future. Just don't say his name. So you know,
9:37
Speaker 2: he actually kind of had fun doing that, like teasing
9:40
Speaker 2: people by.
9:40
Speaker 1: D Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's ready is because I
9:44
Speaker 1: remember the scene in the movie where they're all in
9:46
Speaker 1: that they're in that office of one of the record
9:49
Speaker 1: exec or record label guys. They're playing Bohemian Rhapsody for him,
9:53
Speaker 1: and Mike Myers is the actor who's playing that part,
9:55
Speaker 1: and he's talking about how nobody's going to want to
9:58
Speaker 1: listen to Are they referring to him? Is that scene
10:00
Speaker 1: about him?
10:01
Speaker 2: If they didn't meet someone at EMI rather than because
10:05
Speaker 2: I was the record and they were definitely resistant. Well
10:08
Speaker 2: know what a long song the Beatles got away with?
10:11
Speaker 2: It started Richard Harris with MacArthur Park.
10:14
Speaker 1: Well even elten John you quote him in the book.
10:16
Speaker 1: He's the one who was saying, oh, yeah, this isn't ridiculous,
10:19
Speaker 1: this isn't going to work.
10:20
Speaker 2: All the thematic changes were just too much for people
10:23
Speaker 2: as well, you know, there's one thing to the other
10:25
Speaker 2: and kind of abruptly really.
10:26
Speaker 1: Track two is Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, also written
10:30
Speaker 1: by Freddie And now here's where we get some experimentation
10:34
Speaker 1: here in the studio Freddy's vocals. Can you describe how
10:37
Speaker 1: they're able to get I guess it's a megaphone effect, right,
10:39
Speaker 1: they use a bucket.
10:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's recording, and they sent the signal into a
10:43
Speaker 2: microphone and a bucket and then it was picked up
10:46
Speaker 2: in there, or you know, the speaker in the bucket
10:48
Speaker 2: and a microphone picked it up, and so you got
10:50
Speaker 2: that echoe sound. So there's an example of something they
10:53
Speaker 2: had to create instead of just oh, let's get echoe
10:56
Speaker 2: my megaphone sound, click flipping a switch. No, they it.
11:00
Speaker 2: He did it the old fashion.
11:01
Speaker 1: Way, time consuming, right, especially back in those days.
11:05
Speaker 2: You know, when you edited a song, I mean that
11:07
Speaker 2: was one reason why they wouldn't necessarily do overdubs, because
11:10
Speaker 2: he couldn't remove, say, a bad note, it might be
11:14
Speaker 2: more beneficial to leave it in. Or and when you
11:17
Speaker 2: cut tape, I mean you literally cut the tape, slice
11:20
Speaker 2: and splice back together.
11:22
Speaker 1: I'm in Love with My Car, written and sung by
11:25
Speaker 1: Roger Taylor mentioned using actual sounds.
11:29
Speaker 2: That's Roger's car, yep, just recorded as it was revving away.
11:33
Speaker 2: I was just talking to someone who just, yeah, he
11:34
Speaker 2: didn't like that song at all. He thought it was
11:36
Speaker 2: a dumb song. I think it's kind of a fun song. Yeah,
11:40
Speaker 2: I said, I liked it better than the Sweet Lady.
11:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's Roger's signature song.
11:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny that you know. It is kind of
11:48
Speaker 2: I mean, it is a ridiculous song in a way,
11:50
Speaker 2: but he just plays it absolutely straight throughout. And so
11:54
Speaker 2: that's that's actually what makes it kind of great, I think.
11:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he said the unusual six to eight times signature.
11:59
Speaker 1: That's one thing he had a great time playing. Now
12:02
Speaker 1: here's we get to John Deacon. He's got the next song.
12:05
Speaker 1: He wrote, You're My Best Friend, one of Queen's most
12:07
Speaker 1: popular songs, and he wrote it about his wife, Ronica.
12:10
Speaker 1: He married her early in seventy five. But you say
12:13
Speaker 1: that referring to the partner as best friend broaden its scope,
12:19
Speaker 1: giving it a touch of innocence. So that's a big
12:20
Speaker 1: factor I out thinking it becoming a hit.
12:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think more people can relate to
12:24
Speaker 2: it because you're not just talking about a romantic partner.
12:27
Speaker 2: I mean, you could be.
12:28
Speaker 1: Could be a pet, it could be Yeah, sure, I
12:32
Speaker 1: hadn't thought of that. Well. Freddie loved that he had
12:36
Speaker 1: those pats. He loved his cats and cats, yeah Delilah
12:40
Speaker 1: and yeah Delilah and what was the other one.
12:43
Speaker 2: On innuendo, you would name a cat Deliah?
12:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, Biju, Delilah and Biju are the ones he sung
12:49
Speaker 1: about on Innuendo. But do you think so John Deacon
12:53
Speaker 1: is is he at this point now? He's kind of
12:54
Speaker 1: coming to his own as a songwriter, because he wrote,
12:57
Speaker 1: if I'm correct, part of a song on the last album.
12:59
Speaker 2: Or it was a complete song, it wasn't very long.
13:02
Speaker 2: It's only about two minutes or so, Misfire.
13:05
Speaker 1: Okay, Misfire, that's right, which.
