QUEEN - SHEER HEART ATTACK @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee, with half a century on the shelves, it's the third LP from Queen, Sheer Heart Attack, which was released on November 8th, 1974. It's the album that would break the band internationally, giving them their first view from the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

After the release of Queen II in March 1974, the band struck up a partnership with Mott the Hoople, with whom they toured throughout the UK. The pairing proved to be such a success that Queen were asked to accompany them on their US tour, a situation that afforded the group the opportunity to perform at much larger venues, with more sophisticated sound and lighting systems, while also giving them the freedom to try out different songs onstage. Even though the situation solidified a friendship between the two bands that would endure throughout their respective careers, Freddie Mercury remarked that having to be an opening act was still "traumatic" for him, as he bristled with the desire to take the headlining slot, but his frustration was nothing compared to what poor Brian May was about to suffer as a result of Queen's first visit to the US.

At the climax of the tour in Boston, Brian May was discovered to have contracted hepatitis, likely from the use of a contaminated needle during vaccinations the group received before travelling. The remainder of the tour was subsequently cancelled and Queen flew back home, where May was immediately hospitalized. This wasn't the only medical emergency to befall the unfortunate guitarist that year either. After having begun to recover by the start of August, the band were in Wessex Sound Studios. Work there would not last long, however, as May, who was starting to feel uneasy, went to a specialist clinic on August 2nd. He collapsed at the clinic due to a duodenal ulcer, and would be operated on the following day. He was discharged from the hospital soon after so he could recover at home. The upshot of these bouts of illness meant that the rest of the band had to function as a trio through much of the initial recording sessions for their new album. It was a situation that put the other members on the spot to pick up the slack.

Recording of the album was somewhat fragmented due to Brian's medical situation, with recording split between four different studios: Trident and Air studios in London, Rockfield in Monmouthshire, and Wessex Sound in Highbury New Park. As the album developed, the music was moving away from the grandiose mythological subject matter of their previous albums, and into more grounded themes and subjects. Brighton Rock dealt with a love affair during a seaside vacation, Killer Queen was about a high-end prostitute, Now I'm Here was about the band's experiences touring with Mott the Hoople. All rather less fantastical than battling ogres or other such mythical fairy-tale fodder.

The band were still delivering some blistering hard rock, but there was also a lightness and playful dalliance with more diverse styles. Bring Back That Leroy Brown was a tribute to the recently deceased Jim Croce, featuring a jazzy, honky-tonk musical style, with Brian playing ukulele-banjo, and Deacon on the double bass. She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettoes) offered up a dreamy acoustic guitar driven dirge, with Brian and John doubling up on the guitars. On the other end of the spectrum, Stone Cold Crazy can only be described as photo-thrash-metal, what with its scorching tempo being enough to one day inspire Metallica to cover the song. It was one of the group's oldest compositions, dating back to their early days and being of enough antiquity that they'd forgotten who actually wrote it, thus necessitating its credit to the entire band, their first song to do so. The album also includes the first original song composition from John Deacon, Misfire.

For the cover of the album, legendary photographer, Mick Rock, was brought in again after delivering his iconic images for Queen II. Once more he managed to capture the band in a unique state. However, rather than presenting them as austere and remote god-heads, like on the previous LP, Sheer Heart Attack showed them all crumpled up on the floor like so much dishevelled dirty laundry, all sweaty and spent looking. It was as though he'd caught them just as they collapsed after a particularly rousing live gig.

The release of the album, bolstered by the single Killer Queen, sent both records roaring up the UK charts, with both the LP and single hitting #2, while in the US, they both peaked at #12. Critics were mostly favourable in their reviews as well, with the album's hard rock & glam aesthetics finding favour with the zeitgeist of the times. If there was any question that Queen had arrived, Sheer Heart Attack put those doubts to rest.

The success of the album should have put the band in a sweet spot for their career, but there was something amiss. They were somehow piss-poor and strapped for cash, thanks to mismanagement from their agents, a situation that would have to be sorted and would put them in a make-or-break position for their next album, but that's a story for another day.

QUEEN II @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee today at 50 years old is the sophomore LP from Queen, Queen II, which was released on March 8th, 1974. While it remains one of the bands lesser known works, any true Queen fan knows that this is the record to go to if you want to experience them at their deepest, darkest and heaviest. Only true aficionados need drop the needle on this slab of melodramatic musical dualism!

