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Queen

Another One Bites The Dust - Remastered 2011

John Deacon's Chic-inspired bassline, Roger Taylor's drum loop and Freddie Mercury's lead vocal, with no synthesisers at all: Queen's best-selling single, heard here in the 2011 remaster of The Game.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Queen were a stadium rock band, and Another One Bites the Dust is the moment they made a funk and disco record instead. It is groovy, confident and by now iconic, a rock band’s biggest hit built almost entirely on a bass guitar.

Song Summary

The song is John Deacon’s, written by the bassist and built from the bottom up. Its bassline was inspired by Chic’s Good Times, and Chic’s Bernard Edwards later said that Queen’s bass player had spent time hanging out at their studio. Deacon played almost everything himself: bass, piano, electric guitar and handclaps. Roger Taylor added a drum loop, Brian May guitar and an Eventide Harmonizer, and Freddie Mercury sang. There are no synthesisers on it, unusual for The Game, the first Queen album to use one. The song was recorded in 1980 at Musicland Studios in Munich, with Reinhold Mack producing alongside the band.

Musical Breakdown

The sources describe the song’s ingredients more than its sections, so this walk-through names only the moments they place.

Intro

Just before the first lyric comes a swirling sound, where the effect of the harmonizer can be heard clearly. Like every effect on the record, it was made from piano, guitars, drums and tape played backwards at various speeds.

Verse 1

Mercury sings over Deacon’s bass and Taylor’s drum loop; on the studio recording he sings every part.

Chorus

The title line arrives over the same groove; in early live performances, Taylor sang lead on the chorus.

Concepts in Focus

A bassline usually supports a song; here it is the song. Wikipedia puts its tempo close to 110 beats per minute, near the rate recommended for chest compressions, which is why it has been used in a CPR training study. Compare how Queen, The Miami Project – Another One Bites The Dust (A Skillz Remix) rebuilds a whole track around it.

Taylor’s drum part is a loop, a pattern repeated rather than played freely, which gives the song its machine-like steadiness.

This page is the 2011 remastering, prepared when Universal reissued The Game. A remaster goes back to the original tapes and adjusts level and tone for new formats; the performance, the arrangement and the mix decisions of 1980 stay as they were.

Artistic Context

The Game, Queen’s eighth studio album, was released on 30 June 1980 on EMI in the UK and Elektra in the US. Michael Jackson, backstage after a Queen concert in Los Angeles, urged Mercury to release Another One Bites the Dust as a single, and it followed in August 1980. Its promotional video was filmed at Reunion Arena in Dallas on 9 August 1980 and directed by Daniella Green.

Impact and Reception

The single spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1980, Queen’s second and last American number one, and reached number two on the soul and disco charts and number seven in the UK. With more than seven million copies sold, it is Queen’s best-selling single. Put it on and let the bass do the talking.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Hear how a bassline can be the hook of a rock song, and trace this one to Chic's Good Times.
  • Explain how Queen made the song's strange effects without synthesisers, using reversed tape and a harmonizer.
  • Describe what a remaster changes, and what it leaves alone, in a recording made in 1980.

Listening guide

  1. the bassline John Deacon's bass figure, inspired by Chic's Good Times: the hook the whole song hangs on.
  2. just before the first lyric The swirling sound where, Wikipedia notes, the effect of Brian May's Eventide Harmonizer can be heard clearly.
  3. the verses Roger Taylor's drum loop under Freddie Mercury, who sings the entire studio version.
  4. the chorus The title line; in early concerts it was Roger Taylor who sang lead on this part.

Concepts in this track

loop

27 tracks

A section of sound repeated seamlessly. Loops, from tape to software, are the building block of hip-hop, house and techno, where change comes from what is added or taken away.

bassline

67 tracks

The lowest melodic part of a track. In dance music it often carries the hook as much as the vocal does, and its rhythm against the kick drum defines the groove.

remastering

10 tracks

Preparing a finished recording again at the mastering stage, the last step before release: adjusting its loudness, tonal balance and dynamics, often from the original tapes and for a new format or reissue. Unlike a remix, a remaster leaves the arrangement and the balance between instruments as they were and changes only the overall sound.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Michael Jackson told Queen to release this as a single. What does a rock band gain, and risk, by sounding like a disco record?
  2. The bassline runs close to 110 beats per minute and has been used to teach CPR. Why is a steady pulse easier to follow than a melody?
  3. If a remaster leaves the performance untouched, what exactly are you hearing that is new?

References

  1. Wikipedia. Another One Bites the Dust. Encyclopedia
  2. Wikipedia. The Game (Queen album). Encyclopedia
  3. MusicBrainz. The Game (2011 remaster). Database
  4. Queen Official. Queen - Another One Bites the Dust (Official Video Remastered). Video

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