Switched on Pop - ANTHEMS: Queen — We Are The Champions

Episode Date: October 27, 2020

Freddie Mercury and team made one of the most unusual anthems of all time. “We Are The Champions” has a somber beginning, an uncertain ending and a sprinkling of operatic allusions. Yet more than 40 years after this slow burners debut, it continues to be a staple at sporting events. In the first episode in a four part series, ANTHEMS, Nate and Charlie break down the song’s fundamental elements that place this song in the anthemic pantheon.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're tired of endless scrolling to figure out where to eat, same. I'm Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief of Eater. We've just launched the new-ish and way better Eater app. It has all the restaurants we love, gives you personalized picks wherever you are, and serves up smarter search results just for you. You can find my list of the best places for martinis and fries in New York City. And save your favorite spots, share lists, follow editors, and book right in the app. the Eater app at Eaterapp.com. It's free for iOS users. Welcome to Switched on Pop. I'm musicologist

Nate Sloan. And I'm songwriter Charlie Harding. Charlie, this is the first in a mini-series that we're doing. And every episode for the next four episodes, we are going to be tackling the subject of anthems. Oh, this is going to be fun. Yeah. What makes a song an anthem? What makes a song the one that a whole stadium or arena of people can sing as one a song that soundtracks our public life and I want to start with the song that is literally the first thing I think of when I hear the word anthem that's the one we are the champions by queen I want to spend the rest of this episode trying to understand the musical features that make this track so anthemic that 40 years after it came out people are still chanting this at stadiums and arenas and street corners around the world.

You know, for a song about being a champion, Charlie, this track starts in kind of a sad place. It totally does. I've paid my due time after time. I've done my sentence but committed no crime. I've paid my dues. I've paid my sentence but committed no crimes. Yeah, this is heavy stuff.

And it's surprising until you think about this is a song about being a champion. What do champions do? They have to overcome hardship. Oh, so we have to start somewhere low. We've got to build from somewhere. So check this. Part of the beauty of the song, part of what makes it so anthemic, is this harmonic journey the song takes from darkness to light, from struggle to victory. Oh, yeah.

So we begin with this minor sonority. specifically C minor. And Charlie, we have to work to get from C minor, where we start the song, to F major, which is where the chorus kicks in. Ah, okay. You know, this is like working your way up the field if you're a football team or something.

So we start in C minor here, and we're going to gain some yards. We're going to move the ball up the field. We're going to push forward to a major key, to the relative major of C minor, that's E flat major. And you can hear it about halfway through the first verse. things take a turn a little more hopeful.

So he's flipped the script from the sad minor key, using the same notes in the same scale to what you call the relative major, moving upwards into C, D, E, flat. Very nice, okay. And it is a little more of a hopeful turn. Totally. This is progress, but we're not there yet, Charlie. No, there's yards to go.

We have not reached championship status. And this is like one of the most exciting parts of the song and kind of a set of sonnities that really define Queen the band. We're going to have this build, this crescendo. We're going to have all these different voices sounding at once. And by the time we're done, we're going to emerge in a new place. And it's going to be the chorus. It's going to be a new key. Just check this out.

Wait a minute. You're saying to me that they've actually modulated into a new key. Ding, ding, ding, we just modulated, Charlie. We changed the key. I've never noticed this. I've heard this song so many times in my life. I've never even noticed that we actually move upwards into a whole new key. Because it's very in your face, but also very subtle the way they do it.

