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Queen II

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Queen II is a rock album by English band Queen, originally released in 1974. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London, England in August 1973, and engineered by Mike Stone. The two sides of the original LP were labelled "Side White" and "Side Black" (instead of the conventional sides "A" and "B"), with corresponding photos of the band dressed in white or in black on either side of the record's label face.

Mick Rock's album cover photograph was frequently re-used by the band throughout its career, most notably in the music video for the song Bohemian Rhapsody (1975). There are two versions of this photograph, one with black for the background and foreground, the other (right) with a brown foreground.

Numerous problems beset the album's release. Its completion coincided with the 1973 oil crisis and consequently, government-enforced measures for energy conservation delayed its manufacture by several months. Once the long-overdue first pressing arrived in record shops, the band noticed a spelling error on the sleeve, and had to complain persistently to correct it.

As with Queen's debut album, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury was the dominant songwriter. He composed and arranged the entire "Black" side, contributing virtuosic piano and harpsichord pieces and a wide range of distinctive vocal performances. The "White" side is very diverse: of the four songs composed by Brian May, one is instrumental, one is sung by Mercury & Taylor (with May at the piano), the next is sung by Mercury, and the last by May. John Deacon played acoustic guitar as well as bass on most of the album, except the songs "White Queen" and "Some Day One Day", which were performed by May — partly on an inexpensive Hairfred guitar that he had owned since his childhood.

Musicians as diverse as Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses consider Queen II one of their favourite albums. Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone initially became friends because they both enjoyed this album.

Contents

Track listing

(* single)

Song information

"Procession" was performed by Brian on multi-tracked guitar. He recorded it by playing overlapping parts on the Red Special through John Deacon's custom-made amplifier (the [Deacy amp]). It also sounds vaguely similar to the last part of Bohemian Rhapsody.

"Father to Son" was written by Brian, being musically influenced by The Who. It features heavy metal-like sections as well as quiet piano parts, some of which Brian played (Freddie took over for more complicated work).

"White Queen" was composed by Brian while he was studying astronomy at Imperial College. It concerns his feelings about a girl whom he had a crush on — he never had the courage to express his feelings to her. Contrary to what many people believe, it was never performed by Brian's former band Smile. All of the vocals were sung by Freddie, including some multi-tracked harmonies emulating an angelic choir.

Brian got the inspiration for "Some Day One Day" from the idea of a place where relationships could be perfect. Brian would revisit that theme many years later on his solo record Another World. He sang the vocals himself.

"Loser in the End" was Roger's sole contribution on the album as a songwriter and lead singer. Although Queen II is not a concept album, all of the songs seemed to be connected — except with this one.

Freddie wrote "Ogre Battle" on guitar in 1972 and played it remarkably fast in its original form. Queen didn't want to record it for their first album, but rather waited until they could have more studio freedom to do it properly. The ogre-like screams in the middle are Freddie's, and the high harmonies at the end of the chorus hook are sung by Roger. The introduction is simply the last few bars of the song played in reverse.

Freddie was inspired to write "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" after seeing a [painting of the same name] by Richard Dadd. For the intricately-arranged studio recording, Freddie played harpsichord as well as piano, and producer Roy Thomas Baker played the castanets. Roger called this song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment", referring to the intricate use of panning in the mix.

"Nevermore" is the first piano ballad that Freddie recorded with Queen. He sang all of the vocals and used a contemporary technique called "ringing", whereby someone plucks the piano strings while it is being played. It was suggested by producer Robin Cable, who attempted to achieve a "wall of sound" reminiscent of Phil Spector records.

"The March of the Black Queen" was written by Freddie, which prompted the concept of "Black" and "White" sides to the album. It's one of the most musically complex songs in the band's catalogue, surpassed only by "Bohemian Rhapsody". Brian plays bells in the middle of the track.

"Funny How Love Is" was born in the studio. Freddie wrote it and played the piano while Robin Cable produced.

"Seven Seas of Rhye" had been half-written at the time of recording for Queen's first album, so a short clip of it was included there. However, when Queen finished the song, it ended up being much different from what they'd first envisioned. It was the band's first hit single, peaking at #10 in the UK charts.

