Brian May recently took to Instagram to detail the guidance he offered Adam Lambert drawing from the legacy of the legendary Freddie Mercury, to improve Queen’s performances.
Sharing a video of Lambert’s performance on ‘Somebody to Love’ from one of their recent shows, the guitarist wrote, sharing the story behind the clip:
“This makes me smile – because this clip from tonight’s show in the Boston Garden has a little story embedded in it. It’s the result of one of those small adjustments that we constantly look for to maximize the show. Adam sings our songs in his own unique way, bringing in lots of new ideas and adding sometimes amazing extensions of the vocal lines. ‘Somebody to Love’ is a great example of this – in which Adam truly delivers a tour de force every night.”
He then talked about their traditional style of doing ‘Somebody to Love’:
“Well, there’s one point in the song which all our fans know very well, where the music stops and, in a tradition which goes right back to Freddie, we invite the audience to complete the line. ‘Somebody tooooooo ?’ Well, Adam has for a while extended that ‘tooo’ in a way that added extra sparkle… You can check it out in recordings of previous nights on the tour.”
The guitarist then revealed his advice to Lambert to connect better with the audience on that track:
“But the audience generally sounded uncertain about how they should sing that line, and I figured that this was because the cue was altered – it wasn’t the way it is on the original studio recording. It perhaps seemed to resolve the phrase, too. So I suggested to Adam that, as an experiment, he might try singing the end of the line completely straight to give a clear cue to the audience. He tried it for the first time tonight, and this is the result.”
May also reflected on his and Lambert’s contact after seeing the audience’s reaction:
“So, at the beginning of this clip, you see me listening very intently to what might happen. As soon as we heard the response, we knew! So that’s why I am saying to Adam with a smile, ‘Not bad!’ – and he’s laughing and saying, ‘It worked!’ Then, in his happiness, he embarks on a supercharged series of improvised lines over the coda of the song.”
The musician shared his final thoughts on the video and that specific moment, saying:
“Yes, he generally does improvise here over those descending lines … but this time, he’s going stratospheric! He’s wailing in full voice – not falsetto – way up to a high ‘E’ with such power, passion, and fluidity that I challenge you to name anyone else who could come close to what he’s doing. So, in my face, you see my admiration and enjoyment of this moment – in which we’re all clearly finding a new joy! So thanks, Daniela de Stereos, for this chance to share a tiny piece of the internal workings of QAL.”
Queen + Adam Lambert is currently on the road for the North American leg of their ‘Rhapsody Tour.’ They will deliver shows in different cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, and Los Angeles in the coming days.