If we just listen to that part where it goes on and on and on. So there's three on and on and on. And then the last, the fourth on and on. We actually push the whole thing up a whole step. And that becomes kind of the pivot that takes us to the chorus. We'll play it again. It's that fourth on that is like the... I mean, it's, again, this metaphor of strength

feels really applicable here to me. It's like you're forcing it to get to this new key and it takes work and effort. I can imagine almost like someone who's trying to like deadlift some weight, right? And they're like pushing and they're like pushing and then all of a sudden there's a boom and it explodes and it explodes up a whole other key

and they've thrown the weight over their head and they are, they've won the middle. And what is your... reward it is this soaring chorus I mean brilliant use of the first-person plural in this song you listen to a lot of pop music like we do you notice that a lot of songs start with I yeah it's all about me it's all about me but this is an exception and it's a and it's a smart strategic exception that is part of what makes this song anthemic it's not me it's it's it's we and man when this chorus

hits, we are just transported, right? It's the quality of the melody is the quality of Freddie Mercury's voice ascending into his falsetto range. I mean, it just sweeps you up. It feels like, yeah, this is your payoff. This is what you've made it this far. You've modulated to this key. You have earned this vocal. And they really have all done it together because it's not just Freddie. It's, it's Queen singing together in harmony, boosting us into that new space. We've all done it together. And I love that even when he's singing here in the chorus, one of the best singers in rock and roll of all time, you don't feel scared to sing along. Yeah.

Right. Not only is he inviting us with the use of the first person plural, but he has this way of like scooping into his notes, which is something that you're often discouraged from doing if you're like an operatic singer. You just like hit the note, get it perfect, but he's doing it like, what? Right. And because he's scooping into his notes, it's almost a more. How do I say?

Democratic kind of way of singing. Yeah, it's like we can all scoop with them together. You don't have to have perfect pitch. We're going to swoop into that note. You're going to hit it. It's going to be great. I love that you said then. I want to come back to the sing-along aspect.

But before we do, you know, we've talked to a lot about harmony, and I feel like that's also really applicable here. These are some great chord changes in the chorus. And you know how I know that? You know how I know they're so good? Because Freddie Mercury on their next album actually reuses this exact this exact chord progression. Shut the front door.

For the song, Don't Stop Me Now. Get out of it. A minor, D minor. It's the same thing. And to prove this, I've just made a very simple recording of these chord progressions.

We are the champions, my friends. Same chord progression Tonight I'm gonna have myself For real good time I feel like Thank you

Thank you very much Charlie a little less applause please I can't even hear myself think What's funny here is it's not only The chord progression which is the same But it's the entire movement of the song and the melody starting in the lower register of the voice,

moving up, rising up, building the tension, and you can feel both songs are going to skyrocket into another territory. Charlie, we indulge me. Do I have a choice? We sing we are the champions while I sing. Sure, yeah. Don't stop me now at the same time.

We can do that. Good man. Tonight I'm going to have my champion. A real good time. I feel like. Keep on fighting. How's the next part go? Now, you'll notice that there was something a little weird there.

Our parts didn't really line up. Yeah, there was a weird moment there. I was like, where's my pitch? I lost it. Okay, this is definitely an aside, but I just have to point this out because Queen is just so crazy. They do something really strange and don't stop me now.

They use five measure phrases, which we don't need to get into, but that is just really weird, considering that 99. 9.9% of pop music is in 4, 4, 8 bar phrases. Yeah. Five bar phrases. Queen is crazy.

Okay, so we've made it to this anthemic chorus with this set of chord changes that is the gift that keeps on giving. But then we get to the end of the chorus. And just like we started, we're going to go right back to that more melancholic place. That piano, that kind of... links in there, that's not major anymore. That's minor. We've gone back to our starting minor key. So we got to do it all over again, Charlie. We got to work our way up through that minor verse into that soaring major chorus. You know, isn't that the way that struggle really works? It's not just once when we overcome it and we win. There's lulls. We go back down. We have to keep on fighting. That's true. But then

when you do get to that second chorus, you've made it because check it out. We just heard what happened at the end of the first chorus, he holds that note of the world and the minor piano kind of slinks in underneath. The second time, we're just going to keep soaring through. Don't even worry about it. Oh my gosh. There are so many notable things that are happening here. Right. And I'm glad you said that because this whole discussion needs a big asterisk, which is like, even after talking about this song for 40 minutes, we will have only scratched the surface of everything going on here. Well, that's what I always look for in any great pop. composition is that on first listen you're like yep I want to hear this forever and then on the

forever listen you're like I have to hear that again because I heard something new yeah and that might be another element of an anthem something that rewards repeated listening because you can always discover something you haven't heard before I mean here I all of a sudden was like oh this whole song is also in the background referencing the entire history of rock and roll music and I never noticed that queen is one of those bands that satisfies both the master's and the music nerds at the same time. Who would those be? I can't even imagine, Charlie.

