Father To Son - Queenpedia.com - Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, Discography, Bibliography, Charts

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Credits

Written by: Brian May
Produced by: Queen and Roy Thomas Baker
Musicians:

Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano

Brian May - acoustic & electric guitars, piano, backing vocals

John Deacon - bass guitar, acoustic guitar

Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals

Length: 6:12

Discography

Albums:

Queen II, 1974

Singles:

None

Alternate Versions:

Exposed Hybrid 5:49 Ending - Exposed MC C-EXP 0491

Queen Talks

"[The Who and Led Zeppelin are] probably in there somewhere. They were our favourite groups among a few others. But what we were trying to do differently from either of those groups really was this sort of layered sound. See, The Who had a sort of 'clang' guitar sound – you know, the open chord guitar sound. There is a bit of that in 'Father To Son', but our sound is sort of more based around the overdriven guitar sound, which is what is used on the main bulk of the song. Also, what I wanted to do was this business of building up textures behind the main melody lines. So you have in the first entry of the vocal behind it there is a sort of orchestral thing, which is a nine-part guitar thing that was my expedition into sort of proper orchestrating of the guitar. So that was one thing.

It's amazing how few people knew what we were doing. We wanted to make a kind of rock music that still had the power of, like, The Who or Led Zeppelin but which had more melody, more harmony, and more texture than had been done before. That was one of the first songs we did it on and there's lots of harmonies, lots of guitar harmonies and lots of bits of melody, you know."

Brian May - 1983, BBC Radio One

Chords & Tabs

chords

Lyrics

A word in your ear
From father to son
Hear the word that I say
I fought with you
Fought on your side
Long before you were born
Joyful the sound
The word goes around
From father to son to son

And the voice is so clear
Time after time it keeps
Calling you calling you on
Don't destroy what you see
Your country to be
Just keep building on the ground
That's been won
Kings will be crowned
The word goes around
From father to son to son

Won't you hear us sing
Our family song?
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba
Now we hand it on
But I've heard it all before
Take this letter that I give you
Take it sonny hold it high
You won't understand a word that's in it
But you'll write it all again before you die

A word in your ear
From father to son
Funny you don't hear
A single word that I say
But my letter to you
Will stay by your side
Thru' the years
Till the loneliness is gone

Sing if you will
But the air you breathe
I live to give you
Father to son father to son
Father to son father to son
Joyful the sound
Word goes around
Father to son to son
Kings will be crowned
Earth goes around
Father to son to son

Joyful the sound
Word goes around
Father to son to son
Kings will be crowned
Earth goes around
Father to son to son