In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited
| "In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
"In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited" is a song by British rock band Queen, written by lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. The song is the closing track on the 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack. It features a powerful anthemic chorus and is considered to be a forerunner to "We Are the Champions". The song also appears on the compilations Deep Cuts, Volume 1 (1973-1976) and Queen Forever.
While it bears a similar name to another track on the same album, there are few similarities between the two.
Contents
Background
Though he was in a relationship Mary Austin, Mercury began to question his sexual orientation in the early to mid-1970s. In December 1974, when asked, "So how about being bent?" in an interview with the New Musical Express, he replied, "Let's put it this way; there were times when I was young and green. It's a thing schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to elaborate further."[2] Homosexual acts between adult males over the age of 21 had only been decriminalised in the United Kingdom in 1967. Bandmate Brian May has speculated that the song was Mercury's way of expressing his frustration about not being able to be openly gay.[3]
Musical structure
The beginning of the song is structured as a ballad around Mercury's piano part with backing bass and drums, slowly transitioning to the heavy chorus dominated by the electric guitar and sung solely as a lead vocal. After the initial chorus, it softens to the second verse, after which it picks up to the familiar chorus (now sung as a multi-part harmony) that repeats for six times until the song ends with an explosion-type noise, achieved using tape saturation.[4]
As with all Queen tracks released before The Game in 1980, synthesisers are not featured as part of the song.
Live performances
The song was used to close shows starting with the Sheer Heart Attack Tour in 1974 until the A Day at the Races Tour in 1977. In these performances, special effects were used to create the theatrical atmosphere the band wanted; fog would fill the stage starting with the first chorus, and a final blast of pyrotechnics would signal the end of the main set.[5] A truncated version with a guitar arrangement was part of the setlist for the band's final tour with Mercury in 1986, albeit not as a set closer.[6]
More recently on Queen's tour with Adam Lambert in 2014, the song was featured as part of a medley that would segue to "Seven Seas of Rhye".[7]
Live recordings
- Live at Wembley '86 / Live at Wembley Stadium (1992)
- Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest ’86 (2012)
- Live at the Rainbow '74 (2014)
- A Night at the Odeon – Hammersmith 1975 (2015)
Personnel
- Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano
- Brian May - electric guitar, backing vocals
- Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
- John Deacon - bass guitar
References
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