Queen, You Take My Breath Away - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction
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- čas přidán 28. 10. 2023
- #queen #rogertaylor #freddiemercury #brianmay #johndeacon
Lusciously expansive, tenderly intimate, this piece ebbs, flows, and shimmers at every turn - an exquisitely beautiful ballad! I wouldn’t have guessed that it was inspired Japanese pentatonic scales but, sure enough, the influence is in there!
Here’s the link to the original song by Queen:
• Queen - You Take My Br...
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Amy Shafer, LRSM, FRSM, RYC, is a classical harpist, pianist, and music teacher, Director of Piano Studies and Assistant Director of Harp Studies for The Harp School, Inc., holds multiple degrees in harp and piano performance and teaching, and is active as a solo and collaborative performer. With nearly two decades of teaching experience, she teaches privately, presents masterclasses and coaching sessions, and has performed and taught in Europe and USA.
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Credits: Music written and performed by Queen
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I’ve waited for this one. I knew you’d adore it. It’s so beautiful! I adore watching you point out parts my untrained ears don’t hear. It makes me adore it even more. Brilliant analysis Amy thanks!
I do not believe that anyone can listen to this band and mistake them for "Just another Pop Rock group" . It is absolutely apparent that they were Far More.
I think they brought Class, structure, and classical virtuosity to the average Pop Rock Listener at the time.
Though Many fans may not have known it , I think it was this education , being injected into their musical appreciation , that gave them something they didn't even know they needed . Something they weren't getting from the main stream Pop-Rock of the time. I do not know if Queen planned this, or if it was just a spectacular, chance pairing of just the right Musicians at just the right time in history. Whichever it was Just BRILLIANT.
The millionaire Waltz u would like as well! Guaranteed! A Waltz in Rock? Yesssss
Agreed! I know shes going to love this song as well
Now that you’ve heard the recording of this song please check out the live version at Hyde Park of just Freddie and the piano. Also recommend Millionaire Waltz.
Fred was a genius.
Yes he was 🥰
I’m so happy you did this reaction. This piece is so beautiful. Roger Taylor said that Freddie was a human metronome. He always knew where he was on the beat. Interesting thing re your comment about Freddie’s vibrato, a group of scientists did a study of Freddie’s voice and found that Freddie indeed had a fast vibrato. Measured at 7.04 Hz, faster even than Pavarotti. Also, Freddie was able to use his ventricular folds, his “false vocal cords” creating unique subharmonics when he sang. I was always amazed at this piece. Especially when you consider this was pre-digital. I’m even more impressed after your analysis. Thank you.
Part of the point was that Pavarotti and opera singers in general tend to have slow vibratos, so, it's not that he's faster even than pavarotti - it's not a speed race. It's that his vibrato is different because it's unusually fast, and fast vibrato is not even a goal generally, but it does sound good. Just different.
Pavarotti had a pretty normal vibrato so it is not really a good comparison. However, in opera it is often big voiced dramatic tenors that have faster vibratos, not the light lyrical voices which Pavarotti had. So those scientists should rather have made a different comparison, but my guess is that they probably did not know much about opera. Enrique Caruso, Mario Del Monaco and Franco Corelli all had vibratos that was at 7hz and over. They are all tenors with big dramatic voices. The right vibrato adds expression to the voice.
He's no opera singer please ,don't compare.
Not comparing him to an opera singer. In fact, Freddie himself said he was not an opera singer. Just stating that he did, in fact, have a faster than normal vibrato and that is one of the qualities that made his voice unique.
@@letsgomets002 Yep, it's very rare to see opera cross over with rock/pop (usually our ears don't like the sound of trained opera singing over rock/pop music), but Freddie was certainly not formally trained. He also likely damaged his vocal cords (he had nodules) like many rock singers trying to sing over the band at rehearsals early on in their career when they didn't have a proper sound system. The nodules would cause him problems from time to time during Queen's career when they were in the middle of a rigorous touring schedule, but he had an amazing ear for dropping notes to thirds or fifths live when he felt he couldn't hit the higher pitches. That said, he also learned how to practice/train his voice better later in his career. At one point in the 80s an interviewer asked him why he didn't take a lead role in a musical and he admitted that he didn't think he could hold up over such a rigorous schedule, but Freddie was always fairly humble talking about himself.
The live version makes you weep with its tenderness.
Freddy does ALL the voices in this, self multitrack
Beautiful song, Freddie at his creative best..!
