Tuesday, November 14, 2017

100 FAVORITE QUEEN SONGS: 20 - 1

20. Long Away

At this point in the list, it is customary to reach the best so-and-so songs in particular groupings.  "Long Away" would be the best song that Brian May ever sang, not counting the melody's highest note which he handed off to Roger Taylor to tackle for logical reasons.  May swapped out his Red Special for a Burns twelve-string here, and "Long Away" became the only single put out during the band's lifespan that Freddie Mercury was not at all featured on.

19. Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Freddie's blatant and lively ode to Elvis Presley was "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", one of the most spontaneously constructed pop singles of all time.  Allegedly written in 10 minutes in the bath, Freddie's near non-existent guitar playing abilities restricted him to keeping it stupid simple. A handful of hours after he brought it in that very day to show everyone, it was properly recorded.  May once again busted out a different axe, this time a Telecaster for the solo, while Mercury did some of the only rhythm guitar ever laid down in his life.

18. In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited

Going for the biggest possible amount of noise to maximize on a recording was something that Queen endlessly did to torment their mixing engineers, and just such a laborious process was taken on Sheer Heart Attack's finale "In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited".  Freddie composed the song in an attempt to write something that a live audience could sing along to, and the majority of it was dedicated to the "Whoa oh la la la" vocal crescendos that nearly explode from the speakers by the last go-round.  "Revisited" is the perfect caper to the most perfect of Queen albums in my opinion, rightfully achieving a grandiose gusto to go out on.

17. Ogre Battle

One would hardly assume that the heaviest and certainly most metal as fuck Queen song was not written by their guitar riff guru Brian May, but instead Mr. Mercury.  Freddie wrote this bloody tale of exactly what the song title implies, (ogres marching into war), riffs and all on a guitar that he could barely play.  Then Brian May and the rest of the band chunked and tightened it up to acceptable standards.  "Ogre Battle" was one of the earliest of Queen songs, but was held off of the debut album until they could work on it more in the studio on the second one.  This is about as heavy as it gets for 1974, let alone for Queen in general.

16. You and I

After delivering solid gold with "You're My Best Friend", John Deacon's follow-up was the "Tie Your Mother Down" b-side "You and I".  The bass player performed acoustic guitar on it as well, and being piano based, he left that part up to the band's best ivory player, which was naturally Freddie.  Though Queen obviously had a stellar batch of hit singles in their career, just like any of my very favorite bands, album cuts such as "You and I" generally find my fancy so much more.  At least when a bloke like John Deacon was so increasingly crafty at delivering them.

15. Radio Ga Ga

The most synth-laden hit that Queen ever had was Roger Taylor's very 1980s yet very beautiful "Radio Ga Ga".  Taylor's son coined the phrase "radio ca ca" which probably made the drummer laugh out loud, nevertheless inspiring him to lock himself in a room with a keyboard and a drum machine to put the outline for the track together.  Initially considered for his own solo album, once the rest of the band got a hold of it, John Deacon added a bass-line to it, Freddie polished off the arrangement and some lyrics, and session player Fred Mandel put the synthesizer sequences together, it became thoroughly Queen's.

14. Dragon Attack

The jammiest and loosest Queen cut could very well be The Game's high-point "Dragon Attack".  Credited to Brian May, the song came together from a late night/early morning, fucking about session, (whilst "probably very drunk" says Brian), and the finished product has a number of breakdowns in a row.  These include a bass solo, a guitar solo, and even a percussion solo, all of which are often played alone over Roger's tight, funky groove.  The vocals likewise have an improvised feel and are basically rhyming gibberish, which makes the song even more lighthearted and fun.

13. Nevermore

I could have easily grouped "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke", "Nevermore", and "The March of the Black Queen" together but I often listen to the minute and seventeen second long "Nevermore" on its own, proving how solid it stands by itself.  This is essentially the breather in Freddie's "Side Black" on Queen II, a brief, beautiful, and captivating moment with his remarkable piano playing and the band's signature operatic vocal harmonies in tow.  Along with Sheer Heart Attack's "Dear Friends", it is the band's finest short and sweet piano interlude.

