A DAY AT THE RACES

"A Day At The Races" is the fifth studio album of Queen that was released in 1976. It was their first completely self produced album. The title followed suit with its predecessor "A Night At The Opera" with its name from another film of Marx Brothers. Due to that, the surviving brother Groucho Marx invited Queen to visit him at his Los Angeles home in 1977, five months before he died. Queen decided to continue with another album in the same vein of the previous one. Still, this album isn't totally identical to "A Night At The Opera", but it's equally energetic, versatile and theatrical too.

"A Day At The Races" has ten tracks. The first track "Tie Your Mother Down" written by Brian May is the opening track and the second single from this album. After its release it was performed live by Queen on every subsequent tour. It's a good hard rock guitar based oriented song, where Brian May shines. It was also a big success on the rock radios. The second track "You Take My Breath Away" written by Freddie Mercury is a beautiful Queen's traditional classic ballad, a mellow piano number, very closely to "Love Of My Life" of their previous studio album. This song represents one of the most extraordinary musical performances by Freddie Mercury. He is absolutely brilliant on vocals and piano. With this song he clearly shows how great he was. This was also a great live song, allowing to Freddie Mercury one of his greatest live vocal moments. The third track "Long Way" written by Brian May is the fifth song of the album chosen to be released as a single and was sung by him. It's a song that we can consider a kind of a counterpart to "'39" from their previous studio album. Despite isn't as good as "'39", it still is a good, nice and pleasant song to hear. The main interesting thing on the song is the vocal work of Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, which is amazing. The fourth track "The Millionaire Waltz" written by Freddie Mercury is an epic following the same line of "Bohemian Rhapsody" from their previous studio album. It's another multi-key and multi-metre song, extremely complex using abrupt arrangements and musical passages all over the song. This is an excellent rock/waltz in the typical Queen's style. It's, in my opinion, a great song, the best song on the album, which is, in quality terms, close to "Bohemian Rhapsody". The fifth track "You And I" written by John Deacon represents his contribution for the album, and it features him on the acoustic guitar. It's obvious that we are in presence of a very simple song. However, the musical arrangements and the performance of all band's members are absolutely irreproachable, making of it a very beautiful song. The sixth track "Somebody To Love" written by Freddie Mercury was the first single of this album. This is a song with very complex harmonies and guitar solos and with an incredible gospel choir too. It's probably the most recognizable track of this album and is, without any doubt, another highlight on the album. This is an extraordinary track and represents Queen at their peak. The seventh track "White Man" written by Brian May is a song which its lyrics are about the suffering of Native Americans at the hands of the European immigrants. This is a great hard rock song with excellent musical structure, strong melodies and guitar riffs. It's one of Queen's heaviest works, thematically and musically. The eighth track "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy" written by Freddie Mercury is the fourth single of the album. This was one of the several music-hall inspired songs written by Queen that appeared on their albums from the 70's. It's a song where the band, again, shows their humorous side, creating a nice song. But, it doesn't represent a high point on the album. The ninth track "Drowse" written by Roger Taylor represents his contribution for the album and where he does all the vocals. The song is notable for being Roger Taylor's first soft song on a Queen's album. His previous compositions are being usually the heaviest rock pieces of the previous albums. Despite be a nice song, it's probably one of the weakest points on the album. The tenth and last track "Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together)" written by Brian May represents the third song of the album released as a single. The song is notable for having two choruses sung entirely in Japanese. This is one of my favourite songs on the album, together with "You Take My Breath Away", "The Millionaire Waltz" and "Somebody To Love".

Conclusion: Is "A Day At The Races", in reality, "A Night At The Opera" Part 2? Sincerely, I don't know and I don't care. And I really think that the answer to this question is completely irrelevant because we are in presence of a great piece of music. It's true that there are many similarities between both albums, the use of Marx Brothers films name on both albums, the sleeve appeared as a negative image of the previous album and many obvious comparisons between some songs of both albums. Despite "A Day At The Races" isn't as good as "A Night At The Opera" it still is a great album, whatever almost of the musical material on the album can be progressive or not. There shouldn't be doubts about the quality and beauty of the majority of its music. There are great classic Queen's tunes here. The album is free flowing and artistic. This album would prove to be the last of the proper 70's bombast and the high, layered harmonies.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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