13:07
Speaker 2: I liked, a nice kind of pop song. But yeah,
13:10
Speaker 2: it is pretty short, So, I mean, I don't know
13:13
Speaker 2: if he was trying to write other songs and not
13:15
Speaker 2: coming up with anything, or if this was literally his
13:18
Speaker 2: second song. Still, it's early on in his songwriting, and
13:22
Speaker 2: to come up with something like that as well pretty impressive.
13:25
Speaker 1: Sure, it's just another weapon that they in their arsenal
13:28
Speaker 1: that they can use. They had a formula from this
13:31
Speaker 1: point on, I believe now, so you'd get Freddie and
13:34
Speaker 1: Brian would get the bulk of the songs that would
13:37
Speaker 1: end up on the album, but then John Deacon would
13:40
Speaker 1: get one and Roger would get one. That'd be kind
13:42
Speaker 1: of a standard as they went into each album.
13:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much. I think Roger began writing more, and
13:47
Speaker 2: then in the last two, the Miracle and Innuendo, they
13:51
Speaker 2: just had joint songwriting credits, which Brian said solved a
13:54
Speaker 2: lot of problems and he wished they'd done that earlier.
13:57
Speaker 1: But I think it also speaks to the sound of
13:59
Speaker 1: Queen is so varied, and it's because you got all
14:01
Speaker 1: four guys. John Deacon did another one Bites the dust
14:04
Speaker 1: came up with that baseline.
14:06
Speaker 2: Yes he was, he was. He didn't write many, but
14:09
Speaker 2: a lot of them that he pulled out.
14:10
Speaker 1: We were winners, booked on rock podcasts. We'll be back
14:14
Speaker 1: after this.
14:15
Speaker 2: I'm gonna need some flyers and uh set of thirty
14:18
Speaker 2: white ball bearings Flat Fred gets.
14:20
Speaker 1: Here before I'm back. You can tell a start without me.
14:22
Speaker 1: Tell you need bull bearings, fool ah. Come on, guys,
14:26
Speaker 1: it's so simple.
14:26
Speaker 2: Maybe you need a refresher course.
14:28
Speaker 1: Hey, it's all ball bearings nowadays. Now Here's probably one
14:34
Speaker 1: of my favorite deep tracks from Queen. The next track
14:36
Speaker 1: is titled thirty nine, written and sung by Brian May
14:39
Speaker 1: and you write quote. Thirty nine is a seemingly upbeat
14:42
Speaker 1: sailing song with an unexpected twist that you might not
14:45
Speaker 1: notice if you're not listening carefully, this is like a
14:48
Speaker 1: Rod Serling Twilight Zone story. What is this song about?
14:51
Speaker 2: That's a good comparison. I had to Yeah, I have
14:53
Speaker 2: to remember that it's talking about a voyage, so you think, oh,
14:57
Speaker 2: a sea voyage. It even sounds is kind of, you know,
15:00
Speaker 2: almost like a folk song from the past, so that
15:03
Speaker 2: sort of enhances the sea voyage element. But then when
15:07
Speaker 2: you listen more closely in the remaining versus, you see
15:12
Speaker 2: it's a it's a space voyage. That's why the seas
15:16
Speaker 2: are milky seas. You know, I guess an ocean can
15:19
Speaker 2: be milky at times, but you don't normally think of
15:21
Speaker 2: it that way. But these are milky seeds. And about
15:26
Speaker 2: a group of explorers going off to find a new
15:29
Speaker 2: planet to colonize and getting caught in the time warp
15:32
Speaker 2: thing that supposedly happens where further away you are in space,
15:37
Speaker 2: time is progressing at a normal rate for you, but
15:40
Speaker 2: on Earth it's going at a faster level. So when
15:43
Speaker 2: you come back, you've been away five years, but everyone's
15:46
Speaker 2: age ten years. That's not the exact fornuent something like
15:49
Speaker 2: that like happened in Planet of the Apes.
15:53
Speaker 1: Yes, Brian gets the next song titled Sweet Lady. This
15:56
Speaker 1: is the one track that had its share of critics,
15:59
Speaker 1: weakest song in the Apple, but you say still worth
16:02
Speaker 1: listening to, especially the way it ends.
16:05
Speaker 2: There's some other songs like that too, Like you think.
16:07
Speaker 2: I think of Hello Goodbye by the Beatles after the
16:10
Speaker 2: main song ends and they have that kind of fade
16:11
Speaker 2: out and they're singing sort of a different upbeat type
16:13
Speaker 2: of thing, and Queen did something similar here, I think,
16:17
Speaker 2: where you know, it's more a straight ahead rock song,
16:19
Speaker 2: but then they double or triple the tempo and at
16:22
Speaker 2: the end, which is a lot of fun to listen to.
16:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you're a fan of Brian May, you
16:26
Speaker 1: just love to hear him play. It's worth listening to
16:29
Speaker 1: just for that. And I am going to ask you
16:31
Speaker 1: about that guitar. That's a great story too. Because you
16:33
Speaker 1: have some sidebars throughout the book. We'll get to. Side
16:36
Speaker 1: one finishes with Freddie Mercury's Seaside Rendezvous. Talk about the
16:41
Speaker 1: instrumental break, which you say is the song's most remarkable element.
