Queen Discussion Thread

Father To Son

Written by: Brian May

Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
Brian May - acoustic & electric guitars, piano, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar, acoustic guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals





- Segued in from Procession, this also used to follow in early live performances. Later on it would be played later in the set.

- With some comparisons to The Who, this is full of power chords but also tempo shifts and an emotional lead vocal.

- Features a great singalong at the end of the song that segues nicely into the next number.

- Marks the first appearance of John Deacon playing guitar on a Queen album!

QUOTES:

- “On Queen II, there is a lot of stuff which I like because that was the beginning of doing guitar orchestrations which I always wanted to do. ‘Father To Son’ starts off with an introduction. After it gets into the song and a few words are sung, it immediately goes into a six part orchestral kind of thing. It was really a big thrill for me to be able to do that, because I had never been allowed to spend that amount of time in the studio to construct those things before then. That was the fulfillment of an ambition for me, to get started on the road of using the guitar as a kind of orchestral instrument. Led Zeppelin and The Who are probably in there somewhere because they were among our favorite groups, but what we are trying to do differently from either of those groups was this sort of layered sound. The Who had the open chord guitar sound, and there’s a bit of that in ‘Father To Son’ but our sound is more based on the over-driven guitar sound, which is used for the main bulk of the song, but I also wanted to build up textures behind the main melody lines.” – Brian May

UNRELEASED AND UNHEARD:

EXPOSED HYBRID VERSION

- I know very little about this except that a famed Queen collector has stated it exists.

OFFICIAL LIVE VERSIONS:

LIVE AT THE RAINBOW - MARCH 1974


LIVE AT THE RAINBOW - NOV 1974


- Staples of early Queen concerts, this was an easy highlight of those early tours.

UNOFFICIAL:
LIVE AT GOLDERS GREER HIPPODROME - SEPTEMBER 1973


- Not terribly different from the studio version, but less layered obviously) and more intimate.

PERSONAL NOTES:

- For awhile this was one of my fav Queen songs ever. It still is up there and in my ever rotating spot of Top 20 Queen songs, it still makes an appearance now and again

- I love the slow piano break down that goes back to an emotional climax!

Next up: The song that 90% of the time claims my #1 spot on my ever rotating Top 20 Queen songs! White Queen (As It Began)

Gabby -

Yes they were able to get their own studio time this time around which is why they were able to start really USING the studio as it's own instrument so to speak - especially Brian!

He really began exploring the studio and the delays and layering that he always wanted to

The piano part is my favorite part of the song!

I believe that if not completely about his father, it was definitely a big portion of it.

They had a management company that had signed them. They recorded the first album without a record deal. They reached a record deal in time for them to release the album...however as noted there was not a lot of publicity at the times. :D I like that little quip. Queen who?

I don't have the sales data of the albums at the time surprisingly! I should research that...BUT given the charts it's certain Queen II had sold more at the time...but they are mostly even now. I think I will include total sales in my album threads...I will edit in the first two but so you don't have to look back:

Queen and Queen II now have both sold roughly 2.5 million copies. The album sales total for all 15 studio albums (not counting any QPR or solo) were over 140 million copies.

The greatest hits compilations in all their various packagings alone sold over 80 million copies. So together that's 220 million albums sold without getting into all the various odds and ends compilations or live albums!

Yes the same company.

In 1972 the band (who was innovative here) signed 3 separate contracts. One was a recording contract, one was publishing rights, and one was management. Trident managed them and gave them the "down time" to record at Trident Studios. At this point they were being paid about 60 pounds a week.

In 1973 Trident signed the band with EMI who became their record company and distributor. Trident was still their managers. Trident became very stingy, and even though they started selling and by their third album Sheer Heart Attack were stars they were getting paid like paupers. They were still living in flats, etc. They were given weekly stipends but no back payments or royalties as the company claimed most of the profit. The final straw came when John Deacon asked for an advance to buy a house for him and his new wife and was refused.

They were with until 1975 when they hired music business lawyer Jim Beach to negotiate out of their agreement with Trident. It took some $$ but they were able to sever ties and enter into new management with John Reid which was successful for a few years until Queen decided to manage themselves (with help from Jim Beach).

And Freddie proceeded to write a song about Trident