Queen, A Night At The Opera Full Album Zip
Viola Mathenia
A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 28 November 1975[1] by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was reportedly the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release.[2]
Named after the Marx Brothers' film of the same name, A Night at the Opera was recorded at various studios across a four-month period in 1975. Due to management issues, Queen had received almost none of the money they earned for their previous albums. Subsequently, they ended their contract with Trident Studios and did not use their studios for the album (the sole exception being "God Save the Queen", which had been recorded the previous year). They employed a complex production that extensively used multitrack recording, and the songs incorporated a wide range of styles, such as ballads, music hall, sea shanties, dixieland, hard rock and progressive rock influences. Aside from their usual equipment, Queen also utilised a diverse range of instruments such as a double bass, harp, ukulele and more.
Upon release, A Night at the Opera topped the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks. It peaked at number four on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and became the band's first platinum-certified album in the US. It also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first number one song in the country. Despite being twice as long as the average length of singles during the 1970s, the song became immensely popular worldwide.
Contemporary reviews for A Night at the Opera were mixed, with praise for its production and the diverse musical themes, and recognition as the album that established Queen as worldwide superstars. At the 19th Grammy Awards, its first single "Bohemian Rhapsody" received Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices.[3] It has since been hailed as Queen's best album, and one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at number 128 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[4] It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018.
"We had made hit records but we hadn't had any of the money back and if A Night at the Opera hadn't been a huge success I think we would have just disappeared under the ocean someplace. So we were making this album knowing it was live or die."
Queen's previous album, Sheer Heart Attack (1974), had obtained commercial success and brought the band mainstream attention, with the single "Killer Queen" reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart.[6] The album was a minor hit in the US, reaching number twelve, while "Killer Queen" hit the top 20.[7] Despite this success, the band was broke at the time, largely due to a contract they had signed which meant that they would produce albums for a production company, who would then sell the album to a record label.[8] This meant that Queen saw almost none of the money they earned, as Trident Studios paid them 60 weekly.[9][10] Guitarist Brian May was living in a bedsit in Earls Court, West London while frontman Freddie Mercury lived in a flat in Kensington that suffered from rising damp.[11] The matter eventually reached a turning point when bassist John Deacon, who had recently married, was denied a cash advance of 4,000 by manager Norman Sheffield to put a deposit on a house.[9][12][13] This increasing frustration led to Mercury writing the song "Death on Two Legs", which would serve as the opening track to A Night at the Opera.[14]
In December 1974, the band hired Jim Beach as their lawyer and began negotiating their way out of Trident.[15][nb 1] While Beach studied the group's contracts, the group continued touring. They began their first tour of Japan in April 1975, where thousands of fans met them at Haneda Airport and they played two sold out shows at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo.[16] After a nine-month dispute, Queen were finally free of Trident and signed directly with EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in North America. They regained control of their back catalogue, while their former publishing company, Feldman, was taken over by EMI.[9] Because Trident had invested over 200,000 in promoting Queen, the group were required to pay half that to buy out their contracts, and they had to give Trident 1% royalties from their next six albums.[9][17] Additionally, a tour of America scheduled for September 1975 had to be cancelled as it had been organised by Jack Nelson, who was associated with Trident, despite the already booked venues and sold tickets. This tour was necessary for regaining funds, and its cancellation was a major setback.[15][18][nb 2]
With funds running low, Queen immediately began searching for new management. Three names were shortlisted: Peter Rudge, Peter Grant, who was then Led Zeppelin's manager, and John Reid, who was Elton John's manager at the time. Rudge was on tour with the Rolling Stones and could not be reached, so they contacted Grant.[15] Grant, who was eager to manage Queen, had intended the band would sign with Swan Song, Led Zeppelin's label, and suggested Queen go on tour while he sorted out their finances.[15] The group feared Grant would prioritise Led Zeppelin over them, and were reluctant to sign with Swan Song, so they contacted Reid.[19] Reid was initially doubtful about managing another band; however, he accepted after learning it was Queen, and advised the group to "go into the studio and make the best record you can".[15][20]
"I do enjoy the studio, yes. It's the most strenuous part of my career. It's so exhausting, mentally and physically. It drains you dry. I sometimes ask myself why I do it. After Sheer Heart Attack we were insane and said never again. And then look what happens!"
