Queen
Released on 13th July 1973
Recorded on 18th September 1971 at De Lane Lea (London) and during 1971 and 1972 at Trident (London)
Produced by Queen, John Anthony, Roy Thomas Baker & Louie Austin
Engineered by Roy Thomas Baker, Mike Stone, Ted Sharpe, David Hentschel & Louie Austin
Music & Lyrics by Brian May, Tim Staffell, Freddie Mercury & Roger Taylor
Arranged by Queen
Average Length: 3:51
Queen Are:
Brian May: Guitar, Vocals, Piano
John Deacon: Bass
Roger Taylor: Percussion, Vocals
Freddie Mercury: Vocals, Percussion, Piano, Organ
Additional Musicians:
John Anthony: Vocals (Modern Times Rock N' Roll)
Trivia:
First and penultimate album where all guitars were played by Brian
First and penultimate album without any songwriting contribution by John
First and only album partially produced by John Anthony & Louie Austin
Background:
Queen were formed in 1970 by Freddie Bulsara, Roger Taylor and Brian May. Freddie had been a pianist since his childhood and for the previous months had been enrolled in London rock circuit, abruptly dropping keyboards in favour of the front-man position. Major influences on his musicality were Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, under whose influence he started playing guitar; reportedly it was his mate Tim Staffell who taught him the first chords there.
Tim, by the way, would become a key figure in Queen history, since his band, Smile, included both Brian and Roger in the line-up. Smile were a semi-professional band with blues-rooted music and extended vocal material, which was an advantage they had from the fact that the three of them were very good singers. Roger had been originally a guitarist but had changed to drums some time afterwards, and Brian had studied piano and ukelele-banjo but settled on the guitar as his principal instrument.
Freddie was an enthusiastic follower of Smile and gradually became more involved in the band’s social life, becoming a close friend of Roger’s. Probably under the influence of each other, the three of them supported the sort of music that was known as “heavy metal” at the time, particularly the aforementioned Hendrix and Zeppelin.
As Roger’s and Brian’s band was getting into more serious things, Freddie’s involvement with music consisted of short-lived groups and some songwriting attempts. After trying to collaborate creatively with one of his band-mates without much result, Bulsara become a sole songwriter, something that would be kept for many years.
May too had a songwriting partner, Tim, but he increasingly lost interest in Smile since he was looking for another direction and a bigger and more sudden break. It’s important to denote that he’s a guitarist, not actually a bassist, and that could have contributed to the fact that he wasn’t entirely content in the band.
After Smile was disbanded, Freddie, Roger and Brian decided it was time to join forces. Freddie imposed the name Queen and for the upcoming months they would dedicate themselves to finish their undergraduate degrees (graphic design, biology and physics, respectively), write new material for the band and play in small clubs and venues while they tried out different bass players. In 1971 they’d find “the one”, a young shy bloke named John Deacon.
Songwriting Overview:
It could seem impressive that in such a short time the lads were able to compose almost a dozen of tracks, but we’ve got to consider that it’s highly probable that they incorporated bits from earlier efforts into them, and/or some germinal ideas could have been there for years, as it tends to happen with many new bands.
John wasn’t a songwriter back then, and as a matter of fact most of the material the band would play live these days had been written before he came, the only exception being Brian’s dark ballad The Night Comes Down. Roger, Brian and Freddie all composed on guitar, and although Freddie and Brian wrote one song together (Hangman, which wouldn’t be included in the album), they remained contributing with individual pieces rather than collaborations.
There main reason behind such phenomenon (relatively uncommon for the time) is that the three of them were all-round musicians and artists: Freddie wasn’t only a singer, but he could play piano and guitar and was very knowledgeable in music; Brian wasn’t just a guitarist, but an accomplished poet as well and a capable singer; and Roger was much more than merely a drummer – he could play guitar and was an excellent singer and lyricist. That kept them from depending on each other (compared with, for instance, Pink Floyd member’s Rick and David relying on Roger Waters for lyrical content).
Main Influences:
Although Queen would later on describe themselves as Beatles fans, this album shows little to none clear influence from them (except perhaps one lyrical line from The Night Comes Down). The use of long intricate forms, combination of acoustic and electric guitars, recurring drum solos, certain mystique and bluesy harmony were obvious targets of comparison with Led Zeppelin.
Especially Roger’s contribution, Modern Times Rock And Roll, could be assumed to have taken ideas from Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll if one considers the title, flavour and singing style (counter-tenor and hoarse), but that’s sheer coincidence: Taylor’s song was already on Queen’s live set before the Runes album had been released.
With counted exceptions, the album was somewhat uniform in style and it was all guitar-written. All of the songs except for two were part of the live act, and most of them were recorded using an almost identical arrangement to that found in concerts.
