Freddie's Cliché

Hi everyone. I'm doing a research on Freddie's cliché. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I mean the I > V > vi with step-wise descending bass. In more exact words, it corresponds to any of the following progressions:

C > G/B > Am
C# > Ab/C > Bbm
D > A/C# > Bm
Eb > Bb/D > Cm
E > B/Eb > Dbm
F > C/E > Dm
F# > C#/F > Ebm
G > D/F# > Em
Ab > Eb/G > Fm
A > E/Ab > F#m
Bb > F/A > Gm
B > F#/Bb > Abm

Now, what I'm trying to do is make a list of all Freddie's songs that use this progression at some point. So far I've got this ones, any contribution is welcome:

Bohemian Rhapsody
Fairy Feller's Master Stroke
Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy
Friends Will Be Friends
Innuendo
We Are The Champions
It's A Hard Life
Life Is Real
Keep Passing The Open Windows
Lily Of The Valley
Somebody To Love
The March Of The Black Queen

Also I'd love to learn about the origin of this cliché and possible ways for Freddie to get to know it (so far I've got one suspect: Lennon's 'All You Need Is Love'). Songs that also use this cliché - not written by Freddie - are More Than Words, Save Me, Brighton Rock, Dust In The Wind and Dear Friends. Any contribution on that side is also welcome

'Two Of Us', also by my favourite band, is another example

The progression in question must be frequently used in classical music, and also in some pop songs prior to Beatles.
Pachelbel's famous "Canon in D" is a close example, even though the bass there follows the root, the step-wise descending voice is also present there.

More examples I found from Freddie: Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Nevermore, Made In Heaven

4 more from Brian: Too Much Love, Who Wants To Live Forever, Is This The World We Created, Back To The Light

1 from Roger - Days Of Our Lives

1 from Roger, in reversed form - Heaven For Everyone

2 from John - You're My Best Friend, You And I

That what? The what???

every time we talk about this, I get completely freaked out.

Don't forget the "Aeolian cadence" in the Beatles' Not A Second Time. I always found that quite fascinating! :-)

"Also I'd love to learn about the origin of this cliché and possible ways for Freddie to get to know it (so far I've got one suspect: Lennon's 'All You Need Is Love')"


How could you ever find out where this progression started. it might be possible to find out where it was first used in modern music (1950-now)
But since there have been instruments i'm sure someone used this progression, so it's kind of useless to try and find it out.

Even more useless is finding out where Freddie heard this, he liked the Beatles, but that doesn't mean he heard it in All You Need for the first time, or that he used it often because it was in that song...right?

that's why I said POSSIBLE ways

Save Me and White Queen also has this progression


It's possible he noticed it for the first time in:

Beatles - Let it Be (F > C/E > Dm)
The Who - Dr. Jimmy (F > C/E > Dm)
The Stones - She Smiled Sweetly (F > C/E > Dm)
The Stones - Angie (F > C/E > Dm)
Elvis Presley - Always on my Mind (G > D/F# > Em)

And what about Amazing Grace, that song also has this progression, and we all know how much Freddie loved this song, so perhaps he picked it up when hearing Amazing Grace

Thanks, I hadn't thought about Angie

Sorry, Sebastien, I think you're going to fail for once - that progression is so common (and so natural for any guitarist going from G to Em or C to Am), that you'll just get snowed under with examples.

Mind you, combine it with Brian's AKOM/WWRY/HTF guitar riff, and you could construct the "ultimate" Queen-a-like song. Question is, who would you get to sing it?

And ofcourse Brian's cliched, A > D/A riff,

Johns high melodic basslines

> Sorry, Sebastien, I think you're going to fail for once - that progression is so common...

I'm not failing, I just wanted to know more about the cliché, and I did. So that's not a failure

That's exactly what PG's on about Niek: they're one and the same.

ahh yeah....stupid me!

i try to read too fast