Queen worked with producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had also split from Trident, and engineer Mike Stone. It was the last time they would work with Baker until 1978's Jazz.[22][23] Gary Langan, then 19 years old and who had been a tape operator on two of Sheer Heart Attack's songs, was promoted to an assistant engineer on the album.[23][24] It was reportedly the most expensive album ever made at the time, with the estimated cost being 40,000 (equivalent to 423,800 in 2024).[25][26][27]
The album was recorded at seven different studios over a period of four months. Queen spent a month during the summer of 1975 rehearsing in a barn at what would become Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey.[28] The group then had a three-week writing and rehearsing session in a rented house near Kington, Herefordshire before recording began.[29][nb 3] From August to September 1975, the group worked at Rockfield in Monmouthshire. For the remainder of recording sessions, which lasted until November, the group recorded at Lansdowne, Sarm Studios, Roundhouse, Scorpio Sound and Olympic Sound Studios. As their deal with Trident had ended, Trident Studios was not used during recording. The only song on the album recorded at Trident was "God Save the Queen", which had been recorded on 27 October the previous year, shortly before the band embarked on their Sheer Heart Attack Tour.[31][32]
The group required multi-tracking for their complex vocal harmonies which typically consisted of May singing lower registers, Mercury singing middle registers and Taylor performing the higher parts (Deacon did not sing). Unlike their first three albums, which had used 16-track tape, A Night at the Opera was recorded using 24-track tape.[23] Their vocal harmonies are particularly notable on the song "Bohemian Rhapsody", which features an elaborate opera sequence dominated by multitracked vocals.[33] Similarly, "The Prophet's Song" has an a capella middle section that utilises delay on Mercury's vocals. For their self-titled "guitar orchestrations", May overdubbed his homemade Red Special guitar through an amplifier built by Deacon, known as the Deacy Amp, later released commercially as the "Brian May" amplifier by Vox. Guitar layering is one of May's distinctive techniques as a rock guitarist. He has said that the technique was developed whilst looking for a violin sound.[citation needed]
The album has been affiliated with progressive rock,[36][37] pop,[37] heavy metal,[37] hard rock[36] and avant-pop.[38] It contains a diverse range of influences including folk, skiffle, British camp and music hall, jazz and opera.[36][39] Each member wrote at least one song: Mercury wrote five of the songs, May wrote four, and Taylor and Deacon wrote one song each.[40] The closing track was an instrumental cover of "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem, for which May was credited as the arranger.
For their first two albums, much of Queen's songwriting combined contemporary progressive rock and heavy metal, which led to a "Led Zeppelin meets Yes" description of the band.[41][42] Starting with Sheer Heart Attack, Queen began drawing inspiration from their everyday lives, and embraced more mainstream musical styles,[43] a trend which A Night at the Opera would continue. Lyrical themes ranged from science fiction and fantasy to heartbreak and romance,[44] often with a tongue in cheek sense of humour.[36][44] The Winnipeg Free Press noted that the group blended "clever, often poignant lyrics with attractively-arranged melodies".[45]
"Death on Two Legs" is considered to be Mercury's hate letter to Queen's first manager, Norman Sheffield, who for some years was reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972 to 1975. The lyrics refer to "blood-sucking leeches" and "decaying sewer rats".[34] Though the song never makes direct reference to him, after listening to a playback of the song at Trident Studios around the time of the album's release, Sheffield sued the band and the record label for defamation, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement, but also confirmed his connection to the song.[46] Executives at EMI were unsure that the song was a good idea, May was unsure about the lyrics and felt bad that Mercury was singing it, but ultimately realised it was the songwriter's final choice as to what should be sung.[34] As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on this song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to May how they needed to be played on guitar.[citation needed] During live performances, Mercury would usually rededicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman", although this line was censored on the version that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979. Other than on the live album, he said it was dedicated to a "motherfucker I used to know". "Death on Two Legs" remained on the setlist until, and well into, The Game Tour in 1981, and was then dropped. The piano introduction was played occasionally during the Hot Space and Works tours.[citation needed]
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