16:45
Speaker 2: During the instrumental break, a horn section comes in, except
16:48
Speaker 2: it's not being played by horns. It's everybody's voices right,
16:52
Speaker 2: and Rogers I can't remember if Brian participates, but they
16:55
Speaker 2: emulate the sounds of Roger does a pretty good trumpet
16:58
Speaker 2: as you can hear. And they're not just flowing on
17:02
Speaker 2: you know, paper and comb or kazoos or whatever. They're
17:05
Speaker 2: doing it with their voices, which Roger said. They did
17:08
Speaker 2: something like that on Bring Back That Leroy Brown from
17:11
Speaker 2: the previous album, the third Queen album, Sheer heart Attack. Yeah,
17:15
Speaker 2: he said that. You know, we like doing things like
17:16
Speaker 2: that again, you know, their own vocals, not really getting
17:21
Speaker 2: into hijinks or auto tuner. Yeah, we'll distort it this way.
17:25
Speaker 2: That was them doing it themselves. I love that song.
17:27
Speaker 2: I think after after Ohemian Rhapsody, she said, Rendezvous and
17:32
Speaker 2: Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon are the songs I play
17:34
Speaker 2: the most because I love that campy, musical, vaudeville side
17:40
Speaker 2: of Queen a lot. That was Freddy's specialty.
17:42
Speaker 1: Of course, I was gonna say, very Freddie, very Freddy.
17:45
Speaker 1: Queen and a Night at the Opera fifty Years is
17:47
Speaker 1: the name of the new book from Motor Books and
17:49
Speaker 1: the author is Jillian Gharr and some cool sidebars. So
17:51
Speaker 1: let's get to this sidebars throughout the book, including one
17:54
Speaker 1: on Brian May's Red Special guitar. And you say it
17:57
Speaker 1: in the book, a guitar unlike any other in the world.
18:00
Speaker 1: Tell us the story behind this meticulous creation by Brian.
18:04
Speaker 2: I'm not sure when I first heard about this. It
18:07
Speaker 2: was some years I mean it was some years before
18:09
Speaker 2: I knew that Brian was playing a completely homemade guitar,
18:15
Speaker 2: which you know, is not easy to make. His dad
18:20
Speaker 2: knew about electronics and would often just repair stuff at
18:24
Speaker 2: home or make things at home. Brian claimed that his
18:26
Speaker 2: father made a rudimentary television. So Brian wanted an electric guitar,
18:31
Speaker 2: and he couldn't afford one, so they decided, well, we'll
18:33
Speaker 2: just build one. So they used things they could find
18:37
Speaker 2: around the house, like the mantlepiece from a fireplace, cutting
18:42
Speaker 2: the wood out places where there were holes in the wood,
18:45
Speaker 2: he would break match sticks, wooden match sticks and use
18:48
Speaker 2: the match stick to fill the holes. For the whammy
18:51
Speaker 2: bar that came, it was a bicycle bag, I think
18:55
Speaker 2: a bag that you would hang on your bicycle. And
18:58
Speaker 2: for the stopper on that, I think he used the
19:01
Speaker 2: knitting needle, the cap of a knitting needle from his
19:04
Speaker 2: other selling basket. They wanted to make it out of
19:07
Speaker 2: kind of found things, and I think the only thing,
19:09
Speaker 2: pretty much, the only things he bought were the pickups,
19:12
Speaker 2: because you're not going to be able to make your
19:14
Speaker 2: own pickups really, or I suppose you could, but that
19:16
Speaker 2: would be even more difficult. But just the different types
19:19
Speaker 2: of wood and putting it together and he can still
19:23
Speaker 2: use it, so you know that hands on craftsmanship really
19:27
Speaker 2: says something.
19:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like he says here, we had no idea how
19:30
Speaker 1: big a part the red would play in my life.
19:33
Speaker 1: I thought I just have fun with it at home. Yeah.
19:36
Speaker 1: He started in August of sixty three, finished it in
19:39
Speaker 1: October of sixty four. And then the name comes from
19:43
Speaker 1: its reddish brown color. He refers it to as Old
19:46
Speaker 1: Lady Too, as he.
19:47
Speaker 2: Also calls it, and he plays it with a sixpenny piece. Yeah,
19:52
Speaker 2: and he didn't like a pick. And Brian, even being
19:54
Speaker 2: ever so meticulous about this stuff, was saying that I
19:57
Speaker 2: think the older sixpenny pieces, which would probably be a
20:01
Speaker 2: type of pence coin these days, that they had more
20:04
Speaker 2: nickel in them, so they were a bit softer, and
20:07
Speaker 2: the serrated edge would help him get different tones from
20:10
Speaker 2: the guitar, so he always has a stack of older
20:13
Speaker 2: sixpenny pieces he can rely on. Six people mail them
20:17
Speaker 2: to him as well.
20:18
Speaker 1: Really, Hea, he says, sixpences are very soft metal, which
20:23
Speaker 1: doesn't hurt the guitar strings. But if I turn that
20:26
Speaker 1: serrated edge at an angle to the string, I can
20:30
Speaker 1: get that kind of articulating, percussive consonant sound. I call
20:34
Speaker 1: it grounch. He calls it grounch. Yeah, before about nineteen fifty.
20:39
Speaker 1: That a high content of nickel, which makes them really soft.
