Like most people of my
generation, I came to know and love Queen from the singles that were played on
the radio. For me, my first memory of Queen was "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
back when I was ten years old in 1980. The first Queen album I ever purchased
was 1984's The Works. It wasn't until the 1990's, when I
finally had an income of my own, that I started to go back and find all those
albums from the 1970's that I had rarely heard apart from the singles and the
live albums, and it was then that I first laid my ears on their eponymous debut
album.
Queen is a product of its era, of a band trying to find its own sound. The songs here can be heard to be a meshing together of different types of music genres that were making themselves heard at the time leading up to the recording of this album. There is a hard rock element, driven at those times by Roger Taylor's crashing drums and Brian May's superb guitar work. Along with this can be a quieter introspective tide, while the use of longer freeform instrumental jamming that was prevalent during the late 1960's and early 1970's is also in effect. This album is different, almost unique from the albums that followed, which also moved with the times that they were recorded in.
The great danger in knowing so well what the band produced in the 1980's and coming back to listen to their earlier recordings is dismissing it because it is different, and not what you know. That would be a great shame, because this still an excellent album to this day. It has their earliest efforts in producing their layered vocals, and while the production mightn't be at its best, you can still appreciate the quartet's wonderful brilliance.
"Keep Yourself Alive" is still one of the band's most famous and great tracks, rumbling along with terrific guitaring and Freddie's vocals. It should always come under mention when you discuss the best ever "Album 1, Side 1, Track 1" songs. "Doing All Right" is one of those songs from that era which has a little bit of everything. It was quiet acoustic and piano parts, with Freddie backed by Roger and Brian's vocals, then without warning jumps into hard and heavy, almost punk guitar riffing with drumming to suit, then back to the quiet verse, and so on. It is a strangely formulated song, almost in a progressive rock kind of way. Something for everyone there. "Great King Rat" again has a somewhat hard rock progressive way about it. It is a heavier song throughout, dominated by the guitars of Brian and John Deacon and the thumping drums of Roger, with some time and tempo changes throughout the song. In fact, it can almost fool you into believing it is two songs, such is the change about halfway through, where a quiet interlude then crashes out into what is actually the second half of the song, but could easily be mistaken for the next song on the album. "My Fairy King" is full of what would become the trademark Queen vocal harmonies and overdubs. Roger Taylor can be clearly heard hitting the highest notes within the song, something that he probably doesn't receive enough credit for in his singing with the band.
"Liar" is another of the band's better known early songs, and again shows their ability to change between toying with a heavy sound and the quieter thoughtful process again in the construct of the same song. "The Night Comes Down" is a quieter song, and is followed by the Roger Taylor written and sung "Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll" which is much more up-tempo than its predecessor. This flows straight into "Son and Daughter", which perhaps best reflects the blues and heavy metal sound that was being produced by bands such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin at the time. Brian and John's guitars certainly reflect that sound throughout the song. "Jesus" finishes with an instrumental flurry, which itself goes into "Seven Seas of Rhye", a 75 second instrumental that concludes the album. Apparently Freddie had been writing this during the recording of this album, but hadn't finished it when it was time to publish. As a result, this is what was recorded, and the full finished version of the song with lyrics was released on Queen II.
I think this is a good album, full of good songs and plenty of initiative. Those that grew up with this album are more of the opinion that Queen was at their best in the era of the 1970's, while those who grew up with their 1980's music often feel the reverse. I don't have a solid stance either way, though if I was to rank my favourite Queen albums the majority at the top would probably be from the 1980's. Nevertheless, this is an album full of good things, and should not be dispersed without giving it a fair hearing.
Queen is a product of its era, of a band trying to find its own sound. The songs here can be heard to be a meshing together of different types of music genres that were making themselves heard at the time leading up to the recording of this album. There is a hard rock element, driven at those times by Roger Taylor's crashing drums and Brian May's superb guitar work. Along with this can be a quieter introspective tide, while the use of longer freeform instrumental jamming that was prevalent during the late 1960's and early 1970's is also in effect. This album is different, almost unique from the albums that followed, which also moved with the times that they were recorded in.
The great danger in knowing so well what the band produced in the 1980's and coming back to listen to their earlier recordings is dismissing it because it is different, and not what you know. That would be a great shame, because this still an excellent album to this day. It has their earliest efforts in producing their layered vocals, and while the production mightn't be at its best, you can still appreciate the quartet's wonderful brilliance.
