Queen
GENERAL INFO:
Recorded in September 1971 at De Lane Lea Music Centre, April to October 1972 at Trident Studios.
Produced by Queen, John Anthony and Roy Baker.
Engineered by Louis Austin, Roy Baker, David Hentschel, Ted Sharpe and Mike Stone.
Lyrics and Music by Brian May, Freddie Mercury, Tim Staffell and Roger Taylor.
TRACK-LIST:
Keep Yourself Alive (May)Doing All Right (May/Staffell)
Great King Rat (Mercury)
My Fairy King (Mercury)
Liar (Mercury)
The Night Comes Down (May)
Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Taylor)
Son and Daughter (May)
Jesus (Mercury)
Seven Seas of Rhye (Mercury)
QUEEN ARE:
John Deacon: Bass.
Brian May: Guitars, Piano, Vocals.
Freddie Mercury: Vocals, Piano.
Roger Taylor: Drums, Tambourine, Vocals, Cowbells.
ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS:
John Anthony: Backing Vocals.Uncredited: Organ.
TRIVIA:
- Only Brian May's credited for guitars, which is relatively rare for a band where all members were good players. The only other case of that happening is 'A Night at the Opera' (1975).- The album was released on a Friday the 13th. Maybe that's the bad luck that kept it from being very successful. It still managed to sell two and a half million copies, though many of them have been long after the band became famous in 1974, or by younger fans who weren't alive back then but who want to complete their collection.
- John Deacon (credited as Deacon John in the original sleeve) was still new to the band and hadn't made any songwriting contribution.
TIMELINE:
Saturday 28th March 1970: Sour Milk Sea play at Wardour Street, London, and break up afterwards, leaving Freddie without a band.
Saturday 9th May 1970: Smile play at the Imperial College in Kensington, London. That'd be their last concert. Later, Tim Staffell would quit.
Saturday 27th June 1970: At some point between 9th May and this date, Queen were founded by Freddie, Brian and Roger, who'd been friends for a while. Smile had a concert booked for this date, which was played by Queen instead (using the name 'Smile' as flyers were already printed) at the City Hall in Truro, Cornwall, England. Roger's friend Mike Grose was the bassist. The only original song in the setlist was apparently Stone Cold Crazy.
Saturday 25th July 1970: Third concert Queen ever played and last with Mike Grose. Another Roger's acquaintance, Barry Mitchell, would replace him. Liar was, reportedly, already in the set-list, but no more original songs.
Sunday 23rd August 1970: First concert with Barry. Over the past month, the founding members had rehearsed more original tunes which would be added to the set during this period: Keep Yourself Alive, Great King Rat, Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll, Son and Daughter and Hangman.
Saturday 31st October 1970: Halloween night, and Queen were honoured to play at the Cavern Club in Liverpool (the legendary place where The Beatles started). Coincidentally, exactly five years after that, Queen would release Bohemian Rhapsody as a single.
Friday 8th January 1971: Queen played at the Marquee Club in Soho for the first time. That venue would be very important in their early concert days.
Saturday 9th January 1971: Last concert with Barry Mitchell, at a College in Surrey.
Friday 19th February 1971: First post-Mitchell concert, held in Haringey, North London. Jesus could've been in the set-list as they'd rehearsed it with Barry and had a month to polish it after he left. Bass player was now a bloke called Doug (surname uncertain).
Saturday 20th February 1971: The band played in SW London as an opening act for Yes.
Sunday 21st February - Thursday 1st of July 1971: Between these dates, there were no concerts played. The reasons being, they were all busy with college, busy enough for Doug to call it quits. They auditioned John Deacon to be the bassist and another bloke to play rhythm guitar; the latter didn't get the part, but John would complete the line-up and that's how Queen would be for their entire career.
Friday 2nd July 1971: First concert with John Deacon, perhaps at the same College in Ewell they'd played the previous year. The Night Comes Down was probably added to the set around this time.
Saturday 17th July to Saturday 21st August 1971: Roger's mum arranged a tour around the county of Cornwall in South England. They all travelled in a van and had their brief equipment there. During these concerts, John get to know the band a lot better and turned 20.
Sunday 22nd August to Tuesday 5th October: No concerts during this period. Brian met up with a friend who got them their first recording session, which was held on one day (presumably Saturday the 18th of September) at De Lane Lea Music Centre.
Wednesay 6th October 1971: Concert at the Imperial College in London.
Thursday 9th December 1971: Queen play at an indoor pool in Surrey, with awful results. They wouldn't get another gig until New Year's Eve in South London and then four weeks after that at a College in Bedford. The band wasn't yet a full-time job so concerts were occasional.
Saturday 29th January to Thursday 8th March 1972: No concerts during this short period.
Saturday 25th March to Sunday 5th November 1972: No concerts for over seven months. Presumably, this is the period when the debut album was recorded. Roger recalled running into Bowie and Lou Reed (which confirms early May and/or early August 1972). Queen had to record downtime, which meant they could use one of the studios when a 'main' act had left earlier and before the cleaners arrived. That meant they had to settle for personnel and equipment available at the time, including a set of Hayman drums, relaying in-house engineers, different mic set-ups and there was no piano at one of the studios.
