“Kind of parallel”: the song Brian May thought was overshadowed by ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
A Night at the Opera is widely considered to be Queen’s magnum opus and saw the British rock group at their most ambitious. Having gradually introduced more of their classical influences over the course of the previous three albums, their 1975 record saw them in full creative flow as they employed a diverse range of instruments and timbres across its 12 tracks, often pushing song structures to extremes and coming out with pop songs that felt both like they were attempting to be as grandiose yet accessible as possible.
Frontman Freddie Mercury was often writing lyrics that far eclipsed his contemporaries and was writing increasingly elaborate parts for his bandmates to perform on the songs that were penned by him, mixing show tune and vaudeville compositional styles with classic rock elements layered over the top. Aside from his contributions, there is one song each from drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon featured on the record, while guitarist Brian May was responsible for writing four of the songs.
While the best-known tracks on the record are Mercury’s efforts in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Love of My Life’ and ‘Death on Two Legs’, as well as the Deacon-penned ‘You’re My Best Friend’, it would be one of May’s songs that became one of the most out-there and sprawling tracks on the album, and indeed in Queen’s entire catalogue, but it was unfortunately overshadowed by the hits on the album and never appeared to receive the acclaim it deserved.
Opening side two of the record is the eight-minute epic ‘The Prophet’s Song’, a dreamlike track written by May that stands as the longest the band would ever produce together. Its prog folk leanings and decidedly radio-unfriendly nature were perhaps the greatest contributing factors as to why it remained an album track and wasn’t ever as widely known as the anthemically epic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, but there’s zero denying that it wasn’t one of the band’s bravest ventures at a time when they were reaching great heights with their commercially successful material.
While May felt deflated by the comparative lack of attention that his song received, he was almost expecting it to be seen this way. “To be honest,” he told Total Guitar in a 2023 interview, “I always regard it as a bit of a shame that ‘The Prophet’s Song’ got eclipsed – because ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was always going to eclipse everything.” Even though the two songs shared a lot of structural similarities in terms of having multiple parts and dramatic mood shifts, there was only one that would ever feasibly become popular with larger audiences.
“It’s kind of a light that got hidden under a bushel,” May would continue, “but the positive is that it’s a deep side of Queen, which people get into when they start exploring. It’s a nice thing for them to discover and get excited about. But yes, you’re right, those two songs were kind of parallel.”
This final part references the shared identities of the two songs, and when placed only three songs apart on the record, they almost perfectly bookend the second side of the album, with the exception of ‘God Save the Queen’ coming after ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. If A Night At The Opera wanted its latter half to be the more grand expression of artistic freedom over the poppier opening half, then the only way to make that succeed would have been to have its two most ambitious songs grace the back end. Pairing those two together makes for the start and finish of one of Queen’s most jaw-dropping runs of songs and shows two equally brilliant songwriting forces at their very best.
