The Prophet’s Song answers for all time the nagging question of whether Queen was really a progressive rock band. Side one washes up on the delightful shores of Seaside Rendezvous and some of the mouth trumpeting this side of “ You’re Sixteen.” You’ll be convinced this is the most glorious side of plastic ever pressed. And just when you’re about to say that May should whip out that acoustic guitar more often, he blows you away with a biting electric guitar riff on Sweet Lady. John Deacon is up next and delivers a perfect pop song (sung by Freddie) with “You’re My Best Friend.” Brian May finally appears and proves worth the wait with what may be greatest science-fiction folk song ever written, ’39. The album’s pacing is deliberate Queen is laying out a royal flush, card by card, and relishing the reveal. The first track is a deliberate slap in the face, followed immediately by the carefree “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon” (a deliberate throwback to the Kinks and Herman’s Hermits) and the auto-erotic overdrive rock of Roger Taylor’s I’m in Love with My Car. Compare “With a Little from My Friends” to “You’re My Best Friend,” or “When I’m Sixty-Four” to “Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon.”īeginning with Death on Two Legs, one of the nastiest songs ever written, Queen’s Opera is breathtaking. I believe that Queen had The Beatles in mind when they began cultivating four unique musical personalities in the band and gleefully moved between music hall and rock & roll, all while pushing production values to the maximum. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, and that’s not accidental. The last time I felt this way about an album was Sgt.
Queen turns everything it touches into gold on Opera, with the consequence that everything before and after seemed a bit cruder by comparison.
The band’s last album, Sheer Heart Attack, tried unsuccessfully to blend rock, music hall, prog and four songwriters into a cohesive whole. I mention this because A Night at the Opera is Midas touched. The story of King Midas is beloved by children because it presupposes that anything is possible and everything has consequences. The royal flush of rock and roll albums, revealed card by card with unconfined joy.
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