by Georg Purvis
In terms of management, Norman Sheffield had sworn to Queen that he would personally take care of them, but now realized that such an undertaking would be too time-consuming; he didn’t feel confident enough to split his energy between two labour-intensive jobs: managing Queen and running Trident Studios. So he contacted Jack Nelson, who had been an advisor for the fledgling Trident Audio Productions. At that time, Jack had convinced Norman to set up a production company in the hope of turning it into a record company, and was therefore the first person Norman thought of when he needed managerial advice; Jack agreed to become involved with Trident based on the strength of Queen’s demo tape, which he began to shop around to managers in London. Finding little interest, Jack was advised by his friend, Dee Anthony, to instead manage the group himself.
In the summer of 1972, Jack set about the task of drumming up interest in Queen among the record labels, though he had a secondary motive too: in addition to getting Queen signed to a record deal, he had devised a package plan in which he would also sell the talents of Eugene Wallace and of Mark Ashton and Headstone. When he took the three bands’ demo tapes to EMI, the record company were interested only in Queen and not the other two. Jack argued that Trident would not compromise, that it was all or nothing, so EMI turned him down. As a consolation for Queen, who had been focusing separately on their studies during this period, Trident sent them to their recording studio to begin work on their debut album.
PART TWO
THE ALBUMS
A. QUEEN ALBUMS
The first part of this section concentrates on studio and live albums that Queen, as a band, have released. Catalogue numbers are given in the order of original UK and US albums, followed by CD releases over the years. Overseas and specialist reissues are ignored.
QUEEN
EMI EMC 3006, July 1973 [24]
Elektra EKS 75064, September 1973 [83]
EMI CDP 7 46204 2, December 1986
Hollywood HR-610464-2, June 1991
Parlophone CDPCSD 139, 1994
Island Remasters 276 387, March 2011 [94]
‘Keep Yourself Alive’ (3’47), ‘Doing All Right’ (4’09), ‘Great King Rat’ (5’43), ‘My Fairy King’ (4’08), ‘Liar’ (6’25), ‘The Night Comes Down’ (4’23), ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (1’48), ‘Son And Daughter’ (3’21), ‘Jesus’ (3’44), ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye...’ (1’15)
Bonus tracks on 1991 Hollywood Records reissue: ‘Mad The Swine’ (3’20), ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ (long lost retake) (4’03), ‘Liar’ (remix by John Luongo and Gary Hellman) (6’25)
Bonus tracks on 2011 Universal Records deluxe reissue: ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ (De Lane Lea demo, December 1971) (3’51), ‘The Night Comes Down’ (De Lane Lea demo, December 1971) (4’24), ‘Great King Rat’ (De Lane Lea demo, December 1971) (6’09), ‘Jesus’ (De Lane Lea demo, December 1971) (5’06), ‘Liar’ (De Lane Lea demo, December 1971) (7’54), ‘Mad The Swine’ (3’22)
Bonus videos, 2011 iTunes-only editions: ‘Son And Daughter’ (live version, Hammersmith Odeon, December 1975), ‘Liar’ (live version, Rainbow Theatre, November 1974), ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ (promotional video)
Musicians: John Deacon (bass guitar), Brian May (guitars, vocals, piano on ‘Doing All Right’), Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano, percussion, organ on ‘Liar’), Roger Taylor (drums, percussion, vocals, lead vocals on ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’), John Anthony (additional vocals on ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’)
Recorded: Trident Studios, London, January 1972– January 1973 (‘The Night Comes Down’ recorded at De Lane Lea Studios, London, September–December 1971)
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker, John Anthony (‘The Night Comes Down’ produced by Louis Austin)
Among the luminaries at Trident Studios in 1972 were Elton John, David Bowie and Paul McCartney and Wings, all of whom received precedence over Queen, who were forced to work during ‘down time’. When the aforementioned stars weren’t in the studio, Queen would be able to nip in and work, usually during the late night and early morning hours; fortunately for the band, Paul McCartney would often block-book studio time for his Red Rose Speedway album and not show up, giving Queen the opportunity to work then instead.
It wasn’t the preferred way to work, but the band took advantage of the opportunity. It was during one of these sessions that Freddie happened to run into producer Robin Geoffrey Cable, who was elsewhere in the complex working on a re-recording of The Beach Boys’ 1969 single ‘I Can Hear Music’ (for more information, see that song’s entry in Part Three). Also during this period, Roger contributed percussion to two tracks on Al Stewart’s Past, Present And Future album, though he wasn’t able to recall later which songs they were; ‘Roads To Moscow’ has recently been identified as one of them.
The band were enjoying the benefits of working in a creative environment, the results of which spilled over into their arrangements. While most debut albums are typically recorded in a short span of time, with the goal of recording a band’s live presentation on vinyl with as few takes or studio frills as possible, the band had a different plan. Since they had no record deal yet, there was no urgency to finish an album; so they took their time, utilizing the studio and availing themselves of Roy Thomas Baker and John Anthony’s talents as much as they could.
Even though rehearsals started in January 1972, the sessions proper didn’t begin until later in the summer. By that time, Brian and Freddie had written an impressive set of songs and had refined existing compositions, retained from previous bands, that they felt were strong enough to record. Most of the songs were not new: ‘Liar’ started life as ‘Lover’ in Wreckage, written by Freddie and Mike Bersin, but the band saw potential in the song and encouraged Freddie to transform it into something stronger. ‘Stone Cold Crazy’, another track by Freddie from his Wreckage days, was also practised during these sessions but would remain unreleased on a studio album until it was re-recorded in 1974 for Sheer Heart Attack.
Brian and Freddie were writing at such a frenetic pace that many of the songs would be attempted during the summer 1972 sessions but held back for the band’s second album; among these were ‘White Queen (As It Began)’, ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ and a vocal version of ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’. Three songs which have gone down in Queen history as being the most elusive unreleased studio tracks from the first album’s sessions – ‘Silver Salmon’, ‘Polar Bear’ (previously recorded by Smile) and ‘Hangman’ – were long rumoured to be unrecorded, though recent searches through the band’s archives revealed that these tracks certainly were. The existence of ‘Hangman’ has been officially denied, but a private collector has recently revealed that a 10” acetate studio recording of the song exists in his collection.
From the start, it’s surprising how articulate Freddie and Brian were, expressing so much more than the typical sex stories that bands of the day like The Rolling Stones prided themselves on. The lyric matter on Queen’s eponymous album ranges from mythical or religious stories (most by Freddie: ‘Great King Rat’, ‘My Fairy King’ and ‘Jesus’) to hopes for a rosy future (Brian’s ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ and ‘Doing All Right’) and pining for the idyllic days of an uncomplicated youth (‘The Night Comes Down’, also by Brian). In fact, the songs contain none of the pub-rock element that most debuts at the time favoured, with the exception of two tracks: Brian’s ‘Son And Daughter’ is the odd man out on the album and shows that, even at this early stage, blues was not Queen’s forte, while the preceding track, Roger’s manic ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’, is little more than a sound-bite, lasting just under two minutes and aping the Sturm und Drang of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Communication Breakdown’.
A song that somehow slipped under the radar, even to keen-eyed collectors, was Freddie’s ‘Mad The Swine’, yet another religious-themed song that was originally placed between ‘Great King Rat’ and ‘My Fairy King’ on the first side. It remained unreleased until its inclusion as a bonus t
rack on the 1991 US CD reissue of Queen, starting the ongoing process of unearthing obscurities from the Queen vaults, a process which continues to this day. Had it appeared on the original release of Queen, ‘Mad The Swine’ would have pushed the debut album into the unintended realm of Christian rock. It seems that the lyric content hadn’t been of concern to the band; the production of the track was the major issue. Freddie and Roger found fault in the mixing of the song’s drums and percussion and voiced their opinion to producer Roy Thomas Baker. Insisting that the track should remain as it was, Baker refused to change anything and, with neither side budging, they diplomatically decided to drop the track altogether.
The production of Queen remained an issue throughout most of the recording sessions. Roger told Sounds in 1974, “There were lots of things on the first album I don’t like, for example, the drum sound,” but added, “There are parts of it which may sound contrived, but it is very varied and it has lots of energy.” The drums sound as if Roger were pounding on an assortment of rubber balls, especially the last roll of ‘Great King Rat’; there is a lack of clarity in the mixing, with each drum sounding similar to the next. Only on ‘The Night Comes Down’ do the drums actually sound like drums, which speaks volumes about the production quality of the session. It dated from Queen’s original 1971 demo tape when Louis Austin was manning the controls; a Trident version was recorded but the band were so displeased with the result that the original version was substituted instead.
Most of Queen sounds muddy and turbid, with the instruments mixed not to complement each other as they would on later albums, but instead to blend with each other, unfortunately obfuscating the results. This effect was certainly unintentional: as mentioned before, the band were recording during down-time, and the mixing table levels would often have to be reset after every recording, resulting in an uneven sound from song to song. In an anguished moment, it was discovered that ‘Liar’ had been overdubbed onto the wrong backing tape, necessitating a remix of the track. The band felt that the album would have benefited from additional mixing: the sessions initially concluded in November 1972 and Trident were pleased, but Roy and Brian were not and insisted that more time be allotted to bring the album up to standard. Between live gigs and further studies for university, the album was finally finished to the band’s satisfaction in January 1973; now it was Trident’s responsibility to get record and distribution deals for Queen.
Jack Nelson was despatched to sell the completed album to various companies, but met with little success. “It took me over a year to get Queen a deal,” he recalled to Jacky Smith in As It Began, “and everyone turned them down – I mean everyone. I won’t name names as some of those people turned out to be my best friends and I don’t want to tarnish their reputations, but they know who they are, every one of them.” While dealing with other matters that required his attention, Jack gave a copy of the tape to Ronnie Beck, a publisher and representative of Trident, who travelled to the MIDEM trade fair in Cannes in a last-ditch effort to secure a deal. He, in turn, passed the album along to Roy Featherstone, a top executive for the embryonic EMI label.
Featherstone recalled to Smith the moment he heard Queen’s songs for the first time: “I had been played hundreds of tapes that week, from people’s mothers to their howling dogs ... None of them grabbed me; I was bored. Then Ronnie Beck handed me this Queen tape, and I listened. I was knocked out. What stood out for me was the combination of Freddie’s voice and Brian’s guitar on a track called ‘Liar’. I have wondered since if that tape would have been so much like a breath of fresh air had the whole atmosphere at MIDEM not been so awful.”
Featherstone was interested in the band, and after reading the Trident-prepared biography, sent a telegram to Trident to hold off on any record deals until he came back. Jack was in the process of negotiating an agreement with CBS, who were also interested, but he ultimately turned them down when EMI offered a far more lucrative deal. However, Queen were still part of Jack Nelson’s three-band package, and EMI were still only interested in acquiring Queen. Trident were adamant, however, so EMI, realizing that Queen were too valuable an act to lose, finally relented. In March 1973, the band were officially signed with EMI Records, which covered the UK and Europe, with a pending North American distribution deal via Elektra Records still in negotiation. A showcase event was set up on 9 April 1973 at the Marquee Club, a location which worked to the band’s advantage since it was a familiar venue that provided a comfortable environment for both audience and musicians. Jack Holsten, Elektra’s managing director, had insisted that he see Queen live before he made his decision, and was flown to London from Tokyo. Bowled over by the performance, he agreed to sign the band.
With their future as a band improving, Queen started putting the finishing touches to their album and also began devising cover designs. While digging through scores of photographs that had been generated during the previous five years, Brian and Freddie (with assistance from Douglas Puddifoot, who had taken most of the pictures) assembled a collage of the band both at work and play. A selection of images from Queen’s first photo session at Freddie’s Kensington flat are prominently displayed, while photos of Brian and Freddie, both bearded, were buried among the more conventional live shots.
