'Queen II' (1974)

If 'Queen I' was the product of long, hard work grafting and crafting songs in the studio, then 'Queen II' was much shorter work making for an even grander, larger vision. If Tolkien's Middle Earth could ever be re-imagined as a rock album, then that album is 'Queen II.' Queen had quickly mastered the art of production and now let their imaginations run wild. If this is Queen at their prog peak, it is also the band on the borders of self-conscious parody. The imagery is the stuff of Spinal Tap, with some of the titles inviting smiles and sniggers. It is worth bearing in mind that this was a band whose members had a sense of humour. Listening, it soon becomes apparent that the cast of white and black queens, fairies, and ogres are an altogether camper bunch than any of those present in the work of bands who had real Tolkeinesque pretensions. Queen were evidently a band whose members had a sense of the ridiculous, not least of their own. That same quality was evident in the 1980s. To take the risks the band took with, for instance, 'I Want to Break Free,' rejecting ideas of playing safe to openly invite ridicule, you have to know that you are good. Queen knew that they were good, even before their first hit record. 

Beyond the lyrical content, the music was as hard as nails, giving Queen the breakthrough they needed. The album peaked at UK #5 and yielded the band's first hit single, 'Seven Seas Of Rhye,' which hit UK #10. Mick Rock's iconic photograph of the four members on the cover was one that would define the image of the band for the decade, reappearing in the legendary 'Bohemian Rhapsody' video. 'Queen II' showcases a band in the process of shedding the confines of any prog identity and preparing to conquer the world. That said, the sound is still hard and heavy on the rock numbers and solemn and serious on the ballads, with only the rocker 'Seven Seas of Rhye' and 'Funny How Love Is' coming close to pop.

Again, I was slow in coming to this album. Having caught the train with 'Sheer Heart Attack', I was more than happy with the singles and albums that the band were issuing from that moment on. It was only after 'Live Killers,' with the hiatus before 'The Game,' that I dared venture back into the past and explore the age of myths and legends (remember that I was still at school and had precious little money to spend). As with Queen I, I was floored by the sound of a seriously heavy rock band. At least four of the numbers on this album shot to the top of the list of my all-time Queen classics. Immediately, I could hear why disgruntled old rockers were still yearning for the days of early Queen. In respect of which I was grateful that I hadn't started at the beginning, and therefore had no innocence to lose, only find.

Queen II (1974)

"Procession"

A classical Brian May guitar orchestration making for a solemn and stately instrumental opening. It makes for something rather grand and gothic, sepulchral, cold to the touch, a rarefied air that is icy to inhale. As entrances go, this is rather intimidating, being a funeral march performed on multi-tracked guitar. The recording of the track is interesting, revealing the members of the band to be technical wizards as well as musicians of the highest calibre. John Deacon was a first class honours graduate in electronics and proved to be incredibly inventive in the studio. The track was recorded by May playing overlapping parts on his Red Special guitar through the 'Deacy Amp,' John Deacon's custom-made amplifier. However the instrumental was recorded, it makes for the perfect introduction to what is the heaviest sounding Queen album. For all the references to fairies and queens, the next track up, 'Father to Son,' hits like a sledgehammer.

"Father to Son"

Heavy and anthemic, another of those big, ambitious rock songs in which Queen somehow succeed in making 'prog' pop. Whilst this is hard rock rather than pop, it has all the great hooks that characterises all the great Queen songs, accounting for the band's huge popularity. Brian May's guitar is so loud it blows everything away, before returning to the calmness of Freddie's sound advice. This one is soft and heavy, slow and quick, and just so assured and masterful that the band can't fail. The sound is one of a band that is past aspiration and now stands on the brink of achievement. Musically, the only comparison I can make here is to The Who. But the style is more grand and gothic, more genuinely rock opera. 

"White Queen"

An amazing song, more than meeting the immense expectations that have been raised after the towering opening. The song was actually written by Brian May in 1968, with the idea coming to him after he had read Robert Graves' The White Goddess. I have that most intriguing book, and was always struck by the line that the Goddess demands full-time service. May drew his inspiration from a fellow student whom he considered to represent the idea of the "perfect woman." "I remember being totally in love with this girl from biology, and I never ever talked to her...." We've all met them. I even got round to speaking to the odd one. The conversations tend to be a bit mundane, like the one I remember concerning whether history was harder than economics. It is easier to idealize and invent goddesses when you don't actually engage and communicate with the flesh-and-blood person.

