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MUSIC FEATURE
QUEEN FOR A DAY...
70s are very much influenced
by fey prog-rock so are best not
returned to if you really like where
they went after that. Sheer Heart
Attack (1974) is where they start
to get interesting for mainstream
listeners. The album included the
hit Killer Queen (which won them
their first Ivor Novello songwriting
award) and marked a move into
more concise pop-rock.
A Night at the Opera (1975) and
A Day at the Races (1976) — both
named after Marx Brothers films
— is where the story really begins;
the former includes Bohemian
Rhapsody and You’re My Best
Friend, the latter Tie Your Mother
Down and Somebody to Love.
That Marx Brothers reference
is important because after their
earnest start Mercury stopped
taking himself quite so seriously
and their albums became
manifestations of his flamboyancy,
in the world, but here they come
again, this time on remastered
180gm vinyl pressings. All their
studio albums (and Made in
Heaven) beautifully re-presented
in a massive box or available
individually.
For those of the CD or download
generations just getting into vinyl,
this is a formidable catalogue, so
let’s trip lightly through it because
Queen were often a great deal of
melodramatic fun.
Few would dare even try
something as silly and ambitious
as Bohemian Rhapsody, let alone
follow it up with retro-rock singles
(You’re My Best Friend, Tie Your
Mother Down). Or release a
song entitled Fat Bottomed Girls
(unless you were Spinal Tap, and
sometimes they were that too,
gloriously full of self-parody).
Queen’s first two albums
(Queen I and Queen II) of the early
... or a lifetime. Graham Reid revisits the world champions of
pomp rock. If that doesn’t fit on one line, try dropping ‘world’...
visit
30
M any years ago a friend
worked for a major
international record
company. At the time with the
downturn in CD sales and the
constantly shifting ground of the
internet, things were getting
tougher.
One day over lunch in early
November we were talking about
this in somewhat glum terms. But,
I said, at least they had a license
to print money in the run-up to
Christmas.
He looked at me puzzled.
I said, “Queen”.
Even he laughed at that. And it
was true.
In their Freddie Mercury-
lifetime Queen released 14 studio
albums (the posthumous studio
construction Made in Heaven was
released four years after Mercury’s
death in November 1991). But
they’ve released the same number
of compilations, many of them in
October and November. And of
course box sets, live albums and
DVDs.
Even as late as November
last year a “new” Queen album
appeared, Queen Rocks, which
mostly picked up material recorded
in the 80s with Mercury’s vocals
put in new settings by the
remaining band members and
producer William Orbit.
There’s no shortage of Queen
OCTOBER 2015
melodrama and excesses. Freddie
was having fun with his fame.
“Boredom is the biggest
disease in the world,” he said.
“Sometimes I think there must be
more to life than rushing around
the world like a mad thing . . .
but I’m an entertainer. It’s in the
blood... I am just a trouper, dear.
Give me a stage.”
By this time they were
commanding huge stages and
so the follow-up album News of
the World (1977) reflected that in
their two massive crowd pleasers
We Will Rock You and We Are the
Champions, both of which were
reviled the Britain’s punk-obsessed
music press at the time.
The patchy Jazz (1978) is the
least loved album in Queen’s
mature career, but they returned
to form (and the singles charts)
with The Game (80) and the hits
Another One Bites the Dust,
written by bassist John Deacon,
and Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Flash Gordon (1980) was the
soundtrack to the film of the same
name and is mostly instrumentals,
so not for the casual Queen
listener. Nor is Hot Space (notable
for the duet with Bowie on Under
Pressure but not much else).
From there on through The
Works (1984, with I Want to Break
Free, and Radio Gaga written
by drummer Roger Taylor), A
Kind of Magic (1986) and The
Miracle (1989) they sounded like
a good band in a holding pattern.
Mercury was in the early stages
of Aids-related illnesses and their
final album with him was the
uneventful Innuendo (released in
early 1991, nine months before
Mercury’s death).
The final song on the album,
written largely by Brian May is The
Show Must Go On.
And, when it came to Queen
reissues and repackaging, it most
certainly did.
Still is.
For more reviews, overviews and
interviews by Graham Reid see: