B-side label of the Poland vinyl pressing of the "Bohemian Rhapsody" single release
Song by Queen
from the album A Night at the Opera
A-side
"Bohemian Rhapsody" (Poland)
Published
Queen Music Ltd.
Released
21 November 1975 (1975-11-21)
Recorded
August–November 1975
Studio
Sarm East, London
Genre
Hard rock[1]
heavy metal[2]
Length
3:43
Label
EMI
Elektra
Songwriter(s)
Freddie Mercury
Producer(s)
Queen
Roy Thomas Baker
"Death on Two Legs" is a song by the British rock band Queen and is the opening track on their fourth album A Night at the Opera. The song was written by Freddie Mercury about the band's fall-out with their original manager and Trident Studios owner Norman Sheffield. Though the song makes no direct reference to him, Sheffield sued both the band and the record label for defamation. This resulted in an out-of-court settlement,[3] thus revealing to the public his connection with the song. Mercury said that his lawyer had cautioned him against discussing the lyrics, but that it was written from a "very emotional" place for which he felt music was the best outlet.[4] Roger Taylor also noted that despite the success of "Killer Queen" and Sheer Heart Attack, the album preceding A Night at the Opera, the band was lacking money before the album was made.[5] Sheffield denied that he or his companies had mistreated the band in his capacity as manager, and cited the original 1972 management contracts between himself and Queen in his autobiography published in 2013, Life on Two Legs: Set The Record Straight, in his defence.
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.
^Prown, Pete; Newquist, HP (1997). Legends of Rock Guitar: The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 106. ISBN 9780793540426.
^Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Queen - A Night at the Opera". AllMusic. Retrieved 17 January 2021. ...A Night at the Opera encompasses metal ("Death on Two Legs"...
^Sheffield, Norman (2013). Life on Two Legs. UK: Trident Publishing. p. 239. ISBN 9780957513310.
^Turner, Steve (11 March 1976). "Queen: Four Queens Beat Opera Flush". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
^mobile4357 (23 February 2008), Queen: The Making of "Death On Two Legs", archived from the original on 21 December 2021, retrieved 24 June 2017{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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