John Deacon

John Richard Deacon was the bassist for the rock band Queen, also playing rhythm and acoustic guitars in several of their albums as well as ocassional keyboards. Born 19 August, 1951 in Leicester, United Kingdom, he was the youngest member of Queen. He is the author of the hits "Another One Bites The Dust" and "I Want To Break Free", which show that his contribution to Queen was significant.

Highlights

Mostly, Deacon's compositions were light and pop. One of his best is Need Your Loving Tonight, a Beatlesy number from the album The Game (1980). Lyrically he composed masterpieces like Spread Your Wings and In Only Seven Days, both including interesting musical devices as well (jazzy chords, dissonances, etc).

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As a bass player his most notable works include Brighton Rock, The March Of The Black Queen, You're My Best Friend, We Are the Champions, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and I'm Going Slightly Mad. As a guitar player, he did some very interesting rhythm-playing in songs like Staying Power (both live and in the studio) and Back Chat, as well as lead parts in Another One Bites the Dust and Misfire and Spanish acoustic fills in Who Needs You (in which guitarist Brian May played maracas).

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His other main instrument was double bass, which he recorded for Brian May's 1975 song ' 39. May had asked him to play upright bass as a joke but a couple of days later he found Deacon in the studio with the instrument, and he had already learned to play it. John Deacon's contributions in keyboards were mostly just background chords, his most notable work is in his composition You're My Best Friend, which was the first song he wrote at the electric piano.

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