12. It's Late

News of the World's "It's Late" is a different kind of epic for Queen.  Grandiose, layered, rhapsodic, and dramatic are convincing words to use in describing even the shortest of Queen songs, let alone their more complex and multi-sectioned ones.  Yet for "It's Late", Brian May firmly rooted it in stripped-down guitar, bass, and drums, though it still adheres to being composed in three acts and near reaches the six and a half minute mark.  Lyrically, it tells the story of a love affair reaching its zenith, and the rich yet basic guitar intro is on the long list of my favorite individual moments from any Queen song.

11. A Kind of Magic

The first proper title track to actually appear on the album that its title shared was "A Kind of Magic".  Roger Taylor wrote a more complex and different version for the Highlander soundtrack, then Freddie re-arranged it similarly to how he tweaked "Radio Ga Ga" for maximum hit appeal.  To single out the best Brian May guitar solo is fruitless do to how many astounding ones there are, but the incredibly stylish leads that are featured in "Magic" are amongst his finest.  Freddie's vocal likewise is chill and romantic, showing just what you can do with taking a line from a movie and crafting a superb pop song around it.

10. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy

If we are to be honest, there probably is not a catchier Queen song than "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy".  Is there even a catchier song from the 1970s?  Freddie was still delivering the occasional music hall number at this point in the band's flawless years, and "Lover Boy" has his campy charm oozing all over it.  This has yet another guitar solo from Brian May that displays the highest possible level of craftsmanship; a call and response, meticulously arranged, brass-section-influenced lead that matches Freddie's ragtime pop sensibilities to a wondrous tee.

9. I Want to Break Free

Proving that both "You're My Best Friend" and "Another One Bites the Dust" were no flukes, John Deacon once again handed in a mega-hit with The Works' "I Want to Break Free".  Technically a 12-bar blues with no chorus, Deacon insisted on the song containing no guitar solo either, Fred Mandel once again saving the day with for my money, the best synthesizer lead in history.  Of course one cannot fail to mention the hilarious music video which poses the entire band in drag as a play on the British soap opera Coronation Street.

8. Mustapha

It was no joke that Queen was ready and willing to jump fully into any possible genre of music that they fancied, and the Jazz opener and clear highlight "Mustapha" finds them exploring what an umpa, Arabian, prog-pop jingle with heavy guitars would sound like.  Thankfully, it sounds fucking awesome.  Freddie put "Mustapha" together on the piano and threw English, Arabic, and fake-Arabic together to sing his praises to Allah, and that and the bouncy musical arrangement are equally headbanging and intentionally silly.  I love playing this song for people who are unaware of its existence and getting a series of "What the fucks?" and giggles from them.  It simultaneously proves just how brilliant, adventurous, and funny this band really was.

7. Spread Your Wings

Topping off the top-notch songwriting craft that John Deacon reliably displayed is his best song ever, News of the World's "Spread Your Wings".  The piano and vocal melodies are both fantastic, Freddie delivering each like a boss.  Sounding like a broken record I know, but Brian May really does peak with the outro guitar solo here, the most tasteful lead that he ever laid down.  Lyrically, "Wings" is an uplifting anthem for anyone who can relate to Sammy, his dead-end job, and his dreams of a more fulfilling life waiting for him whenever he decides to finally go for it.

6. Bring Back That Leroy Brown

Everything said about "Mustapha" sans all of the Arabic nonsense can likewise be said about the joyously goofy Sheer Heart Attack gem "Bring Back That Leroy Brown".  This is the greatest vaudevillian, old school Broadway song and dance number in Queen's catalog, and few songs ever written bring such a smile to my face.  Freddie Mercury authored, (because of course it is),  this has Queen grabbing every instrument that they can find laying around and proceeding to do a barber shop quartet number with them.  It is just over two minutes long, but it is also as exhausting and complex as "Bohemian Rhapsody" is, except even more silly.

5. Somebody to Love

With so many songs featuring the world's all time finest vocalist, there now comes what I would call the highest mountain top of Freddie Mercury's studio vocal performances, his own "Somebody to Love".  As a follow-up to "Bohemian Rhapsody", A Day at the Races' "Somebody" was Queen's answer to gospel music, and Freddie was admittedly and noticeably influenced by Aretha Franklin throughout it, singing his ass off as only he effortlessly could.  Freddie, Roger, and Brian's harmony vocal acrobatics here make them sound like a church full of bellowing choir ladies, and as one of the band's few soul songs, it shows that they could knock any genre out of the park that they chose to.

