Queen '39 w/lyrics

[Ratatals2]

Who sing it? Freddy Mercury?

[WouterNed]

@Ratatals2 Brian May sings, Freddie does back-up voices. According to wikipedia

[BrokenneckYgor]

this song brings to mind those dreary days when the Huns warred on the inoffensive Polacks. How I hated it!--W.H. Auden

[YesIknowitall]

Brian May intended it to be a space cowboy epic tragic home-coming. He'd thought it would make a good single... but, no. Such are the hazards of being in a band. It did make it onto the album, & I am grateful for that.

[JoeJBuddha]

To sacrifice your loved ones to travel to another star: That's terribly brave and terribly sad. This song always brings tears to my eyes. "Your mothers eyes, from your eyes, cry to me."

[Deuterium2H]

The style of the song is NOT "Country and Western". It is in the mode of a sea shanty mixed with a bit of skiffle.

[JoeJBuddha]

There are no particals known that travel faster than the speed of light. Period.

[MatthewHarper1121]

@JoeJBuddha Believe that as you will. I see the speed of light as just another barrier that needs crossed. I see the speed of light as an imaginary wall one has only to push his hands through for it to come tumbling down. Feynman once said something along the lines of "Observing the universe is like watching two men play a game, moving pieces around the board. If we watch long enough, we may be able to pick up a few of the rules, but we won't be able to get all of them."

[JoeJBuddha]

@MatthewHarper1121 Maybe so; I didn't say that we couldn't travel that fast some day. I just said that to date, nothing has been seen that does. The physics that makes the claim of light being the universal speed limit has so far held up; I could give you the small amount of the math I know if that'd help.

[MatthewHarper1121]

@JoeJBuddha Oh, that would be awesome! Naturally, I could look up these equations online, but there's no guarantee that those will be the correct equations. If you want to e-mail me those, I'd be willing to send you the link to what I have on the story so far.

[WouterNed]

@JoeJBuddha Didn't that neutrino break the speed of light? It was later confirmed by a second experiment. But if you could travel 99.995% the speed of light, this song could be correct.

[JoeJBuddha]

@WouterNed

They still haven't decided...

[WouterNed]

@JoeJBuddha There where 2 experiments, both broke the speed of light. Yet because it is so unlikely, they try to find errors in the experiment. But it is confirmed for now.

[MatthewHarper1121]

@SebTownAlternative: Theoretically. However, I think that the physics are wrong. Remember when scientists thought the human body could not travel over 30 mph without disrupting the internal organs? Or when the Sound Barrier were an immovable object that would cause any aircraft to crash and burn? There are particles that travel faster than light, and there are partcles that travel back in time. Meaning both these things are possible without infinite energy.

[Marcooooooooooo11]

fucking god, such a great band!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[crashlight1]

Loved this song for years but hadn't given much thought to the odd twist in the lyrics. Thanks Mr. May for the buried treasure, and thanks to you guys for turning the light on for me.

[1KevinsFamousChili1]

amazing guitarist and Ph.D Astrophysicist (what i hope to get a Ph.D in) wow Brian May was amazing in so many ways

[loZoneranger560]

Einstein.

Sea Chanty.

Beautiful.

[justdadance]

My favorite 

[cypher515]

Quoting TvTropes here -- "Seriously. Best song about theoretical Einsteinian space travel-induced time dilation masquerading as a sea shanty EVER." I agree, Dr. May is awesomeness personified.

[ross2343]

the word is Brave..not Bave

[spokanetomcat1]

One of the best ballads they have ever made.

[Evster2012]

That should have been "WE know". As in "we know this to be true". The way I posted it made it sound like blah blah blah. My error.

[Evster2012]

Brian May is one of the most underappreciated musician/songwriters of his time. Well, byt the "media" anyway. We KNOW! And Astrophonix, my old man was an astrophysicist. Full Prof, and consultant to NASA, JPL, etc. Sadly he's 20 years passed away, but how I would love to share things like this with him.

[ConenTyrson1]

i wonder if someone would sound slow motion if they called me at 90% the speed of light...

[spamhead2k]

Roger Taylor.

[kgkidz4life]

God, I love this tune. For as famous and as Queen is, they are so underrated. They were just so brilliant.

[Vook]

For the longest time i had no idea what this song was about. It wasn't until I learned it was about space travel that I realized what a remarkably sad song it really is.

[TheZeqpelin]

agreed, a beautiful song no doubt about it.

[starbucksrogers]

Brian May: Doctor of Astrophysics, London’s Imperial College 2007.

[qwaz13]

I just learned this on guitar. Words cannot describe how proud I feel

[HelenaVanCity]

@qwaz13 Congrats with all my heart! I can't play any musical instrument, so I can only imagine, how it feels))))

[1996gonza]

1 person is stupid!

148 are intelligent !

