Did Brian really play a harp on this (as has sometimes been claimed), or did he simply use his Red Special to create the effect (sounds far more likely) ?
He really played harp.
Freddie: "Brian is going to attempt to use harp, real life-size harp. I'm going to force him to play till his fingers drop off. It's called Love Of My Life."
Good_Company50 wrote: You may be thinking of Love of My Life -- he played harp on that song.
Contrary to popular belief, Brian May is not a harpist and can not play the instrument.
For 'Love Of My Life' Brian had to play each chord individually, recording the track chord by chord, and finally stitching all the small fragments together to create some semblence of a unified piece.
It works well, but please do not invite him to play the instrument live, as he just could not do it!