The most important visual, though, was the front cover, and the three spent many hours searching for just the right picture. Brian explained in the liner notes of the posthumous Freddie Mercury box set, “The artwork for our first album was coming on nicely – Freddie and I had been working on a collage of Doug’s pictures for the back cover. But the front cover was still a problem. One night I was flicking through the photos and I suddenly realized what a striking image Freddie in the spotlight made. I cut him out (cutting off his leg!), pasted him (slightly reduced) back on the spotlight image, and suddenly it jumped out as a cover. I remember thinking very consciously, ‘Freddie as a singer will be our figurehead: let’s use him as such!’”
Queen – almost known as Top Fax, Pix, and Info (suggested by Roger) and Deary Me (a favourite saying of Roy Thomas Baker’s) – was released in July 1973, a mere fortnight after the release of the single ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, and Brian breathed a sigh of relief: “The album took ages and ages, two years in total, in the preparation, making, and then trying to get the thing released.” Sales were slow, though reviews were positive for the most part. Time Out called it a “thrusting, dynamic, forceful, not to mention heavy” debut, while Melody Maker said, “Their first album is a series of amazingly different songs, from faster-than-fast rockers to soft ballads. Traces of Yes and Black Sabbath can also be found but structurally it seems to sound original,” continuing that “a single, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’, has been released in hopes of giving the band some early chart success. Like the album, it’s commercial in a progressive kind of way.”
“Singles are important to us and to have a hit now would help the band,” Freddie said. “We’ve more to offer than bands like The Sweet: we’re not just pop, because our music covers a wide area.” He continued, lamenting that “We’re worried that the name Queen will give people the wrong impression. We want to be a good British regal rock band and we’ll stick to that way of thinking. Our music should override the image, because we’ll concentrate on putting out a good product the whole time. Teenyboppers will probably like us and we might get a bit of a ‘pop’ tag, but it won’t last. At the moment we’re just interested in creating a reaction among those who come to see us.”
Meanwhile, Rolling Stone likened the result to a passing of the torch from Led Zeppelin to Queen: “There’s no doubt that this funky, energetic English quartet has all the tools they’ll need to lay claim to the Zep’s abdicated heavy-metal throne, and beyond that to become a truly influential force in the rock world. Their debut album is superb.” The reviewer also made special mention of the rhythm section of Roger and John, declaring it “explosive, a colossal sonic volcano whose eruption maketh the earth tremble.” The notice concluded with “T
here’s a song on the album (remarkably reminiscent of ‘Communication Breakdown’) called ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’, and that’s exactly what Queen’s music is. They’re the first of a whole new wave of English rockers, and you’d best learn to love ’em now ‘cause they’re here to stay. Regal bearings aside, Queen is a monster.” Such glowing opinions from Rolling Stone would not last too much longer.
Brian was always displeased with the original mixes, telling BBC Radio Two in 1998 that “There was a classic case where everything got messed up on the first album, ‘cause we did [it in] basically dark time.” In 1991, the album was remastered as part of Hollywood Records’ recent acquisitions, bringing the album up to aural standards of the early nineties. Additionally, three bonus tracks were included: a remix of ‘Mad The Swine’; a 1975 retake of ‘Keep Yourself Alive’ (though it was erroneously believed to be an alternate studio take from 1972); and a remix of ‘Liar’, heralding the first of many superfluous remixes that would grace Queen’s reissued albums that year. Happily, twenty years later, with the purchase of Queen’s catalogue by Universal Records, their discography was once again overhauled, with noted sound engineer Bob Ludwig remastering the original tapes yet again, for the ultimate experience in clarity. What drew the most criticism was the bonus discs from this run, each containing five or six tracks per disc; the fabled anthologies had been decided as “book-end” projects, to be released only when Brian and Roger had exhausted their need for the Queen name. But the “rarities” presented on these deluxe editions were hardly essential, and the liner notes were barely informative (though they replaced purely abysmal essays by noted comedian and Queen fan Rhys Thomas, later published on Queenonline.com and drawing well-deserved criticism). The first album fared the best, with the five demo tracks from De Lane Lea Studios remastered and released for the first time; though the inclusion of ‘The Night Comes Down’ is puzzling at first, considering it was released on the album proper, it’s obvious that the band sweetened up some of the vocals at Trident, thus justifying its appearance as a truly rough mix as part of the bonus disc.
