“Bohemian Rhapsody” is unarguably Queen’s magnum opus. The rock opera is impossibly unique and impeccably performed. Because of that, you’d be hard pressed to find a song in the band’s catalog that compares. However, according to guitarist Brian May, there is one. Find out which guitar solo May thought rivaled “Bohemian Rhapsody,” below.
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The Guitar Solo Brian May Thought Rivaled “Bohemian Rhapsody”
She keeps her Moët et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
“Let them eat cake, ” she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Khrushchev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can’t decline
Like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Killer Queen” is a staple in Queen’s catalog. The playful song about an expectation defying woman helped to give Queen their big break.
“It’s about a high class call girl,” Freddie Mercury once said of this song. “I’m trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. That’s what the song is about, though I’d prefer people to put their interpretation upon it – to read into it what they like.”
[RELATED: The Legendary Guitarist That Almost Made Queen’s Brian May Want to “Give Up” Playing]
While the lyrics and melody are certainly inviting, May put a focus on the guitar solo in this song. He once called it “a favourite of mine.” One of the reasons May has an affinity for this track is because of how complex his playing is.
To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah
Then again incidentally
If you’re that way inclined
“That was always in my head,” he continued. “It was something a bit more complex, an adventure in putting guitar harmonies into the solo…It was quite a step into the unknown, that solo, and it has a melody that I put in there which doesn’t appear anywhere else in the song, so in a sense they’re quite comparable, that and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’”
It’s high praise to compare any song to “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Though May’s compliments of “Killer Queen” aren’t overly gushing, that comparison says volumes.
Revisit the Queen hit, below.
She’s a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
Credit: Photo by Ilpo Musto/Shutterstock
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