Queen do a ‘days of the week’ song in today’s post. In December 2018 I went on a quest to listen through the band’s discography. Having done so, I then went on to rank them according to my own preference. I picked A Night at the Opera as my number one, not a brave pick by any standard because it is widely agreed to be their best album. Even so it’s ‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’ from that album, the shortest song on there and arguably the one with the least substance, that I find myself singing along and wanting to listen to repeatedly.

Freddie Mercury takes you through a list of activities he does during the week. They are as follows: Working, going off to honeymoon, bicycling, waltzing to the zoo, painting in the Louvre, he’s not sure what he’ll do on Saturday but he’s bound to be proposing, and he’ll definitely be lazing on the Sunday. That’s all well and good. I think I’m just a sucker for the whole music hall vibe of the track. The vocals were recorded through a tin-can which provides the ‘loudspeaker’ effect on Mercury’s voice. John Deacon and Roger Taylor provide a bouncy rhythm that Freddie does some dainty piano fills over. And quite unexpectedly the song changes key and Brian May comes in with about three overdubbed guitar solos to close the song out. All in just over a minute.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is on this album. You know that one. Everyone does. But when I’m listening to this album, I don’t know what it is, ‘Sunday Afternoon’ just perks me up. The definition of short and sweet.