After the lacklustre performance of their eponymous debut album in 1973, Queen were working hard on getting things together to make a real impact with their next record. Though their debut wasn't a hit, it had sold respectably enough to allow the group to insist on booking regular hours at Trident Studios, rather than being relegated to off-hours, as had been the case with their budget constrained debut. They also had the production prowess of Roy Thomas Baker onboard to help bring things to another level. With this project, the band were looking to take their production values to a new peak of complexity and density, pushing the technology of the multi-track studio to unprecedented heights. The end results would set the bar as the band's largest technical stride forward of their illustrious and ambitious career, introducing fans to the layered complexity that would become their trademark, with all of their vocal choruses and harmonic guitar parts fully on display.

The group were still running on a full tank in terms of having a backlog of songs to incorporate into the album, some of which had been gestating since 1969 and pre-Queen days, affording the group a solid foundation upon which to build the record. As that process began to take shape, a natural breakdown of the songs suggested an overall theme of "good vs evil" or "dark vs light". Less than a concept album, the dualism taking shape provided the group with a focus with which to organize the songs. This would result in what would be termed the album's "Side White" (A) and "Side Black" (B), with Brian May's compositions taking up the former, along with a song from Roger Taylor, and Freddie's songs grouping up on the latter. John Deacon had not yet begun to contribute as a song writer. The distribution of material collected the "softer", more introspective tunes on the first side, and more aggressive, fantasy themed songs on the second. This theme also played well with the album's title and provided guidance for the cover art, but more on that later.

Recording of the album began in August of the previous year, with the bulk of the production done in that month, but the group would return to the studio repeatedly until January of 1974, interspersing their recording time with jaunts of touring, most notably as the opening act for Mott the Hoople, an opportunity that went a long way towards building the band's audience, fostering a friendship with the headliner band that would endure well after Queen had outgrown their opening slot. When the band were in the studio, they took full advantage of the facilities and delved deeply into the process of layering sounds, especially vocal choruses and guitar orchestrations. They would spend hours building up layer after layer, creating the dense, bombastic sound that would become their trademark.

For the album's cover, acclaimed music photographer, Mick Rock, was brought in to work with the band, and a better match couldn't have been made. Rock's sense of the band dovetailed with Freddie's aspirations for their image and the two began to cook up concepts for how to best express the sound of the album with the image of the group. According to Rock, Queen were looking to grab people's attention with the cover, especially since their first album had failed to do so. "They realized that if you could catch people's eyes you could get them interested in the music." The brief he received from the band conceived a black and white theme for the album. The cover features a photograph described by VH1 as "Queen standing in diamond formation, heads tilted back like Easter Island statues" against a black background. The iconic chiaroscuro image of Queen was inspired by a similar photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express. "And of course no one was ever more 'glam' than the divine Ms Dietrich," Rock quipped. "It was just one of those flashes of inspiration that happens sometimes," Rock explained. "There was a feeling that [echoing the Dietrich pose] might be pretentious," but Rock convinced the band otherwise. "It made them look like much bigger a deal than they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music." Rock stated Mercury loved to quote Oscar Wilde. "Often, that which today is considered pretentious is tomorrow considered state of the art. The important thing is to be considered." Rock added, "To Freddie, that word [pretentious] was meaningless – 'But is it fabulous?' was all that mattered. It was certainly THAT!" To expand on the black and white theme, Rock made a second image of the band, dressed in white against a white background, that was used in the album's gate-fold, advertising, and the "Seven Seas of Rhye" single sleeve.

Release of the album ended up being delayed for a number of different reasons. Firstly, their debut had only been released in the UK while the band were working on its follow-up and had yet to get a US release. Secondly, the energy conservation measures put in place during the 1973 oil crisis delayed its manufacture by several months; then, when released, John Deacon was credited as "Deacon John", and the band insisted it had to be corrected. Once if finally hit the shelves, it sold well, peaking at number five in the UK and 49 in the US, but many critics were less than flattering of the band's best efforts. Melody Maker wrote, "It's reputed Queen have enjoyed some success in the States, it's currently in the balance whether they'll really break through here. If they do, then I'll have to eat my hat or something. Maybe Queen try too hard, there's no depth of sound or feeling." Record Mirror wrote, "This is it, the dregs of glam rock. Weak and over-produced, if this band are our brightest hope for the future, then we are committing rock and roll suicide." Robert Christgau, writing in CREEM magazine, derisively referred to it as "wimpoid royaloid heavyoid android void." The reviews weren't all bad, however. DISC wrote, "The material, performance, recording and even artwork standards are very high." NME opined that the record showcased "all their power and drive, their writing talents, and every quality that makes them unique," while Sounds wrote, "Simply titled Queen II, this album captures them in their finest hours."

