Track 5 ‘Night at
the Opera’
Written by Brian May
Released 1975
Queen was for the
longest time In my early teens my go to music. I would always say
that they were my favourite and the best song of all time is Bohemian
Rhapsody. Times change and so do tastes, we hear and experience new
and different things. After all of this time is Queen still the best?
I’m not sure I
consider any song to be the best of all time any longer. Yes Queen
are great but I haven't listened to them with any kind of obsession
in years. But when I put a song on I love them. Now I love to listen
to some of the lesser known stuff or things that are less played;
‘Las Palabras de Amor’ and ‘Spread your wings’ for example.
The is a song that I heard for the first time maybe five years ago
and it has stuck with me more than most.
In the year of '39
assembled here the Volunteers
In the days when
lands were few
Here the ship sailed
out into the blue and sunny morn
The sweetest sight
ever seen.
‘39 is a strange
title for a song and with the first listen is is odd. Not only the
style but the fact that the singer is Brian May. The song is so
atypical to the most well know Queen works no Freddy belting out the
words no complex music and the folky style. But it works. It is very
well preformed by all sides. And then the is its story to unpack.
I love the style and
May’s voice is so under rated. It sells the story and the emotion
through the lyrics. ‘Your mother's eyes from your eyes cry to
me’. So many layers
and preformed with empathy. Queen
had no qualms about doing things differentially
it is why they have something for everyone
and this style may not have been repeated
but I am glad they did it here.
Wile it seems
to sell the story in one direction it exist and another entirely.
In the year of '39
came a ship in from the blue
The volunteers came
home that day
And they bring good
news of a world so newly born
Though their hearts
so heavily weigh
The story is basic
but with a deeper layer to understand, it is told strait forward and
simply. But only makes sense when you understand that it is a science
fiction story. The larger world is hinted at but it is a simple tail
about some astronauts looking for a new world. They return after a
year to find 100 years have passed at home (or is it longer?). It is
both happy and sad, their job was successful but they lost time with
their loved ones.
Time as we know it
is relative, it is shaped by you and your surroundings. The speed at
which you go through life is not constant in more ways than one, you
have the time to spend with your loved ones if you so choose. Time is
powerful but it bends and it is this bend that hits the hardest in
the song. Like in Interstellar or Alien space travel is the great
separator, taking time and displacing us from it.
For the earth is old
and grey, little darling we'll away
But my love this
cannot be
For so many years
have gone though I'm older but a year
Your mother's eyes
from your eyes cry to me.
The are perhaps
deeper things at play here. Time can be lost, it happens all the time
in sleep and in the rush of life but what can be bought with that
lost time. Should we pity them? Praise them but yes they have lost in
such a hard way. Queen had songs with messages of many kinds, some
were face on like ‘Scandal’ but many are more than they seem.
That is just one reason why they are still my favourite.
The themes of loss
are clear but that loss is the cost to give hope to your
descendants.
Save the world for
them, not for us.
For my life
Still ahead
Pity Me.
