good morning! Earlier this week I said one of the classic artists featured in weeks past would be featured in today’s Track of the Day. Those artists: Black Sabbath, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, Bill Evans and T Rex.
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For Today’s Track of the Day, we’re exploring a deep cut from Queen.
So let’s discuss The Millionaire Waltz.
The songs Somebody to Love and Tie Your Mother Down attract a lot of attention on A Day at the Races, Queen’s follow to A Night at the Opera, but I feel this particular track is a more suitable successor.
First of all, the time changes. There’s three of them. We first get the 3/4 waltz – where only John Deacon and Freddie Mercury are playing – to the rock-and-roll 12/8 before switching back to 3/4.
It also blends the different sounds Queen were experimenting with at the time – hard rock, glam rock and fairground.
Also, let’s not look over those guitar dubs.
I, like many, first found this album through Somebody to Love. But I really, really dig Millionaire Waltz. Lending itself to the 3⁄4 time signature naturally adds movement in a way that I don’t think other tracks on this record do.
It’s such an ambitious, audacious track. Extravagent and excessive in every way, gritty yet fluttery.
When asked by Medium which song defined Queen, Brian May answered:
“There’s a song called ‘Millionaire Waltz,’ on A Day at the Races, which actually would sum up most of what we were about. But it’s something that’s very seldom played, I think it was almost like the successor to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’ It’s so incredibly complex that it doesn’t program on radio, I suppose. But, boy, there’s some stuff in there. It’s a favorite of mine—it’s so extreme”
So let’s take a page out of May’s book and celebrate the definitive Queen song today.
Fitzie’s track of the day: The Millionaire Waltz, by Queen
And now for your links:
Queen announce expanded reissue of debut album
England’s Lee Carsley plays down ‘impossible job’ tag
The Athletic ($$) ranks every Premier League XI