I love that you characterised YTMBA as "not square." I couldn't have said it any better. The subtle interplay of the melody, the voice, the timing, even the way Freddie strikes the piano keys, makes it unique and one of his finest (if not the finest) compositions. The delayed closing phrase reminds me of exhaling after holding one's breath... and then deeply inhaling. Perhaps that's because I often find myself holding my own breath while listening to this lovely song... it literally takes my breath away.
Thank you once again, Amy, for your insight and empathy. You've made YTMBA even more meaningful and delightful for me.
Is it just me, or does Brian May's guitar sound like a cello in this song? That sad, melancholy tone fits the song perfectly.
Freddie ensured us a small insight into his soul with one of the most beautiful love songs.
This is such a pretty song. For a stripped down, hauntingly beautiful version, please find and watch Freddie's live premier of this song (before it was even recorded). "You Take My Breath Away - Live at Hyde Park 1976". You'll see Freddie and his piano. That is all he needed to create magic.
The studio version is infinitely better. The live version was a practice basically.
I absolutely agree, the stripped back version is utterly magical, and I prefer it to the more elaborate studio version. Of course, it's all a matter of individual taste, but sometimes less is more.
This song is a real masterpiece!
The video when Freddie debuted this is even more stunning. Much simpler. Freddie, Piano, emotion....
Yes!
Oh the studio version is much better. I must disagree
To each their own. However Freddie feels the live version. Given the story behind the song, that is understandable @@richlisola1
Where can I see this video
Freddie did ALL vocals for this
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I enjoyed your reaction. This song affects people differently. To me it feels melancholy and sad. A lost life. You might like "Teo Torriate" another Freddie Mercury composition from the same album, sung partly in Japanese with a real Japanese feeling. Just as beautiful as Take my Breath Away, but then he wrote so many beautiful songs.
Teo Torriate was written by Brian May, dedicated to the Japanese public, and masterfully performed by Freddie Mercury.
I love this song and have since the first time I heard it. I always feel as if I’m invading Freddie’s privacy … that somehow this song is only for him and one other person. Everything you showed me about this song made me see what I’ve always heard. Now I understand why the tiny time in between Freddie singing these lines make me almost uncomfortable as if I’m eavesdropping . When Freddie sings I I will find you… I always have goosebumps … even tho I know that line is coming. You said this song sounds other-worldly and that is exactly how I think of it every time I listen to it. So grateful for you Amy🌷 You are gifted and for me nothing is more wonderful than listening to a true musician explain music . You would really enjoy Freddie singing in Hyde Park 1976 in front of 200 hundred thousand people. When I watch it I feel it really does take my breath away because I think I don’t breath through the entire song. The audience is completely quiet also… have neither seen anything like it. ( the strange power of Freddie Mercury 🥰😂 )
Great analysis! Apart from Freddie's unique vibrato he also had an amazing tone to his voice, and I say this someone who also follows opera closely. Perhaps even more importantly he had expectational expression. You can have a very beautiful voice, but if you don't know how to express yourself and the emotions of the music then it will not help you that much.
Wow, so happy you’re doing this track. It’s almost ethereal.
5 minutes of beautiful music expanded into an hour of almost poetic analysis. Love this channel!
This reaction… takes my breath away! Your joy and appreciation and knowledge and wonderful musicality, communicated not just through your voice and words, but through flowing expressions and body movements and hand movement… take us with you for a wonderful ride through this amazing piece. This seems like what it might have been like to walk through the streets of Paris with Renoir as your guide - adding even more joy and appreciation to that already generated by the senses of the living, breathing, vibrant, flowing scenes of life along the way. You are a marvelous tour guide! ❤️😊 I never thought I could be so enthralled by an hour long video on a single song! Truly wonderful!
Your analysis is always so wonderful. I love Freddie's ballads. Freddie was a man who was filled with so much love and only wanted that love in return. He poured it out in his songs.
Sublime! This is one of Queen's most superb pieces. From the expressive and perfect vocals to the rubato on the piano, this performance is hauntingly gorgeous. Freddie's wonderful vocal intonation is exposed here without auto-tuning (Thank you, 1976!).
We who lived up our teenage years listening this kind of pop or rock music as fresh and new, we were so blessed really. It so difficult to understand when you compare to the hit list music nowadays. Mind blowing music, mind blowing lyrics. And the quality of the execution.
Can't wait for this one ❤
This is definitely one of those tracks that you should react to both the studio and live version of ..
My favourite Queen song. I learned piano 30 years ago by working out songs like this. Like you I never felt the strictly Japanese pentatonic as such... a lot of European classical elements with Chopin coming to the fore for me at least. I notice Freddie always had a penchant for F#dim7 as it appears on many of his songs... Also some more modern chords like Abmaj over Bb bass for example... such a classic!