The legacy of the album is where the truth of the tale is finally told. Time gives distance and increases objectivity, and in the case of Queen's early music, Queen II retains a sense of distinction, not only inaugurating the band's grandiose sense of drama, but also offering up a musical landscape that would never be covered in quite the same way again. Hardcore fans of the band know that this is the album that delivers the purest essence of what they were in the early days. It also made it clear that this was a band who were not merely a lead singer posing in front of a clutch of nondescript backing musicians.

Though John Deacon's role in the band would bloom in later albums, Roger Taylor and Brian May made great strides in establishing their value as distinct contributors. Brian delivered his first lead vocal on his ethereal Some Day One Day, investing the gorgeously dreamy song with a wispy melancholy in its longing for better days ahead. Roger, on the other hand, lent his raspy lead vocal to his lament for the inevitable sense of loss motherhood is bound to bestow as children leave the nest. He also displayed his secret weapon in the form of his impossibly high falsetto, an asset that would allow the groups choral vocal arrangements to ascend to the loftiest heights. Of course Freddie couldn't have been a more attention getting front-man. When he sings a lyric like "Fear me you loathsome, lazy creatures, I descend upon your earth from the skies...", where another vocalist would come off as absurdly pretentious, Mercury manages to deliver the pomposity with enough conviction to make it all credible. That would turn out to be a talent he'd wield again and again throughout the band's history.

My gateway drug for Queen was A Day at the Races, which I bought early in 1977. Once that record had its hooks in me, I quickly backtracked through their earlier works, and it didn't take long for me to take special notice of Queen II. They were right about that cover drawing attention. Looking at it filled my teenage imagination with thoughts about what these people were like. It was like they'd been preserved in some kind of stasis for centuries, only to be released from their suspension to unleash this glorious thrashing of musical bombast. It's the album that, nearly a half century later, I return to most often when I need a fix of their music. It satisfies from the first note to the last. It's the album that most perfectly captures their talents in their most pristine form.

QUEEN - THE WORKS @40

Celebrating its 40th anniversary today is the eleventh studio album from Queen, The Works, which was released on February 27th, 1984. After the mixed reaction to what many considered the band's most disappointing LP, Hot Space, The Works made a concerted effort to redress some of the concerns expressed by fans and critics, while continuing to retain some of the new creative ground that had been cultivated on what was, frankly, a misjudged and under appreciated prior album.

1982's Hot Space had taken Queen into a new, synth-heavy soundscape that many fans felt was a betrayal for a band who spent the previous decade proudly proclaiming "NO SYNTHS" on all their albums. The focus on dance oriented soul and R&B funkiness also seemed out of character and the band's tour across the US included incidents where Mercury flatly scolded audiences for their impatience with the band's new material. To add insult to injury, US broadcasters reacted harshly against the cheeky drag imagery of the video for I Want To Break Free, all of which contributed to the band's decision to cease touring the US for the remainder of their career while Mercury was still fronting the band. It's a decision that would cost them some sales in America during the decade, though the band's status elsewhere skyrocketed after the release of The Works.

After the end of the Hot Space tour, the band felt a need to take a break, a situation that was erroneously portrayed in the Bohemian Rhapsody movie from 2018 as a "break up". There was never any intention to pack it in as a band, though most of the group were looking forward to doing some solo work, or collaborations with other people. Brian worked with Eddie Van Halen on a project, while Roger and Freddie each got stuck in on solo albums. There was some talk about returning to South America to tour after the spectacular success of their last stop there, but those plans fell through. By August of 1983, they were all ready to reassemble and start putting together a new album, which would be released through a new label after their deal with Elektra in the US, Canada, Australian and Japan was nullified. The new album would be their first to be released on EMI and its US affiliate, Capital Records.

The bulk of the recording sessions would take place at LA's Record Plant, which would be the only time the group ever recorded in the US. The final mixing and overdubbing would occur in January of 1984 at Musicland studios in Munich, Germany. While Queen had been quite self sufficient on their albums throughout the 1970s, by the time they were recording The Works, they were also relying a lot on live session keyboardist, Fred Mandel, who contributed synth and other keyboard parts to several tracks on the album. Also, regular engineer, Reinhold Mack, was helping out with sampling on the then unfamiliar Fairlight CMI.