[MrChrisdube]

Great song, one of my favorites though under rated. Funny, I had never heard about the song's connection to space travel. I always thought it was a tribute to the English sailors going off th fight in World War II.

[btrev60]

The epitome of Queen tunes.  Always one of my faves.

[IIIRodrigoVegaIII]

It's such a pity Queen didn't made any more sci-fi songs, I mean they had some many fantasy songs...

[Dancerpaw]

GOD this is such a sad song. I love it.

[LAstump]

Some lines don't rhyme, like "For many lonely DAY sailed out across Milky SEAS", delete SEAS and add WAY, "Milky WAY" get it? Brilliant. They left in 1939 and came back in 2039 still a " '39" but a century later. Great tune.

[cypher515]

@LAstump Or 2039 and 2139. Yeah, though, the averted rhyme gives it all away if you think about it.

[arbuviknb]

today's music is the product of assholes!!! anyone whom has the talent to produce good music, isn't jewish, good looking, or, not gay

[Ardrion]

Fuck! I cant avoid singing this chorus everytime I hear it

[U33C]

Hands down, my most favorite Queen song.

[Mirinat82]

Great song!!! brian has a really good voice...

[Lewis1key]

This was back in the day when bands were fucking bands!

[leonardnyc12]

Amazing song!

[Jabels24]

This is the song that makes me prefer Brian May over Freddie Mercury.

[rockerlevel1]

Well I always thought it`s about space travelling. Because of the milky seas etc. And Dr. May is an astrophysican. and im believe had said so in some interviews. That it is of voluteers going to space. and when they came back. they havent aged, as the people they left behind. i dont know the name of this effect. i had known it, and i could explain it. argh... shitty brain.

[jjobie]

@rockerlevel1 No, you're actually correct, that is exactly what the song is about. Brian May HIMSELF explained the meaning of the song. So you're correct.

[thebrugster]

sure it does..

"Creative, but it doesn't quite make sense. The "score brave souls inside" at the beginning of the song are clearly alive because they "ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried."

...because they're dead. The older world refers to the realization of futility and war, death and loss.

[jjobie]

@thebrugster That's an interesting take on it, and it would make for an interesting video :)

That said, Brian May did talk about the 'space travel' theme behind the song on a few occasions.

[thebrugster]

actually, I believe this tune was about the Abraham Lincoln Brigade returning with their dead from the Spanish Civil War and confronting the families of the "score brave souls inside".

Call me a historian, I guess..

[caljack09]

Creative, but it doesn't quite make sense. The "score brave souls inside" at the beginning of the song are clearly alive because they "ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried." The volunteers also left and returned in '39, which doesn't fit the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Lines like "sailed across the milky seas", "the earth is old and gray", and "oh so many years have gone though I'm older but a year" are best explained by the song being about space travel and time dilation.

[Keijz74]

Theatrical Rock & Folk

[cthulhlu]

a country and western song about space travel? insane genius

[Xanaboy13]

Not insane genius, CRAZY AWESOME!

[HeavyMetalSocialist]

@cthulhlu Folk, not country.

[animalhouse28146]

One of the many great songs from one of the greatest albums of all time.

[wacmac1]

So Celtic!!! God bless!!!! Queen--Freddie i miss you!!! thanks for leaving the songs for us all to hear forevermore -the path of"Nevermore" Q2- is not your burdon, it is your light that brings us joy in all the recorded moments of you dudes ROCKIN!

[AIIeh]

I cry when I listen to this... the lyrics are so meaningful 4 me.

I LOVE this song, thankyou Brian.

[Arsyautomo]

why?

[youvebeenthunderstru]

Concerning the Bo Rhap picture, it's the same one from Queen II. They just reused it in the music video for Bo Rhap. Later, they did an updated picture where they posed again for their video One Vision.

[00watcher]

The greatest talents since the Beatles.

[ladmex53]

@00watcher This song could have easily been written by Paul McCartney.

[00watcher]

@ladmex53 No, only brian could come with something like this.

[dianamartijn]

@ladmex53 i don`t agree, paul and john lyrics are way more simple and than 95% of the queensongs/lyrics.

[shaneinkster]

Contry Rock

[TheTriker1]

the picture is the beginning of one vision

[raykrislianggi]

This is a very peaceful song!

[bmwc16880]

Why is there a picture from Bohemian rhapsody?

[CoRNH0LI0]

cause its a cool picture

[raykrislianggi]

That's not the picture from Bohemian Rhapsody! They were taken in 1980's. Bohemian Rhapsody was in 1974.

[elvis0258]

ow i love this song

BRIAN MAYYYYY FOR EVERRRRR

[frigginurge]

AWESOME! Chills every time. . .

