A lot of folk who like Queen, have only listened to their Greatest Hits and other songs here and there. Due to this, many people do not realize that Queen had not just one singer performing lead vocals, but three; drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May both had numerous songs where they performed the lead vocal on.
Until their 1982 album "Hot Space", where Mercury sang lead on all tracks for the first time, each album Queen released had at least one song with May on lead vocals, and one sung by Taylor. Unlike Mercury, who sang compositions written by all four members of the band, Roger and Brian stuck to singing lead on their own songs.
Amongst the members of the band, May was a prolific songwriter and a close second to Mercury in number of songs released by the band. Far less sure of his vocal ability than Taylor and Mercury were, Brian nonetheless was an accomplished singer in his own right, his soft tone and low-ended range fitting in nicely with his introspective style of writing.
Included below are all songs in which May sings lead vocals on.
All links are to youtube uploads of the songs.
Queen II: (1974)
Some Day, One Day
While not a true concept album, Queen II was split into two sides. "Side White" was comprised of May-penned songs (with a Roger song as the intermediate ), and "Side Black" was comprised entirely of Mercury's songs.
"Some Day, One Day" is May's first lead vocal turn, and is typical of his introspective, introverted, and almost melancholy style of song-writing.
Sheer Heart Attack: (1974)
She Makes Me (Stormtrooper In Stillettoes)
The recording of Queen's third album was clouded by a string of severe illnesses that would plague the guitarist; an infected vaccine needle, from a routine series required for the band to enter Australia, caused the normally healthy May to contract a severe case of gangrene.
Nearly losing the affected arm, May would be knocked out for the count while the band was touring in New York, collapsing with a severe, acute case of hepatitis, that was a result of the vaccine. Rushed to the hospital, he would be hospitalized for the duration of the album's recording. A duodenal ulcer would strike as the guitarist was recovering, and as such, his contribution to the album was less prolific than the first two.
"She Makes Me" was written by May during one of his hospital stays, and his ill state can clearly be heard in his voice.
The song's finale features what May referred to as "New York nightmare sounds", which include NYC police vehicle sirens and deep-breathing sounds which accompany the closing bars.
A Night At The Opera: (1975)
'39
- The Making Of from the Classic Albums' DVD.
(From Wikipedia):
"'39" was Brian May's attempt to do "sci-fi skiffle."
Or, as Taylor would put it, "Space folk".
The B-side of "You're My Best Friend" and one of the band's most popular songs, "'39" relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realize that a hundred years have passed, due to the time dilation effect in Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead.
Brian May, in a 1983 interview
It’s a science fiction story. It’s the story about someone who goes away and leaves his family and because of the time dilation effect, when you go away, the people on earth have aged a lot more than he has when he comes home. He’s aged a year and they’ve aged 100 years so, instead of coming back to his wife, he comes back to his daughter and he can see his wife in his daughter, a strange story. I think, also, I had in mind a story of Herman Hesse which I think is called ‘The River’. A man leaves his hometown and has lots of travels and then comes back and observes his hometown from the other side of the river. He sees it in a different light having been away and experienced all those different things. He sees it in a very illuminating way, cause I felt a little bit like that about my home at the time as well having been away and seen this vastly different world of rock music. Totally different from the way I was brought up and I had those feelings about home.
So usually the song, I think people generally usually won’t admit it, but I think when most people write songs there are more than one level to them. They’ll be about one thing on the surface but underneath they’re probably, even unconsciously, trying to say something about their own life, their own experience. I know in my own stuff there is something like that."
Good Company
- The Making Of from the classic albums DVD.
One of the most remarkable of May's compositions, in that it features a "dixie land jazz band" comprised entirely of sounds produced on his homemade Red Special guitar. May plays a George-Formby ukulele in addition to his guitar.
Brian May, in a 1983 interview
"Yes, it's all guitar all those instruments. That was a little fetish of mine. I used to listen to Traditional Jazz quite a lot, in particular, the twenties revival stuff which wasn’t actually Traditional Jazz but more arranged stuff like The Temperance Seven who were recreating something which was popular in the twenties, sort of dance tunes really. I was very impressed by the way those arrangements were done, you know, the nice smooth sound and those lovely changes between chords. Because they were much more rich in chords than most modern songs are. So many chord changes in a short time, lots of intermingling parts. So I wanted to do one of those things and the song just happened to come out while I was plunking away a the ukulele and the song itself was no trouble to write at all.
But actually doing the arrangements for the wind section, as it was supposed to be. There’s a guitar trumpet and a guitar clarinet and a guitar trombone and a sort of extra thing, I don’t really know what it was supposed to be (chuckles) on the top.
I spent a lot of time doing those and to get the effect of the instruments I was doing one note at a time, with a pedal and building them up. So you can imagine how long it took. We experimented with the mikes and various little tiny amplifiers to get just the right sound. So I actually made a study of the kind of thing that those instruments could play so it would sound like those and get the authentic flavour. It was a bit of fun but, it was a serious serious bit of work in that a lot of time went into it."
