Album Review – A Day at the Races by Queen

Album Title: A Day at the Races

Artist: Queen
Release Date: December 10, 1976

Side One
Tie Your Mother Down (May)
You Take My Breath Away (Mercury)
Long Away (May)
The Millionaire Waltz (Mercury)
You and I (Deacon)

Side Two
Somebody to Love (Mercury)
White Man (May)
Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (Mercury)
Drowse (Taylor)
Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) (May)

While I agree with the general consensus among critics that A Night at the Opera was the best album released by the British rock group Queen, the group had a remarkably good string of albums beginning with their second one and lasting to the end of the 1970s, with several of them coming close to matching A Night at the Opera. Among these was that album’s sequel, A Day at the Races, released a year later and likewise named after a Marx Brothers film. While it didn’t contain anything quite like “Bohemian Rhapsody”, it contained a number of excellent songs and was marked by similarly high quality musicianship, arrangement and production (though in this case the band produced the album without help from Roy Thomas Baker, who had worked on the previous record). In fact, the two albums are something of a matched pair. While some reviewers criticized A Day at the Races for this reason, considering it something of a retread, the band explored some new genres on the album (most notably gospel on “Somebody to Love”) and the variety and quality of the songs make it more than a mere repeat of their previous album. While I would be hard pressed to pick a second favorite Queen album, this, along with other albums like Sheer Heart Attack and News of the World, would be a strong contender.

A Day at the Races Song by Song

Tie Your Mother Down: After an instrumental introduction that reappears at the end of “Teo Torriate”, the album’s final track, A Day of the Races kicks off with this excellent rocker written by guitarist Brian May. The lyrics expressing the frustrations of a young man whose girlfriend’s family gets in the way of their romance are clearly tongue in cheek.

You Take My Breath Away: This ballad by vocalist Freddie Mercury features his piano and layers of overdubbed vocals. It’s a nice tune, though not equal to his previous ballads “Love of My Life”, “Lily of the Valley” and “Nevermore”.

Long Away: This song by May was the only one he sang lead vocals for on this album. With its rhythm guitar and catchy melody, it is somewhat in the vein of “’39” from the previous album. It can’t quite match its brilliant predecessor, but it is very good nonetheless.

The Millionaire Waltz: This composition by Freddie Mercury is the most complex track on the album, and the best song on side one except perhaps for the opening song. There are several key changes and dramatic transitions, and it features some great piano and vocals from Mercury plus elaborate guitar orchestrations by May.

You and I: This is bassist John Deacon’s songwriting contribution to the album, and it’s an excellent one, with a catchy tune and some of the most melodic bass playing from anyone besides Paul McCartney. I even prefer this somewhat to “Your My Best Friend”, Deacon’s song on A Night at the Opera, though this was not a hit single like the earlier song.

Somebody to Love: While no song on A Day at the Races quite matches “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Mercury’s magnum opus from A Night at the Opera, he came closest with “The Millionaire Waltz” and this song, which was the biggest hit off the album and deservedly so. This gospel flavored tune is built around some great piano playing by Mercury and features a stupendous lead vocal from its composer and an excellent gospel choir made up of layered vocals by Mercury, May and Roger Taylor. This is my favorite song on this album and one of my all time favorite Queen songs.

White Man: This straightforward hard rock track written by Brian May is musically solid but not exceptional, somewhat like “Sweet Lady” on the previous album. But lyrically, despite a few weak lines, overall it is very good, with its scathing indictment of the European seizure of America from the indigenous peoples.

Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy: A composition by Mercury in British music hall style (Mercury referred to it as his “ragtime” song from the album), this was the second biggest UK hit from the album. A fast paced, catchy tune, it is very enjoyable, though I slightly prefer Mercury’s “ragtime” song on A Night at the Opera, “Seaside Rendezvous”.

Drowse: This was drummer Roger Taylor’s songwriting contribution to the album, and he sang all the vocals and played rhythm guitar on it. As the title indicates, it has a laidback, sleepy feel; it was the first slow tempo song Taylor had written for Queen. Both musically and particularly lyrically it’s quite good; in fact, I’d say it was second only to “Tenement Funster” from Sheer Heart Attack as the best song Taylor had written for the band up to that point (though admittedly he’d only written five, one on each album).

Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together): This ballad written by Brian May is especially notable for its chorus, which is sung in Japanese as well as English (this was done as a tribute to Queen’s Japanese fans). It is a well-done, almost anthemic ballad with a good melody, and makes a good closer for the album.