Freddie Mercury's performance brings out the ethereal qualities of the lyric and the music to the full. The version delivered live at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1975 accents the incredible musicality of this song, with Freddie's piano being even more prominent. One of the things that struck me the most about this band from the first was the nerve to be 'different'; the quirkiness and the humour, certainly, but, sustaining it all, the sheer musical intelligence at work. That, and the determination to succeed and never to fail. That they risked failure showed incredible nerve - and a confidence bordering on arrogance. To take the risks that this band did with taste, going hell-for-leather for good entertaining pop, the members knew absolutely that they were good and didn't need to care one jot what critics thought. 'White Queen'  is an ethereal rock ballad of such refined quality that the band didn't need critics to advance their claims - the quality of the music was the best form of self-promotion.

"Some Day, One Day"

Gentle, wistful, folk-inflected rock ballad, written and sung by Brian May. This was the first time that Brian May took lead vocals on a Queen song, and his voice is perfectly suited to the soft style of the song. Mesmerizing acoustic and electric guitars, melancholic vocal, this song adds different moods and textures to a hard rock album.

"Loser in the End"

A straight-ahead rocker from Roger Taylor, who delivers a great performance on drums and vocals. The fills towards the end are mind-blowing. Lyrically, the song is a harsher counterpart to May's later 'Leaving Home Ain't Easy.' Poor mum, destined to be the loser in the end.

"Ogre Battle"

I quote Rob Halford, lead singer with Judas Priest here. "'Ogre Battle' is perhaps Queen's finest moment. Queen were an incredible heavy metal band. I saw them on their first ever tour, at Birmingham Town Hall. They just blew me away." 

This is another of the tracks which has a title that is hard to credit. 'What's your favourite song?' 'Ogre Battle.' It sounds more like a board game. The song is another of those heavy rock tracks that characterised the early Queen sound, both in the studio and live. It was a highlight of the live show. With incredible riffing from May, thunderous drumming from Taylor and Mercury's ogre-like screams, the song is the origins of "thrash" metal. This was one of the key songs in Queen's live act in the early to mid seventies, tearing the house up and garnering the band a reputation for being the live band to see.

"The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"

Most odd indeed. This song was the one that made the biggest impression on me when I first heard 'Queen II,' it just bristled with life, imagination, and peculiarity. It also has those dynamics you can hear later on, for instance, 'Don't Stop Me Now,' with Mercury driving it all on on harpsichord rather than piano. Odd, for sure, but catchy as hell. Freddie Mercury wrote this song after seeing a painting of the same name and an accompanying poem by Richard Dadd, the song making reference to the characters in Dadd's poem. With Mercury playing a harpsichord and singing the strangest lyrics of very dark origin, we are in the realm not merely of the different but of the 'very different.' (To understand how deep and dark that that 'very' different goes, read further on the painting and the painter. Dadd painted this work whilst confined in the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum of Bethlem Royal Hospital for the murder of his father in 1843). 

Roger Taylor called the song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment." "Where the hell did that come from?" was Roger Taylor's first thought when Freddie Mercury brought the song in. Taylor told Mojo magazine: "It was full of these mystical references. I was always reading - Lord Of The Rings, of course, Heinlein, Asimov, CS Lewis's adult sci-fi. But I never once saw Freddie with a book. But he had all these words about this painting. Fred was like a magpie. He had this very sharp brain but he was not what you'd call a well-read man." If you are already bristling with ideas, then just take what you need from others and adapt them to your own unique vision. 