The title for the album came about because of an off-the-cuff comment by Roger that was a response to the backlash against the previous album. He suggested the group "give 'em the works" for the next album, meaning that they should give fans a bit of everything the band were able to muster. And that's pretty much exactly what they did. While they'd return to some of the hard rock sounds of their earlier career, they didn't give up on the electronics heavy music they'd explored on the controversial Hot Space album, and ended up creating one of their most iconic songs in the process.

Radio Ga Ga had been inspired by a bit of toddler prattle from Roger's son, which inspired Taylor to write the song, ironically utilizing keyboards and drum machines. Roger had initially been against such devices, but was now embracing them. John Deacon helped out with a bass line, while Freddie came in and radically reassembled it with his own take on the arrangements. The result was a song that not only provided a hit single & video, but one of the band's most engaging moments when played live. The distinctive "clap clap" chorus, with hands held straight in the air, became a unifying moment of audience participation, even rivalling the "stomp-stomp-clap" of We Will Rock You. The sight of throngs of fans all performing the motion in unison became one of the most breathtaking moments of their massive stadium live shows during the 1980s, at least while the band were still able to tour with Freddie.

The other song on the album that created quite a stir was I Want To Break Free, another ear catching classic written by John Deacon. The ruckus over this all came down to the video and the US market's aversion to anything that smacked of "gender-bending". The fuss was ridiculous, however, because the "drag" that was incorporated was so utterly ludicrous. The concept was another flash of inspiration from Roger, who suggested the group do something of a parody of the UK soap, Coronation Street. The concept went down a treat for fans who were familiar with the series, but the US market were clueless and simply didn't get the joke or the reference. For those that did, seeing them in such outrageous attire was a laugh-riot, with Brian and John looking dowdy and stern, while Taylor chewed bubblegum as a saucy teen temptress and Mercury tough-dragged out with moustache firmly in place while he vacuumed in his red leather miniskirt. It remains one of the band's most memorable videos, next to Bohemian Rhapsody.

Upon its release, it took off on the charts, though its success was muted in the US by the band's refusal to tour there. Though it just missed the number 1 slot in the UK, it set the record for any Queen studio album by lingering in the charts for an astonishing 94 weeks! My relationship with the album is somewhat distant, however, as it came out at a time when Queen were simply off my radar, so while I appreciated the humour of something like I Want To Break Free, the music on the album has not quite developed much of a relationship with me, beyond a few tracks. Maybe one day I'll be able to embrace it more, but I do appreciate that it became a key piece of the band's history, critical in establishing their legacy, which continues to sustain fan interest over three decades after Freddie Mercury left this world. 

QUEEN - JAZZ @ 45

 

Celebrating its 45th anniversary today is the seventh studio LP from Queen, Jazz, which was released on November 10th, 1978. While it was a commercial success at the time, it followed a pattern of ups and downs for the group throughout the decade, being viciously ridiculed by critics at the time of its release, though radically reassessed in later years in the wake of Freddie Mercury's passing.

Though Queen's rise to superstardom was initially a continuous trajectory upward, after the breakout success of Bohemian Rhapsody and A Night at the Opera in 1975, the band began to suffer through an oscillation of expectations. They continued so sell millions of records, but the persistent expectation to exceed past successes meant they were constantly unfairly dismissed if a record didn't, in some tangible way, seem to surpass what had come before. It's an impossible position to be in as a band. After Rhapsody, A Day at the Races, was met with mixed reviews and suspicion, until News of the World came along the following year and blasted away all the doubts that critics had been pelting the band with, but then Jazz came along and the press seized at the opportunity to feast on the band's flesh anew. Of course, The Game followed next and knocked everyone sideways before the band fell afoul AGAIN with Hot Space. And on it went...

When it came time to record Jazz, the band were staring down the barrel of massive tax bills in the UK, which meant that recording at home simply wasn't economically feasible. They had to scramble to avoid being crushed by the taxman and initially opted to record in France as an alternative. It was while they were attending the nearby Montreux Jazz Festival, likely the inspiration for the album's title, that fate would have them run into David Bowie, who was recording Lodger at Mountain Studios. Bowie recommended the band relocate to that studio and they were impressed enough with the facility that they moved operations there in July, the day after the jazz festival's completion. In fact, they liked it enough that the band would eventually buy the studio and make it their permanent base of operations going forward. On July 19, Brian May's birthday, the band attended the 18th stage of the 1978 Tour de France, which inspired Freddie Mercury to write the lead single, "Bicycle Race". They spent a total of about three weeks in Mountain Studios, only taking a few days off for Roger's birthday on the 26th, when they allegedly trashed a Montreux hotel. Mercury was reportedly seen swinging on a cut-glass chandelier in the hotel during the party! After wrapping up in Montreux, they returned to France to finish off overdubs before sending the mixes to New York for mastering.

