A Night At The Opera was Rock band Queens 4th album and at the time apparently the most expensive album ever made with recording taking place at 5 different studios (and even three at the same time). The recording techniques demonstrated as well as the inventiveness of the music which easily fit together and incorporated many different styles and genres into their one.
Despite recording other semi-successful albums and being the band that they were pre-ANATO queen had very little money due maybe to the nature of their success or as they saw it due to their manager who to get rid off they eventually hired a lawyer (who would later become their manager). Because of this they had to pay a type of severance package almost of £100,000 which they definitely couldn't afford. They decided to make a new album and they definitely needed the cash if the album was a flop then they would be ruined and the band (according to Brian May) would probably have disbanded, they had no choice their new album had to be a success.
They queen allegedly recorded at five separate studios and at the time were able to use 24 track technology in order to record; though apparently even this wasn't enough. Queen used a lot of over dubs on vocals and as well as on guitar (some vocal parts apparently had more than one hundred). It is said that they recorded on to some tape so often that they started to ware it out and could see through it having to transfer to other tape. Having to use so many vocals on overdubs if done manually would mean that the harmonies would probably become extremely messy however queen made use of double tracking technology where they could record the main harmonies and then re-record the same sounds back on to the tape but delayed by fractions of a second in order to create a thicker sound. This double tracking wasn't only used on the vocals but on the guitar as well in order to create lusher sounds. The double tracking on good company a
Trad Jazz Like ditty played with ukulele and double bass. use is made of double tracking guitar in order to note by note create
trumpet like sounds.
Queen really was a rock band but inside this and inside this album they fuse many different genres and styles in order to create theirs. Much of the album as stated by the is like an opera especially its single bohemian rhapsody however other elements and styles are also used such as folk, rock, heavy metal pop and ballad like songs. Death on two legs is a heavy metal songs written about former Queen manager. 39 is a song written in a folk style and songs like you're my best friend and love of my life are more pop orientated ballad like songs. The harmonies are really very intricate the opera/rock/ballad (basically just epic) type song bohemian rhapsody starts with an acaela introduction and then also has an acapla section in the middle also the prophets song has a long acapela section at the end. Sometimes harmonies such as the bohemian rhapsody introduction were done only by Freddy Mercury (the lead singer) however the other members of the band also contributed harmonies as well; Roger Taylor the bands drummer was a pretty good singer and had a higher range than Freddy. Rogers high falsetto can be heard on the middle section of bohemian rhapsody as well as on the prophets song etc. Brian Mays guitar solos are usually very melodic such as on lazing on a Sunday Afternoons guitar solo or any of the solos on Bohemian Rhapsody which were actually composed by Freddy Mercury on piano and then played to Brian May on piano for him to copy on his guitar.
Queen really was a rock band but inside this and inside this album they fuse many different genres and styles in order to create theirs. Much of the album as stated by the is like an opera especially its single bohemian rhapsody however other elements and styles are also used such as folk, rock, heavy metal pop and ballad like songs. Death on two legs is a heavy metal songs written about former Queen manager. 39 is a song written in a folk style and songs like you're my best friend and love of my life are more pop orientated ballad like songs. The harmonies are really very intricate the opera/rock/ballad (basically just epic) type song bohemian rhapsody starts with an acaela introduction and then also has an acapla section in the middle also the prophets song has a long acapela section at the end. Sometimes harmonies such as the bohemian rhapsody introduction were done only by Freddy Mercury (the lead singer) however the other members of the band also contributed harmonies as well; Roger Taylor the bands drummer was a pretty good singer and had a higher range than Freddy. Rogers high falsetto can be heard on the middle section of bohemian rhapsody as well as on the prophets song etc. Brian Mays guitar solos are usually very melodic such as on lazing on a Sunday Afternoons guitar solo or any of the solos on Bohemian Rhapsody which were actually composed by Freddy Mercury on piano and then played to Brian May on piano for him to copy on his guitar.
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