It seems like a 'fun' song, with its full-on harpsichord attack and Freddie's camp lyrics conjuring up all kinds of images, but is a riot of colours and textures. It's easy to make light of it, given certain phrases which Freddie delivers with an unabashed relish. The song is a rich and colourful description of a rich and colourful painting with a dark history, which Mercury lightens with intimations of the purest filth. The song storms by at a high pace, like a car chase in one of those old black and white British B-movies. Except that this chase is in garish technicolour. I loved this song from the moment I heard it and I've loved it for so long that I am oblivious to its oddities. With his customary flair, Freddie delivers the filth, the fury, and the fantasy of the Fairy Feller in whose honour he sings:

Ploughman, "waggoner will" and types

Politician with senatorial pipe, he's a dilly-dally-o

Pedagogue squinting, wears a frown

And a satyr peers under lady's gown, dirty fellow

What a dirty laddio

Tatterdemalion and the junketer

There's a thief and a dragonfly trumpeter, he's my hero

Fairy dandy tickling the fancy of his lady friend

The nymph in yellow (can we see the master stroke)

What a quaere fellow

It doesn't happen so much these days, but I can well remember the days, not too long ago, when people would be taken aback and appear somewhat sceptical whenever they learned that a fellow was a Queen fan. I received more than a few of those puzzled looks, and the odd smile from the odd goddess. To me there was no mystery; the music and the imagery was just bristling with life in all its many colours, shapes, and sizes. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' didn't come from nowhere, it was already there in the various bits and pieces scattered all over the Queen catalogue in its age of innocence. The track ends with a three-part vocal harmony sung by Mercury, May, and Taylor which flows into a piano part played by Mercury, introducing the next song, 'Nevermore.' This is the same linking concept that would be used to telling effect on the 'Sheer Heart Attack' album. The Queen genius was germinating and getting ready to burst big time onto the scene.

"Nevermore"

A beautiful piano ballad, short and spare, telling a tale of heartbreak. This is another song that shows the inventiveness of band members in the studio. The piano 'ring' effects were created by the piano strings being plucked whilst Freddie Mercury played the notes. As with May's incredible guitar sounds, people detected the presence of synthesisers. 'No synthesizers.' Those words added to every Queen album in the seventies were not meant to denigrate synthesizers - Queen were techies and musical engineers after all - but to accent the inventiveness of the band members.

"The March of the Black Queen."

This song is very nearly a masterpiece, if such a thing can be imagined. It has all the length, complexity, and transitions of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and was a centre-piece of the stage act in 1974/1975. In an interview with Melody Maker in 1974, Mercury declared that the song had taken him 'ages' to complete. 'I wanted to give it everything, to be self-indulgent or whatever.' Critics will simply say 'self-indulgent'; I will say 'whatever.' In fact it is so much 'whatever' musically that I will have to quote: 'The multifaceted composition, the band's second longest (6:34), is one of two Queen songs (the other being "Bohemian Rhapsody") containing polyrhythm/polymeter (two different time signatures simultaneously 8/8 and 12/8) and a simpler polyrhythm around the end uptempo section, which is very rare for popular music. The lead vocals cover two and a half octaves (G2 - C5).' I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it sounds suitably impressive. 

It was the first time that the band really got into production, said Roger Taylor, and they 'went completely over the top.' 'March of the Black Queen' is 'very long, in about eleven different sections and the complexity of it is staggering.' The song is introduced by Mercury on piano, starting slowly then building to a faster tempo. May adds complex guitar solos and harmonies. The vocals are similarly complex, with Freddie's vocals spanning two and a half octaves whilst the choirs and harmonies run throughout. In fact, the song plays in two different time signatures simultaneously, something which was most uncommon for popular music but singularly Queen. May considers the track as a precursor to 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' "You've got to bear in mind that we'd already made 'My Fairy King' on the first album and we'd done 'The March of the Black Queen' on the second album, so we were well in tune with Freddie's excursions into strange areas, and that was something that we really enjoyed." It was those strange areas that made the band very different from all others. 

A comment that Taylor made on the song in a 1977 interview has been mistakenly taken to refer to 'Bohemian Rhapsody': 'The tape went transparent, genuinely... It was 16-track... The tape had gone over the (recording) head so many times, overdubbing, that the oxide had worn off.' The song was never played in full live in concert on account of its musical and vocal complexity, with only sections being incorporated into a medley in live shows. This is very much the prog counterpart to Bohemian Rhapsody and, for that reason, could very easily top the list of greatest Queen songs. 

