Queen: The Complete Works (7 page)

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 track 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 “There’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.

“
Queen
sold really well over a longish period and coincided with our breaking ground, concert-wise,” Brian said in 1977. “So we really had matured as a group and had our audience before the press caught on to us. I think that actually gave us a better start because we were better prepared.” The album finally entered the UK charts on 30 March 1974, mere days before their second album was released, but would peak at only No. 32 during its initial five-week run. It re-entered in January 1975, shortly after the success of
Sheer Heart Attack
and ‘Killer Queen’, this time reaching No. 49, but its second re-entry the following January would bring it to its top position of No. 24, assisted by ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

In the US, the album had a much more turbulent run, landing in the charts at No. 195 before finally peaking at No. 83 in its fourteenth week; considering that the band wouldn’t tour America until April 1974, its chart placement was a surprise. The success of the album, though, was not the band’s primary concern.
In addition to touring endlessly in the autumn of 1973, Queen also recorded their second album; the song ideas were flowing in quick succession.

“From the beginning the group has kept its original concept,” Brian explained to
Melody Maker
shortly after the release of
Queen
. “This album is a way of getting all our frustrations out of our system which we have built up over the years. We were into glam rock before groups like The Sweet and [David] Bowie and we’re worried now, because we might have come too late.” If they were concerned they couldn’t out-glam the original glam rockers, they didn’t let it show on their next release.

QUEEN II

EMI EMA 767, March 1974 [5]

Elektra EKS 75082, April 1974 [49]

EMI CDP 7 46205 2, December 1986

Hollywood HR-61232-2, November 1991

Parlophone CDPCSD 140, 1994

Island Remasters 276 425 0, March 2011 [92]

‘Procession’ (1’13), ‘Father To Son’ (6’14), ‘White Queen (As It Began)’ (4’35), ‘Some Day, One Day’ (4’22), ‘The Loser In The End’ (4’02), ‘Ogre Battle’ (4’07), ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’ (2’41), ‘Nevermore’ (1’18), ‘The March Of The Black Queen’ (6’33), ‘Funny How Love Is’ (2’50), ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ (2’49)

Bonus tracks on 1991 Hollywood Records reissue
: ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ (4’32), ‘Ogre Battle’ (
remix by Nicholas Sansano
) (3’29), ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ (
remix by Freddy Bastone
) (6’32)

Bonus tracks on 2011 Universal Records deluxe reissue
: ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ (
BBC version, July 1973 – 2011 remix
) (4’22), ‘White Queen (As It Began)’ (
live version, Hammersmith Odeon, December 1975
) (5’34), ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ (
instrumental mix
) (3’10), ‘Nevermore’ (
BBC version, April 1974
) (1’29), ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’ (4’31)

Bonus videos, 2011 iTunes-only editions
: ‘White Queen (As It Began)’ (
live version, Rainbow Theatre, November 1974
), ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’ (
live version, Wembley Stadium, July 1986
), ‘Ogre Battle’ (
live version, Hammersmith Odeon, December 1975
)

Musicians
: John Deacon (
bass guitar, acoustic guitar on ‘Father To Son’
), Brian May (
guitars, piano on ‘Father To Son’, vocals, lead vocals on ‘Some Day, One Day’, tubular bells on ‘The March Of The Black Queen’
), Freddie Mercury (
vocals, piano, harpsichord on ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’
), Roger Taylor (
drums, percussion, vocals, lead vocals and marimba on ‘The Loser In The End’
), Roy Thomas Baker (
virtuoso castanets on ‘The March Of The Black Queen’
)