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Tie Your Mother Down

"Tie Your Mother Down"
Queen Tie Your Mother Down.png
Single by Queen
from the album A Day at the Races
B-side "You and I"
"Drowse" (USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand)
Released 4 March 1977
Format 7"
Recorded 1976
Genre Hard rock
Length
  • 3:45 (Single)
  • 4:48 (Album version)
Label EMI Records (UK)
Elektra (US)
Writer(s) Brian May
Producer(s) Queen
Queen singles chronology
"Somebody to Love"
(1976)
"Tie Your Mother Down"
(1977)
"Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)"
(1977)

"Tie Your Mother Down" is a song by the British rock band Queen, written by lead guitarist Brian May. It is the opening track and the second single from their 1976 album A Day at the Races. On its original release as a single in 1977 the song peaked at 31 in the UK Singles Chart, however more than 20 years later it was released as a double a-side to "No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young)" where it reached 13 in UK Singles Chart. On the album the song is preceded by a one-minute instrumental intro featuring a Shepard tone melody, which is reprised in the ending of "Teo Torriatte": this was intended to create a "circle" in the album, typical, for example, of Pink Floyd's albums.

After its release in 1976, it was played by Queen on every subsequent tour. At the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, the song was co-performed by Queen and guests Joe Elliot and Slash. On several occasions in the recent years, Brian May and Roger Taylor have played this song live with the Foo Fighters, including performances at Queen's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2001, and the VH1 Rock Honors in 2006.

Brian May started writing the song in Tenerife, while he was working for his Ph.D. as an astronomer. He composed the riff on a Spanish guitar, and woke up early one morning and played it while singing "tie your mother down," a line he considered a joke. Vocalist Freddie Mercury encouraged him to keep the line. "Tie Your Mother Down" opens with an ultra-heavy, stripped down Brian May guitar riff.


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