Thursday 21st December 1972 to Sunday 8th April 1973: Three months plus without a single concert. It seems that the album was already finished by November but their managers couldn't find a record company willing to release it. That would, apparently, mean they didn't record anything during this period although it's theoretically possible that they added some overdubs or corrections. The famous story about Mike Stone being 'just a teaboy' and suddenly doing the only Keep Yourself Alive mix they liked probably happened between these dates. By now, the band was already a full-time job and they received twenty quid each per week, a lot for four twenty-something blokes without wife or kids.
Tuesday 10th April to Thursday 12th July 1973: Yet another long period without any concerts from the band. After a lot of troubles, they finally got their lead single released on Friday the 6th of July. The tracks were Keep Yourself Alive on side A and Son and Daughter on B.
Friday the 13th of July 1973: The album is finally released the same night of a concert in Hampshire. Ten days later they'd play in London.
Friday 3rd August 1973: Queen concert as support act for Vinegar Joe in Newcastle. Soon after this gig they'd return to London and, according to the album sleeve notes, record the sophomore album sometime between Saturday the 4th and Friday the 31st; they'd also film videos for either Keep Yourself Alive or Liar, and John would sit his finals.
ODDS & SODS ABOUT THE RECORDING PROCESS & EQUIPMENT:
Electric Guitar & Amps: Brian used his home-made instrument, which at the time included a BHM mark on the headstock. His main amplifiers were two Vox AC30. Later in the sessions, John Deacon brought an amp he'd built and Brian discovered it sounded great for harmonies. While most guitar choirs from 'Queen II' onwards would be done using the 'Deacy amp', for the debut album it was split due to time constraints: only My Fairy King and Keep Yourself Alive feature John's invention, the rest of guitar work (lead, rhythm and choirs) is done with Vox's.Electric Guitar - Effects: While not a fan of big long racks of pedals, Brian did use several effects, including a Rangemaster Treble Booster to clean up the sound, a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah-Wah and an Echoplex EP30. For both sides of the single there was some varispeed: the tape was slowed down, then Brian recorded, and then the tape was returned back to its original tempo, resulting in some eerie tones that some people mistook for Moog, which annoyed the band and producers, which is why the 'no synth' label was printed for all the first five albums.
Bass: John first had a Rickenbacker and, probably when signed by Trident, switched to an old Fender Precision. His equipment consisted mainly of Orange amplification as well as a Schaller foot volume-pedal. Bass was recorded simultaneously with drums and either piano or guitar for the backing track and there was no punching back then. So, unless he made bass overdubs (which he probably did), his participation on the album was limited to backing track stages.
Drums: As the band wouldn't often have enough time to set up the drum-kit, it's logical to think that Roger was frequently stuck with Trident Studios' in-house drums: a Ludwig set and a Hayman one. With a lot of close listening and aid from experts, it could be deduced which songs were done with which (bass-drum sizes differ a lot between both brands, for instance), but that's only a project that could bear fruit in the distant future.
Additional Percussion: There's tambourine in some tracks and an additional cowbell for Great King Rat. Roger's the only one credited for percussion, which makes sense considering he was better suited for the overdubs. Fred only used tambourine on stage as a prop.
Acoustic Piano: De Lane Lea Music Centre had three beautiful and magnificent grand pianos, but the band hadn't prepared any number with that instrument so they weren't used (for recording, at least). For Trident sessions in 1972, one of the studios had a Steinway (not a Bechstein as it's usually documented) and the other had no piano. Freddie played in all the album except for Doing All Right which featured Brian.
Acoustic Guitar: Again, the choice was a rarity - an old crispy acoustic Brian had since his teenage days (brand's been once printed as 'Hairfred', which could easily be right and could easily be wrong), which had a particular buzz that added to the 'fusion' and the somewhat mediaeval subtlety of some tracks like Great King Rat and Night Comes Down.
Organ: There's a chord fading in during Liar, which could've been played by anybody. It appears in both De Lane Lea and Trident versions.
TRACK BY TRACK WALKTHROUGH (IN TERMS OF GEAR, PLAYING TECHNIQUES AND EFFECTS):
Doing All Right: There's delay-effect for the piano, which was probably achieved through primitive soundboard equipment. The amazing sound of the backing vocals at the end is due to the Trident A-Range console with enviable EQ settings.
Great King Rat: This one's got a lot of things going on in the guitar department: wah-wah solo, unisono bend, feedback and even some slight mistakes. Backing track was recorded with drums, bass, Brian on acoustic and Freddie on guide vocals.
My Fairy King: Probably one of the last to be recorded as it features the Deacy amp, and also the only one which was mostly composed in the studio, not for live performance. The intro guitars are reversed.
Liar: There's an uncredited organ before the first verse, as well as some interesting Hendrix-esque fills at the end.
The Night Comes Down: Electric guitars include pre-bending technique as well as some feedback.
Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll: Rather than using ordinary delay, the solo was apparently recorded twice and the second take was placed some seconds after the first.
Son and Daughter: Varispeed guitars near the end.
Jesus: One of the very few songs in the early days with Brian using his left hand pinky finger.
Seven Seas of Rhye: Instrumental, with all guitars probably overdubbed separately.