Killer Queen
- Created by: **.kayleighanne
- Created on: 05-03-19 19:01
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- Killer Queen
- Background information and performance circumstances
- Written by Freddie Mercury and featured on Queen's third studio album 'Sheer heart Attack' - released November 1974
- Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on 5.9.1946 in Stone Town, Sultanate of Zanzibar (now Tanzania).
- He grew up in India, educated at St Peter's Boys school
- Started playing piano at the age of 7.
- Age 17 - family moved to Middlesex, England.
- Formed in London in 1970
- Consists of Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, Brian May and John Deacon.
- One of the few songs in which Freddie wrote the lyrics first.
- About an upper-class prostitute
- Reached 2 in the UK charts, and 12 on the US chart for the first time
- Won Freddie Mercury his first Ivor Novello Award
- Melody
- Mainly syllabic text setting
- Backing vocals use a mixture of words and vocables
- Bars 8-9: 'ooh'
- Bar 18: 'ba'
- Mostly conjunct melody
- Small leaps of a third or fourth
- Bars 7-8 show an altered descending sequence
- Verse and chorus combine conjunct and wide angular leaps in the melodic line
- Leaps often feature a major sixth (E.g. bars 6 and 7)
- Some exceptionally large leaps (An octave in bar 62)
- Performing forces and their handling
- Vocals performed by Freddie Mercury
- Tenor
- Lead and backing vocals, piano (overdubbed with honky tonk), four electric guitars, bass guitar, drum kit.
- Guitars and vocals are overdubbed to create a richer sound
- Guitar techniques
- Slides
- Bends
- Pull-offs
- Vibrato
- Recording techniques and effects
- Multi-tracking
- EQ (Equalisation)
- Flanger
- Distortion
- Reverb
- Wah-wah
- Panning
- Overdubbing
- Vocals performed by Freddie Mercury
- Texture
- Mainly homophonic
- Imitation
- Layering
- Three part texture during the guitar solo
- Use of panning
- Bars 42-43: Backing vocals
- Antiphonal
- Bars 67-68
- Harmony and Tonality
- Mainly in E flat major
- Opening in C minor, closing on an E flat major chord
- Tonality is ambiguous at times
- Passing modulations, strengthened by perfect cadences but often followed by parallel shifts, moving to a new key
- Most chords are in root position
- Some chords are in the first or second inversion
- Some use of dissonance
- Bar 30
- Seventh (extended) chords
- Bar 4
- Circle of 5th s
- Bars 20-21
- Use of altered and extended chords
- E.g. F11 bar 47
- Pedal
- Bars 27-30
- Tempo, metre and Rhythm
- Moderato tempo at 112 bpm
- Time signature 12/8
- Quadruple compound
- Swung feel
- Occasionally inserts a bar of 6/8
- Extends the phrase length
- Every verse and chorus starts with an anacrusis (upbeat)
- Syncopation is used frequently
- Bars 44-46
- Triplets
- Bar 18
- Structure
- Verse 1 (Bars 2-14)
- Unusual start with 6 finger clicks (heard throughout) leading into Verse 1
- Anacrusis on the melody
- Voice accompanied by short, detached chords on the piano
- Bass and drums enter - bar 6
- Tonally unstable
- Opens in C minor but quickly shifting
- Descending sequence in Guitar 1 - bar 7
- Bar 11 - Vocal falsetto
- 4 bar phrase, then extended by a 6/8 bar to 5 bars in length
- Chorus 1 (Bars 14-22)
- Eight bars in length
- 5 + 3 phrasing
- Cadenced into B flat major
- Moves to D minor, then C major before shifting in parallels to a circle of fifths then another slide to B flat.
- Lead and backing vocals sing together in harmony
- Creating a four-part texture
- Bar 15
- Backing vocals use vocables
- Bar 18
- Portamento slide
- The word 'Queen' - Bar 15
- Change of EQ and Flanger
- 'Laser beam' - Bar 17
- Backing vocal 'stabs'
- Bar 18
- Eight bars in length
- Instrumental (Bars 23-26)
- Guitar 1 and 3 play in thirds using slides and vibrato
- Verse 2 (Bars 26-38)
- As verse 1 - with the addition of four-part backing vocals
- Bar 31
- Drums enter early (with a drum roll) with guitar 2
- Inner chromatic descending pattern
- Bars 31-33
- Main vocal uses spoken text for dramatic effect
- Bar 38
- Bass guitar develops to use pentatonic and chromatic scales
- Bars 37-30
- As verse 1 - with the addition of four-part backing vocals
- Chorus 2 (Bars 38-43)
- As chorus 1.
- Cut short using the first 5-bar phrase
- Guitar solo (Bars 44-61)
- Starts off mimicking the first part of the chorus (bars 20-21) before expanding into a three-part guitar solo (Bar 23)
- Chords use a descending pattern between bars 44-47
- Guitars 3 and 4 use imitation against guitar 1 before coming together in bar 50 to create a three-part texture
- Bar 48
- Harmony returns to the verse chord sequence, with the original melody, embellished.
- Bar 51
- Solo goes back to guitar 1 until bar 55, where guitar 2 and 3 again use hocketing before coming together.
- Harmony is extended, repeated imperfect cadence for two bars
- Verse 3 (bars 61-69)
- Only 7 and a half bars long
- First part is an extended variant of bars 12-13
- Three-part guitar 'response' to vocal line
- Beat 3 at the end of Bar 62
- Word painting of the words 'drive you wild'
- Climax at bar 67 on the work 'wild'.
- Vocals singing very high in 4 parts followed by a response from the band.
- Only 7 and a half bars long
- Chorus 3 (Bars 69-78)
- Sim ilar to previous choruses with the addition of a guitar solo
- Outro (Bars 79-End)
- Music fades over E flat major chord
- Harmony suggests a repeated VI-V-I cadence
- Fading on the subdominant with guitars 1 and 2 playing in thirds, imitation between guitars 3 and 4.
- Verse 1 (Bars 2-14)
- Background information and performance circumstances
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