Unreleased songs from these sessions include John Deacon's first song, titled 'Fly By Night', as well as two songs called 'Deep Ridge' (by Brian) and 'Surrender To The City' (by Freddie). Initial ideas for 'Brighton Rock' and 'The Prophets Song' were laid down during these sessions.[[Citing sources citation needed]]

Album history

With their debut album recorded and mixed by the end of November, 1972, Queen set about touring and promoting it. Management problems forced the album to be released under the independent Trident label, but only after eight months had gone by since completion. During that time, Queen were writing new material and anxious to record it. Several new songs were written immediately after the first album, and some dated from even earlier. "See What A Fool I've Been" was left over from the Smile days (and was actually built around Brian's recollection of a blues diddy he had heard on a television program; the song was "That's How I Feel" by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, which Brian finally re-discovered in 2004 after an eager fan tracked it down for him). "Ogre Battle" was written during the debut album sessions, as was "Father To Son", but the band decided to wait on recording them until they had more ample studio time.

August 1973 found the band back in Trident, now allowed to book proper hours there, with an album under their belts. For what is generally considered a complex album (with layered vocals, harmonies and instruments), it took a very short time — only one month — to record Queen II. A full version of "The Seven Seas of Rhye" was laid down, recorded with the specific intention of being the album's leading single. After the commercial failure of "Keep Yourself Alive", which was taken from the first album, Queen decided it needed a single that did not take "too long to happen" (without a lengthy guitar intro). So, Queen and Baker made sure that "Rhye" began in a way which would grab people. Mythology and art were passions of Freddie's, and Richard Dadd's painting "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" (which currently hangs in the Tate Gallery) sparked his creativity. This scene from Dadd's imagination was inspired by characters from faery myths, which in the painting are gathered around the Feller of Trees to watch him crack a walnut for Queen Mab's new carriage.

Mick Rock was employed to do the photography for the album's artwork. Mercury was inspired by a picture of Marlene Dietrich looking into a white spotlight in the dark, as smoke from her cigarette swirled about her. This single picture of Queen, used on the Queen II album cover, would become one of the band's most iconic images, revisited and brought to life for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional film.

Robin Cable, with whom Mercury had worked during the "I Can Hear Music" session, was recruited to reproduce the Spector production sound for "Funny How Love Is".

The album was completed by the end of August 1973. Queen added "Ogre Battle", "Procession" and "Father to Son" to their live setlists immediately and toured extensively. Once again, however, Trident delayed the record since Queen's first album had only just been released in the UK and had yet to be issued in the US. Queen II finally entered stores in the UK on March 8th of 1974.

The only single released from the album worldwide in 1974 (February 23rd in the UK) was "The Seven Seas Of Rhye", with the B-Side "See What A Fool I've Been" (which did not appear on the album) in most territories. Japan's B-Side was album track "Loser In The End".

In 1977, Queen's First E.P. was released, featuring "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" (from A Day At The Races) and "Death On Two Legs (Dedicatd to..." (from A Night At The Opera) as the A-Side, and "Tenement Funster" (from Sheer Heart Attack) and "White Queen (As It Began)" (from Queen II). This version of "White Queen" is a stand-alone version, eliminating the segue (from "Father To Son") which appears on the album.

In 1987/1988 the UK three-inch CD single reissue of "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" featured "See What A Fool I've Been" and a unique edit of "Funny How Love Is" (featuring the last verse of the album track "The March Of The Black Queen" as an intro).

In 1991 the same three-inch singles as previously released in the UK are issued in Japan. "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" single in this set features the standard "See What A Fool I've Been" track and a stand-alone version of "Funny How Love Is" (different from the UK CD3 release).

Queen about the record

Brian May:
"For some strange reason, we seemed to get a rather different feel on the album because of the way we were forced to record it, and even allowing for the problems we had, none of us were really displeased with the result.
Led Zeppelin and The Who are probably in there somewhere, because they were among our favorite groups, but what we are trying to do differently from either of those groups [is] this sort of layered sound. The Who had the open chord guitar sound, and there's a bit of that in "Father To Son", but our sound is more based on the overdriven guitar sound, which is used for the main bulk of the song... but I also wanted to build up textures behind the main melody lines. To me, Queen II was the sort of emotional music we'd always wanted to be able to play, although we couldn't play most of it onstage because it was too complicated. We were trying to push studio techniques to a new limit for rock groups — it was fulfilling all our dreams, because we didn't have much opportunity for that on the first album. It went through our minds to call the album Over the Top."

