Originally Posted by Certif1ed

The thing is, especially with songs like Bohemian Rhapsody, is that Queen didn't need it to be any longer, because they put the same amount of musical ideas into 6 minutes that Yes would put into an entire triple album. Bo Rhap is also just a part of the great composition that is ANATO.

Long songs (12 minutes plus) make up a fairly small proportion of the Prog canon - prog is about much more than length. It's about improvisation and composition - and here, Queen win over many traditionally accepted Prog bands, such as Uriah Heep over and again.

Queen II (side Black, entirely composed by Mercury, IIRC) is like Genesis' "Supper's Ready" - it's many short songs that make up a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts, and Night At the Opera is the same, although more of a self-effacing, deliberately overblown parody of concept albums (just like Thick as a Brick).