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Seven Seas of Rhye
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"Seven Seas of Rhye" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and performed by English rock group Queen. It is the final track on both their debut album Queen, and its follow-up Queen II, released in 1973 and 1974, respectively. However, only a less-developed instrumental version was featured on the former. The completed version served as the band's second single, the earliest-released song to appear on their first greatest hits album (with the exception of "Keep Yourself Alive", which appeared on the 1981 U.S.
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Encyclopedia
"Seven Seas of Rhye" is a song written by Freddie Mercury and performed by English rock group Queen. It is the final track on both their debut album Queen, and its follow-up Queen II, released in 1973 and 1974, respectively. However, only a less-developed instrumental version was featured on the former. The completed version served as the band's second single, the earliest-released song to appear on their first greatest hits album (with the exception of "Keep Yourself Alive", which appeared on the 1981 U.S. version).
The song was released as a single, and after the band performed it on Top of the Pops it became their first hit, peaking at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song is about Freddie Mercury's childhood fantasy world named Rhye. The land of Rhye was originally made up by Freddie Mercury and his sister, Kashmira, when they were children. After joining Queen as an adult, Mercury wrote some songs about that country, including Seven Seas of Rhye, Lily of the Valley, "My Fairy King", Ogre Battle, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, and The March of the Black Queen.
The song became a live favourite throughout Queen's existence. It features a distinctive arpeggiated piano introduction (on the Queen II recording, the arpeggios are played with both the right and left hands, an octave apart, whereas on the Queen recording, and most live performances, Mercury played the simpler one-handed version of these arpeggios), and is relatively short, however containing several of Brian May's heavy guitar fill-ins. The theme also appears at the end of "It's a Beautiful Day (Reprise)".
The version on Queen II ends with a cross fade, instruments blending into several people singing "I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside". Its inclusion here on the final track of Queen II is briefly mirrored in the first few seconds of Brighton Rock, which opens their next album, Sheer Heart Attack. (A few whistled bars can be heard over the introductory noise).
The Seven Seas of Rhye are also mentioned in another Queen song, "Lily of the Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack; in the lyric "Messenger from Seven Seas has flown/To tell the king of Rhye he's lost his throne".
In the Queen musical We Will Rock You, the Seven Seas of Rhye is a place where the Bohemians are taken after they are brainstormed by Khashoggi.
Video
There are three versions of the music video. The first version is in black and white and is from Top Of The Pops; some copies of this version have a short part in color. The second version of the video is also from Top Of The Pops and is completely black and white, with no color. The second video is the rarest to find of the three. The third video is a mash-up of Queen in the Final Live in Japan 1984 concert with clips from Queen's Sheer Japan Attack tour in 1974.
External links
- - detailed worldwide release information
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