[nunofubiz1]

thoughs that have forgotten are destine to relive it.America is LOST

[fabzuc]

I can't believe that no one here realized that its is about 1939, the call to go and fight in France against Nazism, and they went back in 1940 from Dunkaurque...Gosh, ignorance is so deep everywhere...

[looi313]

Do your research, it's even Brian who tells about this song somewere on youtube; it's future story.

[jjobie]

@fabzuc That's not what it's about. Brian May himself explained the space travel origins of the song on several occasions.

[alexandrefenix]

@fabzuc easy boy, easy nyahahahhahahahahahahahhaha

[snb1029]

in addition to absurdlysane, this song was based on a dream may had one night

[1946coolio]

freddie mercury is and always will be the love of my life!!!

[sfldd]

I still can't figure out what this song is about.

[AbsurdlySane]

It's about a space exploration party going off into space and being away for, what was for them only one year, but on Earth many generations had passed, so they returned to a world where everyone they had known was long dead. Hence "you're many years away, though I'm older but a year"

[sfldd]

Thank you

[OffTheGrid]

The fact that they had only aged a year is down to Einstein's Special Relativity, whereupon the explorers are travelling at light speed, they age differently in relation to those on Earth.

In effect, time becomes zero at light speed in relation to the reference point of Earth. This is also called the Time Dilation Effect.

It's a beautiful song, one of their best and never fails to bring tears to my eyes.

[AbsurdlySane]

Thank you for explaining the science - my Physics 101 was a long time ago!

[victoriadoneva]

Thanks for sharing! Initially, I thought it's about the discovery and colonizing of North America.

I guess this is what is great about this song, that it is about exploring the new, and one can relate it to many scenarios. It inspires imagination.

[TheMoltyPethon]

I tough it was about WWII....once i dicovered the truth this become my favourite song!XD

[astrophonix]

@OffTheGrid Brian May, as well as being a fantastic guitarist, is an astrophysicist and would know relativitistic time dilation (my pet topic) very well. If the ship travelled at 99.995% light speed the time dilation factor is 100 to 1, so a century would pass on earth for their one year on the spacecraft. @ConenTyrson1 At 90% lightspeed the time dilation is 2.3 to 1, so time on the ship is a little more than twice as slow as earth time.

[PeterRoeder31]

@OffTheGrid I agree. Hadn´t heard it before but one of the best Queen-songs indeed.

[PeterRoeder31]

@OffTheGrid I agree. Hadn´t heard it before but one of the best Queen-songs indeed.

[MatthewHarper1121]

@OffTheGrid I'm writing a story based off this. My ship uses a Light Speed Barrier Rider type drive. (LSBR)

1: accelerates to light speed

2: shields trap a pocket of our space-time as the engines push her past light speed, the energy diffusion changing local space-time laws to create a shockwave that the ship rides

3: She's only cruising at about 5x light speed, but it feels like 500x due to the Einstein's Special Relativity laws

Of course, this takes an incredible amount of energy, but still.

[SebTownAlternative]

@MatthewHarper1121 , It takes an infinite amount of energy to travel constantly at the speed of light. Theoretically you might be able to accelerate to 99.99999% the speed of light, but to reach 300,000 km/s, you would need an infinite amount of energy. And don't forget, the faster you go the more massive you become.

[mastersverk]

ummmmm, no, dont you remember what happened in 1939? thats when the battle for Britain began

[AbsurdlySane]

@mastersverk Ummmm, no. Brian May -- a highly respected astrophysicist, as well as one of the greatest rock guitarists ever -- himself was the one who explained what the song was about. There's video on YouTube of him explaining it. While Britain did declare war on Germany in 1939, the Battle OF Britain was from 10 July - 31 Oct 1940.

[wassup131994]

@AbsurdlySane What was the name of the video? I would be greatly interested in watching it.

[AbsurdlySane]

@wassup131994 The video can be found on the channel of YouTube user mobile4357. It's called Queen: A Night at the Opera - '39.

[rkeime1]

@AbsurdlySane you are exactly right, i heard brian may explain it too. i always loved the music and was confused by the words until the day he told the story.

[jjobie]

@AbsurdlySane Wasn't this partiallly inspired by a Robert E. Heinlein short story? Or am I confused.

[streamingmadly]

@jjobie Robert Heinlein wrote a novel called Time for the Stars that dealt with characters traveling at close to the speed of light, and the ensuing time dilation. Being Heinlein, he might very well have been the first. But the Twin Paradox had been a well known topic in Physics for decades, and Brian May, who had dropped out of a doctoral program when Queen took off, would have known about it even in the unlikely event he had never read science fiction.

[jella11]

@AbsurdlySane

Well and obviously the amount of years past on earth was 100, hence also, they also came back in the year of '39 (only in the next century)

[LifeSuxsThenUDie]

AMAZING!

excellent job on this

[merygore666]

GOOD VIDEOO!!^^

I LOVE QUEEN :)