Spread Your Wings

"Spread Your Wings" was written by bass player John Deacon for Queen's 1977 album News Of The World, and was released as the A side of the single Spread Your Wings/Sheer Heart Attack in 1978. It is a rock ballad, featuring Deacon on bass and acoustic guitar, Freddie Mercury on piano and vocals, Brian May on lead guitar and Roger Taylor on drums. The song is in 4/4 meter, and starts with a simple piano motif in D. It is written in D Major, then modulating up to D's relative minor, B minor in the bridge, coming down to D in the chorus. The lyrics of the song describe a troubled young man named Sammy who works sweeping the floor at Emerald Bar. The narrator (singer) of the song encourages Sammy to pursue his dreams, telling him to "spread your wings and fly away".

[Verse 1] Sammy was low, just watchin' the show Over and over again Knew it was time, he'd made up his mind To leave his dead life behind His boss said to him, "Boy, you'd better begin To get those crazy notions right out of your head Sammy, who do you think that you are? You should've been sweepin' up the Emerald Bar" [Chorus] Spread your wings and fly away Fly away, far away Spread your little wings and fly away Fly away, far away Pull yourself together 'cause you know you should do better That's because you're a free man [Bridge] He spends his evenings alone in his hotel room Keepin' his thoughts to himself He'd be leaving soon Wishin' he was miles and miles away Nothin' in this world, nothin' would make him stay [Verse 2] Since he was small, had no luck at all Nothin' came easy to him Now it was time, he'd made up his mind "This could be my last chance" His boss said to him, "Now listen, boy! You're always dreamin' You've got no real ambition, you won't get very far Sammy boy, don't you know who you are? Why can't you be happy at the Emerald Bar?" [Chorus] So honey, spread your wings and fly away Fly away, far away Spread your little wings and fly away Fly away, far away Pull yourself together 'cause you know you should do better That's because you're a free man [Outro] Come on, honey Fly with me [Guitar Solo]