For the packaging of the album, Roger suggested the minimalist disc graphic he'd spotted as graffiti on the Berlin Wall. The internal gate-fold photo showed a wide angle shot of the band's gear displayed in Mountain Studio. With Bicycle Race and Fat Bottom Girls picked as the premier double A single for the album, the band concocted a promotional event held at Wembley Stadium in the UK. They staged a nude female bicycle race that would provide images for the poster, included with early pressings of the LP, and the single's sleeve, although they had to paint on bikini bottoms to avoid protests for the single cover. There are also reports that Halford's, who supplied the bicycles on loan, hit Queen with a bill to replace all the seats due to "improper" use. Though the band saw it all as a bit of "cheeky" fun, they came under fire for their objectifying of women. Critic Dave Marsh wrote in his review in Rolling Stone, "Fat Bottomed Girls" treated women "not as sex objects but as objects, period (the way the band regards people in general)", and finished by famously tagging Queen "the first truly fascist rock band".

Most other contemporary reviews of the album were similarly disparaging. Mitchell Cohen of CREEM called Jazz "absurdly dull" and filled with "dumb ideas and imitative posturing". Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said the album was not wholly bad, even finding "Bicycle Race" humorous, although he said Queen sounded like the band 10cc "with a spoke, or a pump, up their ass". Sales of the album and its singles were certainly respectable, but the tactic of releasing another double A-side single didn't pay off as well as it did with We Will Rock You b/w We Are the Champions from the previous album. With critics of the era behaving like a tank of hungry sharks, any signs of weakness were a clarion calls to start the feeding frenzy. Queen were CLEARLY on their way OUT, so you'd better get your bite in before they sank into the abyss.

In the years since its release, Jazz has most certainly been given a repeal of such undeserved harsh judgments, with both critics and fans coming to recognized the album's strengths. Within its baker's dozen songs, the band took fans on a breakneck, whiplash inducing thrill ride of styles and techniques. Rather than a chaotic hodgepodge, it's a roller-coaster ride, from the bizarre mania of Mustapha, to the menacing funk-rock of More of That Jazz, the band keep listeners on the edge of their seat through every turn. Numerous songs became live staples and Don't Stop Me Now, in particular, became Freddie Mercury's most quintessential composition, embodying the singer's philosophy and attitude in a way that has even been scientifically recognized as one of the most catchy songs ever written!

Personally, while I loved the album at the time it came out, and still do, back at the end of 1978, I was beginning a journey into a different realm. Though I started that year by joining the official Queen fan club, and stocked up my wardrobe with Queen T-shirts, badges and belt buckles (and I DID go to high school with ALL of it on!), by the end of 1978, I'd discovered music by RAMONES, The Clash, Sex Pistols, DEVO & Elvis Costello, so Jazz was kind-of the "beginning of the end" of my obsession with Queen. 1979 would not see them issue a new studio LP, only the uneven, poorly received Live Killers, and while I bought The Game in 1980, it was the last Queen LP I'd spend my money on for at least two decades. But nostalgia brought me back to the boys eventually and I still appreciate giving this record a spin now and then.

QUEEN @ 50

 

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.

QUEEN - NEWS OF THE WORLD @ 45

 

Celebrating 45 years on the racks today is the 6th studio album by Queen, News of the World, which was released this day on October 28th, 1977. After hitting the heights with Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975 and its parent album, A Night At the Opera, 1976’s A Day at the Races was met with some ambivalence, a situation which put the band against the wall and “under pressure” (wink) to prove they were yet to hit their high water mark. Not that …Races wasn’t a success, but it was not quite as successful as …Opera and, in the fickle minds of the music press, any hint of weakness was enough to start sharpening knives for the feast. Critics were merciless with ...Races, calling it “boring” and dismissing it as a rehash of what had come before. No one loves to tear down idols more than those who put them on their pedestals to being with. 

