Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)
| "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Queen from the album A Night at the Opera | |
| Released | 21 November 1975 |
| A-side | Bohemian Rhapsody (Poland only) |
| Recorded | August – November 1975 Sarm East Studios |
| Genre | Heavy metal |
| Length | 3:43 |
| Label | |
| Writer(s) | Freddie Mercury |
| Producer(s) | Queen, Roy Thomas Baker |
| A Night at the Opera track listing | |
|
12 tracks
|
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"Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" is a song by the British rock band Queen, and is the opening track on their fourth album A Night at the Opera. The song was written by Freddie Mercury and allegedly describes his hatred of Queen's original manager, the late Norman Sheffield, who is reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his managerial role from 1972 to 1975.
The song was recorded and mixed at Sarm East Studios in late 1975. As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on the song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to Brian May how they needed to be played on guitar.
The song is dominated by guitars, strong lead and backing vocals as well as piano. It's in 4/4 meter, and has a piano arpeggio intro with heavy guitars, bowed double bass, mechanical sounding noise and a loud shriek by Roger Taylor, which abruptly leads into the song in B minor. There are numerous subsections and layers, as was typical for Queen at the time. The verses have short sections with the tempo virtually halved, and the choruses are emphasised with strong harmonies and drum fills.
Drum! magazine said of Taylor's drum work: "[...] Shortly after the 2/4 measure there’s an unusual snare accent on the & of 4 and a change to a half-time groove. These back-and-forth feel changes continue throughout the song and Taylor somehow makes them flow smoothly."
The song is considered to be Freddie Mercury's "hate letter" to Queen's original manager Norman Sheffield, incorporating a range of vicious lyrics, and described by Mercury as being "so vindictive that Brian felt bad singing it." Though the song makes no direct reference to him, Sheffield was appalled when he heard a playback of the song at Trident Studios at the time of the album's release, and sued both the band and the record label for defamation. This resulted in an out-of-court settlement, thus revealing to the public his connection with the song.
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