20:43
Speaker 1: So I especially like a nineteen forty seven sixpence the
20:47
Speaker 1: year that I was born. There you go, folks, find
20:49
Speaker 1: a nineteen forty seven sixpence and send it to Brian.
20:52
Speaker 2: Where's birthday?
20:53
Speaker 1: Yeah? All right, let's flip the album over and drop
20:56
Speaker 1: the needle on side too. The opening track is the
20:58
Speaker 1: profits song written by Brian May, Queen's longest song eight
21:03
Speaker 1: minutes twenty one seconds. And this is your bold statement
21:06
Speaker 1: of the book. If not for Bohemian Rhapsody, this you say,
21:09
Speaker 1: would likely be the album's cornerstone track, and I agree.
21:12
Speaker 1: The song is a warning, a prophecy of doom if
21:15
Speaker 1: humanity doesn't change its ways. Talk about what you say
21:19
Speaker 1: is remember talk about what you Say is one of
21:22
Speaker 1: Freddie's most extraordinary vocal performances. And why if you're going
21:26
Speaker 1: to listen to this put some headphones on.
21:29
Speaker 2: I think it's interesting and I don't know that I've
21:31
Speaker 2: read this, but I've wondered why Brian didn't sing it himself.
21:36
Speaker 2: He did write songs that Freddie would sing, but he
21:38
Speaker 2: would write songs that he would sing too, And that's
21:41
Speaker 2: an interesting question what made him beside which songs were
21:45
Speaker 2: for him and which bit for Freddy. But perhaps with
21:48
Speaker 2: this one with the vocal section in the middle, I
21:51
Speaker 2: mean that would have to be Freddy because he doesn't
21:54
Speaker 2: Brian doesn't have that kind of a voice. But what
21:57
Speaker 2: he did was have Freddy sing kind of what they
22:00
Speaker 2: term of cannon, where you start the phrase. You maybe
22:03
Speaker 2: did this in school. They called it around like group
22:06
Speaker 2: A would start singing the phrase and then you would
22:09
Speaker 2: the next group would come in part way through, and
22:11
Speaker 2: it would sort of create a harmonizing effect. And that's
22:14
Speaker 2: what Freddy did, but with his voice, and I guess
22:16
Speaker 2: when they were recording it, they would have tapes strung
22:18
Speaker 2: all the way around the room as it was being
22:22
Speaker 2: recorded just to just to get those delays and so
22:25
Speaker 2: that he could sing with his accompanying vocal. And because
22:28
Speaker 2: there's three, they have it on each in the center.
22:33
Speaker 2: You hear him sing in the center, and then his
22:34
Speaker 2: vocal will be on one side and then his vocal
22:36
Speaker 2: will be on the other. And I haven't heard this,
22:39
Speaker 2: but later there was a five point one surround sound
22:43
Speaker 2: release of this album and Brian said that was the
22:46
Speaker 2: effect he really wanted when you hear profit song in
22:49
Speaker 2: that setup. Okay, yeah, that version and with that speaker
22:52
Speaker 2: setup to where they're kind of all around you.
22:54
Speaker 1: I don't have one of those, so no, I don't either,
22:56
Speaker 1: but yeah, yeah, I can imagine him saying that, and
22:59
Speaker 1: that's something he wanted wanted to do with it. And
23:01
Speaker 1: then the blowing wind of the prophet song that takes
23:03
Speaker 1: us into Love of my Life, which is written by Freddie,
23:06
Speaker 1: and that blowing wind that's the air conditioner, right, that's what. Yeah,
23:11
Speaker 1: it takes us into love of my life written by Freddie.
23:14
Speaker 1: We're the harp on this played by Brian. Freddy's classical
23:18
Speaker 1: influence comes through here. And now talk about Freddy as
23:21
Speaker 1: a piano player because he didn't think much of himself
23:24
Speaker 1: on the piano. But that's crazy because I think he
23:27
Speaker 1: does a great job. But I guess if you're a
23:30
Speaker 1: serious classical music fan, you set the bar very high.
23:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, as you're saying, he did not have as
23:36
Speaker 2: much faith in his ability on the piano. So in
23:39
Speaker 2: Queen's later years that bring in other people to play keyboards,
23:43
Speaker 2: and I think you miss his own his own warmth
23:47
Speaker 2: when he's playing himself. So I wish someone could have
23:50
Speaker 2: made him see that. Although I'm not sure how many
23:53
Speaker 2: piano bas numbers there were in the eighties, I'm really
23:56
Speaker 2: a seventies Queen fan. I'm not that much of an
23:58
Speaker 2: eighties Queen person, but yeah, you can see the classical
24:02
Speaker 2: influence clearly, and maybe being so interested in classical music,
24:06
Speaker 2: he realized he's playing is fine, it's perfectly suitable for
24:11
Speaker 2: these numbers that he's doing. But maybe being interested in
24:13
Speaker 2: classical music, he realizes how much better other people are.
24:17
Speaker 2: But he didn't have to be at the level of
24:18
Speaker 2: a concert pianist. He what he did was fine for
24:21
Speaker 2: the work they were doing for the ballads.
24:23
Speaker 1: Side to track three Good Company, another track from the
24:26
Speaker 1: album that conjures up an early musical era. It opens
24:30
Speaker 1: with the sounds of the vintage jazz band written and
24:32
Speaker 1: sung by Brian. May you quote him talking about how
24:35
Speaker 1: this song was written by a then twenty eight year
24:37
Speaker 1: old but fits in with the Brian of today. What
24:40
Speaker 1: did he have to say about where his mind was
24:42
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five when he wrote this song.
24:44
Speaker 2: I actually was able to ask him about this. I
24:46
Speaker 2: did an interview with him for Goldmine about the Starfleet
24:49
Speaker 2: side project that he did, so you know, you understand
24:53
Speaker 2: most of the questions are going to be about Starfleet.
24:55
Speaker 2: Perhaps other journalists were then going to the queen questions,
24:58
Speaker 2: but I just, you know, to the main thing. But
25:01
Speaker 2: then I got this one in of my own. I
25:04
Speaker 2: did want to ask about it because I thought it
25:07
Speaker 2: was so interesting. It's really a depressing song if you
25:09
Speaker 2: listen to it, but it has this jolly upbeat melody,
25:13
Speaker 2: and you know, this man at the end of his
25:15
Speaker 2: life is looking back at his life and thinking, oh,
25:19
Speaker 2: what was it all worth? And it just seemed a
25:21
Speaker 2: strange thing for a young man to write when you
25:25
Speaker 2: know he's still in his twenties and would have most
25:28
Speaker 2: of his life ahead of him, and so where did
25:31
Speaker 2: that down downward mood come from? And he said he
25:36
Speaker 2: was just projecting and imagining himself in the future, and
25:40
Speaker 2: what would that be like, and what would you look
25:42
Speaker 2: back on and think about opportunities taken, opportunities missed, that
25:47
Speaker 2: sort of thing. But his songs, a lot of his
25:49
Speaker 2: songs always had kind of a melancholy side to them.
25:52
Speaker 2: I mean thirty nine obviously we've mentioned that, and some
25:56
Speaker 2: of those other songs too. In the future. He was thoughtful.
26:00
Speaker 2: And there was this extraordinary quote from him in I
26:04
Speaker 2: guess it was in Mojo I don't think it was
26:06
Speaker 2: in Mark Blake's biography Is This The Real Life, which
26:09
Speaker 2: is a really good queen biography by the way, But
26:12
Speaker 2: he was talking to Mojo and he just said how
26:14
Speaker 2: being in Queen screwed us all up. And I'd never
26:18
Speaker 2: really heard a big star say that, and he said, yes,
26:21
Speaker 2: you know it was. It was very damaging to us
26:24
Speaker 2: in some ways. And of course that is the kind
26:26
Speaker 2: of a remark Brian would make, being very thoughtful and
26:29
Speaker 2: thinking about it. Not that he regretted having big success.
26:33
Speaker 2: He just you know, he's saying, it's it's not all great.
26:37
Speaker 2: There is this other aspect to it, Well, he said
26:39
Speaker 2: with his marriages, their marriages, you know, most of them. Well,
26:43
Speaker 2: John Deacon was the only one whose marriage lasted of
26:46
Speaker 2: the three of them.
26:47
Speaker 1: But then when Freddie died, his marriage was on the rocks.
26:50
Speaker 2: I remember hearing about that. So this is you know,
26:53
Speaker 2: like years later that might have not even I don't
26:56
Speaker 2: know if that was even last century, that might have
26:57
Speaker 2: been this century. I remember hearing something about that. Yeah,
27:00
Speaker 2: he'd had pretty much retired after Freddy died and they
27:05
Speaker 2: had the big tribute concert and he did like one
27:08
Speaker 2: or two other things and was on the last songs
27:11
Speaker 2: that he worked on, a final song with them, But
27:13
Speaker 2: then after that he pretty much just retired, didn't do
27:15
Speaker 2: his own stuff, just cut things off completely, and even
27:18
Speaker 2: Brian and Roger didn't seem to see him. But then
27:21
Speaker 2: you know, they accepted that. They said, well, you know,
27:23
Speaker 2: that's that's just what he wants to do. And he
27:25
Speaker 2: did have a large family by then, I think, you know,
27:28
Speaker 2: five or six kids. But then, yeah, I did hear
27:30
Speaker 2: something about how, yeah, he went to this period where
27:32
Speaker 2: he left his wife so they didn't divorce and he
27:35
Speaker 2: was seeing someone else. But then it sounded like they
27:38
Speaker 2: got back together. The thing is because he's not in
27:41
Speaker 2: the news very much and he never gives interviews. You know,
27:44
Speaker 2: I'm still not really sure what happened, right, what he's
27:47
Speaker 2: doing now.
27:48
Speaker 1: You know, he's very private.
27:49
Speaker 2: He's thet Marbo of Queen. He just wants to be
27:52
Speaker 2: left alone.
27:54
Speaker 1: Booked on rock podcasts. We'll be back after this. It's
27:57
Speaker 1: interimation time, all right. So the next track is one
28:02
Speaker 1: that people have probably heard of, Bohemian Rhapsody. So many
28:07
Speaker 1: great stories behind the making of this track, which is epic.
28:11
Speaker 1: The roots date back to Freddy's days at Art College
28:14
Speaker 1: at one point, and this is all in Jillian's book.
