I've always considered Queen to be an experimental rock group. I'm not even sure if that's the proper title for them, but I've always been fascinated with how the band transformed their sound throughout their 20 some years of existence with Freddie Mercury. Think about it. They've covered a wide variety of musical genres, all of which that were done in this tongue-in-cheek manner.
Queen incorporated, to one extent or another, opera, classical, country, vaudeville, folk, psychedelic, dance/disco, gospel, speed metal/thrash metal (debatable), arena rock, glam rock, ragtime, and many others into their music. Let's face it, some serious musicians frown upon rock and roll for its simplicity and/or ruckus behavior. Rock hasn't always been attractive to older generations. Queen gave people like Axl Rose a reason to say 'look, this is music, not trash'. In fact, I think it's safe to say that Queen have influenced musicians from different generations, countries, and genres. In a word it's, dare I say, 'unique'.
I thought I'd just say a few words on the spur of the moment. Feel free to disagree with my humble opinions!
Not long ago I was reading an article about 25 (or was it 50?) guitarists who played an important role in the evolution of the electric guitar. Les Paul was one of the first guitarists mentioned in the article, for making experiments with speeded up tapes, overdubs, etc, and when Brian is mentioned, the magazine says that if Les Paul invented guitar overdubbing, Brian May developed it and made it perfect.
Different issues of this same magazine (Guitar Player) also mention Brian in special articles about "unusual" tricks, "creative" tricks, experimentalism, etc.
They've already mentioned Procession, for featuring several different guitars harmonizing with each other instead of one or two guitars playing chords, Ogre Battle's backwards intro (they pointed out how interesting it is to play the tape backwards like Brian did instead of playing the song backwards on the guitar, because the reverb is heard before the actual notes), Good Company's counterpoint guitars, Brighton Rock (from Live Killers) for the canon effect, among others.
Thank you for the input, Raf. That was some awesome trivia that I was unaware of. The one thing I'd like to add about Brian May is that although he wasn't the greatest technical guitar player, he certainly made up for it in creativity and genuine emotion.
Obviously not many people found this topic of discussion interesting, which is rather peculiar. As Queen fan's I'd hope that we are aware of their musical transitions and experimentations. For example, take a look at this interview of Freddie Mercury. link
In this particular interview Freddie Mercury describes, from his perspective, what a Queen fan is. He said it is somebody who is sophisticated and aware of Queen's changes. He also notes that the music that Queen produces is always fresh, or at least he tries to make it that way. Take it the way you want it, but here is a prime example of Queen's attitude.
Freddie Mercury along with the rest of the band were interested in breaking new grounds and expanding their horizons. As I stated weeks ago Queen are associated with gospel, opera, country, vaudeville, latin, heavy metal, rockabilly, baroque, and several other musical genres! We as Queen fans should be proud of their very distinguishable trait.
I think Queen was also experimental in the way of stacking up sounds like guitars and vocals.
Ofcourse they weren't the first band to use vocal harmonies, or guitar harmonies. But I dare to say that Queen were the first to take it to THIS extend. Especially stuff like Millionaire Waltz, which has tons of vocals and guitars.
Yes, the overlayering of harmonies was and still is a special touch that Queen incorporated into some of their masterpieces. The way I've always interpreted it is that they sort of used their voices and guitars to substitute for an orchestra. Prime examples would obviously include The Millionaire Waltz, Bohemian Rhapsody, Good Company, and All Dead, All Dead.
I'd like to point out that within these songs they actually intended to mimick an orchestra in one way or another. For example, within 'Good Company' Brian May literally squeeked out little trombone melodies out of the beautifully crafted Red Special guitar. And within that song he stacked several notes to create beautiful, well not exactly, harmonies. Another good example, which is my favorite one, is 'All Dead, All Dead'. According to Classic Rock magazine, "the showpiece has to be the central instrumental section, and if you're still in search of the classic definition of May's so-called 'guitar orchestrations' you'll find it here." That instrumental section is like a string orchestra, it's so cunningly smooth and powerful.
Thank you for bringing that up, Fried Chicken.
I always liked to think of Queen as a band who, at times, went through more styles of music in one song than some bands went through in their entire career! Hah......ok that might be a bit of an exaggeration.....
As for Brian being not the best guitar player technique-wise??? Hmm....maybe hes not Stevie Vai or Yngwie Malmsteen, but hes no slouch...also, Brian never really focused on out and out guitar pyrotechnics, bar an extravagant solo here and there.....