Time to continue our greatest guitar solos series with another from the glam rock legends that is Queen.
The latest “Song of the Day” is “Killer Queen” from their third album Sheer Heart Attack released in 1974. The song continues the band’s exceptional use of vocal harmonies which, by 1974, had become the band’s signature calling musical card.
Brian May’s guitar solo happens on the 1:32 minute mark of the song. It’s not a bombastic, shredding-inducing melodies, but instead a multitracked solo that makes great use of bell chords where the drums and bass joins in sequentially to finish the section.
“Killer Queen” has become one of the band’s most popular songs and continued to cement Queen as one of the preeminent rock bands of the 1970’s.
Killer Queen
In her pretty cabinet
“Let them eat cake,” she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Khrushchev and Kennedy (Ooh, ooh)
At anytime an invitation
You can’t decline (Ooh, ooh)
Caviar and cigarettes
Well versed in etiquette
Extraordinarily nice
She’s a killer queen
Gunpowder, gelatin
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
(Pa-pa-pa-pa) Anytime
Ooh
Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
To avoid complications
She never kept the same address
In conversation
She spoke just like a baroness
Met a man from China
Went down to Geisha Minah (Ooh, ooh)
(Killer, killer, she’s a killer queen)
Then again incidentally
If you’re that way inclined
Perfume came naturally from Paris (Naturally)
For cars, she couldn’t care less
Fastidious and precise
She’s a killer queen
Gunpowder, gelatin
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
(Pa-pa-pa-pa)
Anytime
Drop of a hat she’s as willing as
Playful as a pussycat (Ooh)
Then momentarily out of action (Ooh)
Temporarily out of gas (Ta-taaa)
To absolutely drive you wild, wild
She’s out to get you
She’s a killer queen
Gunpowder, gelatin
Dynamite with a laser beam (Pa-pa-pa-ra)
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
Ooh
Recommended at the price
Insatiable an appetite
Wanna try?
You wanna try
Great Guitar Solos Series
- Master of Puppets (by Metallica)
- Free Bird (by Lynyrd Skynyrd)
- Hotel California (by The Eagles)
- Stairway to Heaven (by Led Zeppelin)
- Texas Flood (by Stevie Ray Vaughan)
- Comfortably Numb (by Pink Floyd)
- Powerslave (by Iron Maiden)
- Fade to Black (by Metallica)
- Bohemian Rhapsody (by Queen)
- Sweet Child o’ Mine (Guns N’ Roses)
- Mr. Crowley (by Ozzy Osbourne)
- Rainbow in the Dark (by Dio)
- Róisín Dubh (by Thin Lizzy)
- Rock You Like A Hurricane (by Scorpions)
- Whipping Post (by Allman Brothers Band)
- Carry On Wayward Son (by Kansas)
- War Pigs (by Black Sabbath)
- Since I’ve Been Loving You (by Led Zeppelin)
- Satch Boogie (by Joe Satriani)
- Rambin’ Man (by The Allman Brothers Band)
- Sympathy for the Devil (by The Rolling Stones)
- Little Wing (by Jimi Hendrix)
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps (by the Beatles)
- The Rocker (by Thin Lizzy)
- Bulls on Parade (by Rage Against the Machine)
- Eruption (by Van Halen)
Through the Shattered Lens 