28:17
Speaker 1: People can read this and so much more, But at
28:19
Speaker 1: one point it was titled Mongolian Rhapsody. I want to
28:23
Speaker 1: zero in on the most time consuming part of this,
28:26
Speaker 1: which is the opera section. Now, it took about three
28:29
Speaker 1: weeks to record this, which was the average time spent
28:33
Speaker 1: on an entire album back then, according to Roy Thomas Baker.
28:37
Speaker 1: How were they able to put all this together? And
28:41
Speaker 1: could you talk about they did so many overdubs that
28:43
Speaker 1: they almost lost the tape, right, Yeah.
28:46
Speaker 2: Well, it was Freddy's baby and it really came together
28:49
Speaker 2: because people they had faith in Freddy. And the song
28:53
Speaker 2: has its different sections, and each section has its different sections,
28:58
Speaker 2: and Freddy had it in his head and he would
29:01
Speaker 2: write it down, and I think it was Brian who
29:03
Speaker 2: said that, yeah, it just looked like a bunch of
29:05
Speaker 2: buses being drong. He knew where all the pieces fit
29:08
Speaker 2: and no one else really did. And if you can
29:11
Speaker 2: imagine just hearing the step of the parts separately on
29:14
Speaker 2: their own and not having any idea how it's going
29:16
Speaker 2: to sound put together, you know, you think, you know,
29:19
Speaker 2: how is this going to come out? Be like filming
29:21
Speaker 2: a movie when you when you're filming the last scene
29:24
Speaker 2: first and just script for that scene and have no
29:28
Speaker 2: idea what the rest of the story is. But they
29:30
Speaker 2: had faith in him and just just let him get
29:33
Speaker 2: on with it. And the Offera section was initially only
29:37
Speaker 2: going to be about thirty seconds, but he kept adding
29:41
Speaker 2: to it. I think Roy says every day had come
29:43
Speaker 2: in and say, oh, just a few more galileos here,
29:46
Speaker 2: so it ends up being about a minute. Julie Webb,
29:49
Speaker 2: a journalist for the Enemy, said that she was there
29:53
Speaker 2: watching them doing some of the vocal overdubs and saying
29:56
Speaker 2: something like you know, if they sang alileo once, they
30:00
Speaker 2: sang it one hundred and twenty times, just you know,
30:02
Speaker 2: she just I'm doing it over and over and over
30:04
Speaker 2: again to get to get the right part. They were
30:07
Speaker 2: indeed overdubbing so much that the tape, because they're working
30:11
Speaker 2: on tape, it's not digital, started to wear away. And yeah,
30:16
Speaker 2: Brian said, you could hold it up to the light
30:18
Speaker 2: and you know, sort of see light coming through it.
30:21
Speaker 2: So they very quickly had to transfer it so that
30:23
Speaker 2: all this work wouldn't get rubbed off. I think it
30:26
Speaker 2: was Roy who said, you know, there was some loss
30:29
Speaker 2: of sound. You get that much on there, and you
30:31
Speaker 2: know you can't hear everything that clearly, so he felt
30:34
Speaker 2: every time they added something you would see a bit
30:35
Speaker 2: of a loss, but overall it sounds fine. I mean
30:38
Speaker 2: once when they heard it complete, everyone was just stunned
30:42
Speaker 2: at what this sounded like, as you could imagine hearing
30:45
Speaker 2: it after all that work.
30:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, some of the imperfections ended up in that final version, right,
30:51
Speaker 1: Some of the harmonies were a little dissident. I don't
30:53
Speaker 1: know if I'd ever be able to pick up on it.
30:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing I was listening to was an
30:58
Speaker 2: NPR interview with it's Nigel Godrich, who produced Paul McCartney's
31:03
Speaker 2: Chaos and Creation, and there's a song where he's just
31:07
Speaker 2: kind of vamping on piano and he hit a wrong
31:10
Speaker 2: note and then after the take he says to Godrich, well,
31:14
Speaker 2: we have to do that again because you know, I
31:15
Speaker 2: played that wrong note, and she just no, it'll be fine,
31:18
Speaker 2: you know, kind of add adds to the atmosphere of
31:20
Speaker 2: the humanness. And so they're playing it and then I
31:24
Speaker 2: don't know if I could recognize it again, but they
31:26
Speaker 2: play it and they, you know, point out this is
31:28
Speaker 2: where the wrong note was, and you know, I hadn't
31:30
Speaker 2: noticed at all, and I'm sure no one else did. Yeah,
31:33
Speaker 2: you probably couldn't pick out the faulty harmony on Bohemian
31:37
Speaker 2: Rhapsody either. With all that, unless someone pointed out to you, oh,
31:40
Speaker 2: it's right here it this month, then maybe you'd recognize
31:43
Speaker 2: it again and again. But the average listener, no, I
31:46
Speaker 2: don't think so.
31:47
Speaker 1: And there was a video for Bohemian Rhapsody. And there's
31:49
Speaker 1: another sidebar in the book, and it's on this part
31:51
Speaker 1: on the making of videos. They weren't known as videos.
31:54
Speaker 1: They were called promotional films at the time. How far
31:57
Speaker 1: back does Queen go with videos? Are they among the
32:01
Speaker 1: first to make them?