Thanks for making this song more known in the public consciousness as it is a bit of a hidden gem in the Queen catalogue.
Freddie was such a wonderful pianist. I love how crisp and clear each note is. This is one I often think of when I think about his playing. It truly is a gorgeous song.
One of Queens prettiest, and Freddies most vulnerable vocals
It is so fantastic that you’re methodically reacting to/analyzing these lesser-known Queen songs…
This one is a masterpiece!
Amy, you should listen to "The Millionaire Waltz" of Queen as well (studio version). This song is a brilliant combination of classic music, operetta and rock. The song has abrupt rhythmic, melodic and arrangement changes. Except Freddy Mercury's incredible vocal and his amazing piano skills, you'll hear Brian May's excellent guitar arrangement/orchestration and John Deacon's beautiful bass line. I'm sure, as a classical musician, you will like this song ♥
I've often thought of Freddie as someone born out of his time and who would have been at home in the courts of European nobility or royalty 200-300 years ago. He strikes me as someone who would fight a duel to preserve the honour of a lady even though ladies were not his personal preference. That just adds to the sadness of him being cut down by something so contemporary.
A wonderful piece of music. So glad I grew up in that period.
These guys were real musicians. Glad you are sharing your discoveries.
Such a beautiful song and reaction/analysis by you Amy. Really happy you enjoyed it so much and that it made your playlist.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think I heard an interview by Brian who said this song was 100% Freddie. He presented it to the rest of the group as as completely finished song. I love that they use the beginning of it in their concert tours, as an intro to Who Wants to Live Forever. It's beautiful. I just saw them in Nashville. It was a wonderful experience.
He performed it live before theyd started their next album
Been following you for months.. It's the first time I write a comment thou... BEST CHANNEL EVER KEEP IT UP GORGEOUS!
My favourite Freddie song
The choral parts of this song are spectacular. Some songs you fall in love with, from the beginning, this is one of them. There are some stunning diamonds on `A Day at the Races` I don`t know which the Cullinan is ? You have other joys to come , knowing that is just delicious for us, your audience. I think that`s why reaction videos are so great, it takes us back to our first time , and just what a wonderful, beautiful moment that was.
The order is simple:
Take My Breath Away, pre-coitus.
Love of my life, post-coitus
Oh yes!!! I’ve been hoping for and looking forward to a reaction to this one for so long!!! 👑
Just watched - wonderful!
Thank you Amy,
I again learned a ton in ways to listen further into this song or a song. No competition here, I think as far as Freddie Mercury or Queen's label is concerned you can listen to both songs to your heart's content. For me, at least one third of my music listening experiences are listening to a complete album and listening to them as a whole experience, as one experience and this song fits in the (very diverse) album.
One thing that strikes me and it's a quintessential Mercury quality is that his hole mood, as he produces this song, is a tender or very sensitive mood, yet I sense a boldness, a blatant emotion and he sings with conviction, it strikes me as a unique combination.
I imagine that in order to make a song like this, create it, write it, detail it and then produce it one has to be in a very balanced good state of mind, seems that if a certain emotion is burdening you, you're in agony, angered because Johnny ate your oatmeal for breakfast, overly sad for some reason, if you're burdened over something, you couldn't produce this, some delicacies of details would not be, something would throw this creation off kilter. This is just splendid work.
Just my own thought.
I have never and will never get tired of listening to this beautiful song since I was a teen in 1982.
What a wonderful and beautiful musical analysis. I love your reaction of QUEEN. You are an amazing person.
I have always taken the false ending as representing someone who just poured their heart out to the one they are in love with and are now waiting for a response (pregnant with expectation).
The real end was likely achieved by taking the vocal track and playing it backwards through a delay (echo) unit and recording it, then flipping that new tape around so it plays the vocal forwards again and splicing it to the end of the song. That was the easiest way in those days of getting the pre-delay to build into the original vocal line which appears at the very end.
Love is wanting to be loved
It's extremely hard to find this in a lifetime..
Be blessed and fortunate for those who have found love.
Most people may never find that kind of experience.
Pray for those who have open hearts who have little love left to sustain themselves.
Those who deserve no pity, but deserve true love.
Like every good human being deserves, and to who has none.
None.
Thanks!
As mentioned the live version is great as well.
This is my favourite Queen ballad (from my favourite Queen album). It sounds exquisitely personal and intimate because he wrote it for his lover David Minns. This is the ultimate version where Freddie perfected what he previously demoed live.
