FEATURE:
Kept Yourself Alive
Queen’s Remarkable Eponymous Debut at Fifty
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A top 40 success…
when it was released in 1973, I wanted to look ahead to the fiftieth anniversary of the eponymous debut album by Queen. The mighty Queen was released on 13th July, 1973 through EMI Records in the U.K. and by Elektra Records in the U.S. It was recorded at Trident Studios and De Lane Lea Music Centre, London, with production by Roy Thomas Baker, John Anthony and the band. Even though few would place Queen’s eponymous album in their top three, I think that it is hugely important. As it is coming up for fifty, it is worth spotlighting it. Inspired by Metal and Heavy Rock, I often think of Queen’s debut in terms of .Led Zeppelin. There are comparisons. Zep were discussing folklore, mythical things and love on the same album. Robert Plant has a similar charisma to Freddie Mercury. And I guess one could compare the guitar skills of Jimmy Page and Queen’s Brian May. Although, by 1973, Led Zeppelin were a big success and had released one of their greatest albums (Led Zeppelin IV/Four Symbols, 1971) and actually put out Houses of the Holy months before Queen’s debut arrived, you could make some comparisons. It is best to judge Queen on their originality and individuality, as they arrived with a distinct swagger and brilliance! No band lead like Freddie Mercury had existed before 1973 – and there has not been one since. That rare blend of pantomime, opera, sexuality and playfulness. It would come to full fruition on subsequent albums, though it was pretty evident through Queen’s `1973 eponymous debut. I want to come to a couple of features regarding Queen. One is a retrospective piece, whilst the latter is a review.
Even though it got into the top 40, I guess many might consider Queen to be a relatively minor album. Certainly, not all critics were on board. Five of the ten tracks were written by Freddie Mercury; Brian May wrote four songs; drummer Roger Taylor both wrote and sang Modern Times Rock and Roll. Keep Yourself Alive is one of Queen’s most impressive and memorable opening tracks. I think that those who have scored the album low or sold it short need to have another listen! This feature from last year looked back on one of music’s most important debuts:
“Friday the 13th of July was a lucky day for fans of Queen. That morning their eponymous debut album was released. In the evening they performed a brilliant concert at Queen Mary College in Basingstoke, the first date of a short tour that would culminate in a brace of shows at a happy hunting ground, London’s Imperial College, before embarking on a prestigious Mott the Hoople support slot.
But if Queen’s star was about to rise only the cognoscenti would have heard of them at this juncture. Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Freddie Mercury – born Farrokh Bulsara – had road-tested their act in an earlier incarnation called Smile with mutual friend Tim Staffell. Older than the others he had the distinction of being in a blues-rock group named 1984 that supported Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. When Tim left to pursue different ventures, Brian, Freddie, and Roger persisted as a trio with May bringing his guitar influences to the table.
May, an ardent fan of the Jeff Beck Group, Cream, and Hendrix of course, Brian’s thickly textured, heavily syrupy guitar riffs and colors would fire the early Queen, as Mercury had since named them – for all the word’s flamboyant connotations – into similar realms of hard rock and British heavy metal, though that term was not in wide circulation yet. Those who saw Queen during 1972 likened their sound to Led Zeppelin, praising the crunchy attack May gave them while the rhythm section of drummer Roger and the recently recruited bassist John Deacon, younger than his mates, laid down a box-tight backing.
Freddie was something else again. A natural showman who was increasing in confidence as the months to the album’s release date raced by, his interest in multi-media rock was also somewhat inspired by having attended David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust spectacular a year earlier at Friar’s club, Aylesbury. Roger and his Mini drove the pair to the Buckinghamshire market town. The drummer recalled: “We loved it. I’d seen him there about three weeks before in the long hair and the dress. Suddenly you saw this spiky figure coming on stage. You thought, wha-a-at? Ziggy and the Spiders From Mars looked like spacemen.”
Ignoring that backhanded advice Queen rehearsed like mad and made demos in De Lane Lea Studios, in Dean Street, Soho. Four of these, “Keep Yourself Alive,” “Great King Rat,” “Jesus” and “Liar” would be remodeled for the album proper. While they enjoyed De Lane Lea’s state-of-the-art equipment (designed to provide music for TV and movies) the room wasn’t ideally set up for rock music and so it was only a short hop to Trident Studios for work in earnest.
At this point, Queen were signed to Trident’s Neptune Productions, set up Roy Thomas Baker, the man who would produce them in the years ahead. Also on hand was John Anthony, the other half of Neptune, and fresh from ground-breaking work with Genesis and Roxy Music, two more of the unusual outfits flourishing in this fascinating era. These highly gifted technicians suited Queen’s modus operandi but since finances were still tight at this stage the first album was recorded in fits and starts on what bands call downtime – not ideal but needs must. At least they made full use of Trident’s 8-and-16-track facilities, bouncing the parts for extra atmosphere.
Looking back on the album the members will have opinions colored by hindsight – drums could sound better here, the guitars should have been more orchestrated there, and so on.
It doesn’t matter because the record that was released by EMI after many others had turned it away will prove to be an important, auspicious and vital entry – Queen’s firstborn now sounding like a landmark.
