“The Prophet's Song” (from the English - “Song of the Prophet”) is the song of the British rock band Queen from the album A Night at the Opera , released on November 21, 1975 . The working title for this song is People of the Earth.
| The prophet's song | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executor | Queen | |||
| Album | A night at the opera | |||
| Date of issue | November 21, 1975 | |||
| Date Recorded | 1975 | |||
| Genre | Progressive rock Hard rock heavy metal proto power metal | |||
| Song language | ||||
| Duration | 8:21 a.m. | |||
| Label | EMI Records , Parlophone (Europe) Elektra , Hollywood (USA) | |||
| Author | Brian May | |||
| Composer | ||||
| Producer | Queen and Roy Thomas Baker | |||
| Track listing for A Night at the Opera | ||||
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The song was inspired by a dream in which such biblical subjects and objects as the Great Flood and Noah's Ark appeared , also some of the words are taken from the Bible . It speaks of a madman who warns people of the coming Apocalypse . The song can be divided into three sections: the first contains the main part of the lyrics - in it the prophet warns of an impending flood and calls to his ark; the second is an improvisation a chapel - Mercury sings incoherent phrases that are repeated echoes about every 1.5 seconds, which creates the effect of singing an entire choir; the third part consists of long instrumental sections and one last couplet.
This is one of the heavy and gloomy songs in the band's work. This is also the longest and most difficult song of the group (if you do not take into account the song "Track 13" from the album Made in Heaven 1995 ).
The Allmusic website found this song as epic as “ Bohemian Rhapsody ”. [one]
Concert performances
The song was performed from A Night at the Opera Tour to News of the World Tour . The Prophet's Song was never performed in its entirety: at concerts in 1975-1976, the second verse was excluded from the song, and the second section was improvised and significantly differed from the album version. With A Day at the Races Tour, the song was performed only beginning with the impromptu section of the section, moving from the song " White Man ". Now, in this improvisation, Mercury was experimenting with making unusual sounds that were extracted using a strong echo effect. Beginning with the News of the World Tour at concerts, the impromptu section was followed by a guitar solo , after which the third section was played, or, as was done at a concert in Houston on December 11, 1977, the solo went into the song “ Now I'm Here ” . The Prophet's Song was never performed along with Love of My Life , although on the album one song smoothly transitions to another.
- Roger Taylor - drums , backing vocals
- Freddie Mercury - Backing vocals , vocals
- Brian May - Electric Guitar , Backing Vocals , Toy Cat
- John Deacon - Bass