4. The Prophet's Song

Brian May went bonkers and pulled-out all the stops for his magnum opus and Queen's longest, the just shy of eight and a half minute "The Prophet's Song".  May worked on the arrangement for a while before oodles more time was then spent in the studio piecing it together.  The vocal canon that appears in the middle is the most jaw-dropping moment on any Queen song; Freddie harmonizing with himself in real time as his voice pans and loops around the speakers.  Lyrically, May took as much dark imagery from the Bible as well as elements of a disturbing dream he had to forge together a warning of doomed prophesies.  The final ultra-heavy "people of the earth" chorus literally gives me chills no matter how many hundreds of times I hear it.

3. The March of the Black Queen

Just topping out Brian May's ultimate prog-epic is Freddie Mercury's ultimate prog-epic, Queen II's paramount "The March of the Black Queen".  To say that this is the greatest Queen song of all time is not something that I can logically dispute.  It not only brought all of the band's incredibly ambitious ideas to ecstatic realization only two albums into their career, but it also mapped out a clear blueprint to follow for what became "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet's Song" a few years later.  Basically, all the proof that Queen was at one point a progressive rock band to rival all others can be found here.  No song in the band's entire repertoire is as complex and dazzling, and if you had but six and a half minutes only to demonstrate what this band was most impressively capable of, this would be your example.

2. These Are the Days of Our Lives

The last music video that Freddie Mercury ever shot was for the song that would be released on his forty-fifth birthday a mere two months before he was no more, Innuendo's incredible "These Are the Days of Our Lives".  Though primarily composed by Roger Taylor and dealing with his own feelings about growing older and living vicariously through his children, Freddie's vocal gives it an entirely elated urgency and meaning of looking back at his own life which was nearly over at the time.  It is as lovely of a Queen song as could ever exist, not to mention a fitting goodbye for Freddie to nearly go out on.

1. Dear Friends

I have no logical explanation as to why a minute long lullaby featuring only its author Brian May on piano and Freddie Mercury on vocals, (including the harmony ones), should be my all time favorite Queen song.  I could stop right there, but I suppose I will elaborate.  I am a sucker for ballads so I can surmise that my vigorous preference for Sheer Heart Attack's "Dear Friends" compared to everything else this band has is simply attributed to it being a subdued, gorgeously sung, and chill bit of song-craft that sits right at home to my ears.  It really does say something that so simple, so tender, and so brief a song can shine so bright amongst so, so many others with completely different and alluring qualities.  My list and my rules so here dear friends is where "Dear Friends" properly belongs.

Saturday, November 11, 2017

100 FAVORITE QUEEN SONGS: 40 - 21

40. Was It All Worth It

With a hefty number of pop hits, (which the band was still fully committed to writing at the time they began work on The Miracle), "Was It All Worth It" kicks out the jams as a guitar-bass-drums number.  It holds up as the best thing on the album and even with plenty of keyboard tinting, it still may be the heaviest Queen song of all time.  Roger Taylor's immense drum sound, (which is immense here even by his steadfast standards), certainly plays a role.

39. Procession/Father to Son

Since both sides of Queen's sophomore album Queen II act as a medley, this provides an ideal time to throw two tracks together for inclusion on this list with the instrumental intro "Procession" seguing directly into "Father to Son".   Both are Brian May songs, the former a quiet funeral march and the latter a part acoustic, part heavy, and a typically grandiose piece with a big chorus.   May ran his guitar through John Deacon's custom amp for both, giving it that somewhat muted sound during the quiet moments.

38. Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)

Out of all the songs that all the songwriters penned about John Lennon's tragic death, easily the best of them was "Life Is Real (Song for Lennon)" off Hot Space.  Freddie rarely came up with lyrics before music or a vocal melody, but this was a rare exception.  The end result is gorgeously styled after Lennon's own generally simple piano ballads, with odes in the lyrics and the opening three single note pattern that is meant to mimic both "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)".