A Day At The Races: (1976)
Long Away
Recorded without any input by Mercury, May and Taylor provide the track's backing vocals. A soft-sounding and introspective song.
News Of The World (1977)
All Dead, All Dead
One of the saddest of Queen's tracks, May wrote this in memory of a childhood cat that had passed away, and plays piano on the track. Mercury provides harmony vocals.
Brian May, Guitar Magazine, 1983
"That's one of my favorites. That was one of the ones which I thought came off best, and I was really pleased with the sound. It always gives me a surprise when I listen to it because it was meant to really bring tears to your eyes. It almost does it to me."
Sleeping On The Sidewalk
(From Wikipedia smile
"Sleeping On The Sidewalk", written and sung by May, was inspired by Eric Clapton. It was recorded in one take. On close inspection, John Deacon can be heard playing the wrong notes in some bass parts. Brian May can also be heard laughing at the end of the song. Lyrically, it deals with an aspiring trumpet player's career, delivered in a "rags-to-riches" fashion. May sings with an American accent, providing some near-authentic blues credibility to the jam, and measures the aforementioned trumpet player's success by "bucks" (as opposed to pounds). It is also one of the few Queen songs that does not feature Mercury.
The reason the song is so aloof is because the band was not aware they were being recorded at the time and were simply practicing, while the engineer had turned on the recording.
Brian May, BBC Radio One, 1983
That was the quickest song I EVER wrote in my life. I just wrote it down. It’s funny because it’s one of the ones I’m quite pleased with as well. It’s not trying too hard, it’s not highly subtle, but I think it leaves me with quite a good feeling.
It was sort of a one-take thing, as well. Although, I messed around with the take a lot and chopped it about and rearranged it, it was basically the first take, which we used. So, it has that kind of sloppy feel that I think works with the song, which we never would have DREAMED with the previous albums. We always used to work on the backing tracks until they were a million percent perfect, and if they weren’t, we would splice together two which were.
We’d go to great lengths, but for this album, we wanted to get that spontaneity back in."
Jazz (197 cool
Leaving Home Ain't Easy
Brian sings both lead and backing vocals for this track. His voice was sped up for the bridge.
The Game: (1980)
Sail Away Sweet Sister
One of May's best vocal turns. Freddie played piano on the track at Brian's request, and sings the bridge.
Queen Rocks:
No One But You (Only The Good Day Young)
Written by Brian in honor of Freddie, he shares lead vocals with Roger, and plays piano on the track. It is the last song in which Brian, Roger, and John are featured together, before Deacon's retirement from public life. A stirring tribute to their fallen friend. Arguably Brian's best lead vocal turn as Queen.
Non-Album Tracks:
Lost Opportunity
A bluesy track that was only released on the 'I'm Going Slightly Mad' CD and 12" single. The lyrics are rather telling and hint at the depression May had struggled to overcome during the time-period the song was written and recording.
Live - Post Queen:
Live At The Brixton Academy: (1993)
To promote his solo album 'Back To The Light', which was released in November 1992 with Freddie's blessings, May went on a worldwide tour with his newly formed "Brian May band".
The band would feature legendary drummer Cozy Powell, as well as Neil Murray on bass, Queen live and session keyboardist Spike Edney, and Jamie Moses, Cathy Porter, and Shelley Preston on backing vocals.
May's live sets would feature both new material from his solo album, and songs from Queen. The band's first London peformance, recorded at the Brixton Academy, would find a CD/video release. Some, like "Headlong", were never performed live due to Freddie's fragile health in his last years. Others, like "Now I'm Here", were staples in Queen's live performances but had never been sung by May.
Headlong
Now I'm Here
Love Of My Life, sung as a dedication to Freddie.
Hammer To Fall
Brian also sang "Tie Your Mother Down", and "We Will Rock You", but clips of these are not available on Youtube.
and as a bonus:
Since You Been Gone, originally performed by Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Even better than the original.
Another World Live Tours (199 cool
Tie Your Mother Down
A unique, bluesy, acoustic performance of the song, performed for a Vh1 special.
Hammer To Fall, live in Paris.
May would sing this a lot slower that the original track, and in a more "bluesy" tone, which would be repeated years later on Queen+Paul Rodgers' live tour.
QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS:
During Q+PR's 2005 "Return Of The Champions" tour, which would find a release on CD/DVD, Brian (as well as Roger) sang lead for several songs.
Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together), written by Brian for Queen's 1976 album "A Day At The Races".
'39 - Live in Ukraine
'39, live at Sheffield
Live, '39 was sung by Mercury, despite being sung on the album by May. After Freddie's passing, Brian took up lead vocals in live performances.
Love Of My Life
Beginning on his first solo tour and continued with Q+PR, Brian incorporated the song in every performance, encouraging the fans to sing along just as they had done when Freddie was alive.
Hammer To Fall
Brian initially sings this differently than its original form, sounding almost like "It's Late, before Paul Rodgers continues lead and kicks it into high gear.
Last Horizon
Though this instrumental track has no singing, it is as poignant and emotional as any lead vocal track. Brian "sings" through his guitar.