Lyrical Themes & Tones:
- “Getting better”: Keep Yourself Alive, Doin’ All Right
- Biographical: Great King Rat, Jesus
- “Operatic”: Liar, My Fairy King, Great King Rat
- “Goodbye blue sky”: The Night Comes Down, Modern Times Rock N’ Roll
- Controversial: Son And Daughter
- Narrative: My Fairy King, Great King Rat
- Religious: Great King Rat, Jesus
For the era they were on, nothing impressive or extremely original except perhaps Freddie’s dramatic lyrics which usually included various perspectives interacting. Liar is mostly a confrontation between an apologetic character (“I have sinned dear father”) and an antagonising ensemble (usually represented by various voices). Such approach would be used later on in Bohemian Rhapsody (“mamma, just killed a man” vs the striking interlude) and, with some conceptual variants, Somebody To Love (in that one soloist and choir are one the same side).
An important aspect of these lyrics is that they rarely rely on pop-culture references (unusual for the era) or Briticisms (ditto). There’s only a mention of “Alley Way” (Keep Yourself Alive), some nearly textual quotes from Robert Browning’s ‘Pied Piper of Hamelin’ (My Fairy King) and the use of London slang in Roger’s Modern Times Rock N’ Roll (“do” meaning “party” and “bum sucking” meaning “counterfeit flattery”). Btw that song seems to set up American English too: note how sarcastically Roger sings “real big star”.
Some other recurring themes were religion-related: “don’t believe all you read in the Bible” (Great King Rat), “God knows what I’m doing” (Doin’ All Right), “what’ll you think of heaven” (Son And Daughter), “born was a leader of man” (Jesus).
Compared to other acts from the era, Queen used relatively few coarse language (“shit” in Son And Daughter is arguably the only profanity) in this album.
Instrumentation & Arrangements:
Keep Yourself Alive was issued as lead single (an obvious choice considering it’s by far the most catchy tune in the album) and immediately the press commented on its supposed “use of synthesiser”, something that offended the band because they were so keen in trying to construct their broad and layered sound relying in acoustic or electric instruments, but not electronic.
The use of guitar choirs wasn’t new (check out Beatles’ And Your Bird Can Sing, Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog and much of Mick Ronson’s work), but Brian is today one of its most famous developers. Much of his sound was owed to the fact that he’d built his own guitar and played it with a sixpence instead of using regular plectra. Although on this album there’s some use of pedal (e.g. Great King Rat), he’d remain within the ‘guitar + pre-amp + amp + treble booster’ perimeter for most of his career. The pre-amp, btw, was also bespoke: John Deacon (the band’s bass player, who was also a capable guitarist) had built it and May usually borrowed it for studio work since he liked the way the guitar sounded “orchestral” with it.
Keep Yourself Alive used precisely that amplifier, together with some varispeed trickery, but there wasn’t any sort of synthesiser there. Brian’s sound was recognisable from the start (and would be kept that way for decades) as not as “nasal” as that in the vast majority of glam-rock albums, but at the same time warmer and deeper than other twin-guitars or guitar choirs (e.g. what Kiss, Iron Maiden and Metallica would employ later on).
Roger’s drumming was obviously influenced by John Bonham and Keith Richards. Note the proto-punk feel of Modern Times Rock N’ Roll (‘twas really modern then!) and his (now trademark) hi-hat opening during back beats. John’s bass playing was distinctive from the beginning as well, consisting chiefly on alternating rhythm and melodic passages depending on the arrangement and mood sought.
Although the four band members could play guitar, all of the parts in this album were done by Brian. Main reasons could be time-constraints and the fact that the tracks were done essentially live (leaving room for vocals and lead guitar). Brian cleverly combined his Red Special electric with an old cheap modified Hairfred acoustic which he’d acquired years before, and had modified the bridge in order to make it “buzz” like a sitar (most likely influenced by George Harrison and/or Jimmy Page).
Freddie composed most of his songs on guitar, but when they went into the studio he seized the opportunity to sit at the piano and complete a germinal idea he’d been having called My Fairy King. There he played some impressive piano parts, including a solo, which reflected his classical upbringing (mostly Mozart and Chopin). Besides that, he played briefly on some other numbers, and Brian did some bits in Doin’ All Right.
Note that Liar has an electric organ, which would be extremely rare for Queen but was rather typical of the British musical scene at the time (Richard Wright, Jon Lord, John Paul Jones…).
Vocals:
A key aspect of Queen music was of course the singing. As Paul McCartney commented, Freddie’s unique voice is almost invariably the first thing to catch a listeners attention when listening to the band, and in the album there’s a wide use of harmonies as well, most of which were arranged and performed by Fred himself although there were strong contributions by Brian and especially Roger.
The three of them sang with tenor ranges, which nevertheless didn’t stop them from showcasing an enviable cohesion and variety. Roger’s distinctive falsetto made its debut in My Fairy King and Freddie’s Plant-esque high notes imitating the guitar appeared for the first and almost only time in the recordings of Great King Rat.
Demo versions coming from around a year earlier than the album material was recorded prove that Freddie’s voice was remarkably weaker before, something that band-mates would confirm in interviews throughout the years. Fred’s change into the “superstar” persona was marked by the adoption of a new surname (Mercury, referenced in My Fairy King’s lyrics) and two different personalities on and off stage.