 

With the previous album, the band had continued along the path of studio excess established with Rhapsody and pushed the embellishments even further in some cases. But by 1977, the punk aesthetic was challenging the “dinosaurs” of rock and their indulgences and Queen were looking a little bloated by the standards of leaner and meaner bands like the Sex Pistols. There’s even an infamous anecdote about Freddie Mercury having a run-in with Sid Vicious during the recording of NotW when both bands happened to be working in the same studio. Sid popped his head in the room Mercury was in and quipped, “Still trying to spread ballet to the masses?” Not that it ruffled Mercury’s feathers at all, but the zeitgeist of the day was all about simplifying and going for something much more minimal. Queen weren’t averse to this, however, as they’d begun to feel like they’d exhausted themselves on overproduction and were more than ready to get back to something primal. 

 

The album opens with a 1-2 punch of songs which would be released as a double A-side single, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions. The first track, a May composition, was intended as something which could be used during live shows to encourage audience participation. May sussed out what he thought an audience could do in unison at a show and came up with the “stomp-stomp-clap” rhythm, which defined the track and required no more than the feet and hands of the fans. The rest of it was all Mercury’s vocal with a ripping great guitar solo to wrap it up. We Are the Champions, on the other hand, was Mercury’s baby. It comes off, at first, like a bit of braggadocio, but the reality of it is that the spirit evoked by Mercury is inclusive, not exclusive. Freddie doesn’t sing “I am the Champion”. It’s that “we” part that encompasses the band’s fans and stands as a statement of mutual support within that collective against the ridicule and dismissal of those who questioned the group’s abilities and the dedication of their admirers. 

 

The remainder of the album offers a wide variety of styles and moods, though with a determinedly restrained, edgier feel, especially with the more rocking songs. Sheer Heart Attack, a Taylor song, was a holdover from the LP of the same name, but it got dropped back then in favor of other songs. It seems to have been for the best as the version on NotW couldn’t be more perfectly timed to be a response to the “punk” sensibilities of the times. It’s simply one of the most ripping, ferocious rockers the band ever put on record. 

 

The final iconic element of this album is the cover, something that has scared more than one impressionable child over the years. It was inspired by an old 1953 anthology book of science fiction short stories. Roger suggested it and the group managed to track down the original artist to do a variation, which included the band. I remember my little cousin being particularly disturbed by it and me having to tell her that it was just ketchup on that dead-eyed robot's finger. Years later, when Family Guy would do an episode where Stewie is totally freaked out by the image, I knew that this was something which must have happened to a lot of kids after the album was released. 

 

The album and lead single would prove to be the perfect response to critics who were ready to write the band off, though this pattern would repeat itself throughout the bands career. Still, News of the World would bring the band to new heights of success, especially in the US. I'd only discovered Queen a little more than a year earlier when I saw a video of them on the Midnight Special performing Tie Your Mother Down from A Day at the Races. In that brief time I'd backtracked to pick up all their previous LPs and was at the peak of my obsession with the band when NotW landed in the shops. It served to bolster my commitment to them and had me buying posters, T-shirts, badges, belt buckles and fan club memberships for the next couple of years. I guess it was kinda ironic for a deeply closeted gay kid to be running around his high school covered in Queen paraphernalia! HELLO!!!

QUEEN - HOT SPACE @ 40

 

May 21st marks the 40th anniversary of Queen’s tenth studio LP, Hot Space, which was released on this day in 1982. Widely considered the band’s most disappointing and misguided album, it remains grossly under appreciated and misunderstood, even by the surviving band members themselves. It took decades for me to embrace it, but in the end, it won me over with its daring and risk taking and the quality of the song writing.

Queen were never a band to allow themselves to be constrained by stylistic restrictions. Indeed, their willingness to explore genres, styles and techniques was one of their biggest assets and a key reason many people appreciated them, myself included. But their foray into electronic dance music on Hot Space ended up being a measure too far for many, including some members of the band. That shift began in 1980 on The Game with the runaway smash hit, Another One Bites the Dust. Bassist John Deacon, who composed the song, was central to this shift as he’d always leaned towards soul and R&B influences. His interest was reinforced by Freddie Mercury, who was also listening to the counsel of his then manager, Paul Prenter, who like Mercury, was drawn to the gay club scenes of the day and wanted Queen’s music to move into this arena. Prenter, while holding sway over Mercury, was notably hated by the rest of the band, who were troubled by the degree of his influence over the singer. And then there was none other than Michael Jackson, who upon hearing Another One Bites the Dusk, strongly encouraged the group to release it as a single. All of this momentum coupled with the unprecedented success of the single, ended up leaving the more rock oriented May and Taylor in the position of having to reluctantly adapt to the tides of the times.

