Sheer Heart Attack (Album)
| Sheer Heart Attack | ||||
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| Studio album by Queen | ||||
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Publication |
1st November 1974 |
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| Label (s) | EMI / Parlophone ; Elektra , Hollywood Records (USA) | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
38:58 |
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Studio (s) |
Trident, Wessex, Rockfield, AIR Studios |
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Sheer Heart Attack is the third studio album by the British rock group Queen , released in late 1974 . A song of the same name did not appear on the News of the World album until three years later .
The album
With Sheer Heart Attack , another studio album by the band was released on November 1, 1974, just eight months after Queen II . In mid-May, Queen had to cancel their tour of the USA after Brian May fell ill with hepatitis . Preparations for the new album soon began, the history of which was shaped in particular by May's temporary absence. While he suffered from the aftermath of his hepatitis infection and later had to undergo an operation, the three other Queen members worked together with producer Roy Thomas Baker on the recordings for Sheer Heart Attack ; May's guitar tracks were partly added later. The recording sessions took place between July and September.
Characteristic of the album is the wide selection of different musical styles ranging from heavy metal to ballads to music hall sounds, whereby the songs combine to form a closed album despite this diversity. For the first time, Misfire also includes a composition by John Deacon, Queen's youngest member of the band.
Sheer Heart Attack brought Queen the commercial breakthrough. Both the single Killer Queen , released a month earlier, and the album just barely missed the top of the British charts with rank 2. A Queen single hit the charts for the first time in the USA: Like the album, Killer Queen reached number 12. The album achieved gold status in terms of sales in the USA and Great Britain.
Queen was responsible for the concept of the album cover. Mick Rock took the photos again .
Track list
Page 1:
- Brighton Rock (May) - 5:10
- Killer Queen (Mercury) - 3:00 *)
- Tenement Funster (Taylor) - 2:47
- Flick of the Wrist (Mercury) - 3:19
- Lily of the Valley (Mercury) - 1:43
- Now I'm Here (May) - 4:13 *)
Page 2:
- In the Lap of the Gods (Mercury) - 3:22
- Stone Cold Crazy (Mercury / May / Taylor / Deacon) - 2:14
- Dear Friends (May) - 1:07
- Misfire (Deacon) - 1:49
- Bring Back That Leroy Brown (Mercury) - 2:15
- She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilettos) (May) - 4:09
- In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited (Mercury) - 3:45
The lead vocals in Tenement Funster are by Taylor, the vocals in She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in stilettos) by May.
The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen. Mike Stone was the sound engineer. As with all of Queen's first five albums, the album cover contains the note “no synthesizers”.
Details on individual pieces
Brighton Rock
The piece includes Brian May's three-part echoplex guitar solo, which began as part of the Smile song Blag and was later worked out as part of the first two BBC sessions (here as part of the piece Son And Daughter ). With Brighton Rock , the solo finally found a permanent place in a studio song. The extended live version of this can be found on the Live Killers album .
In the intro, the album's opener briefly quotes the traditional I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside , with which the last song of the previous album Queen II ( Seven Seas of Rhye ) ends.
Killer queen
Freddie Mercury: “It's about a high class call girl. I'm trying to say that classy people can be whores as well. That's what the song is about, though I'd prefer people to put their interpretation upon it - to read into it what they like. "
This piece was performed by Queen on her first appearance on Top of the Pops . A flanger effect can be heard on the last line of the piece .
In the Lap of the Gods
The piece is an example of Roger Taylor's characteristic high-pitched vocals - referred to as screams on the album . Mercury's voice was alienated by slowly playing back his singing.
Stone Cold Crazy
This song was only released on Queen's third album Sheer Heart Attack , but its history goes back to the year the band was founded: Stone Cold Crazy had already been played by Queen in 1970 and previously by Mercury's band Wreckage .
This is the only track within Queen's first nine studio albums that lists all four band members as authors.
The piece is considered one of the first to be assigned to the Speed Metal style in retrospect .
In 1990 Metallica recorded a cover version of the piece, which was released on the compilation album Rubaiyat ( Elektra 's 40th Anniversary) . The group received the 1991 Grammy in the " Best Metal Performance " category . In 1992, the band appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert , where James Hetfield at Stone Cold Crazy was heard as a guest singer of Queen.
In 2007 the American metal band Hellyeah played a cover version under the title Stone Cold Wasted at some concerts .
