Hey gang welcome back again to Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy where the proof is in the singing. I'm
continuing a really fun series where I'm taking isolated solo vocal tracks, I'm doing an analysis,
a singing tutorial, talking about the recording process, the orchestration, instrumentation,
some backstories on the band etc you name it. Next up is Queen "Show Must Go On". Before we
get started if you wouldn't mind, please like and subscribe to my channel that would be really cool.
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The course is called How to Sing Better Than Anyone Else you can find it right
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people in there all negotiating how to get great at singing okay. So without much further ado
I'm gonna get started. Freddie Mercury's "Show Must Go On". Now you guys know that this is his sort of
swan song and for you that don't know what a swan song is, it's the last song someone or swan does
before they die. In fact that's swan song records with Led Zeppelin was on way back in the day that
was sort of the impetus behind that name and, and this is no exception. Now my understanding before
we talk again to too much of the of the actual singing part of this is that I guess Brian May
brought Freddie the song. Now Brian had tried to do it himself not to sing it but to write it and
help you know the orchestration and said it was even too high for him to sing in falsetto so
he was concerned that Freddie couldn't really even sing the song because Freddie was really
far along in his AIDS and some serious health issues and apparently Freddie said
just effing give it to me darling and I'll sing it through a couple shots of vodka down
bam sang the song and died shortly thereafter, died just right around the release date of the song. So
anyway, so have a mindset of Freddie's physical condition and how he was able to just
man up to the song just really just give it his all and the story is pretty telling. So let's just
start and we'll talk about it and do more on the way and add in some instrumentation in a minute.
Now so I get the feeling that Freddie is not trying to give
you as much nuance as he has in the past with a lot of his music. It's pretty straightforward, he
knows he's gonna die, he's talking about how the show must go on, or the show must go on he wishes
maybe with him but then he's even saying that you know he can't wait to get out of his body
and he had a few of those songs. In fact you know I just did came off of doing somebody to love.
Ironically Freddie said that was his favorite song of all the Queen's stuff and it was his statement
of faith or his testimony about his belief in god and so forth and so this is his you know I
don't want the epitaph but it's just definitely his, his final words and message to everybody and
so you kind of really get that so he's really straight (sings) right (sings)
and he's got this real straightforward approach to it
he's not going to go (sings) with his very melodramatic approach.
He's just bam, he's just going to, took his shots of whiskey, whiskey or I think vodka, excuse me.
I'm gonna sing the song and tell you what he thinks okay. So really have a view towards that
as we're continuing on in this.
Okay. Now up to there it's pretty straight, the whole song's pretty straight.
Now I want you to think about something. Apparently, according to Brian May, he was so sick he could
hardly get out of bed, think about that. So (sings) he's just like okay I am gonna be present
for my last epic swan song so to speak right and we're hearing that and it's kind of creepy.
It kind of gives you the chills if you're really thinking about it and you're not just you know
it's another Queen song, what a cool song. No it's like this was what he was leaving planet earth
with that he wanted us to know about okay. Let's continue, here we go. Next line here.
Okay now think about the lyric of this for a second you know
inside my heart is breaking then my makeup may be flaking but my smile still stays on.
That is a, that's why he, it's funny he even says pantomime in one of the lines coming up,
is that a lot of time, not all the time but a lot of time within the theater world, the thespian mask
and also comedians are very notorious for this as well. They're actually crying, tears of a clown,
remember that song there actually is a, a, a dark morose or you know morbid kind of backdrop to
a lot of this but they have to only show their front to the world and so he's kind of, he isn't
kind of, he's giving you not just a hint towards that but he's coming out and he's saying you know
I know I'm, I'm dying inside over here but to the stage and to the world I'm gonna present only
my front to the world and I'm gonna smile, I'm gonna take it like a man, a woman whatever and
he's gonna like literally you know give us his all in the performance because the show must go on. Now
it's not just the show within Queen as a band, it's the show of life, life must go on, everything
else is going to continue to go on. I may you know have to step out of this picture but everything
else is going to continue to go on and he's just trying to leave us with that picture as we're, he's
painting this picture as we go.
Great honest performance. Here we go. Next line.
Okay now interesting. So the song took a key change went
up in typical Queen fashion they're not going to just do the same thing over and over again. So not
only is it in one key that he's throwing down, but he's stepping up the plate and moving and
ramping up and just like literally giving it all he's got as we're moving up the food chain.
The other thing too is i don't, I, not only can I not tell that he's sick, I think this is one of his
better high range vocal performances from a pitch standpoint, from just being just you know spot on,
notes and I don't hear any weakness in his body here at all per se.
Okay so he's talking about he knows where he's going he
just wants to get out of this world, get out of this mess and he's, he's talked a few times
in a few other songs about this exact same thing. I think that's pretty telling
Queen vocals.