I guess I'll never know. So we've been talking about like struggle, victory, and it just seems like I've just kind of made it seem like we finally made it to victory and we just kind of get to ride this major wave all the way home. But that's not entirely true because the ending of the original recording of this song is kind of, it's surprisingly ambiguous.

Whoa. Right? remember what I was saying about how in order to win something there are often many ups and downs like life doesn't work like a movie where I just like things climax you're done you win everybody's happy right off into the sunset it's like

after the sunset there's another day there's another struggle and I feel like that's in the song in terms of just coming back to that verse and then as you pointed out when after the second verse in that chorus the chorus just flies through you keep getting more chorus you stay on that high beautiful major key and then at the end it ends

unresolved Totally unresolved. What's going to happen next? When I heard this, I was like, wait, that's how that song ends? Like, it did not compute with the rest of it. But this isn't the end of the story, actually, because this is one version of this song. But there's others. Like, for instance, let's see how they ended it in the original recording session.

So what we're about to listen to is like the raw studio version of this song as they first laid it down in 1978. Oh, no, you can't change things which have been so thoroughly reified in my mind. Yeah. They end on the minor. Yeah. And like descending down the piano. Like, yeah, it holds. Yeah.

I almost think that they're going to be like, of the world one last time. You're like, okay, we're good. And instead, no, he just like arpeggiates down the piano to a lower, lower, lower, sad, dom, and that, ding. It does resolve, but to a minor court. So it's like, oh, wait, that's. I don't want that porridge either, Charlie, to be honest. But don't worry, I have one more ending for you.

And this is the ending from the famous live aid concert at Wembley, 1985. Check this out. That is the ending that I wanted. That's a resolution. And it's a major resolution. And it's decisive. What this teaches me is that this song is malleable and it's flexible. And you can end this song in different ways that will be,

the best suited for the occasion, you know, like, what kind of mood do you want to end this song on? It's kind of a choose-your-own adventure. This makes me think of if you take this back to where it's sort of meant for in today's world as an anthem, a stadium, perhaps a sports game. Yeah. It's like you could imagine you might want the unresolved version if you're in like game three of an ongoing series, right? Okay. Champion of the game.

Yeah. Not the series. you might want, you know, if you have the expected winner has an upset and loses, you could have that minor ending. And of course, if you have won the series, then you want the final resolve and everything ends on a happy major key. I love that. There's so many ways that we are the champions reaches this anthemic status and this harmonic journey we've been talking about. This struggle from darkness to light is a huge part of it. But it's not the only thing because Freddie Mercury is a clever lad. and he has borrowed from the original stadium rock

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Roots of this piece Let's think about where it came from It was composed as a companion piece To another queen hit We Will Rock you And both

songs share a common goal I think Which is something you mentioned Earlier, getting people to sing along Yeah But they do it in very different ways because we will rock you does not present a high barrier to entry very low

barrier to entry this was discussed actually in the film bohemian rhapsody right right you see brian may realizing that this is something that anyone can participate in let's keep it simple let's keep it snappy literally use your feet and hands as instruments but i think that freddie mercury after years of performing live started to understand that his audiences were came of more. Here's a clip from one of his famous call and response sessions with an audience. Okay, everybody, let's play games, huh? I said, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is hot. I want more of that. You're going to get some. So it starts, you know, I don't know, not particularly impressive, I think, but he's going to ratchet up the difficulty as he goes along. And there's actually this great part in this

call and response session where he actually says, all right, now we're going to sing some Aretha Franklin. Come on. I'm going to make you sing like Aretha Franklin. Come on. How about that malisma? That's 10,000 people rocking those malismas with him and just like following his every little melodic flourish. Amazing. And I suspect that Freddie Mercury was doing this on stage and started thinking, you know, if these crowds can sing Aretha Franklin with me, maybe they could sing some opera with me as well. Now, I spent so much time trying to figure out exactly what Freddie Mercury's relationship to opera was like. And there's not a ton of sources, unfortunately, but what I do know from reading his official biography is that he attended the

