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'39

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"'39"
Song

"'39" is a song by British guitarist Brian May and first recorded by his band Queen for their album A Night at the Opera in 1975. May 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 an A5 sung by Roger Taylor.

"'39" is the 39th song in the Queen studio album chronology.

The acoustic guitars were recorded with a capo on the first fret.

"'39" was released as the B-side to "You're My Best Friend", so the two singles from A Night at the Opera, the other being "Bohemian Rhapsody/I'm In Love With My Car" comprised one composition from each of the four members of Queen.

Lyrics

The song's lyrics are a science fiction short story which concerns 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 (due to time dilation). The lyrics imply that the song's protagonist faces his child 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 died, 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 average to 99.995% of 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 Hermann Hesse, which I think is called "The River" [actually "The Poet" [1]). 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.

Personnel

  • Brian May: acoustic & electric guitars, lead & backing vocals
  • Freddie Mercury: backing vocals (lead vocals in live performances)
  • Roger Taylor: backing vocals, bass drum, tambourine
  • John Deacon: double bass
  • Roy Thomas Baker: producer
  • Mike Stone: engineer

Cover versions

  • George Michael performed '39 at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert before performing "Somebody to Love," which was subsequenly released as a single and its profits donated.
  • "'39" was covered by Ingram Hill on the 2005 tribute album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.
  • The intro of "'39" was used by the German band Puhdys for the intro of their own song "Alt wie ein Baum" (As old as a tree) in 1976.
  • Brian May and Roger Taylor played the song with the Foo Fighters live at the O2 in November 2007.
  • The song was covered by the Danish rock band Pretty Maids on the acoustic album Stripped.
  • The punk rock band Swingin' Utters recorded a cover of '39 on a BYO Records Swingin' Utters/Youth Brigade Split album.
  • Finnish musician Neumann recorded a cover version of '39 with Finnish (majorly different) lyrics.
  • Spanish band Mägo de Oz recorded a cover version for their album "La Ciudad de los Árboles", with alternate lyrics, under the title "Resacosix en la Barra".
  • Brazilian band Pato Fu used a loop of the middle vocal part in "Que Fragilidade" (Ruído Rosa) but didn't get clearance for it.

Live recordings

On live versions of the song Freddie Mercury would often sing the lead vocal part instead of Brian May, who would sing backup vocals and play 12-string guitar. Roger Taylor would play a tambourine and a bass drum at the same time, and sing the high pitched notes in the middle section. John Deacon would play the walking bass line on a fretless bass guitar instead of an upright bass. During the Queen + Paul Rodgers era, May would either perform the song on his own (as seen in Return of the Champions).

The song can be found on the following live albums: