Queen (album)

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Queen
Studio album by Queen

Publication
(s)

July 13, 1973 (United States: September 4, 1973)

Label (s) EMI / Parlophone / Elektra , Hollywood Records

Format (s)

LP , MC , CD

Genre (s)

Rock , hard rock , prog rock

Title (number)

10

running time

38:36

occupation

Guest musicians:

  • John Anthony: additional vocals in Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

production

John Anthony, Roy Baker and Queen

Studio (s)

Trident Studios , London (1972); De Lane Lea Studios (1971)

chronology
  Queen Queen II
(1974)

Queen is the debut album of the English rock group Queen of the same name . It was released in 1973 and was produced by John Anthony, Roy Thomas Baker and Queen. Sound engineers were Roy Thomas Baker, Mike Stone , Ted Sharpe and David Hentschel.

Equipment

In addition to the musicians' instruments, the manufacturers of the instruments are listed:

Track list

page Track Song title author length Lead vocals
1 1 Keep Yourself Alive May 3:46 Mercury
2 Doing all right May / Season 4:09 Mercury
3 Great King Council Mercury 5:41 Mercury
4th My Fairy King Mercury 4:08 Mercury
2 5 Liar Mercury 6:26 Mercury
6th The Night Comes Down May 4:23 Mercury
7th Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll Taylor 1:48 Taylor
8th Son and Daughter May 3:21 Mercury
9 Jesus Mercury 3:44 Mercury
10 Seven Seas of Rhye ... Mercury 1:15 instrumental

History of origin

Label of the LP (1973)

For about three years, Queen could only be heard performing live. The band had a regular audience before the press became aware of them. That already helped the debut album to a place in the charts. A note on the album cover indicates that most of the tracks on the album have been written since the band was founded in November 1970. The last half-sentence of the credits on the back of the cover is remarkable: " ... and nobody played synthesizer. "

In 1971, Queen recorded their first demo tape at De Lane Lea Studios, it was later released as a bootleg . On February 5, 1973, Queen was invited for the first time by BBC Radio 1 to a session for the program Sounds of the '70s . The recording was released along with the titles of another BBC session on the 1989 album Queen at the Beeb .

Douglas Puddifoot, Freddie Mercury and Brian May were responsible for the cover design of the Queen album. It shows on the front in purple, black and white alienated Freddie Mercury posing with a microphone stand in the spotlight and on the back a collage of photos of the band from live performances and backstage . Puddifoot provided the photos for the back of the cover.

Single releases

July 6, 1973: As the vanguard for the first album, the first single Keep Yourself Alive (with Son and Daughter on the B-side) was released. It did not hit the charts, nor did its US release in October 1973.

Excerpts from reviews in the UK media:
  • Daily Mirror : "New male rock band called Queen will blow your head off with a diabolical, high-energy nerve tingler."
  • Melody Maker : "Lacks originality."
  • NME : "If these guys look half as good as they sound they could be huge."
  • Record Mirror : "A raucous, well built single."
  • Sounds : "It never really gets going."
  • DJ John Peel in his column in Sounds : "Some pleasing guitar and synthesizer [ sic ] work (...)."

February 14, 1974: Only in the USA and New Zealand was a heavily abridged version of Liar released as a single - with Doing All Right on the B-side.

Explanations of the pieces

Keep Yourself Alive

Under the name "Long Lost Re-Take" appeared in 1991 on the North American CD edition of the album for the first time a previously unreleased alternative studio recording of the song. It is not only in length that it differs from the album version. It also has some minor changes in the text, contains a new introduction and in some places different drum, guitar and vocal sequences. On the 'De Lane Lea' version, the introduction is played on an acoustic guitar.

Doing all right

This is the only Queen piece with Tim Staffell as co-writer. Doing All Right was originally recorded by Queen's predecessor Smile , which consisted of May, Taylor and Staffell. In the BBC version recorded in February 1973 and later published on the album At the Beeb , Roger Taylor sings the last verse. In 2003 Tim Staffell's album aMIGO released a new duet version of the song that he and Brian May recorded , on which May can also be heard on guitar. Sometimes - for example on the albums At the Beeb (or At the BBC ) and aMIGO - the spelling of the song is "Doin 'Alright".

