Song: “Tie Your Mother Down”
Science, music, and a wicked sense of humor leads to a Queen classic
Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May wrote this song after overhearing Freddy Mercury speculate about using the phrase “tie your mother down” as the title for a song. May realized it was funny, and the song “completely fell into place.”
May began writing the song when working on his PhD in astrophysics, and this song became associated with some physics itself, both intentionally and accidentally.
The recording on the album version includes a one-minute section of Shepard tone, a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. It creates an auditory illusion of a tone that seems to continually ascend or descend in pitch, yet which actually gets no higher or lower.
Roger Shepard, for whom the tonal effect is named, was an American cognitive scientist considered the father of research on spatial relations. He is also known as the author of “the universal law of generalization,” the idea that we ascribe common traits to objects sharing similarities — will a bird eat a worm that looks a little different for any it has eaten before? Shepard was also fascinated with optical illusions.
The other physics were less intentional. The band liked to use explosions during live performances of the song. During one video shoot, there was a mishap — Roger Taylor, the band’s drummer, was blown off his stool and the stage due to an explosion in a bucket on his riser. The recording had to be stopped for a moment because Roger was on the floor. In video commentary, May said, “Nearly killed Roger, it has to be said!”
May loves the song, and it has been performed in every Queen concert. For an astrophysicist and animal rights person, his wicked wit is notable — he wrote “Tie Your Mother Down” and “Fat-Bottomed Girls.” The former includes the line, “Take your little brother swimmin’ with a brick.”
At the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, the song was co-performed by Queen and guests — Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash. May and Taylor performed it when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins from the Foo Fighters played with them.
Enjoy!