The 1979 song Brian May wanted to live on forever: “The immortal version of it”
Nothing that Brian May ever did was supposed to be disposable.
His role in Queen was to help construct every single one of their songs until they sounded perfect, and even if they didn’t always have the best instincts when following trends, there’s hardly any of their songs that could sound any more perfect than they already did once May layered all of his guitars on top of everything. He was more than willing to transform his sound for what the song needed, but every single one of his favourite songs always came back to the heavier side of music.
You have to remember that May was the rock and roll force behind the group, and a lot of his ambition came from wanting to be a big enough band to make the kind of music that Led Zeppelin were making. There are certainly pieces of their songs that are Jimmy Page-coated, but both Queen and Zeppelin were on the verge of making heavy metal years before it had a proper name.
Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were probably the closest thing to straight-ahead metal at the time, but Deep Purple tends to get overlooked when talking about the biggest names in the genre. There are still people who will drive Guitar Centre employees crazy every time they try to play ‘Smoke on the Water’, but Ritchie Blackmore was so much more than the author of the simplest riff of all time. He was a guitar genius in every sense of the word, and you can hear him reaching for new things on every Purple album.
Then again, it’s not like Blackmore wanted to go down every single road that Purple went on. Adding a soul element to their sound might have worked on the album Burn, but after working on Stormbringer, he needed a better outlet. He wanted the chance to make more moody music, and when he hooked up with Ronnie James Dio for Rainbow, he could also check ‘power metal’ off the list of genres that he invented when he came up with the riffs to songs like ‘Man on the Silver Mountain’.
But May always had a soft spot for when Blackmore worked with Graham Bonnett. The vocalist certainly wasn’t the greatest fit for a band that sang about mythical beasts or anything, but since his entire plan was to get the band on the radio, ‘Since You Been Gone’ is the best pop song that Blackmore had ever played on. For purists, this was a major sell-out move, but as soon as May heard those roaring guitars, he knew that the song was going to be massive.
And given its inclusion in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, May was convinced that the song was going to be one of the quintessential guitar riffs years down the line, saying, “I love ‘Since You Been Gone’. It’s uncompromising, and it has the perfect element of pop, which is you can sing it, and it’s in your head all day. It’s passionate, it has a real tug on your emotions. But Ritchie’s in it, and Ritchie is powering the whole thing (on guitar). The under solo is just brilliant. They did the immortal version of it.”
Because when you think about it, pop was never a bad word for May, and when listening to a lot of the best riffs that Queen ever made, there’s definitely a tip of the hat to Blackmore in some of his tunes. ‘I Want It All’ is the closest the band came to metal in their later years, and when they played their iconic Live Aid performance, you can definitely hear Blackmore’s influence on ‘Hammer to Fall’, which practically sounds like an inverted version of ‘Since You Been Gone’.
So while the song isn’t exactly the heaviest offering from Blackmore, ‘Since You Been Gone’ is a classic example of what heavy rock can sound like when it’s flirting with pop music. There’s no greater thrill than hearing those roaring guitars, but sometimes it’s better to have a song that’s a bit more catchy than playing one riff after another.