37. White Queen (As It Began)

Queen II is remarkable in may respects, one of which is that it is easily the most unified of the band's albums conceptually.  Brian May's "White Queen (As It Began)" is as lavish and haunting as any moment from their history, with towering vocal harmonies, floating melodies, big ole guitar flourishes, and mythical lyrics inspired by a girl that May had a biology class and was enamored with.  It is also one of several Queen songs to feature their band name in the title, because when you are utilizing medieval fairy tale tropes in your lyrics, the word "queen" is bound to show up.

36. Son and Daughter

Two albums in a row with two Brian May songs titled "Son and Daughter" and "Father to Son", almost covering all angles of the family household dynamic.  This is certainly one of the sickest Queen guitar riffs and arguably their most typical 70s hard rock song.  Its sound and structure both solidify the band as one of the would-be originators of what would eventually blossom into heavy metal.  This was played at the first ever Queen concert and was the original home for May's live solo spot, which later would get properly recorded in studio on "Brighton Rock".

35. Good Company

Exhibit a billion as to why Brian May could very well be the most ingenious guitar player in all of rock music can be found on A Night at the Opera's "Good Company".  Written and performed on his dad's "Genuine Aloha" banjo ukulele, May had the idea to use up hours upon hours of studio time to make his Red Special sound like an entire Dixie Land jazz orchestra for the guitar solo.  It is jaw-dropping stuff, not just for how wonderful it is, but also for the "How the fuck did he even do that?" quality which is admirable to say the very least.

34. Love of My Life

A Night at the Opera's most pretty moment "Love of My Life" was a Queen song that musically went through one of the biggest changes from its studio to live rendition.  Written and performed on piano by Freddie as an ode to his long-lasting relationship with Mary Austin, Brian May played harp on it even though he had no real prior experience with the instrument, instead playing the chords painstakingly one at a time.  When it came time to do it every night on tour though, they logically said "fuck that noise" and re-arranged it for 12-string guitar, where it sounded just as enchanting.

33. Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley

The strongest and most inseparable Queen medley is that which appears on the first side of Sheer Heart Attack, "Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley".  All three songs were recorded separately with Roget Taylor penning "Funster" and Freddie Mercury the latter two.  On paper, each piece is significantly different from each other, with "Funster" being more on the funky and sexy side, "Flick" more up-tempo, heavy, and "single-ready", and "Lily" the pretty, piano carol to finish it all off.

32. You're My Best Friend

After dipping his toes into the songwriting pool with Sheer Heart Attack's understated "Misfire", John Deacon returned with the mega-hit "You're My Best Friend" on the proceeding A Night at the Opera album.  He wrote and played it on a Wurlitzer electric piano, (an instrument which Freddie openly hated), and it acts as the album's laid back, three-minute pop/love song, directly inspired by Deacon's wife.  Roger Taylor's backwards drum fills are a noticeable, pleasant touch as well.

31. Cool Cat

Queen almost had not one but two collaborations with David Bowie released on Hot Space as the latter provided a spoken word backing track to Freddie Mercury and John Deacon's mellow funk gem "Cool Cat".  Bowie was not a fan of the finished results so it was removed at the eleventh hour, which is all the better really as it is more or less unnecessary.  This song is funny in that my brother singled it out ages ago to me as one of the lamest Queen songs, only to have me light up and proclaim how wonderful it actually was.  A sentiment that I clearly still hold true.

30. More of That Jazz

The finest of Roger Taylor's lead vocal composition is Jazz' close-to-title-track "More of That Jazz".  Taylor once again most likely played all of the instruments on it, hitting some of his highest non-harmony vocal notes as well.  Slow, swampy, and one of the more stripped-down, groove oriented Queen songs, it marks a pleasant departure from their more trademark material.  It also features a brief montage of several other songs on the album near the end, acting as the ideal finale for the whole record.

29. Liar

In Queen's beginnings, Freddie Mercury brought in what would transform into "Liar", (originally titled "Lover"), and the rest of the band embellished it to become a concert standard for nearly the rest of the decade.  At nearly six and a half minutes, it was the longest song on their debut and would occasionally stretch to ten plus minutes in a such a live setting.  It also represents them at their collective heaviness, with a vocal/cowbell breakdown, a brief bass lead, structural turnovers, and of course vocal harmonies a plenty.

