Freddie Mercury: lead vocals, backing vocals, piano
Brian May: acoustic guitar
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums
Recorded
Mountain Studios, Montreux: mid-July–August 1978
Super Bear Studios, Berre-les-Alpes: September–October 1978
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Geoff Workman
Assistant Sound Engineer: John Etchells
Single
Side A: Jealousy / 3:13
Side B: Fun It / 3:29
US release on Elektra: April 27, 1979 (ref. E-46039)
Best US Chart Ranking: Not Ranked”
From the 1978 Jazz album and written by Freddie Mercury. The song was released in 5 countries including the US but failed to chart.
It’s a piano based song but features the Hallfredh acoustic guitar which is heard on White Queen (As It Began) The guitar had been given a replacement hardwood bridge, chiselled flat, with a small piece of fret wire placed between it and the strings, which lay gently above. The strings produce the "buzzing" effect of a sitar.
Sarm East Studios, London: September 1977 (mixing)
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Mike Stone
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone
Assistant Sound Engineers: Robert Ash (Basing Street), Gary Lyons (Sarm), Gary Langan (Sarm)
Single
Side A: Spread Your Wings (single edit) / 4:28
Side B: Sheer Heart Attack / 3:24
UK Release on EMI: February 10, 1978 (ref. EMI 2757)
Best UK Chart Ranking: 34”
This was the next John Deacon song after You & I from A Day At The Races album. The band had regretted releasing Tie Your Mother Down over You & I after the single didn’t chart particularly high.
Released on February 10, 1978, “Spread Your Wings” did not chart highly in the United Kingdom, only reaching 34 in the charts. Despite this it’s a fan favourite.
The song tells the story of Sammy who is struggling to make ends meet and being lectured by his boss. Musically it showcases John Deacons songwriting skills. The use of Bm - Bm/A - Bm/G# chords is a skilful touch and you could be forgiven for thinking the track is penned by Freddie Mercury
The song also appears on Queen live album Live Killers
The video was shot in January 1978 by director Rock Flicks in the snowy garden of Roger Taylor’s country house in Surrey while not being able to remember the names of the band. We Will Rock video was also recorded alongside this track
Brian May used the John Birch Red Special copy which would meet its end when Brian got frustrated with the instrument and smashed it.
Sarm East Studios, London: September 1977 (mixing)
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Mike Stone
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone
Assistant Sound Engineers: Robert Ash (Basing Street), Gary Lyons (Sarm), Gary Langan (Sarm)”
From the first piano chord Fmaj7 the mood is set for quite a sad melancholy song. The song is in fact about Brian Mays childhood cat and discusses the idea of loss and nostalgia.
Songs don’t come with an explanation and this is a great example how the listener will put their own interpretation on a song. Then when you know the subject matter it all makes sense.
Brian May played the piano and sang lead vocals for this track, supported by Freddie Mercury on the backing vocals on the choruses. At 1:44, guitar multi layers come in beautifully.
A completely new version of the song, entitled “All Dead, All Dead” (Original Rough Mix), is on the anniversary edition of the album, which was released in 2017. This version is sung by Freddie Mercury, who added a few lyrics to his introduction.
Personally I prefer the original version with Brian singing, which seems to have a more emotional quality. But it’s still interesting to hear Freddie singing the song.
Assistant Sound Engineers: Timothy Friese-Greene (Wessex), Gary Langan (Sarm), Gary Lyons (Sarm)
Single
Side A: Long Away / 3:25
Side B: You and I / 3:35
US Release on Elektra: June 7, 1977 (ref. E-45412)
US Chart Ranking : Did Not Chart”
“Long Away” written and sang Brian May was not released as a single in the UK. Elektra in the United States decided to release it as a single on June 7, 1977, with Deacon’s “You and I” on the B-side. The single failed to chart. Where The Beatles had hits sang by all four members of the band, Queen hits were all sang by Freddie Mercury. This is quite a shame considering the quality of both Brian Mays and Roger Taylor’s vocals on tracks sang by them.
Long Away was never sang live by Queen
Brian May is playing a 1967 Burns Double Six guitar with, as its name suggests, twelve strings. Originally equipped with three Burns Tri-Sonic pickups, like those May had used for his famous Red Special, this guitar had been altered. It now had three single coil pickups such as can be found on a Fender Stratocaster, giving the warm and velvety sound that Brian so much admired in Hank Marvin, guitarist for the Shadows.
Brian said in an interview: “I used this on ‘Long Away.’ Funnily enough, I think I bought it because I liked the pickups, but I fell in love with the guitar once I started playing around with it and the song materialized. The guitar actually inspired the riff that powers the song.”
May’s first choice had been a twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar as heard on Beatles songs but said “I couldn’t play Rickenbackers because the necks are too thin. I like a very fat and wide neck”
Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales: July 7–28, 1974
Trident Studios, London: September 1974 (mixing)
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone
Assistant Sound Engineers: Neil Kernon (Trident)”
Brighton Beach is renowned for its family atmosphere in East Sussex, an hour’s train ride south from London.
Its famous pier makes the resort the ideal backdrop for the opening song of Sheer Heart Attack, which tells the story of the summer romance between an English couple, Jenny and Jimmy, who are forced to leave one another at the end of the holidays.
The song was never released as a single yet gets radio play and has been used live throughout Queen shows as well as being played at the London Olympics
The song’s title is taken from the famous 1938 novel Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, in which the British author recounts the wanderings and misdeeds of a young man named Pinkie in the seaside resort.
The book, which was a made a movie 1947 staring Richard Attenborough (Jurassic Park fame)
The song’s text also refers overtly to religion, quoting the hymn “Rock of Ages,” which was written by the Reverend Augustus Toplady in 1763. The title of this hymn refers to the thousand-year-old limestone cliff in the Mendip Hills near Bristol, England.
“This song was born while May was playing with the band Smile, whose song “Blag” already contained some of the same ingredients. The fifty-second-long “Brighton Rock” guitar solo also has its roots in the song “Son and Daughter,” which appeared on Queen’s debut album.
The Brian May guitar famous for its use of delay was explained in the Brian May Star Licks Tutorial video.
The amusement park sound effect, called Carnival Midway, is taken from the disc Authentic Sound Effects Volume 1, released by Elektra Records in 1964.
Freddie Mercury: lead vocals, backing vocals, piano
Brian May: guitars, tubular bells, backing vocals
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums, backing vocals
Roy Thomas Baker: castanets
Recorded
Trident Studios, London: August 1973
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker, Robin Geoffrey Cable
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone”
“In his December 1974 interview with Caroline Coon from Melody Maker, Freddie Mercury said, “‘March of the Black Queen,’ that took ages.”
Quite a mysterious song that conjures up all sort of mental images.
With a structure as complex as Bohemian Rhapsody,” it probably has more musical twists and turns than the latter. Not as radio friendly as Rhapsody but definitely defines the Queen sound and marked a bench mark for complexity.
One of the guitar solos was featured and explained in the `Brian May Star Licks guitar tuition video.
Personally, when l played this on guitar it felt like learning 3 or 4 songs rolled into one.
Freddie Mercury: lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, harpsichord
Brian May: guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Recorded
Trident Studios, London: August 1973
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone”
In August 1973 Freddie Mercury took the rest of the band including Roy Thomas Baker to visit the Tate Gallery.
He wanted to show them a painting by Richard Dadd called The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke. A nineteenth-century English painter, Dadd painted his masterpiece at the Bethlem Royal Hospital in Bromley, a psychiatric institution in the suburbs of London commonly known as Bedlam. Dadd was incarcerated at Bethlem Royal Hospital after murdering his father in 1843, believing his actions were guided by the Egyptian god Osiris and convinced that his father was the devil in disguise.
Freddie used the painting name as the title of the song.
“Tatterdemalion and the junketer / There’s a thief and a dragonfly trumpeter.” Or again: “Pedagogue squinting wears a frown / And a satyr peers under lady’s gown.” All references to the characters in the painting.
It’s well worth looking at the painting and spotting the characters mentioned in the song.
“Freddie Mercury who hated electric pianos not unlike the one John Deacon used on “You’re My Best Friend.” But used Thomas Goff harpsichord on the track which added to medieval sound of the song.
Freddie Mercury: lead vocals, backing vocals, organ
Brian May: electric guitar, backing vocals, piano
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums, backing vocals
Recorded
Trident Studios, London: September 1974
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone
Assistant Sound Engineers: Neil Kernon (Trident)
Single
Side A: Now I’m Here / 4:15
Side B: Lily of the Valley / 1:43
UK Release on EMI: January 17, 1975 (ref. EMI 2256)
Best UK Chart Ranking: 11
”
“Recorded by the band in September 1974 at Trident Studios, “Now I’m Here” is one of Brian May’s four contributions to the album’s track-listing.
“Down in the city just Hoople and me,” is reference to Mott The Hoople the band Queen toured with in the States in 1974
“Down in the dungeon just Peaches and me.”Is reference to the Dungeon Bar in Toulouse Street in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Peaches reference seems to a girl Brian met, This meeting seemed to trouble the guitarist, who was in a relationship with his longtime girlfriend Chrissie Mullen. The troubled relationship referred to in “It’s Late,” on the News of the World album.”
“Now I’m Here” was released as a single on January 17, 1975, with “Lily of the Valley” on the B-side. It went on to reach eleventh place in the British charts, thanks to the band’s appearance on Top of the Pops. The appearance in which Brian uses a Les Paul guitar not the Red Special.
“The introduction to this track is marked by the sound experiments of producer Roy Thomas Baker. He used a delay on Mercury’s voice in order to repeat his words and harmonize the phrase endings.
The song in structure is reminiscent of Chuck Berry songs and “Go Go Go Little Queenie” is a direct nod to Chuck Berry
Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, Wales: July 7–28, 1974
Wessex Sound Studios, London: early August 1974 (voice)
Trident Studios, London: September 1974 (mixing)
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone
Assistant Sound Engineers: Geoff Workman (Wessex), Neil Kernon (Trident)”
Roger Taylor’s third Queen song appears on the Sheer Heart Attack album. Modern Times Rock n Roll and Loser In The Ens being on Queen and Queen II.
Marc Bolan wrote Tenement Lady which is possibly along within Tenement Funster the only songs with the term “Tenement” Tenement being a room or place to rent.
“The song opens with a medley to which “Flick of the Wrist” and “Lily of the Valley” are added on Side 1 of Sheer Heart Attack.
I’d always assumed Roger played acoustic guitar on this one but indeed it was John Deacon on acoustic guitar.
The song later appeared on the Queen release Queens First EP with Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy being the lead song along with Death On Two Legs and White Queen (As It Began)
“Brian May wrote “White Queen (As It Began)” at Imperial College when he was still a student.
Liking a girl in his class, Brian spent three years not daring to speak to her. He wrote this song inspired by her.
While he was writing, May was readingRobert Grave’s book The White Goddess, (Graves famed for I Claudius which became a BBC drama staring Derek Jacobi) which deals with the figure of women in art according to their social position, sometimes depicted as a virgin, a mother, or a queen.
Brian used a 1930s Hallfredh (hairfred) acoustic guitar which is set up to sound like a sitar
In the 1983 Guitar Player interview, Brian May explained how he had modified his Hallfredh: “I made it sound like a sitar by taking off the original bridge and putting a hardwood bridge on. I chiseled away at it until it was flat and stuck a little piece of fret wire material underneath. The strings just very gently lay on the fret wire and it makes that sitar-like sound.”
Freddie Mercury: lead vocals, backing vocals, piano and tack piano, finger snapping
Brian May: electric guitar, backing vocals
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums, triangle, tubular bells, backing vocals
Recorded
Wessex Sound Studios, London: early and late August 1974
Trident Studios, London: September 1974 (mixing)
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Mike Stone
Assistant Sound Engineers: Geoff Workman (Wessex), Neil Kernon (Trident)
Single
Side A: Killer Queen / 3:00
Side AA: Flick of the Wrist / 3:21
UK Release on EMI: October 11, 1974 (ref. EMI 2229)
US Release on Elektra: October 21, 1974 (ref. E-45226)
Best UK Chart Ranking: 2
Best US Chart Ranking: 12”
“Though “Killer Queen” was one of the last songs recorded for the album in September 1974.
Written by Freddie Mercury the song became the lead single from the Sheer Heart Attack album.
Released on October 11, it shot straight to number two in the UK charts, just behind “Gonna Make You a Star” by David Essex.
Little known fact Killer Queen was double A-side with the song “Flick of the Wrist.”
“Freddie often joked about this, willingly admitting that the song would be perfectly at home in the discography of the late Noel Coward, an actor and pianist famous for his good taste and slightly old-fashioned elegance.
“When Kenny Everett, famous Capital Radio disc jockey, decided to broadcast “Killer Queen” at the end of 1974 said “I’m going to play something on the radio, have a listen to this, it’s the best record that’s ever been made by anybody ever.”
In this video Roger Taylor mentions Kenny loving Killer Queen
“During the recording of Killer Queen, Freddie Mercury made two identical piano takes, but with two different instruments: the first with the prestigious studio grand piano, and the second with a piano whose sound was much closer to the honky-tonk models.
Known as a jangle, or tack, piano (detuned piano), this instrument was modified in order to transform its sound.
Thumbtacks were attached to the hammer felts, and with each percussion on the strings, a brilliant sound was produced—a sound quite close to that of the harpsichord.
It is the mix of the two takes that gives the introduction to “Killer Queen” its very particular sound, which we find again later on “Bring Back That Leroy Brown,”
Roy Thomas Baker: Stylophone on “I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside”
Ken Testi: backing vocals on “I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside”
Recorded
Trident Studios, London: August 1973
Technical Team
Producers: Queen, Roy Thomas Baker
Sound Engineer: Roy Thomas Baker
Single
Side A: Seven Seas of Rhye / 2:48
Side B: See What a Fool I’ve Been / 4:32
UK Release on EMI: February 23, 1974 (ref. EMI 2121)
US Release on Elektra: June 20, 1974 (ref. EK-45891)
Best UK Chart Ranking: 10
Best US Chart Ranking: Did Not Chart”
“Seven Seas of Rhye” first appeared as the instrumental finale on Queen’s first album.
The song, unfinished at the time, was reworked by Freddie Mercury with the aim of making it a hit. The track was chosen to be the only single from the group’s second album, with the unreleased “See What a Fool I’ve Been,” composed by Brian May, on the B-side.
The song quickly became a hit after the group’s successful performance in front of 10 million television viewers during the BBC’s Top of the Pops on February 21, 1974.
Thus, Queen made the news a few weeks before setting out on their American tour as the supporting act for Mott the Hoople, and long before the band’s second album would actually be released. This strategy for promoting a group’s upcoming album holds just as true today: artists must obtain the maximum amount of public exposure prior to the release of their discs, which helps ensure a huger amount of sales from the first weeks of the record’s release.”
“Initially, Queen II was to open with “Seven Seas of Rhye” in order to ensure continuity with the first album. But the choice of “Procession” as an introduction proved to be a more workable option, and the single easily found its place at the end of the disc, where it would help hint at the more “mainstream” pop-rock direction that Queen would offer on their third album.”
“Production
To close the track, the four musicians called on their friends to sing a traditional popular tune, “I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside,” popularized by Mark Sheridan in 1909. Queen and their friends form an apparently inebriated choir, including long-time friend of the musicians Ken Testi, who played the role of tour manager in their early days, where he struggled mightily to find concert dates while they were still unknown.
Although an air of mystery hangs over the Dubreq Stylophone used to accompany the voices, Brian May maintains that it was Roy Thomas Baker who played it, underlining the melody sung by the choir. This pocket instrument, equipped with a small keyboard and a pen, had its heyday when Brian Jarvis introduced it to the market in 1968.”
Brian May: electric and acoustic guitars, lead vocals, backing vocals
John Deacon: bass
Roger Taylor: drums, tambourine, lead vocals, backing vocals
Recorded Trident Studios, London: June 1972
Producers: John Anthony, Roy Thomas Baker, Queen
Sound Engineer: Roy Thomas Baker
Single: Did Not Chart
Side A: Keep Yourself Alive / 3:47
Side B: Son and Daughter / 3:20
UK Release on EMI: July 6, 1973 (ref. EMI 2036)
US Release on Elektra: October 1973 (ref. EK-45863)
Keep Yourself Alive was released as a single in Great Britain and the rest of Europe on July 6, 1973, a few days before the album itself was released.
Promotion was handled by EMI, which sent a copy to the BBC, but the disc, presented in the traditional white sleeve used to hold copies meant for the press, bore no inscription. The label had failed to include the name of the group and the title of the song. The single landed in the hands of Mike Appleton, producer of the famous show The Old Grey Whistle Test, broadcast on BBC2, and its host, Bob Harris.
“The first version of “Keep Yourself Alive,” was recorded during the De Lane Lea sessions in 1971. The intro was played on acoustic guitar before being dubbed by May’s Red Special, which had been plugged into the wall of Marshall amps deployed for the occasion by Terry Yeadon and Geoff Calvar.
Brian, who was the composer, argued at length during the sessions at Trident Studios to have the original version appear on the album, but had to give in to opposition from producer Roy Thomas Baker, who was satisfied with the current production of the track. Queen then suggested that Mike Stone, Baker’s assistant, present his vision of the track by carrying out a new mixing to his taste. This latter version won all the votes, and so it was Stone’s version that was kept for the album. Brian May was never satisfied with this choice, and had to resign himself to the fact that the magic that had worked so well on the original demo was lost forever.
“In the introduction to “Keep Yourself Alive” the phaser effect is used on the guitar played in palm mute, accompanied by the Premier New Era bell on drums (also present in the introduction to “Liar”). The hi-hat roll is also a signature found in many Roger Taylor drum patterns.”
The filming of a promotional music video was planned at the Brewer Street Studios. Mike Mansfield was chosen for the production on August 9, 1973.
The group fired Mansfield and dumped the video. Refusing to use the images filmed by Mansfield, the band took matters into their own hands and took over production on October 1, 1973, at St. Johns Wood Studios, accompanied by Barry Sheffield, one of the bosses at Trident.
“Technician Bruce Gowers worked on the video working together again on the video for “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which Gowers directed in November 1975.
The shooting of “Keep Yourself Alive” was a great success. This film would be included in the double version of the Greatest Video Hits 1 DVD in 2002.
Info sourced from Queen : All The Songs by Benoit Clerc
