Review of Queen's Queen II

Released 1973

"So listen mothers everywhere
To just one mother's son
You'll get forgotten all the way
If you don't let them have their fun
Forget regrets, and just remember
It's not so long since you were young."

I've chosen to step temporarily out of the strict chronology of this blog with good reason. I chose The Dark Side Of The Moon as my first review based on the fact that, at the time, I considered it my first true encounter with prog, which started my life long love affair with the genre. It was only upon reflection that I began to acknowledge the prog credentials of several other albums which I knew and loved pre-Floyd. On that basis, I have allowed myself the license to occasionally step backwards and interrupt the natural historical flow of this blog. Therefore I feel duty bound to include a number of examples from bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen who exist very much on the fringes of the genre but whom, in my opinion, and after all it is my blog, warrant inclusion.

Like most men of a certain age, my first conscious memory of Queen was their mammoth stint at number one in the singles chart in Christmas 1975 with Bohemian Rhapsody. After buying the single and the album it came from, I started to investigate the rest of their catalogue. I can't say for certain, but I think Queen II was my first port of call.

This was probably due being drawn to the album and the cover's reproduction in the video for the aforementioned single. I'm sure that this would have confused me at the time; in fact I'm sure that there were many newly interested Queen fans in 1975/76 who would have purchased Queen II in error, thinking it was their latest release.

Looking at the cover now, the prog overtones are obvious. The black outside of the gate fold with the iconic group photograph was contrasted by a remarkably camp glossy white picture with the group resplendent in fur and jewels. The monochrome theme was continued with 'side black' and 'side white'. It may be urban legend or just the fading memory of a middle-aged closet glam rock fan, but I'm sure there was a limited edition press with a white vinyl on one side and black on the other. It would be nice if it were true.

It wouldn't be accurate to call Queen II a concept album, but it has that kind of feel. Procession has a very prog like introduction; grand and opulent, accurately portraying the feel of a medieval procession with Brian May's glorious idiosyncratic resonating pulsating guitar over a simple bass drum. If it wasn't for the early Queen trademark proclamation of "no synthesisers" adorning the sleeve, you'd swear that a keyboard opened Father to Son. Hearing the vast harmonies once more as I type this, I can't help but smile at the effectiveness of the combined three voices which is still so effective even after several hundred plays. The second half of the track leans very heavily on May and (as he still was then) Meddows-Taylor, heavily aping Page and Bonham. I particularly love the sustained distorted note Brian plays at three minutes and twenty four seconds and the clever transition from bombast to balladeering as the song comes to a close. Very accomplished for a second album.

The segue from this to White Queen is also typically prog; all moody sound effects and combined acoustic and electric guitar. Again Brian's solo at two minutes and forty seven seconds which starts acoustically before heading in the direction of Wishbone Ash is sublime.

Although not blessed with the finest set of vocal chords, Brian's performance on Some Day One Day is one of his better moments. The drifting, phasing of the guitar is beautifully restrained and gets better and better with age.

At the risk of waxing emphatically throughout the entire review, I again adore The Loser In The End. This is a classic Roger Taylor narrative with excellent underrated vocal and, as always, drawing the very best out of Brian May. I always think Roger wrote in the same vein as Ian Hunter: with tremendous humor and a strong visual style. All in all, a pretty faultless 'side white'.

If the first side was a relatively light and acoustic offering, then the second was a much more agressive affair. 'Side Black' commences with the thunderous Ogre Battle. Led Zeppelin are 'borrowed' from extensively once more with a very tight performance from all four players, moving through a variety of time signatures with ease and aplomb. The rapid pace continued with the larynx threatening gymnastics from Freddie who undertakes vocal challenges which would squeeze even Percy's lemon. This is, chronologically speaking, the first Queen track that wholly reveals the definitive sound which would dominate their peak output: excellent harmonies, the big guitar sound, strident piano etc, etc.

