At the beeb
| At the beeb | ||||
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| Compilation album by Queen | ||||
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Publication |
4th December 1989 |
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| Label (s) | Band of Joy (in cooperation with BBC Records and Tapes and EMI Records); Hollywood Records (USA, 1995) | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
37:33 |
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| occupation |
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Bernie Andrews |
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Studio (s) |
Langham 1 |
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At the Beeb is the second compilation album of British rock group Queen . It contains two recording sessions recorded for BBC Radio 1 in 1973 and broadcast as part of John Peel's broadcasts. The album was released in 1989, in the USA only in 1995, there under the title At the BBC .
The album
From 1973 to 1977 Queen recorded a total of six sessions for the BBC. The first and third of these were released on the album At the Beeb (“Beeb” is another name for “BBC” in Great Britain). With the catalog number BOJCD001 this is the first release of the independent label "Band of Joy". It was in the UK charts for a week and came in at number 67.
Queen's first BBC session, featuring four songs from her debut album, was recorded on February 5, 1973 and broadcast on the radio ten days later. Her album Queen was essentially finished at this point, but it took almost six months to be released. The song versions from the first session for the BBC are heavily based on these studio versions, which were not yet released at the time. According to Brian May , the band sometimes used "backing tracks" from the recording sessions for their album. In Doin 'Alright , drummer Roger Taylor - instead of Freddie Mercury - sang the lead vocals for the last verse.
On December 3, 1973, as part of Queen's third BBC session, the other, all hard rock- oriented tracks from At the Beeb were created . During this time the band was the opening act for Mott the Hoople on their first major tour. These BBC recordings include, in addition to other pieces from the debut album, Ogre Battle , a title from the follow-up album Queen II , which was not yet released at the time , but which was already part of the live program. On the compilation At the Beeb , the guitar intro from the original BBC recording of Ogre Battle is missing because the tape was supposedly damaged. "It's not that I'm bright, just happy-go-lucky", the new striking line of text in Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll sung by Taylor , was inspired by a saying by Ariel Bender , guitarist with Mott the Hoople. The over seven-minute long recording of Son and Daughter contains an early version of Brian May's three-part Brighton rock guitar solo in the extended instrumental middle section . Both Queen sessions were broadcast in John Peel's program Sounds of the Seventies on BBC 1.
The cover design was done by Richard Gray, who designed numerous other Queen's recordings. Douglas Puddifoot took the picture of the cover, which shows the band members in a black and white photo , in the early 1970s. The liner notes were written by Malcolm Dome of the British RAW Magazine .
It wasn't until 1995 that Hollywood Records released the album for the first time in the USA and Canada . It was released under the title Queen at the BBC with a completely new cover design. The photograph of the front cover is again from Puddifoot. He had taken her in Freddie Mercury's London apartment during Queen's first photo session. Further pictures that resulted are shown on the back of the debut LP Queen .
In 1996, the majority of the first BBC session appeared on Queen's single Let Me Live , a release from the album Made in Heaven : One of the two editions of the single contains the titles My Fairy King , Doin 'Alright and Liar .
Track list
page 1
- My Fairy King (Mercury) - 4:06
- Keep Yourself Alive (May) - 3:48
- Doin 'Alright (May / Season ) - 4:10
- Liar (Mercury) - 6:28
Page 2
- Ogre Battle (Mercury) - 3:57
- Great King Rat (Mercury) - 5:56
- Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Taylor) - 2:00
- Son and Daughter (May) - 7:08
The first four tracks were recorded on February 5, 1973, the other four on December 3, 1973.
Taylor sings lead vocals in the last verse of Doin 'Alright as well as in Modern Times rock' n 'roll . Both BBC sessions were produced by Bernie Andrews. The sound engineers were John Etchells (page 1), who also recorded Queens album Live Killers in 1979 , and Mike Franks and Nick Griffiths (page 2).
Reviews in the media
The British daily The Times expressed itself in 1989 as follows: “The under-resourced production is barely able to cope with the group's wildly ambitious, progressive rock arrangements. The sleeve notes, which are almost as far over the top as Freddie Mercury's grand designs, declare this to be 'a major milestone in the annals of rock'. It is in fact an amusing curiosity, likely to be of some interest to dedicated fans of an archivist bent. "
Dave Thompson reviewed the album for the American All Music Guide : “And they are what you'd expect, vast and bombastic, widescreen epics that make no distinction between the hard rock that was the early Queen's most visible calling card, and the fey, quirky balladry that was the trick up their sleeves. And, while none of the performances here can touch the familiar LP takes in terms of production values and musical excellence, again the emphasis is on visceral verve and spontaneous combustion, qualities that Queen possessed in abundance. For many years the best-selling of all BBC sessions albums, At the BBC is not an album for the casual listener; nor will it satisfy the completist collector. Nevertheless, anybody who knows the band only for the operatic grandiosity of their regular albums would do well to check it out. It might well change your opinion forever. "
Chronology of Queen's BBC Sessions
1st session , recorded February 5, 1973 (broadcast February 15, 1973):
My Fairy King - Keep Yourself Alive - Doin 'Alright - Liar .
2nd session , recorded on July 25, 1973:
See What a Fool I've Been - Liar - Son and Daughter - Keep Yourself Alive .
3rd session , recorded December 3, 1973 (broadcast December 6, 1973):
Ogre Battle - Great King Rat - Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll - Son and Daughter .
4th session , recorded on April 3, 1974:
Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll - Nevermore - White Queen (As It Began) - The March of the Black Queen (original abridged version from Queen II ).
5th session , recorded October 16, 1974:
Now I'm Here - Flick of the Wrist - Stone Cold Crazy - Tenement Funster .
6th session , recorded on October 28, 1977:
Spread Your Wings - It's Late (including excerpts from Get Down, Make Love ) - My Melancholy Blues - We Will Rock You (slow / fast version).
Web links
- bbc.co.uk - Peel Sessions: Queen (English)
- Greg Brooks: Queen at the Beeb. In: Record Collector , June 2001, pp. 18-22; see QueenCuttings.com . (English)
Sources and Notes
- ↑ Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1992, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 , p. 272.
- ^ Brian May: "We started off with backing tracks, which were already in progress for the album, and over-dubbed the vocals - a guitar here and there, and other things. So what you are hearing is a mixture of stuff recorded at Trident Studios, and stuff recorded very hurriedly in the BBC studios. Time and facilities were tight, which dictated that we record the sessions in that way. Typically, we would do one or two tracks live, but adopt this compromise for the others. " Quoted from Greg Brooks: Queen at the Beeb . In: Record Collector , June 2001, pp. 18–22, here p. 19. (See QueenCuttings.com )
- ^ Greg Brooks: Queen at the Beeb . In: Record Collector , June 2001, here p. 21.
- ↑ Illustration of the cover of At the Beeb : queenpedia.com .
- ^ Image of the cover of At the BBC : queenpedia.com .
- ↑ For details see for example Andrew Young and queenpedia.com .
- ↑ The Times , December 19, 1989. (See Queen Archives )
- ↑ Dave Thompson : Queen - At the BBC. Review . In: All Music Guide .