32:02
Speaker 2: Well, I guess it depends on when you consider videos starting,
32:06
Speaker 2: because there have always been short promotional clips of a
32:10
Speaker 2: song that a musician or performers performing. I mean that
32:13
Speaker 2: goes back to the thirties, like be a short subject
32:15
Speaker 2: when you when you saw a movie in the movie theater,
32:18
Speaker 2: that was like the forerunner of that kind of thing. Oh,
32:21
Speaker 2: I always love they had there were machines called scope
32:23
Speaker 2: of toones. They were like jukeboxes and you put money
32:26
Speaker 2: in you could see a little we'd call it a
32:28
Speaker 2: video now play in the sixties these really campy, kitchy things.
32:31
Speaker 2: Do a search for, you know, scope of tones and
32:34
Speaker 2: see what can you come up with. But really, I
32:36
Speaker 2: think when television got going in the sixties, you think
32:40
Speaker 2: of bands like the Beatles and others doing what we're
32:42
Speaker 2: called promotional films because they were shot on film where
32:46
Speaker 2: they'd be performing and sometimes it would just be a
32:48
Speaker 2: straight performance and then maybe they'd start doing other things
32:51
Speaker 2: to make it look more interesting as a means of
32:54
Speaker 2: having something to send out so the band could appear
32:56
Speaker 2: on all the different variety shows they had without having
32:59
Speaker 2: to go and appear on all these shows which would
33:01
Speaker 2: be in different countries too, and so on. So Queen
33:04
Speaker 2: was in on that from the beginning from their first
33:06
Speaker 2: album and see that on YouTube and some of their
33:09
Speaker 2: other some of the DVD releases they've put out, they've
33:12
Speaker 2: put DVDs of their videos, you can see these kind
33:14
Speaker 2: of early efforts. The ones for the first film are
33:18
Speaker 2: pretty much just straightforward performance videos, as is Bohemian Rhapsody really,
33:23
Speaker 2: I mean, it doesn't really have a lot of special effects.
33:26
Speaker 2: It's pretty you know, some of them kind of rudimentary,
33:29
Speaker 2: like when the I forget what the term is. You
33:31
Speaker 2: see Freddy's spaces and you see all the ones expand
33:34
Speaker 2: behind it. That's about the most elaborated gets. They have
33:37
Speaker 2: those sequences where you just have the tight headshots of
33:40
Speaker 2: the band and then the others are just scenes of
33:43
Speaker 2: them performing. They were rehearsing for their upcoming tour and
33:46
Speaker 2: so they just shot some footage for that too. So yeah,
33:49
Speaker 2: it's really pretty simple, and in a lot of ways,
33:52
Speaker 2: I think the simpler videos come off best.
33:55
Speaker 1: And a perfect ending to the album with God Save
33:57
Speaker 1: the Queen that was used to bring the concerts to
33:59
Speaker 1: a close.
34:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they did that written. I don't know if
34:03
Speaker 2: they still do, but when you went to the theater,
34:05
Speaker 2: they would play a recording of God Save the Queen afterwards,
34:09
Speaker 2: and I guess I don't know if I saw many
34:11
Speaker 2: rock shows that did that, but certainly theatrical performances, so
34:14
Speaker 2: it would make sense to hear that at the end
34:17
Speaker 2: of a theatrical production like a Night at the Opera,
34:21
Speaker 2: which I know when I first heard the album when
34:25
Speaker 2: it was released, I wouldn't have been aware of that
34:27
Speaker 2: that they played Britain's national anthem at the end of
34:30
Speaker 2: theater shows, so I suppose I just thought, oh, I
34:33
Speaker 2: guess they just threw that on there.
34:35
Speaker 1: And when it was released in late seventy five, number
34:38
Speaker 1: one in the UK, four in the US. Bohemian Rhapsody
34:41
Speaker 1: number one in the UK, top ten in the US.
34:44
Speaker 1: My Best Friend was top ten in the UK, top
34:46
Speaker 1: twenty in the US. Roger Taylor quote in the book
34:48
Speaker 1: is saying it's the most important album the band ever made.
34:52
Speaker 1: So here's my question, Jillian. They had some great albums
34:54
Speaker 1: that followed, and you cover them in the book, by
34:56
Speaker 1: the way, so people should know that too. You cover
34:58
Speaker 1: the band's career after the album book as well, But
35:00
Speaker 1: is it Is it by far Queen's best, because there
35:03
Speaker 1: are some albums after this that are pretty close. Where
35:05
Speaker 1: do you rank this?
35:06
Speaker 2: Well? I personally would rank it as number one myself. Yeah,
35:09
Speaker 2: but it'd be interesting to talk to some fans that
35:12
Speaker 2: like the later career more than I do to see
35:14
Speaker 2: how they would rank that, because.
35:16
Speaker 1: The next three four albums were huge, you know.
35:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well that really kicked him into the upper stratosphere.
35:25
Speaker 2: I don't know that I like them all as much
35:27
Speaker 2: as a complete album, though certainly not as much as
35:30
Speaker 2: not at the opera. My favorites are not at the opera,
35:36
Speaker 2: Sheer heart Attack and Queen two the most, especially Side
35:39
Speaker 2: black of Queen two. That's my favorite.
35:42
Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.
35:44
Speaker 2: I probably play that as much as not at the opera.
35:47
Speaker 1: Jazz. What about jazz. You're a fan of jazz?
