Death On Two Legs is a song by Queen. The song is the opening track and second single from A Night At The Opera and was written by Freddie Mercury about the band's fall-out with their original manager and Trident Studios owner,
Norman Sheffield. Though the song makes no direct reference to him, Sheffield sued both the band and the record label for defamation. This resulted in an out-of-court settlement, thus revealing to the public his connection with the song. Roger Taylor also noted that despite the success of "Killer Queen" and Sheer Heart Attack, the album preceding A Night at the Opera, the band was broke before the album was made.
History[]
Composition[]
The song is in 4/4 meter and is dominated by guitars, strong lead and backing vocals, and piano. The album version has a piano arpeggio intro with heavy guitars, a bowed double bass, mechanical sounding noises and a loud shrieking sound by Roger Taylor, leading aruptly in B minor. For it's single release, the song had to be edited due to violence from 0:00-0:40. The piano arpeggio intro was removed, so the single version immediately starts in B minor. There are numerous subsections and layers, as was typical for Queen at the time. The verses have short sections with the tempo virtually halved, and the choruses are emphasised with strong harmonies and drum fills.
DRUM! magazine said of Taylor's drum work: "[...] Shortly after the 2/4 measure there's an unusual snare accent on the & of 4 and a change to a half-time groove. These back-and-forth feel changes continue throughout the song and Taylor somehow makes them flow smoothly."
The song was recorded and mixed at Sarm East Studios in late 1975 in which it was released as a single on 10 December with Sweet Lady on the B-side. As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on the song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to Brian May how they needed to be played on guitar.
The song was performed live from the A Night at the Opera Tour to The Game Tour. The single version of the song is available on three albums, Queen's First E.P., Queen Rocks and Rare Cuts Vol. 2
Personnel[]
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
Brian May - electric guitar, backing vocals
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar, double bass
Trivia[]
- This song is the third Queen single with explicit lines in the album version, with the first being "Liar", and the second one being "Killer Queen". It is also the first song to be Dedicated to a person.
- It is the first Queen single to not be released as a single in Asia.
- It is the second single to be released from "A Night At The Opera", with the first being "Bohemian Rhapsody".
- It is the only Queen single to be released on the B-side of another Queen single.