Consider the evidence: the opening “Keep Yourself Alive,” composed by May, had an ironic meaning in his mind but once Freddie sank his teeth into the lyrics the whole dynamic changed with band collaboration to the fore, switching the structure so that May and Roger sang the bridge to add a counterpart. It is certainly a quite startling and brilliant beginning that throws Queen’s gauntlet down and dares you not to pick it “Doing All Right” was a May and Staffell number from Smile days. Now newly envisaged the music fuses acoustic and metal guitars, Brian’s piano part (though Freddie did the honors live) using Trident’s famous instrument, and the unique in-house sound found on St. Anne’s Court.
Brian’s “The Night Comes Down” is a lovely introspective slice of nostalgia and personal commentary that references his love for The Beatles in an allusion to John Lennon’s “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” In this instance, Queen retained most of the De Lane Lea mix, though Taylor gave his drums a bigger kick. His own “Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll” is a fine addition to the debut, a short old-school romp with John Anthony joining in the fun on backing vocals. By way of contrast May’s “Son and Daughter” stretches out the ensemble playing with a bluesy, psych metal twist.
The acid rock-styled “Jesus,” ostensibly a straightforward and descriptive view of Christ healing the sick, may also have been written by Freddie with Bowie’s words and imagery from “Ziggy Stardust” and “Five Years” still resonating. Whatever, Jesus is also referenced in “Great King Rat.” An outtake from this album called “Mad the Swine” also deals with a character making his second coming. These were intriguing times.
Queen reaches its finale with the short instrumental “Seven Seas of Rhye” of which we will hear more later on. Running at only one minute 10 seconds it certainly left the listener desperate for more; there was nothing left to do but turn the album over and hit play again.
Placed in context Queen’s debut is one of the great albums of 1973, a year that also saw the release of Steely Dan’s Countdown To Ecstasy, George Harrison’s Living In The Material World, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Led Zep’s Houses of the Holy and Bowie’s Aladdin Sane – all albums that make a nonsense of the concept that rock music was moribund and self-indulgent.
Queen were certainly not operating in any comfort zone. They display élan and hungry ambition here and once they take the songs out on the road, either under their own steam or with Mott the Hoople, the fan base will suddenly grow exponentially while a vibrant music press takes due note of a new and potentially world-beating phenomenon.
The band members were typically self-effacing about the record. A few weeks after release May told Guitar Magazine: “I’m quite pleased with it. But it’s been such a long time – the band’s been together for three years and most of the songs were written about three years ago. We just feel that, as a band, we’ve gone past what’s on the album. We put it down in order to progress to different things.
“We like some of the stuff on it, but we sometimes fell into the trap of over-arrangement. You know, the songs changed over the years and some of them probably evolved too much. You can get so far into something that you forget what the song originally was. On a personal level, it was frustrating for me to take so long to get to this point. I wanted to record things with, for instance, tape echoes and multiple guitars five years ago. Now I’ve finally done it, but in the meantime so have other people! Which is a bit disappointing. But you have to get away from the idea that playing music is a competition. You should just keep on doing what you think is an interesting thing to do.”
Indeed you should and Queen would. A month after their debut was released they went straight back to Trident to commence work on Queen II”.
I am going to round up with one of the most positive reviews for Queen, Written in 1973 for Rolling Stone, Gordon Fletcher was powerless to resist the wonder, strangeness, power and unique world that Queen created! The band are all awesome but, in Freddie Mercury, we had this genius whose voice was like nobody else’s. No wonder that so many people were blown away:
“RUMOR HAS IT that Queen shall soon be crowned “the new Led Zeppelin,” which is an event that would certainly suit this observer just fine. 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 Zeppelin analogy is not meant to imply that Queen’s music is anywhere near as blues-based as the content of Led Zep I & II. No, their songs are more in the Who vein, straight-ahead rock with slashing, hard-driving arrangements that rate with the finest moments of Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. Yet there’s a certain level of intelligence with which the show is presented, a structured sanity that coexists alongside the maniacal fury that gives me the impression that the band must have had a lot of Yessongs on their turntables in the three years this album was taking shape.
“Great King Rat” and “Doing All Right” are most indicative of the intricacy of Queen’s product, each a lengthy piece composed of several vignettes. The contrasting moods of the latter are stark, at opposite moments calm and thunderous, summoning up memories of a thing called “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.” The group does direct, three-chord rock just as well, though, with “Keep Yourself Alive” displaying a truly awesome move for the jugular.
Personnel: Brian May plays guitar, and if it seems as though he really knows the ins and outs of his instrument it’s for good reason. He made it himself, from wood he found in a 100-year-old fireplace, a bizarre creation with rollers where you’d normally expect to find a nut. And where you’d normally expect to find holes in a three-piece band’s sound you’ll instead find May making excellent use of his instrument’s electrical attributes. A master of fuzz, wah and sustain, his solos are persistent, hard-hitting and to the point.
Vocalist Freddie Mercury has a strong, steady voice that never lacks for power and authority. Through the storms of “Liar” to the artsy, choir-boy innocence of “My Fairy King” he handles a wide range of vocal chores, never once losing his air of cocky, regal arrogance.
Let’s just say that the product of drummer Roger Meddows Taylor and bassist Deacon John is explosive, a colossal sonic volcano whose eruption maketh the earth tremble.
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”.
On 13th July, Queen’s wonderful debut album turns fifty. It is one of those albums many might compare unfavourably to the classics from the band, but I would pout it right up there. Even if the songs on the album had been written years before and played a lot, they come alive and sound fresh on 1973’s Queen. I would urge everyone to listen to this magnificent album before it celebrates its…
FIFTIETH anniversary.