A Night At The Opera

Christmas 1975 was a turning point in the development of my musical taste. Not that is was too shabby, I was listening to Slade, David Bowie, Marc Bolan and Elton John, having been too young to fully appreciate the Beatles, Rolling Stones or The Who (that appreciation would arrive later in life). Mum and Dad finally listened to my Christmas request and bought me "A Night At The Opera" on vinyl. From this point onward Christmas and Queen were tied together for me. I also attended their Christmas Eve concert at the Hammersmith Odeon, which the BBC were good enough to film so that I could watch it many times, on many Christmas holidays, since then. I think that's enough of the 'Good Old Days', so back to the album.

You just knew you were listening to something special when the opening rolling piano introduction of "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to.....)"changes to  a deep throbbing rock guitar riff and then back to piano, with guitars laid on top, before Freddie launches into one of the most scathing attacks on a person ever put down in song. The ex-manager in question, Norman Sheffield, is never mentioned by name but proceeded let the cat out of the bag when he decided to try and sue the band for defamation. "Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon"  , which sounds as though it could have been lifted from the world of vaudeville, leads in to "I'm In Love With My Car", Roger Taylor's one writing contribution on the album, but one that would earn him a lot of money when it was added to "Bohemian Rhapsody" as the B-side. John Deacon's "You're My Best Friend", also his lone writing contribution, is next. It's a perfect slice of bubbly pop which he wrote for his wife Veronica. Brian May's "39" is next, about a group of space travellers going out to explore the universe. Due to the time dilation effect, which can be read about in Einstein's Theory Of Special Relativity, they find their one year space voyage has lasted 100 years on earth and all the people they knew and loved are now dead. It is a fantastic song driven by an almost rockabilly rhythm underpinning some great acoustic guitar chords. "Sweet Lady" is a faster, rockier song before "Seaside Rendezvous", notable for it's use of human voices (Freddie & Roger) to imitate clarinet, brass and kazoo in the instrumental break. I couldn't wait to flip it over and play side two.

Side One

1. Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To…) 3:43

2. Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon 1:08

3. I'm in Love with My Car 3:05

4. You're My Best Friend 2:50

5. '39 3:25

6. Sweet Lady 4:01

7. Seaside Rendezvous 2:13

Side Two

1. The Prophet's Song 8:17

2. Love of My Life 3:38

3. Good Company 3:26

4. Bohemian Rhapsody 5:55

5. God Save the Queen (Instrumental) 1:11

Side two opens with my favourite track "The Prophet's Song". Brian has since explained that he wrote this after awaking from a dream about The Great Flood. This led to the biblical references from the account of  Noah's Ark. At 8 minutes 17 seconds it is the longest Queen song, apart from the untitled instrumental track on "Made In Heaven". "Love Of My Life", one of Freddie's most beautiful songs, was written for his then girlfriend Mary Austin. It became a tradition at concerts for Freddie to stop singing and conduct the crowd in singing most of the song. This tradition was continued when Queen & Paul Rodgers went on the road, with Brian performing solo on guitar and letting the crowd do the singing. So at this point did I expect to hear a Dixieland Jazz Band? No. Of course not. But that is what I now heard in "Good Company" as Brian May recreated that sound using his own hand built "Red Special" guitar and the John Deacon designed "Deacy Amp". The next track on the album must have had more written about it than 99% of the songs ever released and deserves every word of praise it has received through the years. "Bohemian Rhapsody" would top the UK charts for 9 weeks (and another 5 weeks in 1991), become the 3rd biggest selling single in the UK, the first song to reach Number 1 twice with the same version and in 2012, and on the TV show "The Nation's Favourite Number One", which aired on 15th July 2012, it was voted by the British public into first place. The album closes with a guitar version of the UK National Anthem "God Save The Queen" with Brian later revealing that it was an homage to Jimi Hendrix who had given a similar treatment to "The Star Spangled Banner"

Bohemian Rhapsody

You're My Best Friend