“THE FAIRY FELLER’S MASTER-STROKE
Freddie Mercury / 2:41
Musicians
Freddie Mercury: lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, harpsichord
Brian May: guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Recorded
Trident Studios, London: August 1973
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone”
In August 1973 Freddie Mercury took the rest of the band including Roy Thomas Baker to visit the Tate Gallery.
He wanted to show them a painting by Richard Dadd called The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke. A nineteenth-century English painter, Dadd painted his masterpiece at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley, a psychiatric institution in the suburbs of London commonly known as Bedlam. Dadd was incarcerated at Bethlem Royal Hospital after murdering his father in 1843, believing his actions were guided by the Egyptian god Osiris and convinced that his father was the devil in disguise.
Freddie used the painting name as the title of the song.
“Tatterdemalion and the junketer / There’s a thief and a dragonfly trumpeter.” Or again: “Pedagogue squinting wears a frown / And a satyr peers under lady’s gown.” All references to the characters in the painting.
It’s well worth looking at the painting and spotting the characters mentioned in the song.
“Freddie Mercury who hated electric pianos not unlike the one John Deacon used on “You’re My Best Friend.” But used Thomas Goff harpsichord on the track which added to medieval sound of the song.
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