Roger Taylor:
"We took so much trouble over that album, possibly too much, but when we finished we felt really proud. Immediately it got really bad reviews, so I took it home to listen to and thought, 'Christ, are they right?'. But after hearing it a few weeks later, I still like it. I think it's great. We'll stick by it.
Considering the abuse we've had lately, I'm surprised that the new LP has done so well. I suppose it's basically because people like the band."

Freddie Mercury (about the black/white era):
"Well, that was a concept that we developed in that time... it doesn't have any special meaning. But we were fascinated with this type of thing... the wardrobe that we used at the time described it perfectly well."

Press reviews

Melody Maker: "It's reputed Queen have enjoyed some success in the States, it's currently in the balance whether they'll really break through here. If they do, then I'll have to eat my hat or something. Maybe Queen try too hard, there's no depth of sound or feeling."

Sounds: "Simply titled Queen II, this album captures them in their finest hours."

Disc: "The material, performance, recording and even artwork standards are very high."

Record Mirror: "This is it, the dregs of glam rock. Weak and over-produced, if this band are our brightest hope for the future, then we are committing rock and roll suicide."

New Musical Express on the single Seven Seas Of Rhye: "This single showcases all their power and drive, their writing talents, and every quality that makes them unique."[#endnote_reviews]

Personnel

Freddie Mercury: Lead vocals, background vocals, piano, harpsichord, organ
Brian May: Guitars, bells on "March of the Black Queen", lead vocals on "Some Day One Day", background vocals, some piano on "Father to Son"
Roger Taylor: Drums, gong, marimba, background vocals, lead vocals on "Loser in the End"
John Deacon: Acoustic guitar, bass guitar
Roy Thomas Baker: Castanets on "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke"
Robin Cable: Piano effects (with Freddie Mercury) on "Nevermore"

Equipment

Percussion:
- Ludwig drum kit: 13" x 9" rack tom, two floor toms (16"x 16" & 18"x 16") and 26" x 14" bass drum.
- Ludwig and New Era tambourines and cowbells
- Paiste Gong
- Ludwig (educated guess) Marimba, Bells and Castanets

Strings:
- Fender Precision Pre-CBS Electric Bass, Orange OR120 amplifier
- Martin D-18 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar ("Funny How Love Is")
- Hairfred Acoustic Guitar ("White Queen")
- Ovation Pacemaker 12-String Acoustic Guitars (elsewhere)
- Red Special Electric Guitar, using John Deacon's homemade bespoke amplifier (for guitar choirs and effects) and Vox AC30s (for solos and straight rhythm parts)

Keyboards:
- Bechstein D Concert 9'2" Acoustic Grand Piano, recorded via Neumann U87 mics
- Harpsichord (unknown brand)
- Hammond Organ

External links

Source

  1. ↑  Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins (1992): Queen. As It Began. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, pp. 75-77, ISBN 0-283-06052-2.
Queen
John Deacon | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | Roger Taylor
Discography
Studio albums: Queen | Queen II | Sheer Heart Attack | A Night at the Opera | A Day at the Races | News of the World | Jazz | The Game | Flash Gordon | Hot Space | The Works | A Kind of Magic | The Miracle | Innuendo | Made in Heaven
Live albums: Live Killers | Live Magic | Live at Wembley '86 | Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl | Return of the Champions
Compilations: Greatest Hits | At the Beeb | Greatest Hits II | Classic Queen | Queen Rocks | Greatest Hits III | Stone Cold Classics
Box sets: Greatest Hits I & II | The Crown Jewels |
DVDs
We Will Rock You | The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert | Greatest Video Hits 1 | Queen Live at Wembley Stadium | Greatest Video Hits 2 | Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl | Return of the Champions | Super Live in Japan
Musicals
We Will Rock You

 

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