Puccini opera Toska and fell in love with its star, Maria. callus the amazing soprano especially her performance of the aria vici d'arte vici d'amore Nate I'm impressed with your Italian I thought very nice although I'm even more impressed with her vibrato yes oh my and that's exactly what we want to start talking about here the vibrato this incredibly recognizable technique of making your voice kind of pulse between two different frequencies you know I'm realizing it's easy to hear but hard to understand perhaps yeah hard to describe I should sure let's fast forward to another section of this aria where you can really hear the vibrato it almost sound like Maria

Collis's voices like wobbling back and forth I don't understand what I just I know vocal control is out of this world just wobbling between notes but in absolute perfect that just the just the right way And then to hit those high notes and then to have that controlled vibrato in the such quiet moments. Yeah. It's like, are you breathing? Are you a human? It's insane.

I don't know. It's mind-blowing. But I think you can hear why opera singers favor this technique. There's so much power behind it. And that might be the exact same reason that we can hear Freddie Mercury using vibrato at some key moments in We Are the Champions. We are the champions. So on this a cappella recording of the song with just his vocal tracks isolated, I think we can even focus in on just one word, the world that he holds out.

You'll hear him start with this intense vibrato that's kind of wobbling back and forth really quickly, and then it'll kind of smooth out as he holds the note longer. It's particularly remarkable to me that this song, now you said 40 years old. Yeah. I can't believe it's been that long. It's still so popular in the cultural imagination, especially in using this operatic technique of vibrato, which is not popular in pop music today. No, it's not. I mean, if we listen to a massive pop smash like fireworks by Katie Perry,

Yeah, I challenge you to locate any vibrato in this piece. I thought I heard for one second a little wobble for just a moment on work. You're right. Maybe. I think I overstated it. Let's say it's very rare in pop music. I mean, this is all about the, ah, ah, ah, uh. Do you have a theory about this?

Because I do. You're making one. I'm watching you. A theory might be a strong word. Why don't you kick it off, Charles? I think that the decline of vibrato has to do with the changes of cultural expectations created by recording technology. That vibrato, as you pointed out, in opera is this technique of great vocal power.

You have to be heard in a giant opera house. And you need to push your volume as much as possible. And that's one of the ways of creating vibrato with your voice is to actually get as much volume as much air moving as possible and it will naturally move your diaphragm and create that sound. But once people could start singing into microphones, I think that that form of projecting was no longer needed.

You could croon quietly into a microphone. And I think that there's sort of this thought that singing in that old style is forced and inauthentic. And so instead, what we need now is something which sounds like anybody would just like get on a microphone and we're just talking. We're shooting the breeze like a podcast. Like you're making a podcast. It's just like two people having a conversation.

They never even thought about it before they got together. And I think that's why when Katie Perry implores us here to sing along to fireworks, and these long held out notes that feel like you and I might do if we're just singing because, at least me, I don't have a vibrato. No, no. I find that to be a very compelling theory. And, you know, it's interesting. I think when we do hear vibrato in pop music, it tends to be at the,

end of syllables. Like, here's what I mean. Check out this recording of Ariana Grande singing Dangerous Woman Acapella. Don't need permission. I'm my decision to test my limits. Because it's my business.

God has my witness. Stop what I finish. Don't need no hope. Yeah. Now you notice at the end of each of those high notes, her voice goes from straight to kind of wobbly. we play that one more time? At the very end of the note, she introduces a little bit of vibrato, which is actually

exactly the opposite of what Freddie Mercury is doing on We Are the Champions. If we go back to that one word, world, he starts with intense vibrato and then gradually flattened it out. So I think like you were saying, he's trying to create this forcefulness, that will outlast this song and outlast his moment even. And I think very presciently, he's done that. I mean, this has stood the test of time. There's other operatic elements at play here that I think make this song really, really successful.