28. Seaside Rendezvous

While Brian May was spending weeks figuring out how to make his guitar sound like brass and woodwind instruments in "Good Company", Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor were equally and rigorously making their own voices sound like such things on "Seaside Rendezvous".  The song is a vaudevillian romp that only Freddie would have the bold silliness to compose.  Speaking of silly, he and Roger performed the entire "horn" section bridge with their mouths, then adding a tap dancing solo with their fingers.  Those were the days.

27. Sheer Heart Attack

Probably the best song that Roger Taylor wrote during the first half of the band's career was "Sheer Heart Attack", which was only an idea of a song when said album was made, thus finally finding a home a few years later on News of the World.  While The Sex Pistols were recording Never Mind the Bullocks at an adjacent studio at the exact same time, Queen, (sans John Deacon, whose bass guitar duties Taylor himself once again laid down), ended up tracking their answer to the punk movement with "Sheer".  Along with "Stone Cold Crazy", it stands as the most aggressive of all Queen songs.

26. Under Pressure

One of the biggest Queen singles, (released prior to Hot Space though still included on said album), "Under Pressure" marks one of the only collaborations the band ever partook of with a name musician, being David Bowie.  They had invited Bowie over to their studio in Monreux to work on something which they had called "Feel Like", all gentleman jointly participated on the music and lyrics that would become the finished product.  Thanks to John Deacon's crazy simple bass hook, (which he nearly forgot forever when they took a break from jamming on it), as well as Freddie and Bowie's outstanding call and response vocal improvising, it has remained one of their most enduring songs.

25. Innuendo

As far as the other major name collaboration that Queen had, that would be Steve Howe's flamenco guitar work on the Innuendo title track.  At six and a half minutes, "Innuendo" is the longest single that the band ever put out, and it is the most dynamic and complex on any of their later-era albums.  The bulk of it was gradually worked on by Brian, Roger, and John, with probably one of Brian's top ten ever riffs present.  Meanwhile, Freddie and producer David Richards extensively put together the bridge section, one of Mercury's many notable opera-based pieces.  He and Taylor then finished more of the lyrics and melodies, making it all a haunting, collaborative epic.

24. Sail Away Sweet Sister

Certainly one of the most outstanding album-only tracks in Queen's discography is The Game's "Sail Away Sweet Sister".  This is another that was never played live and never released in any form as a single, but it easily triumphs.  This goes back to the beginning for me, as it was one of the first Queen songs that I ever heard and one that my brother championed and played the shit out of way back when.  Brian May composed and sang most of it, (with Freddie handling that superb bridge and all of the piano), plus the lyrical guitar solo is on the prolonged list of May's most pristine.

23. In the Lap of the Gods

Though sharing a song title with the Sheer Heart Attack finale "In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited", the other such song featuring its words is otherwise substantially different, outside of the fact that each could be accurately described as a "ballad".  Also, neither song follows each other so grouping them together was ill-advised here.  This "Lap" has Roger Taylor's dog-whistle high notes and you can hardly miss them; his ethereal harmonies stealing the show more or less.

22. '39

Brian May as storyteller emerged on A Night at the Opera's "'39".  One of the only outer-space folk songs in existence anywhere and damn near the best song that May ever sang, the guitarist was and is an astronomy nerd, (decades later he studied for and achieved a PhD in astrophysics), and chose to write about a group of astronauts on a year-long journey that in turn became a hundred year long one once they came back.   So Christopher Nolan swiped its story for Interstellar is what I'm saying.

21. Stone Cold Crazy

Many bands, albums, songs, or even live performances can be credited as setting the course for what heavy metal would become.  Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" is a solid entry into such early, genre-defining terrain, to the point where no one batted an eye when Metallica covered it years later.  For anyone who likes headbanging, assaulting guitar riffs and rapid-fire a cappella vocals joining forces, this has you covered.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

100 FAVORITE QUEEN SONGS: 60 - 41

60. Need Your Loving Tonight

The Game was chock full of diverse, "hit ready" material, most of which was stripped down noticeably and deliberately from their more bombastic 70s sound.  John Deacon's "Need Your Loving Tonight" certainly comes off as a triumphant pop single even if that is not what it ended up as.  Already following his actually triumphant "Another One Bites the Dust" from the same album, it only further enforced the fact that Deacon had hook-writing chops in spades.