"Keep Yourself Alive" is still one of the band's most famous and great tracks, rumbling along with terrific guitaring and Freddie's vocals. It should always come under mention when you discuss the best ever "Album 1, Side 1, Track 1" songs. "Doing All Right" is one of those songs from that era which has a little bit of everything. It was quiet acoustic and piano parts, with Freddie backed by Roger and Brian's vocals, then without warning jumps into hard and heavy, almost punk guitar riffing with drumming to suit, then back to the quiet verse, and so on. It is a strangely formulated song, almost in a progressive rock kind of way. Something for everyone there. "Great King Rat" again has a somewhat hard rock progressive way about it. It is a heavier song throughout, dominated by the guitars of Brian and John Deacon and the thumping drums of Roger, with some time and tempo changes throughout the song. In fact, it can almost fool you into believing it is two songs, such is the change about halfway through, where a quiet interlude then crashes out into what is actually the second half of the song, but could easily be mistaken for the next song on the album. "My Fairy King" is full of what would become the trademark Queen vocal harmonies and overdubs. Roger Taylor can be clearly heard hitting the highest notes within the song, something that he probably doesn't receive enough credit for in his singing with the band.
"Liar" is another of the band's better known early songs, and again shows their ability to change between toying with a heavy sound and the quieter thoughtful process again in the construct of the same song. "The Night Comes Down" is a quieter song, and is followed by the Roger Taylor written and sung "Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll" which is much more up-tempo than its predecessor. This flows straight into "Son and Daughter", which perhaps best reflects the blues and heavy metal sound that was being produced by bands such as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin at the time. Brian and John's guitars certainly reflect that sound throughout the song. "Jesus" finishes with an instrumental flurry, which itself goes into "Seven Seas of Rhye", a 75 second instrumental that concludes the album. Apparently Freddie had been writing this during the recording of this album, but hadn't finished it when it was time to publish. As a result, this is what was recorded, and the full finished version of the song with lyrics was released on Queen II.
I think this is a good album, full of good songs and plenty of initiative. Those that grew up with this album are more of the opinion that Queen was at their best in the era of the 1970's, while those who grew up with their 1980's music often feel the reverse. I don't have a solid stance either way, though if I was to rank my favourite Queen albums the majority at the top would probably be from the 1980's. Nevertheless, this is an album full of good things, and should not be dispersed without giving it a fair hearing.
2 comments:
Being a little older than you Bill I was introduced to Queen by a mate who had returned to England to join the navy. The first stuff I heard was from Sheer Heart Attack and there was a lot of animosity from my mates at the time who saw Queen as a gay band. I loved the harmonies and Brian's guitar. I went back to Queen I and Queen II and loved them also. You talk about Queen sounding like Led Zep. Try the refrain in Loser in the End (Queen II)where Freddie sings "hear ya talkin' now" and tell me that's not the best Robert Plant take off ever. And how good a version of Little Queenie (Stones) would they have done given the refrain on Sheer Heart Attack (from memory it's on the end of Tenement Funster. Sadly unlike you I lost faith in the band after Night at the Opera but I still love the early stuff. Another great memory is from the DVD of Queen live in Rio where Freddie starts to sing Love of my Life before the crowd takes over the song and he gives up and conducts them for the rest of the song. Timeless.
Being a little older than you Bill I was introduced to Queen by a mate who had returned to England to join the navy. The first stuff I heard was from Sheer Heart Attack and there was a lot of animosity from my mates at the time who saw Queen as a gay band. I loved the harmonies and Brian's guitar. I went back to Queen I and Queen II and loved them also. You talk about Queen sounding like Led Zep. Try the refrain in Loser in the End (Queen II)where Freddie sings "hear ya talkin' now" and tell me that's not the best Robert Plant take off ever. And how good a version of Little Queenie (Stones) would they have done given the refrain on Sheer Heart Attack (from memory it's on the end of Tenement Funster. Sadly unlike you I lost faith in the band after Night at the Opera but I still love the early stuff. Another great memory is from the DVD of Queen live in Rio where Freddie starts to sing Love of my Life before the crowd takes over the song and he gives up and conducts them for the rest of the song. Timeless.
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