According to guitarist Brian May, Deacon’s demeanor was the perfect fit for the band. “We tried various bass players, and the knot was finally tied with John,” he told Guitar Player of the bassist’s 1971 audition. “He did wonderfully tasteful stuff. I’ve worked with some great bass players and no one has quite had the same lyrical touch that John has. I think he’s very underrated.”
Deacon retired from public life in 1997, but the tracks he cut with Queen in the ’70s remain a watermark for tasteful, tuneful rock & roll. To channel John’s headspace, plug in and warm up with some Ab scalar runs before playing along. Dial up the thud and feel the spirit!
DEACY PIECES
With Queen, John Deacon was one disciplined dude. When the band wasn’t touring or recording— and even when it was— Deacon built solid-state amplifiers. In 2007, Brian May praised Deacon’s Deacy guitar amp when riffing with Guitar Player about multi-tracking. “The Deacy parts always sound more like brass or strings. The [Vox] AC30 ones sound like … guitars.”
CAN BE HEARD ON
Queen, A Day at the Races [EMI, 1976] After a big run of records with co-producer Roy Thomas Baker, the band decided to go it alone and produce A Day at the Races on its own. “Somebody to Love” was the album’s lead single. Deacon likely tracked it using one of his two preferred Fender Precision Basses. (He would later favor a Music Man StingRay).
NEXT STEP
Once you’ve wrapped your fingers around “Somebody to Love” and “Killer Queen” (transcribed in November ’05), get hip to Deacon’s beautifully melodic line on “You’re My Best Friend,” his brilliant pop composition for A Night at the Opera [EMI, 1975].
THE 5 COOLEST THINGS ABOUT THIS BASS LINE
1. That pudgy P-Bass tone is simply awesome. Deacon’s fat-bottomed bass balances the tune’s high-register vocals and guitars.
2. Deacon’s durational delivery is divine. Tunes that swing in 12/8 can begin to plod, but John keeps the momentum up with clear articulation and clean rests.
3. The slides in bars 27 and 29 are outtasight. These octave slides span the whole neck. For a smooth slide, try plucking each eighth-note in beats two and four. It’ll force your fretting arm to slide in time. Then play the slide slurred.
4. The diminished run in bar 30 is hip. The sight of a diminished chord scares some bassists into sticking to the root. Not Deacon, who uses it as a launching pad for arpeggios.
5. The hammer-ons in bars 45–46 are heavy. Deacon’s discipline comes into play here. While he could drop slides, arpeggios, and hammer-ons in every bar, he uses them sparingly, maximizing their effect.