Great King Council

Drummer Roger Taylor's unusual rhythm seems to imitate the gallop of a horse, while May and Mercury duel with guitar and vocal melodies.

My Fairy King

In contrast to the other songs, My Fairy King was created exclusively in the studio. Until then, the band had not been able to bring a piano to the stage when performing live. Mercury took the opportunity to combine extensive piano sequences with Brian May's guitar sound. This piece is also characterized by its vocal duplication ( overdubs ) and unusual harmony progressions, similar to later in The March of the Black Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody . In its free form, without the usual alternation of verse and chorus , the song is Freddie Mercury's most complex song to date: musical motifs are picked up again and again in the course of the piece and improvised in a way that should be typical for him . Roger Taylor's characteristic, extremely high backing vocals ("screams") can also be heard on this track.

My Fairy King is the only song on the album that Queen never played live (apart from brief improvisations on the piano).

According to Brian May, there is a connection between My Fairy King and the stage name "Mercury". A line of text from the piece reads: "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me, I cannot run, I cannot hide." Mercury, who was known under the name Freddie Bulsara until then, called himself from the time he did this Title wrote, Freddie Mercury.

The beginning of the text of My Fairy King is similar to a work by the English poet Robert Browning . The first four lines from Mercury's My Fairy King :

In the land where horses born with eagle wings
And honey-bees have lost their stings
There's singing forever
Lion's den with fallow deer

In Browning's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin , published in 1888, lines 246–248 read:

And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
And honey-bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagles' wings

Liar

The De Lane Lea version features different vocals and guitar solos and ends with motifs from Great King Rat and Brighton Rock . For the US single, the title was cut by more than half.

The Night Comes Down

As the group was not satisfied with Roy Thomas Baker's production of The Night Comes Down , the 'De Lane Lea' demo version recorded by Louie Austin at Trident Studios was also adopted for the album. On the vinyl edition, this song is partially combined into one title with the following.

Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

Roger Taylor sang the lead roles in the piece he wrote. The voice ( “look out” ) of producer John Anthony can also be heard briefly . When performing live, Mercury took over the lead vocals.

Son and Daughter

The expanded December 1973 BBC version (released on the album At the Beeb ) includes an early version of May's Brighton rock guitar solo.

Jesus

The De Lane Lea version is more rock oriented and has some additional instrumental interludes.

Seven Seas of Rhye ...

With this purely instrumental preview of the title in the Queen II album, Brian May tried the technique of "multi-tracked guitar parts". Several guitar voices are recorded on different tracks so that the impression of a polyphonic guitar choir is created. The note on the record sleeve "... and nobody played synthesizer" ("... and nobody played synthesizer") should make it clear that these guitar sounds were exclusively created by Brian May with his "Red Special".

Mad the Swine

Freddie Mercury's Mad the Swine was originally intended as the title between the songs Great King Rat and My Fairy King . Due to disagreements, especially between Roger Taylor and Roy Thomas Baker over the tone of the drums, Mad the Swine was ultimately not on the album. The title did not appear until 1991 both as a bonus track on the new US edition of the album and on the maxi or CD single Headlong .

Alternative song versions

Songs Alternative versions Album versions
De Lane Lea
Demo, 1971
BBC (1)
February 5, 1973
BBC (2)
July 25, 1973
BBC (3)
December 3, 1973
BBC (4)
April 3, 1974
Others
Keep Yourself Alive 3:37 3:48 3:51 - - 4:04 (Long Lost Re-Take) / 3:29 (US single edit) 3:46
Doing all right - 4:10 - - - - 4:09
Great King Council 6:01 - - 5:56 - - 5:41
My Fairy King - 4:06 - - - - 4:08
Liar 7:45 6:28 6:39 - - 3:00 (US single edit) 6:26
The Night Comes Down (= Album version) - - - - - 4:23
Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll - - - 2:00 2:38 - 1:48
Son and Daughter - - 6:11 7:08 - - 3:21
Jesus 5:00 - - - - - 3:44
Seven Seas of Rhye ... - - - - - 2:46 ( Queen II ) 1:15

The 1989 album At the Beeb contains both the first and the third BBC radio session. The other BBC sessions have not yet been officially published and are only available as bootlegs . The De Lane Lea demos appeared in 2011 on the deluxe edition of the album.

reception

Time Out (Great Britain), 1973: "[...] thrusting, dynamic, forceful, not to mention heavy."

