{"id":40007,"date":"2006-10-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/a-night-at-the-opera-4\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:20:13","slug":"a-night-at-the-opera-4","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/a-night-at-the-opera-4\/","title":{"rendered":"A Night At The Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of Daily Vault reviews<\/a> that have already been devoted to this particular Queen album only bolsters my belief that\u00a0 A Night At The Opera <\/i>is indeed the band\u2019s very best.\u00a0 At first, I was only going to collect Queen albums from the ’80s, but because of the magnum opus that is \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d I finally succumbed and bought the 1975 album that contained it. <\/p>\n

\u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d has had almost as many lives as Cher. It has been featured in films like Wayne\u2019s World <\/i>and TV shows like Rockstar: INXS<\/i>.\u00a0 However, the song is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the whole package of A Night At The Opera <\/i>is concerned (speaking of packaging, there is a great 30th\u00a0Anniversary CD\/DVD combo now available that is well worth the few extra bucks). <\/p>\n

As if to wake the listener up from some kind of twisted nightmare, the album opens with a cascading piano solo leading into a menacing bass guitar riff.\u00a0 The first proper song, \u201cDeath On Two Legs,\u201d is a rocker that has the ’70s written all over it. With rebellious lyrics like \u201cbut now you can kiss my ass goodbye,\u201d this track is meant to impress and\/or offend, depending how \u201cdaring\u201d you were as a listener back in 1975.\u00a0 I’d lean more toward the latter, as the song was a screed against the band’s former manager, but then again I was six when this came out and it took me a while to come around.<\/p>\n

After the pleasant, lilting melody of \u201cLazing On A Sunday Afternoon,\u201d we get back to the classic rock business at hand with \u201cI\u2019m In Love With My Car.\u201d Written and performed by drummer Roger Taylor (a rarity in itself), this song was dedicated to the late race car driver Johnathan Harris. For the next selection, John Deacon trades his bass for an electric piano on \u201cYou\u2019re My Best Friend,\u201d and with all the love songs out there a song about mere friendship is always a nice change.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It was upon hearing this track that I knew this album was really going to be something special, which was confirmed by \u201c39.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 This song, written by guitarist Brian May,\u00a0was not only about the year 1939 but also happened to be the 39th\u00a0song in Queen\u2019s catalog. The track gives the listener something of a history lesson. The lyrics are so dense and complex that it\u2019s little wonder lead vocalist Freddie insisted that Brian sing the song himself.\u00a0 Set to a rhythmic beat and acoustic accompaniment, \u201c39\u201d is one song that has been reborn thanks to some new greatest hits compilations. <\/p>\n

One of the very few inconsequential tracks on A Night At The Opera <\/i>is \u201cSweet Lady.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s passable guitar-based rock, but nothing more, really only proving that Freddie Mercury dug women, too. \u201cSeaside Rendezvous\u201d isn’t much either, though the video made for the song is clever and fits the tune perfectly. <\/p>\n

Which brings us to the first real jaw-dropper of the album, \u201cThe Prophet\u2019s Song.\u201d Like \u201cBohemian Rhapsody,\u201d it is a multi-part operetta that not only brings pop music to a whole new level but to its knees completely.\u00a0 The tune is most notable for its a cappella mid-section, in which Freddie Mercury\u2019s vocal experimentation pays off quite handsomely. Unfortunately, it leads into \u201cLove Of My Life,\u201d something of a let-down because of its hymn-like feel. Even a tragically misplaced guitar solo can\u2019t salvage this song from its melodramatic depths.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cGood Company\u201d is a bouncy, fun little ditty that best demonstrates the band\u2019s ability to think outside of the box.\u00a0 And once again, the jack-of-all-trades Brian May isn\u2019t afraid to stretch his own musical boundaries\u2026this time he\u2019s playing the ukelele. Closing out the album, of course, is \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d (kept from the #1 spot in 1994 by the hideous Kris Kross hit \u201cJump\u201d after its first comeback) and the standard \u201cGod Save The Queen,\u201d which is performed by Brian on his true fort\u00e9, the electric guitar.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

A Night At The Opera<\/i> was undoubtedly one of the most adventurous albums to come out of the 1970s.\u00a0 If ever there was an answer to The Beatles\u2019 Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band<\/i>, this was it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":24891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5633],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-40007","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-queen","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40007"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}