59. Seven Seas of Rhye

This was Queen's first hit in England, another fantasy diddy by Freddie Mercury and Brian May, (the latter uncredited).   I have to admit that I rarely listen to either the instrumental "Seven Seas of Rhye" that closes the debut album or the full version that does so on Queen II.  This is because the 1991 CD bonus dance remix, (most of which were pointless sans Rick Rubin's "We Will Rock You" which turned the final lick of May's guitar solo into a riff that the rest of the band then jammed on), has always been my most preferred since I initially heard it.

58. Breakthru

With a wealth of material recorded for The Miracle, (often sections of ideas rather than full songs), Queen chose to add most of Freddie's brief "A New Life Is Born" to Roger's more complete "Breakthru" to basically kill two birds with one stone.  As the band's drummer, naturally Taylor's compositions tended to be more on the driving side.  Case in point is the propelling "Breakthru", which has a hooky keyboard riff and a music video that featured the band on top of a moving steam train.

57. Save Me

Though Brian May's riff writing skills were always top notch and he more customarily stuck with guitar heavy compositions, he would also pen some piano ballads from time to time that were as strong as any of Freddie's.  The Game's "Save Me" still has bulky guitars as it should, but it is a part-mellow counterpoint to the album's opener and similarly paced "Play the Game".  For the lyrics, May supposedly channeled a friend of his breakup with his wife into a heartfelt plea of not being alone.

56. Fight from the Inside

Roger Taylor worked a lot on his own during the News of the World sessions, "Fight from the Inside" being his second composition on the album to be almost entirely performed by him.  I usually find Taylor's songs descent enough yet lacking behind the work of his bandmates, at least by comparison.  This one is a highlight though, with an equally sturdy and funky riff flavoring it up.

55. Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)

One way to make your non-English speaking audiences feel more at home is to sing the chorus to your song in their language instead of yours, which brings us to "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)".  Featuring Brian May tickling the ivories again and a huge, (of course), sing-along section in Japanese, the A Day at the Races caper was put out as single only in that country and also performed live there at every opportunity since.

54. You Take My Breath Away

Let us stick with A Day at the Races piano ballads shall we?  Freddie's "You Take My Breath Away" opens with some of his most gorgeous vocal harmonies, this time handled exclusively by the frontman as opposed to the usual mix of himself, Roger, and Brian.  The song has a dash of forlorn mood to it and is sparely arranged compared to Queen's usual bombastic standards, with Roger Taylor only stepping in to provide some cymbal flourishes.


53. Some Day One Day

Brian May opted to perform three independent guitar solos during the fade-out to his "Some Day One Day" track on Queen II, which is unique in the fact the axe legend would more commonly harmonize a single lead to a pristine extent.  This was also the first Queen song that he wrote and sang entirely alone.  Never a live staple or even put out as a b-side, it is a wondrous and lush ending to May's part of the album's "Side White".

52. Who Needs You

John Deacon back at it again with another excellent song on an album where he had more than one excellent song appear, this time being News of the World.  "Who Needs You" is the only bossa nova in Queen's entire catalog and there was no better a record for it to logically fit on than News, which was all over the place on every other track as well.  Deacon consistently delivered the least heavy material to the band, which was a necessary and welcomed addiction to their repertoire, making it as varied as possible.

51. Brighton Rock

My brother once played "Brighton Rock" to our buddy, (Zaius bass player Jeremy Bellen), when we were kids in an attempt to convince him that Brian May was a "better" guitarist than Jimmy Page, actually winning said argument in the process.  This features May's signature unaccompanied guitar solo piece, (which would be a live mainstay ever since and was previously showcased in "Son and Daughter"), lyrically telling the story of two mods holidaying in Brighton.  As far as Queen's circus rock highlights go, this is the, well, highlight.

50. Great King Rat

Queen set out to showcase such a strong and distinct sound from the word go on their debut, and Freddie Mercury's challenging, multi-sectioned "Great King Rat" is a crystallized representation of that sound.  The lyrics once more have religious imagery and even us an entire segment as a blasphemous mock sermon, pleading in character to "Put out the good and keep the bad" and not to "believe all you read in the Bible".  As if the world needed any more reasons to love Freddie Mercury.

