In a recent interview, famous Queen guitarist Brian May shared behind-the-scenes insights into the recently released song “Face it Alone”, recorded in the late 1980s, during the creation of Queen’s 13th studio album. band, The Miracle.
“The crowning glory is, of course, Freddie’s voice,” he told the outlet. total guitar. “It’s just magnificent. You hear that quality in his voice. You hear the passion in his voice. Y not afraid. The way he bends some of those notes is so beautiful.”
May also confessed that the song is extraordinary, with a moving backstory, since it was recorded at a time when Freddie Mercury had been diagnosed with HIV positive. And he remembered “We were dealing with Freddie’s declining health and coming together to support him.”
Despite everything that was happening and the deterioration of his physical condition, the singer was the one who took the lead during the recording. “There was always one of us who was in charge. He would come up with lyrics and walk us through that wonderful material. And while we were working on it, we were very excited about it.”
During the note he explained that this is a set piece to which all four members of the band contributed: Freddie, Brian, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. “It is rare to find fragments that encapsulate the four working together”he commented. “But John is there, absolutely live with Freddie. And Roger is there with his strange percussion atmospheres”.
“One of the discussions we had, and one of the reasons we wanted to release it, is because it’s all original,” he said. “We fixed it up a little bit and I think, well, I know, if we had worked on it more, it would have changed. It could have become a six minute epic. But I really like it the way it is. It’s very genuine. talk about the time”.
On the other hand, the guitarist revealed that in his guitar solo “You can hear that I played this solo basically as a way to go from the first to the second verse. It was like, “This is how I feel right now, we’ll probably work on it later, but who knows what could happen.” So the solo happens quite a bit in the moment. It’s me trying to become a voice next to Freddie’s to spread the vibe and message of the song. It’s something very real”.
In the note May explains that his lead guitar break on Bohemian Rhapsody, voted the greatest solo of all time by TG readers in 2021, reached nine bars. In seven bars, his solo on Face It Alone once again eschews traditional four/eight bar structures.
“He wasn’t conscious that way. It’s not a matter of counting. But it’s a conscious way of building things, so you leave a place open for the voice to take over again. So conscious in an unconscious way I think. That’s the way we build songs, so there’s room for ideas to develop and then move on.”
However, he commented on the note that there are a couple of details Brian isn’t sure about.
First, the strange and brave sound of the arpeggios on this track. “The basic backing sound? Well, I don’t remember very clearly. So either it’s a keyboard or it was turned into a keyboard sound through a device, and I don’t really know. I see what you’re saying. I’ll have to go back and take a look!”
Second, Was he playing that solo with a pick or fingerstyle? It feels very personally delivered in the way fingerstyle often does, but it also sounds like the jingle of metal on a string.
“You’re asking all the right questions and I don’t have all the right answers! I think it would probably just be with the finger. It is quite a sensitive piece. Of course, with your finger you can flick it, so it still has sort of a metallic edge, but it has a lot more feel to it. So I think it was done with the first finger.”
In his reference to the 1975 Bohemian Rhapsody evolutionary video, he said “It’s like it looks in the Rhapsody video, very briefly. Sometimes it makes me smile, because I didn’t realize I was doing it so long ago. He was hammering with his right hand instead of ripping.”
total guitar he recalled that The Miracle was the first Queen album where, as an expression of unity, writing credits for all songs were attributed to the group as a whole. But as Brian says now, “there was always one of us who ran the group.” And with face it alone that was Freddie. “He came up with the lyrics and walked us through this lovely material. And while we were working on it, we were very excited.”
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