This was way before auto-tune entered the recording studios. What you hear is a multi-tracked pitch-perfect Freddie sounding other worldly au naturel. That’s because he was other worldly. No boundaries, no limits. I keep expecting him to come back and defy his own mortality. I wouldn’t put it past him.
My fave comment on Freddie ever 😂
I look forward to your reaction to both The Millionaire's Waltz and White Man. Two very different pieces, both brilliant.
My melancholy blues by Queen. Just info. Thank you.
Great track indeed
This song is one of my all time favorites. It's a must for my Love Songs Mixtape.
Thanks for for this one guys. It's my favourite ballard of all time and means so much to me. Brian has said that when recording the harmonies, Freddie's voice was so perfect, it would phase with what he had already recorded. At some points he had to deliberately sing slightly off to get the full sound.
Leaving aside this absolutely masterpiece (for a moment) the pentatonic scale you played, immediately recalled to my mind “ nine million bicycles” from Katie Melua whose intention was to recreate exactly a traditional Asian atmosphere. Anyway, this song reveals that they really experienced/understood what true love ❤️is, otherwise it would not be possible to write something like that.
'a little late catching this one - "beautiful".
Please check on the Hyde Park live performance of this song. Mercury's performance is out of this world.
I was there.
I think I know how you'll think of this in the future. As I do: PERFECTION.
Every time I hear that meolody, I picture walking around in Gion or somewhere similar, all immersed in this foreign and enchanting world, trying to take in all the impressions from all sensory input. Just when you start to feel the rythm of what is going on around you, when it starts making sense and your body starts to move to this new way of being you, your eye catches some incredibly beautiful person. This glimpse of perfection is so surprising, yet so absolutely perfect to express the aesthetic environment that you were just starting to get, that your whole body stops for a moment. Even your breath stops, and you are left hanging on top of all the gorgeousness ... until someone bumps into you, making you move to find your balance again, and by the time you look up again, all you see is the back of the person walking away from you.
Perhaps you have just enough time to notice that the person is actually walking with a loved one, and that seems just as it should be, since you never had time to fall in love, just to get stopped in your tracks by some aspect of the person, and you are generous enough to recognize that it is a good thing for such beauty to be admired by someone else, too. You smile a little to yourself, reorient yourself in time and space, and start adapting your movements to the others around you again. It becomes almost second nature to you, strengthened by a delicious smell, or a flash of colour, and your entire being is thrilled to be part of this broad and deep cultural moment. Your you shifts a little, having grown almost imperceptively, and you feel like you're just about to break into a song like in a musical, so sure that the crowd around you would join in, and then...
Another glimpse of that person, under a different light, and they look even more sublime!
THIS is why your series is so immensely valuable to me, you take me far away in time and space, I become someone else with so much more knowledge for a while! Thank you, again!
To me, this is what a lovesong/ballad needs to sound like. Also, i could easily imagine a koto play the piano part.
One of Queens finest, trademark sound, choirs, dynamics it is all there! Your going to love this one Im sure!
Your the first that I know to react to this song and oh how I appreciate it. You know I truly love this group so far back but I was worried about with my friends and family opinions would be because of me being African American . So I would listen with headphones only. As time past I said we are all different. Love me or hate this is my music and this is who i am!!! Thank you. Also I thought only Angles played the Harp.😇
The flowing of elements, I knew you would get this song. Beautiful stuff!
A Day at the Races is, in my opinion, Queen's last truly excellent album. Now, there are great songs on all their albums, so you'll enjoy the rest of this journey for sure, but I think the first five really stand out. You need to revisit them at some point, especially Queen II, which is arguably their most interesting album.
Your analysis is so on point that I'm speachless. Thank you so much 💛❤️
I think you have analyzed Queen's compositional skills deeper than anybody else has ever done before. You really provide a different perspective on Queen's music.
I feel like this song has no genre, it is just beautiful music.
Essa composição é tão linda, a performasse de Freddie no Hyde Park sempre me quebra
A song worthy of you.
You're gonna love Teo Torriate.
There's great use of the 'Deacy Amp' in this - the cello-like sounds are Brian playing guitar through a little amplifier made for him by John Deacon out of parts found in a dumpster - the amp has a unique strings-like distortion/fuzz.
Yup. Beautiful indeed Amy ❤
In my top 5 of Queen.
If you only listen for yourself
MUST ! watch his live just him and the piano so beautiful and emotional
Which I find this looses a bit
You've finally reviewed my favourite Queen song! I'm glad you loved it.
"My Melancholy Blues" was composed by Freddie Mercury. There are no backing vocals or guitar. Despite the title, the track is more related to jazz. Amy, wanna try a jazz song ? Thank's.
next album.
