(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Sat 6 December 2025 17:15, UK
There’s no such thing as going too over the top when it comes to Queen.
The entire process of layering different tracks on top of each other was all in service to creating the most theatrical experience possible, and there was never a sense that any of them knew what the word ‘subtlety’ meant when they made tracks like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. They had their sombre moments, but even when painting their masterpieces, Brian May felt that there was a line that they crossed a few too many times.
Then again, May has a hand in making a lot of Queen’s tracks so epic. It’s easy to focus on what Freddie Mercury did with those mountains of vocal harmonies, but May’s focus on treating the guitar solo like a second voice meant layering even more guitar harmonies on top of everything. But that’s not to say that they couldn’t strike the right balance every now and again as well.
May’s guitar might be the perfect complement to Mercury’s voice on many of the band’s classic tunes like ‘We Will Rock You’, but when listening to ‘Love of My Life’, hearing him turn the guitar into a violin on many of the solo moments is absolutely gorgeous when offsetting Mercury’s powerhouse voice. But even after thinking outside the box on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, getting the whole band together to make the song ‘We Are the Champions’ was bound to be a sticking point with May.
As much as he loved the tune, the idea of his guitar overpowering the voice was always going to be a sore spot for him. After all, the whole track is about Mercury telling the world that they have become champions of the universe, and when you have May fighting his way through many of the choruses, he was worried that it would only distract people from the rest of the chorus when they played.
It was Mercury’s song at the end of the day, but the frontman insisted that the guitar solos stay in the final mix, with May remembering, “Freddie had his hand on my guitar, and I had my hand on his vocals. He’s pushing up the guitar more and more, and I’m going, ‘Freddie, are you not overdoing it?’ [He said], ‘No. The guitar is fighting with the vocal here, and that’s the way it should be.”
And what’s remarkable is how no part of the tune ever seems cluttered. May’s leads could have easily been mindless shredding for the hell of it, but the more you listen to it, you can’t think of any piece of the chorus without him being able to answer the rest of the band. If you think about what the tune is about, there’s also a little bit of tone painting going on whenever the chorus rolls around.
Let’s break this down for a second. This is a song about victory after a long battle. No one gets people to relate to something like that if you don’t at least imply that it was a struggle to get there, and hearing May’s guitar fighting against the rest of the band is the musical version of that battle taking place before the chorus finally hits that triumphant climax when Mercury and the guitar start harmonising with each other on the final section.
So that by the time that the song fades into oblivion, the audience hasn’t only listened to a song that they could play every single time their local sports team wins a game. It’s a song that they can appreciate because they are literally listening to a music battle taking place across both sides of the speaker.
Related Topics