So why do I call it merely 'nearly a masterpiece'? That's a good question, and since I have no good answer, I'll drop the 'nearly' and just call it a masterpiece. The song segues into the next track, a linking theme that would be employed on the next album.

"Funny How Love Is"

Rather infectious in its insistent refrain and 'wall of sound' production. The song is one that gets overlooked amongst all the heavyweights and oddities gathered together on this album, but for all of its simple sound it is vocally demanding piece, with Mercury singing in high-register throughout, building in intensity as he goes. It possibly gets overlooked on account of the fact it doesn't fit alongside the hard rock of the rest of the album. It appears lightweight when set alongside the other tracks, but is really a superb piece of pop. It is on tracks like this that you can hear the pop production qualities of The Beach Boys, another influence on the band.

"Seven Seas of Rhye"

This is the hit which broke the band in the singles chart and is the perfect realisation of the band's blend of pop and rock. The lyrics are intriguing. Along with "Lily of the Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack, the song references a kingdom named Rhye, which is a fantasy world, a 'figment of your imagination,' Mercury said in interview. To appreciate Queen, it helps to have an imagination. And a sense of humour. And a sense of the ridiculous. If you are impaired in any of these departments, then you will struggle to see the appeal of Queen. This song is quick, direct, and rocks as hard as hell. It's an absolute torrent, ending with a seaside sing-a-long to amuse one and all: 'oh we do like to be beside the seaside.' I know I do, and always did. That's where I live these days. That little touch at the end goes a long way to explaining why Queen were by far and away my favourite band from the first, and remain so - they could rock as hard as anyone and then put a smile on your face with an amusing touch or three. Never boring. They took their music very seriously - with critics endlessly complaining about overproduction and overdubs - but then introduced a dash of humour to send themselves, and all who take things too seriously, up. 'It's just a b*££%y record,' Fred would say in concert (after working as hard as hell to get the sound right).

"See What a Fool I've Been" (B side to the single "Seven Seas of Rhye" and BBC Session, July 1973, and live at The Rainbow 1974)

As the B-side of "Seven Seas of Rhye," this great rock blues number comes over as a send up of Robert Plant. The vocals in that version are too knowing in their confession of the band's Led Zeppelin influence, with Freddie's over-the-top camping detracting from the qualities of the song. Mercury's vocals are a little too fey. The song was sung much better live in concert, when performed as a straight blues. This rocks slow and hard and is quite unusual for Queen in that, in contrast with most other British rock bands, there is little blues in their catalogue. This track proves that they could play the blues hard and strong, especially when performed it in a live setting (for example, live at The Rainbow, London, March 1974). Live, Mercury's vocals are straight and strong and backed by great blues playing from May. The BBC session version of the track is also strong. Some superb drumming from Roger Taylor, too, some of his best rolls and fills. On balance, it is good that Queen moved away from this style, with its close connection to Led Zeppelin, and found their own inimitable style. The song is good all the same, and showcases another musical influence in the band's mix. And I think the camp version of the song on the single release was the band's way of saying that they can play the blues as well as the other British rock bands of the time, but have their own unique style. 

"Hangman"

This track is believed to have been written by Freddie Mercury during the time he was a member of Wreckage. It was performed in the earliest Queen concerts between 1970 and 1973 and occasionally after in 1975 and 1976. The song was also recorded in the studio, possibly in 1972, although this hasn't been released. The story is that the tapes were privately owned but were bought by Queen productions. We can hope that the track is mixed and mastered properly and released, 'some day, one day.'

The track is heavy rock with guitar and drums to the fore. It is another reminder of Queen's roots and influences in the hard rock explosion of the early seventies, with this track having similarities to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. The track can be heard in a number of live performances. 

As to why Queen never released the studio version, we can only speculate. As with "See What a Fool I've Been," I suspect the band was keen to move away from obvious roots and influences and were more concerned to develop their own distinctive style at a distance from 12 bar blues. The song is good for other bands of the time but rather basic for Queen. But we can play the game of 'why this and not that?' when it comes to the material that made it onto the Queen albums and the material that was left off. You can't fit everything on, and the band were concerned with producing balanced albums which had shape, coherence, and variety. 'Hangman' is pure, unadulterated hard rock, very heavy and dark.