Freddie seems to bare his soul, let down his defences completely for his muse in this song, until he realises how vulnerable he has let himself become and pulls them back up right at the end, in a way that he doesn't in Love Of My Life.
This and "Love of my life" form a pair in my mind. Both the most insanely beautiful lovesongs one can imagine. Worthy in comparism to the great love songs of the 19th Century, like the ones by Schumann or Tchaikovsky.
one of my favorites from Queen, from my all time favorite Album- A Day at the Races
Thanks V-Rock! This is such a masterpiece... I'm glad you listened to the album version... the dynamics are fantastic... as well as harmonies and instrumentation! really appreciate your reaction! (p.s. I always notice that you can hear him taking his breaths! He didn't need to feature that.. I feel as though it was quite deliberate)
Dugo sam bio usamljen u mom doživljaju muzike Queen-a,ali ova dama je osetila najvrednije elemente te muzike koji je izdižu visoko od buntovnog i sirotinjskog roken rola.Drago mi je da prepoznaje najprefinjenije pesme koje su uglavnom i manje popularne.
Yes it is really great to hear these serious and fun reactions to Queen.; we are not alone
Great job. I’ve been obsessed with queens since 1975. This song takes my breath away.
This song always sheds me to tears. Nothing more to say apart absolute beauty... Oh, I almost forget this, as Freddie usually did in live, the Hyde Park version is slightly different but even more powerful emotionaly althought being more concise (no in & outro). The Earl's Court concert's performance (1977) is also very interesting as he varied a lot his vocal melodic lines and more tempi variations.
Wow Freddie's harmonies are otherworldly in tone,only he could harmonize off himself but him ,he was the Greatest ever !!!a true vocal master !!!!
.... ANYONE can harmonise off themselves.....you're just singing one part against another ...
D'oh...!!
@@andymccabe6712yea…. but queen made efforts to perfect this
Very nice song... I hope you enjoy!
Like many other people, I actually prefer the stripped back version of this song, with just Freddie at the piano, at a concert in Hyde Park, London, in 1976. It's so magical in its simplicity one almost holds one's breath for fear of missing a word. A rowdy crowd were silenced, spellbound after Freddie raised one thin finger, and told them "You've got to listen to this one." On this occasion, less was noticeably more.
Please don't miss this stunning solo performance and seeing what it is we're all talking about!
Having said that, I' m looking forward to hearing your analysis now of the studio version - perhaps you'll be able to change my mind and make me fall in love with it!
Beautiful!
Amy is in her element here to the nth degree......she is literally on display in her essence. Her breath is NOT taken away by this composition, but ADDED to......with verve. Amy has put us all in discovery mode for music.
I could say so much about your reactions, but I will say you're right out there with Freddie.Thank you❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
So right
I heard Gershwin: "Someone To Watch Over Me"
im so glad your doing it this way with the uninterrupted listen first time round great analysis
Thanks for the breakdown of this song Amy. Glad you enjoyed it. Another example of how great a musician Freddie was. Incredible how he could multi harmonize his voice to create a choir effect. Also the instrumental break by Brian may on the guitar creating orchestral string effects.. a lovely song and a lovely review. Thank you 😅
I love singing this to my wife in the car. The fact that she loves it when I sing to her is why I married her.
That’s nice!
I saw them perform it in Hyde Park September 1976
me too... on youtube though :D
@@neilloughran4437 I can remember seeing Steve Hillage, a band called Supercharge and Kiki Dee who sang Don’t Go Breaking My Heart with a life size cut out of Elton on stage.
I think Queen opened with Tie Your Mother Down.
You take me to another world during one hour. Thanks a lot for this video. And love Freddie, love Queen!!
aww ami this was so ❤❤❤ again! and you should listen to the hyde park version too, its amazing and i really like the piano ending here more than the studio version. you are right with his signature vocal fingerprint vibrato which frequency was higher than usual.
I was hoping you'd do a review on this one. The song is the most beautiful love song I've ever heard.
Just wanted to add a thank you for letting the song play through before you dove in with analysis and stops for discussion. It allows viewers to witness your immediate reaction on an emotional level, much like we all did when we first heard it. It lets us vicariously enjoy it that way again.
Hi, I love your reaction to this special song. Freddy's voice is so sweet.
I suggest you analyse "Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together)" from the same album 😉. .
Very good insight of this incredible song
I suggest you listen to the live version at Hyde park 1976
I hope next song will be the millionaire’s waltz
So happy you decided to do this song. It is beautiful isn't it? Now, i shall wait for... my melancholy blues. 😊