A NIGHT AT THE OPERA by Queen

Another great choice from Syn.
Dude - you're on a roll!

Queen was a game-changer fo sho. There was nothing like them before they arrived and many bands have borrowed from them in the years after. They used no synths or samples. Just overdubs of live instruments and vocals.
While there were plenty of "duel-guitar" bands, May was the first guy to overdub a 3rd (and sometimes a 4th & 5th) harmony. Also he went beyond straight harmonies and actually arranged counterpoint guitar arrangements. Good Company is a great example. He uses a wah-wah pedal to mimic a dixieland band. He didn't use it as a typical wah-wah, though. He just set it in certain static positions to get the tone of a clarinet, trombone, etc. Genius. He did that a lot with his tones - which is why nobody ever sounded like him. His tone was mostly just a cranked Vox AC-30, but he also had a secret weapon: The Deacy Amp - which was a small hifi speaker with a 4 inch speaker invented by bassist, John Deacon.
Link here:

I also loved the personality and playfulness in Brian's style. There was a whimsy about his playing. It borders on comedy at times. The end of the solo on "You're my Best Friend" is a great example. He ends the solo with 3 guitars in harmony making the most ridiculous bends over and over. Always makes me laugh.
Then he could make his guitar sound like cello and make you cry. Bohemian is a great example of his range. At the end he plays the angriest head banging rock stuff, then follows it with some of the softest most beautiful notes ever recorded, right after Freddie sings "Nothing really matters to me". His solos reflect more human character than any other guitarist I have ever heard. Hendrix had a similar ability. It's like you know what they're thinking when they play a solo. Rare - to say the least.

Not much can be said about Freddie Mercury that hasn't been said already. He was a gifted singer/pianist/writer who was also an incredible performer. He was raised on classical music and opera. Bohemian Rhapsody was his baby. It has been overplayed for sure, but when you consider it was made on a 24 track tape machine - no computer software, no auto-tune, no cutting and pasting - just singing and playing live, it's a remarkable record. Actually, when I think of it that way - it's almost impossible to comprehend.

I will also add something cool I just found out about their vocal recording process. When you double-track harmony vocals, you record the 3 voices singing harmony - then you record the same thing again on another track. Now you have 6 voices. You do it again and you have 9 voices. So the lead vocalist is singing lead on all 3 tracks. The 2nd guy sings the 2nd harmony on all 3 tracks, and the 3rd guy sings the 3rd harmony part on all 3 tracks.
Make sense?
The brilliant thing about Queen was - the three vocalists (Freddie, Brian & Roger) recorded the 1st part in UNISON. Not harmony. So you have 3 voices singing exactly the same thing. But each voice has a different texture. The result is - that part is much bigger than if the same person was singing it 3 times. Then they would record the 2nd part - again in unison. Then the 3rd part - again in unison. So you still end up with 9 voices - BUT - all 3 voices are singing all three parts.
I always wondered why their harmonies sounded so huge. I've been doing studio work for 40 years and I have never seen ANYONE record vocals this way. Simply brilliant. I can't believe I just learned this a couple of weeks ago while watching Rick Beato interview Brian May. When May explained it - there was literally smoke coming out of my ears.

John Deacon is a super-underrated bass player. Like McCartney, he was crazy melodic. It always fit the song as well as elevated it. He also wrote some of their biggest hits; You're My Best Friend & Another One Bites The Dust. The perfect bass player for this band.

Roger Taylor is certainly a great drummer - though his name rarely comes up when great drummers are discussed. Maybe because he wasn't flashy like some bigger names. But he always played exactly what the song needed. Nothing more and nothing less. I have no doubts that if their songs had required a crazy, 32nd note, double-kick monster, Roger would have risen to the occasion. Not to mention he wrote some great tunes AND had the crazy high voice in Bohemian; "For me, for me, FOR MEEEEEEE"

Like many bands of old who get over-played and over-hyped, it's easy just to dismiss them and say" Meh. That's my parent's music." But there is a reason that 50 years later, they are still being talked about and listened to. They were innovative monsters and their stuff still holds up.
And if you do the deep dive, you'll start hearing their sound in a ton of bands that have been popular over the last 20 years. That's what a game-changer does. The bands that come after have no choice but to stand on their shoulders. Dems da rules.

After listening to Opera, If you want to hear more - my favs are "Killer Queen" (the 3 part counterpoint solo is amazing) and "Bring Back That LeRoy Brown" (pure fun) from the album Sheer Heart Attack.

Enjoy.
Cheers!
pg