'39
| "'39" | ||
|---|---|---|
| A Night at the Opera | ||
| Song by Queen | ||
| From the album A Night at the Opera | ||
| Album released | November 21 / December 2 1975 | |
| Recorded | August-November 1975 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Song Length | 3:31 | |
| Record label | EMI / Hollywood Records | |
| Writer | Brian May | |
| Producer | Roy Thomas Baker and Queen | |
| A Night at the Opera Album Listing | ||
| You're My Best Friend (Track 4) |
'39 (Track 5) |
Sweet Lady (Track 6) |
| Live Killers Album Listing | ||
| Love Of My Life (Track 11) |
'39 (Track 12) |
Keep Yourself Alive (Track 13) |
'39 is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was originally released on the album A Night at the Opera in 1975. Brian May wrote the song and sings lead vocals on its skiffle-like arrangement, featuring three- and four-part harmony vocals — including passages of falsetto during the middle bridge section, which culminate in a high-A note sung by Roger Taylor (May commented in 2005 that Taylor actually refused to sing the note he wanted, so he got Roger to sing a lower note then used varispeed to up the pitch).
The song also falls into the science-fiction "filk" song category, for its lyrics concern a score of (group of twenty) volunteers who leave a dying Earth on a spaceship in search of new worlds to settle. They return to report success, 100 calendar years later, with only a single year passing from the volunteers' perspective (thanks to time dilation). The lyrics imply that the song's protagonist faces his daughter upon return to Earth: For so many years have gone/though I'm older but a year/your mother's eyes from your eyes/cry to me. This, and the fact that all his peers and friends have passed away, are a terrible grief to the protagonist, as the final words insist: For my life/still ahead/pity me!
To provide 100 years' time dilation on Earth in only one year of spaceship time, the velocity of the spaceship must be 299 985 000 m/s or 0.99995 c (very close to the speed of light).
Brian May described the song as follows: 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.
It is one of the very few Queen songs where the guitars are not played in standard tuning, instead sounding one semitone higher than standard. This was probably accomplished with the use of a capo on the first fret (since it is not healthy for a 12-string guitar, such as the one used in this song, to be tuned too high). Other Queen songs to use altered tunings include "White Man", "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Headlong", which are in drop-D. Also, Brian May on a bulk of the News of the World tour did his guitar solo spot with drop D tuning after "White Man" and before "The Prophet's Song" in the setlist.
May jokingly suggested that bassist John Deacon play an upright bass to reinforce the skiffle feel of the song. Only after seeing that Deacon had taught himself how to play one in the studio did the band agree to use the instrument. "'39" was released as the B-side to You're My Best Friend, so the two singles from the album comprised one composition from each of the members of Queen.
Trivia
"'39" is the 39th song Queen recorded.