Misfire
Misfire is the first published Queen track written by bassist John Deacon. He recorded most of the guitars and also used the "Deacy Amp" he had developed.
Bring Back That Leroy Brown
John Deacon played bass and Brian May, a Ukulele - Banjo by George Formby. Freddie Mercury used what is known as a "jangle piano".
Reviews in the media
Single killer queen
Sounds (Great Britain), 1974: "Freddie Mercury comes through as a distinguished rock vocalist, and the backing, although complicated at times, is heard loud and clear."
NME (Great Britain), 1974: "Queen have come up with a sound that'll prove they aren't any one-hit band."
Album Sheer Heart Attack
NME (Great Britain), 1974: “A feast. No duffers, and four songs that will just run and run: Killer Queen, Flick Of The Wrist, Now I'm Here and In The Lap Of The Gods ... revisited. Even the track I don't like, Brighton Rock, includes May's Echoplex solo, still a vibrant, thrilling experience whether you hear it live or on record. "
Greg Prato in the All Music Guide (USA): "Queen's second album of 1974 [...] helped bridge the gap between the mystical heavy metal of their early years and the hard rock / pop perfection of future releases. [...] Queen take on musical styles previously unexplored by hard rock bands - uplifting sounds from the Caribbean ('Misfire') and a ragtime ditty ('Bring Back That Leroy Brown'). "
Alternative versions
BBC versions (5th BBC session from Queen, recorded October 16, 1974, produced by Jeff Griffin, broadcast on November 4, 1974 in 'Bob Harris - Sounds of the Seventies'):
- Now I'm Here
- Flick of the wrist
- Stone Cold Crazy
- Tenement funster
5.1 surround sound mix:
- Killer Queen (DVD Greatest Video Hits 1 , 2002)
Remixes (from Hollywood Records):
- Stone Cold Crazy ('1991 Bonus Remix' by Michael Wagener )
- Stone Cold Crazy (Remix by Trent Reznor , 1992)
8 of the total of 13 songs on the album were also played live by Queen: Brighton Rock - Killer Queen - Flick of the Wrist - Now I'm Here - In the Lap of the Gods - Stone Cold Crazy - Bring Back That Leroy Brown - In the Lap of the Gods ... Revisited .
The video Live at the Rainbow (released in 1992 as part of the Box of Tricks box set ) shows live recordings made as part of the Sheer Heart Attack tour: It contains recordings of the two Queen concerts at London's Rainbow Theater in November 1974. The then live version of Stone Cold Crazy was also released as the B-side of the single The Miracle (1989). One of the pieces that Queen performed most frequently at her appearances was Now I'm Here ; this song was part of the live program until the last tour with the original cast (1986).
Chart placements
album
Sheer Heart Attack reached the following positions in the charts :
- # 2 - Great Britain ( platinum ).
- # 6 - Netherlands.
- # 9 - Norway.
- # 12 - USA ( gold ).
- # 23 - Japan (gold).
Singles
Killer Queen (October 11, 1974) - # 2: Great Britain (Silver), Ireland; # 3: Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway; # 10: Austria; # 12: Germany, USA; # 13: Japan, # 15: Canada, # 23: Australia.
Now I'm Here (January 17, 1975) - # 11: Great Britain, # 25: Germany, # 32: Netherlands, # 87: Japan.
Web links
Articles that are only available in the English language Wikipedia:
Box of Tricks (s) ·
Deacy amp (s) ·
Bob Harris (s) ·
Rainbow (s) ·
Mick Rock (s) ·
Rockfield Studios (s) ·
Mike Stone ( s) ·
Trident Studios (s)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release and chart data
- ↑ Julie Webb: The contents of Freddie Mercury's pants are his alone. In: New Musical Express , November 2, 1974, p. 39. (see e.g. reocities.com ( Memento of November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ))
- ^ Brian May: Additional Note Deacy Amp History . ( Memento of July 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Bri's Soapbox , June 30, 2005. (“[…] John Deacon did himself use the amp with excellent effect - on Misfire (on the Sheer Heart Attack album) - in which John played all his own guitar harmonies! All, that is, until I joined in at the end, doing 'answering' harmonies for the coda, into a keychange and then a fade. ")
- ↑ a b Quoted from Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 , p. 83.
- ↑ Quoted from Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 , pp. 84 f.
- ^ Greg Prato: Queen - Sheer Heart Attack. Review. In: All Music Guide .