| "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" | ||||
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| Song by Queen from the album A Night at the Opera | ||||
| Released | 21 November 1975 | |||
| Recorded | August-November 1975 Sarm East Studios |
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| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 3:43 | |||
| Label | EMI, Parlophone (Europe) Elektra, Hollywood (US) |
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| Writer | Freddie Mercury | |||
| Producer | Queen Roy Thomas Baker |
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| A Night at the Opera track listing | ||||
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"Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" is a song by British rock group Queen, the opening track on their fourth studio album A Night at the Opera. The song was written by Freddie Mercury and describes his hatred toward Queen's ex-manager, Norman Sheffield, who is reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972-1975.
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.
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The song is considered to be Mercury's "hate letter" towards Queen's former manager Norman Sheffield, incorporating a vast range of vicious lyrics, as described by Mercury, "It's so vindictive that Brian felt bad singing it. I don't like to explain what I was thinking when I wrote a song. I think that's awful, just awful."[1]
Although "Death on Two Legs" never made a direct reference to Sheffield, upon listening to the song, he attempted to sue the band for defamation, and this revealed to the public the subject of the song. Before releasing the album, EMI paid "a substantial sum."[2] Sheffield later admitted that his lawsuit probably gave the band an incentive to dedicate the song to him. During live performances, Mercury would usually re-dedicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman". This line was censored out of the version of the song that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979.
"Death on Two Legs" was regularly performed live by Queen up until, and during, The Game Tour. However, there is only one live version of the song ever officially released, appearing on the 1979 album Live Killers.