I grew up in Japan and heard Liar getting radio play quite frequently. I don't know for sure whether it charted or not, but I think it's a possibility it did.
I just listened to Liar to refresh my memory. The radio edit must have been much shorter as there's no way a six minute song would have had a chance on Japanese AM radio.
Queen is a fantastic album. You can tell that even this early in the game, they knew exactly where they wanted to go musically. There are elements of heavy metal, prog, pop, and classical yet it all comes together in a sound that is both original and accessible.
July 1973 EMI 2036 Queen - Keep Yourself Alive b/w Son And Daughter Sept 1973 EK-45863 Queen - Keep Yourself Alive b/w Son And Daughter Feb 1974 EK-45884 Queen - Liar b/w Doing All Right
Feb 1974 EMI 2121 Queen - Seven Seas Of Rhye b/w See What A Fool I've Been (UK 10) Jun 1974 EK-45891 Queen - Seven Seas Of Rhye b/w See What A Fool I've Been
I like their debut as well as Live at the Rainbow '74. Do they have any other heavy stuff? The later stuff is too soft and poppy for me.
Queen II. Sheer Heart Attack onwards isn't so heavy overall, but there's still heavy tracks after Queen II.
Yes. They got away from it a little with "Hot Space", but it has otherwise always been one of the arrows in their quiver. Even as late as "Innuendo", they included tracks like "Headlong".
I can’t pretend I’m the hugest Queen fan but I do like Queen, especially early Queen. The first record doesn’t get near enough attention as far as I’m concerned; just a great hard rock record but with a very distinct edge to it courtesy of four very talented guys. I can’t recommend it enough.
I got into Queen as a kid and started buying their albums in 1984, when The Works was their current album. I was 10 years old then. I remember going into Woolworths and the Queen debut was very cheap on vinyl, due to it being on the budget Fame label at the time. I knew it was an old album by them but that's about all then. I recognised Seven Seas of Rhye and loved that from my Dad's Greatest Hits tape. I loved a lot of the album straightaway, Keep Yourself Alive, Doing All Right, Great King Rat and Liar especially. Songs like My Fairy King and The Night Comes Down took a lot longer to love. I hated Jesus! Seven Seas of Rhye was a disappointment to say the least. I love this album now, all of it. It's one of Queen's best, flawed production and everything. My auntie taped me Queen II & Sheer Heart Attack around this time and that was it, I was well into the early Queen albums. Some of my favourite music ever. I consider their 70s run of albums to be near flawless. My current favourite tracks on the debut are Keep Yourself Alive, Doing All Right, Great King Rat, Liar and The Night Comes Down.
Fantastic track. It's possibly the poorest sounding track on the debut though, mainly the drums. It's great as it is, but I'd love to have heard this one with the massive production of the next few albums.
Debut is not my favourite but it sure has its strong points. Keep Yourself Alive, Modern Times Rock'n'Roll (punk and thrash metal before they were invented), the stunning Doing All Rights with its contrasting dynamics, The Night Comes Down, Son and Daughter etc. It's a great album, it's just the follow-ups were much stronger. But it has great moments ranging from theatricality to riffs as heavy as anything Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin ever came up with. Here's Modern Times Rock'n'Roll sung by Freddie instead of Roger. Also sounds splendid. I am a fan of the band since childhood. One of those groups together with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Yes that I remember listening to for all of my conscious life, meaning that I cannot pinpoint when I first heard their music. )))
I've had the Live at the Rainbow Blu-ray for a few months now. The sound is incredible. In fact part of me thinks the sound is unbelievable, too good, especially the backing vocals. Is this warts and all "live" or where there loads of overdubs on this? If they did overdub it, when did it happen, for this release a few years back?
Agree about the backing vocals sounding too good and unnatural. I'd like to know this too. My guess is that they overdubbed it near the time for the cinema release of it. I highly doubt Roger Taylor has been able to hit anywhere near those high notes for many years now. It's probably been touched up with Pro-Tools for the DVD aswell. But it's amazing and going by other recordings, not miles away from what Queen sounded like live then. It's an excellent recording.
Brian May. My reason for buying my first guitar (well my folks did). It always sounds like the first time I've heard him when i play their stuff. He hits all the right notes for me. I was on 6music once and chose Sheer Heart Attack as my "All Killer No Filler". My favourite however is Queen II but I'd argue their best is S.H.A. I very recently bought a new cd player and the second album i put on was Queen I. Taylor's drums sound great. I think i was about fourteen when i got into them and it was definitely the first two albums i fell in love with. That would have been around 1985. Later albums were really cool but that whole prog rock of the first two... I mean where would Muse be without them
I really need to pick that bluray up ... I love the two I have Hungarian Rhapsody and Montreal/Live Aid