STACK #192 Oct 2020

MUSIC FEATURE

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QUEEN A NIGHT AT THE OPERA Bryget Chrisfield explores the creation, impact, and astonishing legacy of her favourite classic records.This month: Queen’s A Night At The Opera .

not to drum too hard, since they couldn’t afford new drumsticks. However Queen’s fourth record, A Night At The Opera , was the most expensive album ever made at the time of release (estimated cost £40,000, equivalent to around £338,000 in 2020). During an interview Molly Meldrum conducted with Freddie in Sydney – to promote his debut solo album, 1985’s Mr Bad Guy – the Queen frontman said of the song affectionately referred to as Bo Rhap, “It was basically, like, three songs that I wanted to put out and I just put the three together. And then it

Q ueen first performed in Australia After arriving late to the legendary festival, the band was initially booed, which inspired Freddie Mercury’s prophetic retort: “When we come back to Australia, Queen will be the biggest band in the world!” A Night At The Opera ’s lead single and crowning achievement – Bohemian Rhapsody – dropped in October, 1975 with Queen releasing two albums ( Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack ) the year prior. Despite the success of Sheer Heart Attack (the Ivor Novello Award-winning second single Killer Queen a particularly appealing calling card), Queen were still broke going into the creation of A Night At The Opera . The story goes that the band’s finances were in such dismal shape that Roger Taylor was warned at Sunbury (January, 1974) off the back of their self-titled debut record.

Year 1975

had a very big risk factor, yes - the radios didn’t really like it initially, because it was too long, and

it seemed to trickle away when you were standing on a box in a studio with lots of kids around. But you could hardly knock it because it was the way that records were sold.” During Queen’s

the record company said, ‘You can’t market it that way,’ and after me having virtually put the three songs together they wanted me to slice it up again so I said, ‘No way!... It either goes out in its entirety or not at all.’ It was a big risk.

mini-doco Inside The Rhapsody , May points out all of the video’s special effects were

Freddie enjoying a cup o’ tea while on tour in Japan, 1975

It was either going to be a big flop, because nobody would play it, or something would happen. And luckily it became a major hit.” The very mention of Bohemian Rhapsody will either conjure visuals of Wayne and Garth headbanging/singing along to the song or the four members of Queen’s heads whizzing around onscreen à la the official film clip. Mid-last year, Bohemian Rhapsody became the first pre-1990s music video to exceed a billion YouTube streams - not bad for a promotional vid that was filmed to get the band out of appearing on Top Of The Pops , as Brian May revealed: “ Top Of The Pops didn’t have a good reputation amongst musicians. Nobody liked it, really. It always seemed like a bit of a travesty. If your music had any meaning,

“done on the spot” (hello, prism lens!), adding, “We’re sort of recreating the cover of Queen II ”. According to May, the song – notes, arrangement, production – was “all in Freddie’s head,” but Freddie also stressed his masterpiece had a very long gestation period: “ Bohemian Rhapsody didn’t just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research, although it was tongue-in-cheek and it was a mock opera. Why not?” You can just imagine Freddie looking haughty while nonchalantly waving his smoking hand – brandishing a lit durrie – in the air, to illustrate this point. “Why not?” indeed... BC

Cotinue reading the full feature online at stack.com.au

Queen in 1975, L-R: Roger MeddowsTaylor, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon

78 OCTOBER 2020

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