Lily of the Valley (song)

"Lily of the Valley" is a song by British rock band Queen. Lead singer Freddie Mercury plays the piano and provides all the vocals on the track. It was originally featured on Queen's third album, Sheer Heart Attack, released in 1974, and is one of the album's few ballads.

"Lily of the Valley"
Japanese picture sleeve
Single by Queen
from the album Sheer Heart Attack
A-side"Now I'm Here"
Released
  • 17 January 1975 (UK)
  • May 1975 (Japan)
Recorded1974
Length1:40
Label
Songwriter(s)Freddie Mercury
Producer(s)
Queen singles chronology
"Killer Queen" / "Flick of the Wrist"
(1974)		 "Lily of the Valley"
(1975)		 "Bohemian Rhapsody"
(1975)

In 1975, "Lily of the Valley" was released as the B-side of different singles in the U.K. and the United States. The U.K. single was "Now I'm Here", and the U.S. single was a reissue of "Keep Yourself Alive".[1] For the former release the first measure of the song was excised to avoid the cross-fade with "Flick Of The Wrist", the preceding song on the parent album. On the latter release the first measure is present but the cross-fade is absent, making this version a true stand-alone mix. Further, on the U.S. single only, the song's end abuts the start of a stand-alone mix of 'God Save The Queen' from A Night At The Opera (that is, the album's cross-fade from "Bohemian Rhapsody" to "God Save The Queen" is absent).

The lyrics refer back to a song from a previous album, "Seven Seas of Rhye" from Queen II, with the line "messenger from Seven Seas has flown, to tell the King of Rhye he's lost his throne."

In a 1999 interview, Brian May told the British music magazine Mojo, "Freddie's stuff was so heavily cloaked, lyrically... But you could find out, just from little insights, that a lot of his private thoughts were in there, although a lot of the more meaningful stuff was not very accessible. Lily of the Valley was utterly heartfelt. It's about looking at his girlfriend and realising that his body needed to be somewhere else. It's a great piece of art, but it's the last song that would ever be a hit."[2]

Covers

"Lily of the Valley" was covered by 1980s band Game Theory, whose frontman Scott Miller performed a version that appears as a bonus track on the 2015 Omnivore reissue of Game Theory's 1985 album Real Nighttime, produced by Mitch Easter.[3]

The song was also covered, together with "Tenement Funster" and "Flick of the Wrist", by Dream Theater on the bonus disc of their album Black Clouds & Silver Linings.[4]

Personnel

References
  1. Purvis, Georg (2012). Queen: The Complete Works. Titan Books. p. 677.
  2. Thomas, David (August 1999). "Their Britannic Majesties Request". MOJO (69). Retrieved 8 September 2016 – via brianmay.com.
  3. Omnivore Recordings (26 January 2015). "Game Theory Real Nighttime". Press Release. Archived from the original on 26 January 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  4. Black Clouds & Silver Linings (Special Edition) Allmusic. Retrieved 1 September 2011
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