Hello guys and girls Queenzoners !
I have 2 questions that you could enlighten me on the song White Queen:
1) Is it true that Brian wrote this music where he actually experienced an platonic love for a blind girl in their period of college ?
2) I always get fascinated when I hear this music, especially the part where Brian plays incredibly in the passage of 2:48 to 3:26 seconds. But then that my doubt, he plays what instrument or / with what effect on your guitar in this part that sounds so different ?
I hope someone can answer this for you. I've got nothing myself, though I think we need a thread to appreciate the genius of this song. Because it's really good. Like, really good. If you get my drift.
Brian has said this about WQ on the Soapbox:
"White Queen" - back in time again - I wrote this at College, where I led a relatively sheltered life, even though the University on the whole was a pretty rampant pace! I had been reading "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves, which explored the role of the idealised Virgin/Mother/Queen/ figure in art through history, and the name for our group, decided just around that time, fitted in with this perfectly - which was one of the reasons I was convinced to go with the name. The personal side is bound up with a girl (of course!) whom I saw every day at College, and was to me the ultimate goddess. It's incredible in retrospect, but because I held her in such awe, in three years I never had the courage to speak to tell her, or even speak to her. The song found its way on to tape much later, on our second album." link
The Graves work heavily employs moon imagery and there is some sense of that in WQ I find.
He also talks about It's Late and Some Day One Day at the link if anybody is interested. There was a time before all the badgerism when the Soapbox was so often such a great place to read. I miss that.
Oh man, I remember I used to visit Brian's Soapbox on a daily basis back then. Before all the craziness there were some interesting posts by our beloved Dr. Bri. I still remember reading a post of his after their performance with Paul Rodgers in 2004, thinking he sounded really enthusiastic but on the other hand telling myself not to get over-excited... "there's no way they're touring together" and then the great surprise on December 10th, 2004, if I remember correctly.
I love the song and it's a good story behind as described by Brian. I do prefer the live versions better than the studio version though and I wished they had of recorded it that way. It's the classic Queen sound for me with drums, bass, piano and guitar. All four work beautifully together.
Some quick comments:
- thank you very much for the soapbox transcript. It DID use tobe a lot more interesting. I still visit several times a day and I know this is creepy :)
- Beautiful song, deffo among the best.
- BBC version rules.
Cheers,
Ogre-
did you know that if you zoom in on London on google earth, you can see a giant badger!
dont ask me the co ordinations probably suburbs, who knows it could be where Brian used to live but IT IS THERE
I SEEN A PIC OF IT.
ITS ON THISVIDEOS
He says its something else like a rat or something
but its definitely a badger
ok found it for you
took me agesand the guys videos are crap
so dont bother about them
the only way you can be saved is by a gift of faith from God in Jesus Christ
not by looking at pams of the world
but anyway here is the badger!!!!!
4.52 into the video link
you will be amazed when you see it promise
i bet Brian knows about it
probably why he is into Badger's so much.
its on buckingham palace where Brian stood, maybe he got infected by the Badger bug then, as he was stood right on it.
Best Version is the live rendition on the bonus extras where Freddie introduces the song a "delicate little number from Brian May". Excellent music and vocals and love the musical break in the middle with the piano and guitar absolutely amazing!
GuitarMay wrote:
2) I always get fascinated when I hear this music, especially the part where Brian plays incredibly in the passage of 2:48 to 3:26 seconds. But then that my doubt, he plays what instrument or / with what effect on your guitar in this part that sounds so different ?
this solo, as admitted by Brian, is played with a small and cheap acoustic guitar with the strings adjusted to beat up the fretboard...
GuitarMay wrote:
2) I always get fascinated when I hear this music, especially the part where Brian plays incredibly in the passage of 2:48 to 3:26 seconds. But then that my doubt, he plays what instrument or / with what effect on your guitar in this part that sounds so different ?
this solo, as admitted by Brian, is played with a small and cheap acoustic guitar with the strings adjusted to beat up the fretboard...
God! Great thread! I'm in love with this song. Nothing much to say, but the fact that it's been great reading about it, and reading about Dr. Bri's post about it on 2004 because I missed that one! Cheers, everybody! ( Such "a delicate little numberrrr")
Thanks for posting the link to Bri's song discussion. Loved reading it - esp. about 'It's Late', one of my favorites. I just read Pete Townshend's autobiography and he describes what life on the road is like, which Brian alluded to, and the groupies throwing themselves at you. I'm sure it was hard/impossible to remain faithful to someone.
The book about the Red Special has a close up of the acoustic guitar used on this song, and it seems the make was Hallfred (single or double 'l', I'm not sure). It also says 'guitarre', which would suggest it's a Catalan brand.