Written by Roger Taylor
Recording information by Philipp (PraxisNothaft@t-online.de)
Recorded in 1978 at Mountain Studios, Switzerland and/or Super Bear Studios, France.
Released in November 1978 on the album JAZZ.
General:
Queen's very first dance/funk-song. It's one of those songs that Roger used to write just for the sake of writing music and lyrics mean more or less nothing. It's really not among Queen's best,but it has some catchy parts, contains some nice ideas and when you're in the right mood, it can be very chilling.
The production isn't that bad, either (especially the "colouring" of the sound).
Drums & Percussion (Roger):
Fun It is a good place for Roger to show his drumming-skills.Everything's very tight and he does some difficult fills'n'breaks. The basic drum-kit only consists of bass-drum, snare, hi-hat and some toms.
Everything was very close-miced and the toms were muted to kill any pitch or reverb and make it as percussive as possible. The sounds were treated with EQ to make everything as bright as possible. The hi-hat is panned right.
There is an overdubbed Pollard syn-drum which appears from time to time, as well as a whistle.
Bass (John):
The basic bass-track plays along with the guitars for most of the time.
It was played on a Fender Precision Bass and recorded directly into the desk.
There's also an overdub that appears throughout:a bass-slide which makes this dive-effect.
Guitars:
There are two riff/rhythm-guitars, which are playing the same throughout.
One is left, the other one's right.
The third one is in the center and plays fills and lead-stuff.
Towards the end, during the solo, there's a kinda whirl-effect. This was created by doing a pinch-harmonic and then rocking the vibrato-bar quite wildly.
SoundZ:
The rhythm-parts have a strong phasing-effect. This probably was done with Brian's stereo-chorus/phaser by BOSS.
The Amps were Vox Ac30s.
All guitars, especially the solo-guitar has lots of treble (done with Brian's treble-booster).
The guitars probably were played by Brian on the Red Special.
Vocals:
The vocals are divided between Roger and Freddie.
Roger recorded two tracks, one for the basic lead-vocals and the other one for harmonies and doubling.
Freddie also recorded a second track for doubling his vocals.
The voices are usually all in the center, but at 2:21 Roger's vocals are left and Freddie is right.
Both voices have lots of treble and very few reverb. Roger's voice changes it's volume-level a lot (also an result of the double-tracking,but not only).
By The Way:
Has anybody ever talked about this song??? I've read many interviews, articles and reviews in my life, but this really belongs to the most obscure Queen-songs ever.It's hardly ever mentioned and if, it's mostly only the title...