For many bands, a one minute eighteen track would be mere filler. How Nevermore can be such a huge, magnificent and yet delicate work of art in such a brief time span is a mystery to me. It has all the faculties of an epic side long suite but achieves it in less than ninety seconds.

The March Of The Black Queen once more highlights Freddie's unique vocal style, with shades of opera, wide screen cinema, psychedelic guitar and camp multi-tracked harmonies, swapping between Freddie and Roger. Astonishing.

Funny How Love Is works as a strong illustration of the boundaries Queen were pushing in terms of studio production. I'm no expert but I'd be surprised if this didn't feature a record number of vocal tracks all the time of its release.

I hadn't heard the original version of Seven Seas Of Rhye on their first album, so I couldn't share in the surprise and delight of hearing a new version. I was simply as over-awed by how it could be both intensely complex and delightfully hummable at the same time.

Queen went on to make bigger and better albums, but in terms of witnessing a band hitting it's stride and obviously enjoying itself in the studio, I don't think they ever improved.

Review of Queen's A Night At The Opera

Released 1975

"I watched as fear took the old men's gaze
Hopes of the young in troubled graves.
I see no day, I heard him say
So grey is the face of every mortal".

A Night At The Opera was actually the first album I ever bought, four or five years before I began my prog odyssey. Like many others, the ubiquity of Queen's most famous song around Christmas 1975, and the intense media interest that propelled then from a fairly successful entity into the stratosphere and the then history books, made me curious enough to part with a few weeks pocket money.

I was sufficiently taken with the album that it initiated a long and lasting love affair with their entire canon. Up to about 1980 anyway. I never thought of A Night At The Opera (and the rest of their seventies output) as anything other than pop/classic rock. It wasn't until my interest in prog rock was well established. that I noticed this particular album cropping up from time to time in the upper echelons of 'Greatest Prog Albums of All Time' polls. I decided to reappraise it in light of my growing prog knowledge.

The packaging, whilst grandly ornate and suitably regal, didn't really distinguish it as a prog artifact. In fact, it was proudly proclaimed that 'no synthesisers!" were used in the making of the album. No synths; surely this couldn't be a prog album? Also, Queen has been a huge singles band and wore spandex. So what was 'progressive' about this album? I put the headphones on and tried to listen with a fresh perspective.

Okay, so there may not have been synthesisers, but Freddie Mercury's fluid piano was obviously very much in evidence. Death On Two Legs... was not a standard pop song; bitter angry lyrics directed at former management were spat out with some aplomb. Whilst it wasn't pop, it couldn't see it as prog either. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, running in at under a minute, was certainly eclectic, but not much more than a whimsical ditty. No, I was still struggling to see why it was so highly rated amongst prog fans. The remainder of the first side of the album was a mixture of successful singles (You're My Best Friend) and well accomplished, but very mainstream pop and rock songs nonetheless.

But then, with side two it all became clear. The Prophet Song, with swirling wind sound effects, shifting time signatures, vocal only passages and a bombastic centre piece was truly magnificent; bonkers top drawer stuff, superbly enhanced at its peak by bouncing backwards and forwards between each ear, and fabulous when tuned up dangerously high under the headphones.

I hadn't fully appreciated the majesty (pun intended) of the song's segue into Love of My Life. Of itself, Love of My Life is a beautiful anthem, but when considered, if you like as 'part two' of The Prophet Song, it really is very cleverly conceived piece on a par with any pure prog experiences I had had up until that point.

Bohemian Rhapsody is so ingrained into the public consciousness that it is almost beyond comment and reproach. Its sheer eccentricity and audacity are legendary and, at the very least, nods with wry smile and tremendous good humour towards the often more serious prog bands.

Very few classic prog bands, which, in the end Queen were not, had enjoyed the same success and indeed public adoration with works of such diversity, scope and ambition.

Was it a worthwhile exercise, or an act of unnecessary pretension to reconsider the album from the prog angle? Actually yes; one way or another, I think I appreciated it's genius and it's madness all the more.