35:51
Speaker 2: You know? I played Side one a lot. A lot
35:53
Speaker 2: of times I'll just sort of fixate on one side
35:55
Speaker 2: of an album for whatever reason, or those are the
35:58
Speaker 2: songs I like better. I really like side one, and
36:01
Speaker 2: I was an evers keenan side too. I think it's
36:04
Speaker 2: probably Queen's most eclectic album really jazz Is. I love
36:09
Speaker 2: the beginning, you know, mustaf Bah pretty kind of nod
36:12
Speaker 2: to his roots.
36:14
Speaker 1: But look at the run they went on though, after
36:16
Speaker 1: A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races
36:19
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, News of the World nineteen seventy seven,
36:23
Speaker 1: Jazz seventy eight, The Game nineteen eighty, Flash Gordon, and
36:27
Speaker 1: then it starts to get mixed results and you get
36:30
Speaker 1: into the eighties. But what a run, you know.
36:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's pretty strong. You've got some good, good,
36:36
Speaker 2: solid songs there too. I was in retrospect. I think
36:40
Speaker 2: Day at the Races was sort of just a paler
36:42
Speaker 2: copy of Night at the Opera. I think News of
36:45
Speaker 2: the World was another one where I mostly played side one.
36:48
Speaker 2: Interestingly enough, in the eighties I thought they just got
36:51
Speaker 2: too big and bombastic for my tastes. And when Innuendo
36:56
Speaker 2: came out, I remember thinking, oh, this is like Queen
36:59
Speaker 2: of the seventies.
37:00
Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, I.
37:01
Speaker 2: Like that one. Yeah, first number, Innuendo, Innuendo when.
37:05
Speaker 1: I oh, when I first heard that, heard it on
37:08
Speaker 1: the radio. Yeah, when I was in college. Yeah, this
37:11
Speaker 1: is Queen, you know. Yeah, But I remember the DJs
37:14
Speaker 1: at the time. Yeah, well the DJs at the time.
37:17
Speaker 1: We're talking like, you know, I hear something's going on
37:20
Speaker 1: with Freddy and this is you know, we're hearing something
37:23
Speaker 1: about the songs on this album have to do with it.
37:25
Speaker 1: And I remember that so well because you know this
37:28
Speaker 1: is that was pre internet, so you didn't know things
37:31
Speaker 1: right away. Yeah.
37:32
Speaker 2: Video, I love the video of I'm Going Slightly Mad
37:36
Speaker 2: from that album.
37:37
Speaker 1: Yes, that's the one, isn't that where he's wearing like
37:40
Speaker 1: the fruit on his head or in white face?
37:43
Speaker 2: And I read later they had him in white face
37:45
Speaker 2: sort of disguise how much his illness I progressed. But
37:48
Speaker 2: it was also fitting for him. I mean, it was
37:50
Speaker 2: perfectly in character. So I didn't take anything of it.
37:53
Speaker 2: When he's in white face, You're like, of course he'd
37:54
Speaker 2: be in white face, it's Freddy. Yeah, he still had
37:57
Speaker 2: that uh remember the way he bit the banana?
38:00
Speaker 1: Yes, you know, but just to see him in that
38:06
Speaker 1: condition and he went to that studio and he tore
38:10
Speaker 1: into it with the vocals. Like Brian May said, sometimes
38:12
Speaker 1: you'd have to take a seat and take a little
38:13
Speaker 1: drink of whiskey or whatever it was, you know, and
38:16
Speaker 1: he said, all right, let's get back in there. And
38:18
Speaker 1: that I admire so much about him is that he
38:21
Speaker 1: wanted to get as much music in as he could
38:24
Speaker 1: before it was just time to go. And boy, what
38:26
Speaker 1: a body of work. Yeah. Queen and Queen in a
38:29
Speaker 1: Night at the Opera fifty years is the name of
38:32
Speaker 1: the new book for Motor Books. Is it out now?
38:34
Speaker 1: Is there? What's the release date?
38:37
Speaker 2: Technically the pup date is tomorrow, April first, so by
38:41
Speaker 2: the time this airs it will be out.
38:43
Speaker 1: It will be out because we're recording this on March
38:45
Speaker 1: thirty one, So look forward to wherever you get your
38:48
Speaker 1: your books or your nearest bookstore. You can always go
38:50
Speaker 1: to books on rock dot com to find your nearest bookstore.
38:53
Speaker 1: And where can people find you online?
38:54
Speaker 2: Jillian, I think it's just at Jilliangar on Twitter, because
38:58
Speaker 2: I still call it twitter. On Facebook, I have I
39:02
Speaker 2: guess you'd called a fan page. I'll say a business
39:04
Speaker 2: page that sounds more professional, and that's Jillian gar Ryder
39:08
Speaker 2: And that's just, you know, like an open page that
39:10
Speaker 2: you can like and choose to follow. It's not one
39:12
Speaker 2: where you submit a personal patre, you submit a friend request.
39:16
Speaker 2: So that's where I will post. Well, I the link
39:18
Speaker 2: to this. I'll be posting to this on there and
39:21
Speaker 2: reviews or stories I've written.
39:25
Speaker 1: Jillian gar thanks so much and we look forward to
39:27
Speaker 1: having you back on again in the future.
39:29
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, great, that's it.
39:39
Speaker 1: It's in the books.