While Queen had tried to curb their studio time and indulgences after the excesses of landmark albums like A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, recording for Hot Space dragged on longer than any album they’d previously done. Recorded at their studio in Munich, part of this had to do with some in the band getting more heavily involved in drug and alcohol consumption, something which left the group struggling and leaving all of them in "deep emotional trouble".

Technically, while they’d spent the previous decade proudly proclaiming “no synths” on their albums, since The Game, they’d embraced using an Oberheim OB-X. They went a step further on Hot Space by bringing a drum machine into the equation for the first time. Roger hated the muted, flat sound of the drums that was de rigueur for dance music of the day, so he was fine with a machine taking up the role to achieve that sound in this context.

The band didn’t completely abandon their rock roots, but their forays into the style were much lighter and more pop friendly than the heavy rock of their early days. Brian’s role on guitar was substantially reduced within this context as well. Guitars weren’t the central musical component like they had been on previous albums. Instead, they were a mostly textural element or used to shade the arrangements. Fans looking for a flat out rocker on the album were left out in the cold.

When the album was released, it managed to garner some decent sales, but a lot of that was due to the fact it had been used as a home for the massive hit single by Queen and David Bowie, Under Pressure, which was tacked onto the album as the closing track. Bowie had also contributed to another song on the album, Cool Cat, but he was unsatisfied with the results and his contributions only made it as far as a test pressing before the track was remixed to remove his vocals. That version has since survived as a commonly available bootleg. Body Language also managed to do well as a single, helped along by a particularly salacious video which was so sexually charged it was banned in some markets and relegated to only late night rotation on MTV, but it was still enough to propel the single to #11 on the US charts.

Critical reception for the album was decidedly not supportive of their new direction with some commenting on how out of step the band were when disco music in general had become so demonized by this time. This was further compounded by the reaction of fans to the new songs when they were played live, especially in the US where “DISCO SUCKS” T-shirts were a common sight in the audience. Mercury was even captured on stage lamenting the negative response, scolding the audience saying “It’s only music”. That was a major factor in the band’s decision to stop touring in the US after the Hot Space gigs. While the band went on a number of world tours before retiring from the stage entirely at the end of 1986 due to Mercury’s HIV related health issues, they bypassed the US market after 1982, opting for South America instead. They would not return to the US again until well after Mercury's death when they reconstituted with Paul Rogers in the 2000s.

At the time the album was released, my interest in the band was at its lowest ebb. It was a time when I was moving into progressively more experimental and obscure music and my days of being a Queen fan were quickly falling behind me. It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that I started to revive my interest in them and reconsider their output through the 1980s. When I did take the time to give that work a closer listen, I was taken by surprise by how much I now enjoyed the music on Hot Space, which has become my favorite album of theirs from that decade.

When I listen to it now, I can appreciate its idiosyncrasies. Queen’s willingness to take risks was always something I admired and, in retrospect, I don’t think they ever stepped further out of their comfort zone than this LP. Yet it continues to be maligned and dismissed as a “disaster” or “misguided”. Were they overreaching? What does that even mean for a band like Queen? I can hear so many things on this album that are worthy of praise and appreciation that the criticism is meaningless to me. Michael Jackson, again, loved the album so much that he cited it as a major influence on him when working on his most successful release, Thriller. Though Jackson’s own legacy may be tarnished, that vote of confidence still, I think, means something.

I hope that time will offer up a revision of judgement for this album because it does have charms that become apparent when one is willing to sweep aside preconceptions and expectations and just let the music speak for itself. I only wish I’d been open minded enough to discover its worth sooner than I did.

ROGER TAYLOR - FUN IN SPACE @40

 

April 6th marks the 40th anniversary of Roger Taylor’s first solo LP, Fun In Space, which was released on this day in 1981. As well as being his first solo album, it was also the first solo release from any member of Queen. Roger had previously only released a solo single, I Wanna Testify b/w Turn on the TV, back in 1977.

The album was recorded during downtime between Queen recording and touring beginning in 1978. For this album, in addition to writing all the songs and co-producing, Roger handled nearly all the performance duties including drums, guitars, bass, vocals and the majority of the keyboards. The remainder of keyboard contributions came from co-producer, David Richards, who would become a frequent collaborator with Queen on several of their albums throughout the 1980s. Though Queen were notorious for their “NO SYNTHESIZERS” proclamations on all their albums in the 1970s, up until The Game, Fun In Space counters with the tongue-in-cheek joke, "P.P.S. 157 synthesizers”.