49. Lazy On a Sunday Afternoon

The first of three old-timey camp jingles to appear on A Night at the Opera was Freddie's cheeky and great "Lazy On a Sunday Afternoon".  One of the shortest of Queen songs, (clocking in at just over a minute long), more recording studio exploration took place in miking the vocals through a pair of headphones placed in a tin can to give it a bygone era sound.  The band would eventually abandoned these type of throwback compositions, though calculated schmaltz, (always Freddie's doing), still found a home on future albums here or there.

48. All Dead, All Dead

Using universally sympathetic lyrics about grieving and mourning those that have passed on, Brian May delivered another stellar piano ballad with "All Dead, All Dead" on News of the World.  Freddie only provided harmony vocals, but nothing else from Mr. Mercury was needed really.  This has long been one of my favorite of May's tunes and though the majority of it is arranged gingerly, it easily has one of his finest multi-tracked guitar orchestrations near the middle.

47. Bohemian Rhapsody

Well, time to get the elephant out of the room, meaning answering the "Where is 'Bohemian Rhapsody' gonna show up?" question.  At this juncture, what more can really be said about Queen's signature piece?   I have never tired of it and have always loved it, but as you can see, I also never placed it at the top of the heap as the masses have.  The band really did pull out all the stops on it, layering the ever loving shit out of the recording and unleashing it to radio stations unedited, providing the world with one of the all time most headbanging riffs and the only opera breakdown in all of rock music.

46. The Millionaire Waltz

Freddie's "The Millionaire Waltz" was written about both Queen and Elton John's manager John Reid, and it is a studio performance tour de force for the band.  A complex ballroom piano serenade with multiple changes, John Deacon performed lead bass and Brian May tries to set a record for how many guitar overdubs he could thrown on a track.  The middle section where it busts out the heavy is a "typical" Queen moment where Freddie's nostalgia clashes magnificently with Brian's gigantic guitar orchestration.

45. White Man

The super-heavy "White Man" was Brian May's take on the injustices of Native Americans by European invaders and it is definitely one of the hardest hitting songs in all of Queen's catalog.  It utilizes that trusty hard rock hallmark to bounce from quiet verses to bombastically loud choruses, (something that Kurt Cobain for one would cherish doing in his own writing decades later), and it comes as close to menacing, full-out metal as Queen would ever get.

44. Fat Bottomed Girls

Sometimes a lyric cannot leave less to the imagination if it tried, and "Fat Bottomed Girls" is just such a lyric.  While watching a bike racing marathon tickled Freddie's creative bone, Brian May simply spoke a red-blooded, male truth in that "fat bottomed girls make the rockin' world go ROUND".  See what he did there?  Musically, this song's a cappela intro is pure gold, (and is a nice distant cousin to Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son"), plus the bluesy, drop-D riff is one of the band's more simple and engrossing.

43. Now I'm Here

Not necessarily a "working band on the road" song which every such act in the 1970s was almost required to deliver at some point, Brian May's "Now I'm Here" is more specifically an ode to their first American tour supporting Mott the Hoople.  Said tour was cut just short as Brian came down with hepatitis, which is when the band began working on Sheer Heart Attack.  "Now" has some memorable stereo-panned vocal echos, as well as a characteristic May riff for the books.

42. Who Wants to Live Forever

One of the most covered Queen songs is "Who Wants to Live Forever" which was written for the Highlander film by Brian May in the backseat of a car after seeing some rushes from it.  Though it was intentionally tailored to a specific moment in said movie, May was channeling plenty of his own feelings of loss around that time, (his father had recently died and his first marriage was on the fritz).  John Deacon sat this one out, with May providing all of the instrumentation along with the National Philharmonic Orchestra.

41. Dead on Time

Here is yet another aggressive Brian May gem showing up on Jazz and featuring a real thunderstorm recorded by the band, humorously credited to "God" on the liner notes.  May has admitted to being more fond of "Dead on Time" than Jazz' hit "Fat Bottomed Girls" that he likewise authored, but he was apparently alone in this in the Queen camp.  The song never got performed live, though it was thrown a bone as a b-side to "Mustapha".  As you can see, I agree with May.