Brian May, prime numbers & We Will Rock You.

[Kes]

Do you need to be a doctor to write a song like We Will Rock You?

No, but it seems to help.

Mathematicians used prime numbers to associate musical intervals to a particular scale of listening pleasure. This has been done by Pythagoreans and finally, in a much more sophisticated way, by Euler in 1739. Some 230 years later Brian May, the guitarist of the British band Queen, used prime numbers to record their hit “We will rock you” (1977). May was quite familiar with numbers and their bizzarre properties, since he had a degree in physics. After a long break, in 2007, he received a PhD in Astophysics with a thesis on zodiacal dust particles.

The problem with the recording of “We will rock you” was the boom boom clap sound, which is the rhythmic skeleton of the song. The band performed this rhythm on the Sex Pistols's drum kit riser (the Pistols were recording their “Never mind the bollocks” in the same studio, at the same time) but May's aim was to trasform it into something that seemed like played by a crowd. Adding time delays was the solution but, if not done properly, this would have generated harmonics of the fundamental notes, creating an innatural and metallic sound. To avoid this harmonic resonance May decided to use time delays that were co-prime, that is, pairs of numbers that have no common divisors (e.g. 15 milliseconds and 32 milliseconds). This way he could reduce the amount of generated harmonics. As a result, the sound of that boom boom clap appeared as if it was performed by a crowd, and not by Queen members.. This brilliant mathematical intuition was so successful than one year later Lexicon designed and built their first digital time delay unit, the Prime Time. That name wasn't a coincidence. When selecting a pair of delays a led indicated whether the numbers had common divisors or not. The same trick can be found nowadays in modern plug-ins (such as PrimalTap and EchoBoy, by Soundtoys) that make everything the old digital delays did, and much more! Unfortunately, the manuals of the Lexicon units and of these plug-ins don't cite Brian May as the inventor of the trick

[Kes]

The first i really knew about this, was a Roger Taylor interview (with Cockney Rebel guitarist Jim Creggan, I think) a few months back.

...and anyway, something that's bugged me since I saw them at Wembley in 1978 on the NOTW spring tour, when the original version goes "Stomp, stomp, clap!" why the audiences disregarded that, and clapped on the stomps, and pointed their hands in the air on the third beat? Anyone know?

[Johan]

I always assumed it had something to do with the Radio Ga Ga video. But as I have not seen Queen in the original line-up, let alone before 1983, I have no way to confirm this. You yourself have probably seen them do WWRY live various times before the Radio Ga Ga video was released, did the audience already did the clap clap raise before the videos release?

[Kes]

Yeah, they did that from at least 1978, and GaGa was released in 1984.

[Kes]

As a curiosity thing, I was going through my minidiscs earlier on, and came across one I recorded at a fan club party, ages ago.

Reading Leisure Centre, Brian May appearing with the SAS Band, well a mix of them, and The Cross, oh and Soto. I'd forgotten all about that gig. Quite brave of Brian doing lead vocals on In The Lap Of The Gods.... Revisited.

Setlist (of the bits including Brian May, I think):- Since You Been Gone, Last Horizon, Hammer To Fall, Tie Your Mother Down, Dragon Attack (Vocals - Jeff Scott Soto), in The Lap Of The God's... Revisited).

[Johan]

Yeah, they did that from at least 1978, and GaGa was released in 1984.

Very interesting, I did not expect that.

As a curiosity thing, I was going through my minidiscs earlier on, and came across one I recorded at a fan club party, ages ago.

Reading Leisure Centre, Brian May appearing with the SAS Band, well a mix of them, and The Cross, oh and Soto. I'd forgotten all about that gig. Quite brave of Brian doing lead vocals on In The Lap Of The Gods.... Revisited.

Setlist (of the bits including Brian May, I think):- Since You Been Gone, Last Horizon, Hammer To Fall, Tie Your Mother Down, Dragon Attack (Vocals - Jeff Scott Soto), in The Lap Of The God's... Revisited).

That sounds pretty cool. Are you considering sharing it with others?

[Kes]

It's not really mine to share. If Queen Productions wanted to share it, and it went through them to make it available, in some form, I'd be OK with that. Otherwise, I'd be bootlegging, and I wouldn't want to be party to that.

I recorded it on a little personal MD recorder, so the quality isn't particularly great, and if they had wanted a decent releasable version of it, they'd have recorded it themselves.

What's even stranger, was that I had Brian's wife, sat right next to me, while I recorded it! And prior to the band coming on, I had a headphone feed to and from the mixing desk, as I was providing the disco for the event, but they disconnected me just before the band came on.