It's
time for another Queen to celebrate a jubilee, this one being golden,
as the debut eponymous LP from Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Meadows
Taylor and John Deacon (credited as Deacon John), collectively known as
QUEEN, was released 50 years ago today, on July 13th 1973. It would be
the coronation of one of rock's greatest bands, a creative collective
who would leave an indelible and enduring legacy of music and
performance.
Before their first album hit the record shops,
Queen had to evolve through a series of manifestations which began in
1968 when Brian May formed the group, Smile, with lead singer and
bassist, Jim Staffell. May had worked with Jim previously in 1963 in a
band called 1984, named after the Orwell novel. Brian had taken a break
from music to pursue his degree in physics and infrared astronomy at
Imperial College, but was back into playing again. To complete the
band, drummer Roger Taylor was hired after auditioning from an ad
requesting a "Ginger Baker" style player. While attending Ealing Art
College, Staffell became acquainted with one Freddie Bulsara, an Indian
of Parsi descent who had grown up in Zanzibar. Bulsara was a design
student and took a shining to Jim's band, even offering Brian to join as
lead vocalist, though May turned him down because he didn't think
Staffell would want to relinquish the role. By 1970, however, Staffell
was tired of going nowhere with the band and packed it in, leaving an
opening for Freddie to step in.
Once Freddie was on board, it
didn't take long for him to suggest a new moniker for the band,
christening them QUEEN. Though the other members were initially
hesitant, Freddie, who'd also adopted the sir name of Mercury, was
confident that, "...people will love it". Whether the connotations of
the name were evident or deliberate is somewhat debated, but I have a
hard time thinking Freddie didn't have a sly subversive intent up his
sleeve. Initially, the band rotated through a number of bass players
before they finally encountered John Deacon in 1971, whose modest
demeanour and skill in electronics became a perfect compliment for the
other quarters of the band.
After scrounging around for a bit,
trying to find someplace to do some recording on the cheap, an encounter
with an audio engineer friend managed to get them into De Lane Lea
Studios' new premises in Wembley. The studio was looking to bring a
band in to test out the new gear and rooms, so Queen were able to record
five of their original songs: "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Great
King Rat", "The Night Comes Down" and "Jesus". During the recording
sessions, producer Roy Thomas Baker was present to hear Keep Yourself
Alive, which impressed him enough to promote the band to a number of
record labels.
Throughout 1972, Queen, working with Baker as
producer, proceeded to record their debut, negotiating to record during
studio down time to save costs. Roger Taylor recalled, "You could see
the working girls at night through their laced curtains, so while we
were mixing, we would have a little bit of diversion". The process
proved to be somewhat fraught with conflict, especially between May and
Baker, as the former's perfectionism clashed with the latter's desire
for live spontaneity. The clash lead to what Baker referred to as
"kitchen sink overproduction". The band had also wanted to use the De
Lane Lea recordings, but Baker insisted on new versions of those songs.
The mixing process proved to be just as difficult with no mix meeting
the band's approval until engineer Mike Stone stepped in and was finally
able to satisfy everyone's tastes. In the end, the band managed to
work through their differences and crafted a bristling mixture of heavy
metal and progressive rock, all shot through with a vein of glam's sense
of drama. Recording wrapped on the album by November of 1972, and the
band then went on a spree of performances to promote the as yet
unreleased album. They were still lacking a record deal, so there was
some manoeuvring to do, in order to secure a contract.
The
group's management firm, Trident, managed to eventually strike a deal
with EMI and the album was finally released on July 13th of 1973. The
album received overall positive reviews from the music press, with
Rolling Stone writing, "There's no doubt that this funky, energetic
English quartet has all the tools they'll need to lay claim to the Zep's
abdicated heavy-metal throne, and beyond that to become a truly
influential force in the rock world. Their debut album is superb."
Commercially, the album was a modest success, but delivered nowhere near
the kind of sales that they'd soon be pushing. The band was, while
highly developed, still finding some of its footing and figuring out how
to properly balance its excesses. Their mastery of the studio was not
quite fully in bloom, though their ambitions would push them into that
sweet-spot very soon.
As a long time Queen fan, the rawness of
their debut makes it a singular and fascinating glimpse into a band just
starting to flex their creative muscles. All the roots of what they'd
become are firmly in place, it was only a matter of time before they'd
sprout into full flower. That rough edge, however, gives this album a
dynamic which is completely unique within the groups canon of
recordings. They'd never sound quite like this again, albeit their
followup, Queen II, would perch confidently on the foundations laid by
their debut. If you're looking for a version of Queen with some
youthful vigour and bite, this is a perfect place to start. It's
certainly a dazzling debut by any band's standards.