The front cover design was inspired by a Jim Laurier cover of Creepy from the July 1980 issue. In that respect, it shares a similar origin story with the cover of Queen’s News of the World (1977), which was based on a 1953 cover of Astounding Science Fiction. The alien font shown on the front is mostly upside-down Hebrew, though it does not actually spell anything. On the rear, the artwork is reversed to show Taylor holding the original Creepy cover. The cover design was handled by Hipgnosis with photography by Peter Christopherson.

While the album just managed to scrape the lower reaches of the UK top 20 album charts, it went largely unnoticed across the pond in the North American markets. Even though I was a massive Queen fan throughout the latter half of the 1970s, by the time this came out, I was very much onto more progressive avenues and didn’t bother to check out this album at all until some 30 years after its release. That’s kind of a shame as I suspect I’d have enjoyed it if I’d given it a chance earlier. Roger’s songs with Queen have often been my favorites with tracks like Drowse, Tenement Funster, Loser In the End and Sheer Heart Attack being only a few of the standouts he contributed to the band. There are good songs to be found on this solo album, but I do have to say they never quite reach the heights of his Queen classics. Still, it’s an LP that is worth a listen.

Taylor would eventually compliment this album in 2013 with a sequel solo album, Fun on Earth, which was the album that reminded me that I should backtrack and spend some time with its 1981 companion. The two albums taken together offer a wonderful set of “then and now” music showcasing Roger Taylor outside the often overshadowing sphere of Queen.

QUEEN - INNUENDO @ 30

 

February 4th marks the 30th anniversary of Queen's final studio album completed before the passing of Freddie Mercury, released on this day in 1991. While the band would cobble together one more album to feature their late front man from unfinished sessions recorded prior to his death, Innuendo was the final album to be totally completed with Freddie's full participation.

Back in 1991, I was about as far away from my Queen fandom days as I could get. It was a time of Acid House and Techno, and Queen, for me, was a relic of my high school days and I hadn't listened to them for years. As such, the news of Mercury's death in November of 1991 came completely out of the blue. I hadn't payed any attention to the band's career in some time, so I had no idea about the rumors of his ill health or the cause of it. Suddenly I was seeing Brian, Roger and John on the news attending funeral services and it didn't seem quite real. It felt like a part of my youth had suddenly been ripped away. Though I wasn't listening to their music, I was struck with a sharp recognition of the loss that had occurred.

It would be years later when I'd start to reconnect with Queen's music. As the 21st century dawned, my musical tastes matured and expanded and I began the process of reassessing the music I'd loved in my past and why I loved it. It wasn't long before I rediscovered Queen and developed a fresh appreciation for their achievements and talents. However, that newfound admiration didn't initially extend to the music that was produced after my initial fandom had faded. I stuck close to their 1970s albums and my interest dropped off after The Game.

It's only in the last few years, maybe the last 5 or so, that I've begun to warm to some of their albums of the 1980s up to their swansong of Made In Heaven. Albums like Hot Space, which I initially looked upon as a joke, now find keen favor in my listening habits and even just the other day, as I put on Innuendo in anticipation of its anniversary, I found myself taken aback as I heard aspects of it that had never struck me before.

Listening to this album now, I'm first struck the the strength of Freddie's singing. There was only one point where I detected only a minor weakness in it and only for a split second. The fact that Freddie chose to belt out so many heavy rockers rather than take it easy with less demanding soft ballads speaks to his dedication. The man knew for some years that he was on borrowed time. He could have chosen to spend that time doing any number of things, but he chose to focus on the work. All he wanted to do was leave as much behind as possible. He insisted that the rest of the band help him plow through these years, giving him as many songs to sing as they could. It was an Olympian effort as there were days he could barely get out of bed. Yet he'd get to the studio whenever he could and just belt it out like nothing was wrong.

You can hear that determination in these song, but not the strain. He sounds confident and powerful and capable and you'd never know he was spiraling down into his own mortal coil. Seeing the videos from this album is a shocking revelation of that disparity. On screen, you can see the frailty and the fading of his visage. The most heartbreaking of all is the video for These Are the Days of Our Lives. I can't watch it without getting choked up. You can see he's saying goodbye and you can see how much love he had for his audience. Despite his obviously compromised physical presence, his dignity and joy are resonant and you know the only thing he's regretting is that it's too soon to go.

There's a lot of good music on this album in the end. It rocks surprisingly harder than a lot of their albums from this era. How he managed to muster up the energy to do that is a bit of the magic that made him who he was. It's a good way to go out, I think.