Okay cool. Now before I forget there it, it, it also has a very kind of haunting (sings)
right. We've got kind of like these you know flat 5y kind of things going on
like in the background vocals and stuff. So it gives you kind of another worldly feel
and, and the video is kind of like that too but I think that's great songwriting
so that we're going to it, you know okay I'm you know, I'm going to go on out of this life and I'm
going on into the next life whatever that means and they really convey that from an instrumental
standpoint in the song. I think that's also very interesting. Next line, here we go.
Okay i'm gonna move up here.
Cool now the reason I wanted to keep playing that was, I remember when I first
heard that part of this song and I went that's a left turn they did I don't really like right,
because it's kind of a little too happy clappy for me. It's not my thing you know
because I think Queen was, is, was smarter than that but then I realized that he's reminiscing
about his life and about the happy times and the joys and this and that and he's even saying that
lyric and it does take you to that place. It takes you away from that kind of morose, morbid minor key
I'm gonna die, show must go on you know what's that (sings).
You know you guys know (sings)
It's got that kind of flavor, that melancholy kind of flavor to it
and tell, and, and, and so like that song "Seasons In The Sun" for you guys that know the song, that
song does it too and he's kind of like doing that here in a way in his own way so now when I listen
to it I think of the genius of it rather than the part that I didn't like. So let's listen to
it again, just my own little thing here but I thought I'd bring it up. Here we go.
Cool so he's singing you know my soul is painted with wings of butterflies I mean what great poetry
and imagery but he's saying when I get out of here I'm gonna catapult out of this body
and careen into eternity right. I hope that we all know you know what it is eternity
is all about and I hope we really recognize what that really means
it may may not be wings of butterflies depending on how you live this life
and who you believed in when you lived this life but, but he's actually expressing
that he's not, no regrets, no this, no that (sings) you know he did it his way and
sort of said. In fact he even said that on "We Are The Champions" as sort of his version of "We Will
Rock You", or "We Are The Champions". "We're The Champions. Yeah I remember him saying that you know his
Frank Sinatra version "I Did It My Way" you know kind of thing and he wanted to leave other people
so that they could sing that, and chant that with him. So he's kind of like catapulting himself
again into eternity and we sort of see that from that line of that song but let's continue.
Right. So now I do hear something interesting. I hear his voice being a little thinner okay
and that's probably due to a sickness, probably due to the fact that he hadn't been singing a lot
so he didn't have the girth and the fatness of a lot of the other stuff that he did,
but he's certainly killing it and he's not missing a single note. Now before I forget, I did a
version of this with my student Sara Loera and I also posted one with Dino Jelusick and I'll post
both of those in the description and if I forget you know look them up on YouTube but
where they both did awesome jobs of this. Dino just crushed it too, he just did a fantastic job
but I, I mentioned that because we did take stabs at this at KTVA
and it's not that easy of a tune to sing I mean it's straight up it's so, for a guy on his
deathbed to be able to pull this off is pretty remarkable if you ask me but anyway.
Okay and then the harmony repeats itself. Now let's bring in the band a bit so we can kind of get a
flavor for how this sounds in the music because it's one thing to hear it alone, another thing
to hear it with the track.
See you're kind of set up for melodrama right away, it's like a very kind of melancholy sort of
thing and it kind of makes you, what is he talking about you know, empty spaces what are we living for
what kind of places you know abandon places I think we know the score. So it really sucks you
into the melody based on the instrumentation more than just hearing the vocal alone.
By the way a mindless crime you know what I mean like, like what. like what the heck. What, what does he mean by
that the fact that we all have to die, that we die young, we die too young, that we have to die at all.
You know like like what is this and he talks about failed romances, he talks about his life you know
just all of the ups and downs, ebbs and flows of his life and what not he's looking back on this
and reminiscing on his past and we're getting this picture as we're going through all this.
And now the anthemic you know.
Now I want to juxtapose this to We Will Rock You" for a second.
Okay, bear with me but hang in there. Let's sing (sings)
You get this energetic you know I know he wrote it for like soccer matches you
know football matches and stuff arena but this arena championing you know celebrating this
huge crazy thing. This is kind of that revisited with melancholy of the pain of looking back and saying
all right it's all over but that show must go on and in a creepy kind of way,
He's kind of revisited that in this song. Think about it, it's really interesting. I think that's fascinating
Cool key change.
Anyway so this is kind of what I think of. Now I did get a chance to play this so I'm not going to
play the whole song but definitely check out Dino's version in the description, definitely
check out Sara's version in the description. We've got a whole bunch more Queen stuff we're
going to be doing. I'm doing a Queen-a-thon so I'm going to be doing a lot of these songs but I think
every single one of these has such a unique personality to it and is so diverse and such
artistry and majesty and you know elegance, eloquence, everything I could throw in there
you know just theater and just everything that the show, the show that's going on you
know would present so. Thank you for joining me and definitely check out my next video.