Rolling Stone (USA), 1973, by Gordon Fletcher: “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. The Zeppelin analogy is not meant to imply that Queen's music is anywhere near as blues -based as the content of Led Zep I & II . No, their songs are more in the Who vein, straight-ahead rock with slashing, hard-driving arrangements that rate with the finest moments of Who's Next and Quadrophenia . Yet there's a certain level of intelligence with which the show is presented, a structured sanity that coexists alongside the maniacal fury that gives me the impression that the band must have had a lot of Yessongs on their turntables [...]. [...] And where you'd normally expect to find holes in a three-piece band's sound you'll instead find May making excellent use of his instrument's electrical attributes. A master of fuzz, wah and sustain, his solos are persistent, hard-hitting and to the point. Vocalist Freddie Mercury has a strong, steady voice that never lacks for power and authority. [...] Let's just say that the product of drummer Roger Meddows Taylor and bassist Deacon John is explosive, a colossal sonic volcano whose eruption makes the earth tremble. [...] They're the first of a whole new wave of English rockers, and you'd best learn to love 'em now' cause they're here to stay. Regal bearings aside, Queen is a monster. "

The Herald (USA), 1973: “Queen's album 'Queen' (Elektra records) is an above average debut. [...] The sound is loud, with thunderous drums and droning guitars. There is some distortion of vocals and shifting of sound from speaker to speaker. The vocals are usually fine with some Beatlesque harmonies at times. Good listening is guaranteed [...]. "

Winnipeg Free Press (Canada), 1974: "Queen is England's latest candidate for superstardom, and don't be surprised if these guys do make it in a big way. Sure, the material is so derivitive it hurts (listen to guitarist Brian May cop riffs from Jimmy Page , Black Sabbath's Tony lomi [sic], Jimi Hendrix and Mick Box and you'll see what I mean), but the group manages to inject such a fresh, energetic touch to most of it that I don't mind a bit. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll is a direct cop from Led Zeppelin's Communication Break-down, right down to vocalist Freddie Mercury's ability to ape Robert Plant . With its first album, Queen has produced a driving, high energy set which in time may be looked upon with the same reverence Led Zep 1 now receives. "

Chart placements

The album Queen reached the following positions in the charts :

  • # 24 - Great Britain (18 weeks on the charts; gold ).
  • # 52 - Japan.
  • # 83 - USA (9 weeks on charts; gold).

The singles ( Keep Yourself Alive and Liar ) did not make the official charts. The single Keep Yourself Alive , which was re-released in the USA in 1975 , came 89th in the “ Cash Box ” charts.

US re-release

In the United States, Hollywood Records released the album on CD in June 1991. This edition was digitally remastered by Eddy Schreyer and also contains the following previously unreleased songs:

Web links

Footnotes

  1. "Representing at last something of what Queen music has been over the last three years, ..." (This album ultimately represents something of what Queen's music has been the last three years .)
  2. a b c d e f cit. N. Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, p. 63. ISBN 0-283-06052-2
  3. ^ Robert Browning: The Pied Piper of Hamelin . London: Frederick Warne and Co., 1888 (reproduced on Indiana University website). See also The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning in Project Gutenberg .
  4. Quotation from Gunn / Jenkins 1992, p. 64.
  5. ^ Gordon Fletcher: Queen ( April 29, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ). In: Rolling Stone , No. 149, December 6, 1973.
  6. The Herald (Chicago), December 7, 1973 (see Queen Archives )
  7. Winnipeg Free Press , Jan. 5, 1974. (See Queen Archives )
  8. a b Queenonline ( Memento from August 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ).
  9. tsort.info: Album artist 14 - Queen
  10. ^ Andrew Young: Queen International Album Chart Positions .
  11. Cash Box Top 100 Singles. Week ending August 30, 1975, accessed December 5, 2011 ( February 5, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive )