'39
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| “'39” | |||||
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| Single by Queen from the album A Night at the Opera |
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| Released | May 18, 1976 | ||||
| Format | 7" | ||||
| Recorded | August-November 1975 | ||||
| Genre | Folk Rock | ||||
| Length | 3:30 | ||||
| Label | EMI / Hollywood | ||||
| Writer(s) | Brian May | ||||
| Producer | Roy Thomas Baker Queen |
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| Queen singles chronology | |||||
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'39 is a song by English 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 a high-A note sung by Roger Taylor (May commented in 2005 that Taylor actually refused to sing the note he wanted, so he got him to sing a lower note then used varispeed to up the pitch).
"'39" is the 39th song in the Queen studio album chronology.
The acoustic guitars were recorded with a capo on the first fret, making them sound a semitone higher.
May jokingly suggested that bassist John Deacon play an upright bass to reinforce the skiffle feel of the song. Only after seeing that Deacon had taught himself how to play one in the studio did the band agree to use the instrument. "'39" was released as the B-side to You're My Best Friend, so the two singles from A Night at the Opera comprised one composition from each of the four members of Queen.
[edit] 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 (thanks to time dilation). The lyrics imply that the song's protagonist faces his daughter 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 close to 99% 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 Herman Hesse, which I think is called "The River". 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.
Also it is interesting that the penultimate line of the first verse doesn't rhyme with the previous (day - seas). If instead a rhyming word "way" is substituted for "seas", the penultimate line would indicate the volunteers travelled across the Milky Way - the galaxy.
[edit] Cover versions
- '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.
[edit] Live recordings
On live versions of the song Freddie Mercury would often sing the lead vocal part instead of Brian May, along with Roger Taylor playing a tambourine and a bass drum at the same time, singing the high pitch notes.
The song can be found on the following live albums:
- Live Killers (1979)
- The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (1992)
- Live at the Brixton Academy (Brian May album) (1993)
- Return of the Champions (2005)
- Super Live in Japan (2005)
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