I toyed with the idea of combining the Guitar Solo from Queen's 1982 concert at the Milton Keynes Bowl with the next song on the set list, but ultimately I think it's fitting that the guitar solo gets a post of its own.
After all, it's not just any guitar solo: it's a guitar solo by Brian freakin' May!
Dr. May's guitar solos were an interesting creature: they originated as the lengthy guiar solo from Queen's 1974 song Brighton Rock and from there transformed into a nearly unrecognizable series of riffs and chords.
Early on in Queen's career, RT would play a drum solo that sequed into Dr. May's guitar solo. Later on, on account of RT claiming to hate drum solos, he eliminated them from the set list, but continued to occassionally appear on state for a portion of Dr. May's solo.
(As an aside, RT once again began playing drum solos during the band's 2005 and 2008 tours with Paul Rodgers on vocals and by most accounts, they were excellent!)
It's very interesting to listen to Dr. May's guitar solos and try to pick out familiar portion's from the band's songs. It's equally interesting to listen to his solos through the years and see how they've changed. For reference, here's Dr. May's solo from the band's Rock Montreal blu ray, the concert was filmed just a year before the Milton Keynes show, but listen to how the guitar solo has changed!
Happy listening!
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ReplyDeleteGrammar mistakes in my original post- can't have that as an English teacher! Here is my corrected post: "Lengthy guitar solo"- what an understatement! It's a wonder his fingers didn't get tired, although there was one nice close-up of his left hand- and long slender fingers- obviously an asset for guitar-playing :-) I enjoyed the banter with RT in the Rock Montreal video.
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