And one is something called a cadenza. Ooh, a cadenza. Not a credenza. But a cadenza, C-A-N-Z-A. Charlie, what's the cadenza? Ooh. Ooh, putting you on the spot. I haven't answered this question since...

Junior year of college on the Music 55 final. I was a freshman. I was ahead of my time. Good. Hold on to that because you're going to need that little burst of confidence after you brutally fail this. The cadenza is the little sort of improvised flourish at the held out end of a where a solo performer gets to show off their talents. God damn it, Charlie, you nailed it.

Yeah. Exactly. A cadenza is the very end of an aria. The whole orchestra will pause for a moment and let the singer have this solo moment to really showcase their virtuosity. And that's what we've just been listening to. Every time Freddie Mercury says of the world,

that's like a little cadenza. And it makes me feel like even the Ariana clip that you played that little bit of vibrato at the end even though it's not as popular today it's almost her doing that to show like yeah I'm a diva I've got all the technique I'm just gonna give you

just a little taste of it it's a mini like a nanocadenza yeah just a little nanocadenza though I will say if you expand the queen repertoire you can find some not nanocadensas some like truly bravissimo

cadenzas check out this live performance of somebody to love we have a pause somebody love a virtuosic solo and then the orchestra returns that is hot stuff

I did not get to study that in college finally Charles there is the crescendo the third of our Italian triumvirate here crescendo you know this one crescendo so that's not the thing at the end of your bed

I just hate hearing that. I really do. It's like the little sofa that you put at the end of a bed in a fancy hotel. Not baking it better. Crescendo. It's the way that you shush a colicking baby to sleep. This is the saddest moment of my life. This is the nadir.

I'm playing you. This is as bleak as it gets. A crescendo is a moment where all the things get louder and bigger and bolder and climax at the highest point, right? Just like the build. up to the chorus of We Are the Champions. That is the part of the song that when I heard it again

at the beginning of our recording was just like, wait, what kind of song is this? What world are they operating in? Yeah. They're operating an opera. Exactly. Like, there's so many examples of this,

but I just have to reference one from another opera that I just feel in my heart that Freddie Mercury he had to have seen and loved. It's Mozart's Don Giovanni. This is from the Act 2 finale. This just shows how much of a genius you really was, because I think oftentimes creative brilliance

comes from taking something from an entirely other domain, merging it into your core domain. So here, I never had really heard that intense rock guitar and wild drumming as at all related to opera. And you play them back to back. And it's like, you could almost imagine him sitting next time to a record and be like, oh, I'm going to learn how to turn this into rock and roll. Totally.

And I think going back to the sort of anthemic status of this piece, it's all those elements working together that makes this a song that just is something you want to hear over and over again. And not only that, something you want to sing along to. when you know 60,000 people are singing this in a stadium, they are actually all singing a little bit of opera, whether they know it or not. What great drama that's happening in sports stadiums

all over the world all the time. Absolutely. And you're right. Opera is the, you know, the most dramatic genre of music there is. So it makes sense that it would play well at, you know, a stadium or some of, huge event. I feel so enlightened, elated, delighted. This has been really fun and it's just the

beginning, Charlie, because for the next three weeks, every episode is going to explore another classic anthem to understand why it is the soundtrack of our lives. See you then. This episode of Switched on Pop was produced by Mio, Nate Sloane. Many of our friendos are Mixer and editor is Brandon McFarland. Our producer is Bridget Armstrong. And Nishak Keroua and Liz Nelson are our executive producers. We're production of the Vox Media Podcast Network. You can find more episodes at Spotify, Radio Public, Apple Podcast, app, IHeartRadio.

Wherever you get your podcast, there we are. And talk to us on social media at Switchdown Pop. We are on Twitter, Instagram. We'd love getting your show recommendations. I'd love to hear what anthems are you listening to? So tune in next week for another anthems. breakdown and until then thanks for listening