Queen for a Day - Sweet Lady

The first song I ever heard by Queen that made me think, "eh, standard 70s fare". This May tune is the kind of mediocre blues breaker that you expect to hear on the soundtrack to Almost Famous.
It's poor latter day Stones.
Unremarkable in almost every way.

Grade: C-


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Queen for a Day - Death on Two Legs (dedicated to...)

By time queen went in to the studio to record what would be, at that time, the most expensive album ever recorded, they had broken up with their manager, Norman Sheffield. A man so evil by all accounts that, despite having a number one hit, Freddie had to beg to borrow a few quid to buy a new piano. Shameless.
So, Freddie penned a screed so hateful, funny and lacerating that it could be used as a poison pen letter for, well, just about anyone or any circumstance warranting it.
The studio magic is effortless and leaps above anything they had done before. In a way it calls to mind Ogre Battle in it's sheer bombast but there's a biting subtlety or nuance to it.
Starting off with a piano as calliope, it descends into madness and then back to glam meets rock theater piece. It's got teeth, this one, not just lyrically. This song is loaded for bear. Better heard on headphones, there's so much going on, fitfully stopping, disappearing, starting again, soloing, it's the kitchen sink of Queen.
And then it's gone.

Fred's pissed off but he's still above it. On this track, he transforms himself from pomp rocker to the Oscar Wilde of music.

Grade: A+

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Queen for a Day- In the Lap of the Gods...revisited

The first real "anthem" in the bands catalog, Lap has little to do with the Side Two opener save the name. Instead, it's a stadium ready beast that seems to say (well, Freddie is the one saying it, really) "we are meant to pay for thousands, nay, HUNDREDS of thousands of people and we can pull it off!"
And pull it off he does. I mean, they do.
A true coda, a genuine finale, to a near perfect record and one that stands the test of 27 years' time.

Grade: A


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Queen for a Day - She Makes Me (Stormtrooper in Stilletoes)

Utilizing a wall of sound, heavy breathing and some elegiac harmonies reminiscent of The Monkees' The Porpoise Song, Brian May comes up with the only...ballad?
It's a fitting coda to this hodgepodge of a record if the least inventive or interesting. I enjoy the nightmare city sounds that overwhelm the song toward the end but thats about it. Not a lot of thought went into this one.

Grade: C

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Queen for a Day - Bring Back That Leroy Brown

Another harbinger of what would come on the next record this is a retro vaudeville song complete with brian may on ukelele, jangly piano, some terrific noodling by Brian on electric and some neat bass playing by John. The real treat here is Freddie. Doubling, tripling, acting, echoing, he does everything.
The economy of the song is remarkable. It packs an epic into a tight, taut, 2+ minutes.
Perhaps my favorite song on the record, it's hard to imagine that this was the same album that started off with the hard rocking Brighton Rock as we are now in full on eclectica.

Grade: A+


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Queen for a Day - Misfire

The first John Deacon penned track is the tritest song on the record. And the one that harkens the most to The Beatles. Mostly in instrumentation, with the loopy lick and the bouncy McCartney bass line. The song itself is the definition of forgettable, so thank goodness it's just 1:50. Hard to believe that the writer of this song would go on to write some of the band's biggest hits.
This is not one. However, Neko Case, on her solo album, covered this song, for some reason and it turned out pretty spiffy. Maybe it just needed to be sung by a woman, that way the lyrics can sound like bad come ons rather than poorly misguided double entendres, which I don't think they were meant to be, but seem to be.
Trite indeed.

Grade: C-


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Queen for a Day - Dear Friends

In keeping with the concept of this being the boys' Abbey Road, Brian May follows the shredtastic Stone Cold Crazy with a piece of piffle. A little piano piece featuring Freddie's exceptional vocals. Another song that could be longer but end up being the perfect length and just over a minute. Its almost an interlude. An interlude to what, i don't know. But it works. Gentle and sweet. And those backing vocals...wow. Just beautiful.

Grade: A-


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Queen for a Day - Stone Cold Crazy

Have you ever heard Metallica do this song? They really didn't have to do much to make it sound authentically metal. It's a shredder of a piece. Spitfire rapped out verses with no melody to speak of sandwiched between the title as chorus sung as in signature harmony. There's a killer riff all over this track and a fiery solo. It's a blast. It's the Polythene Pam of Sheer Heart Attack. And it sounds fresh almost 40 years later.

Grade: A+


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Queen for a Day - In the Lap of the Gods

Perhaps the most bizarre song in the bands earlier catalog. It's not the first operatic venture (March of the Black Queen) but it is easily the main precursor to BoRhap. But much weirder.
The opening verse starts with the obligatory opera shrieks but turns into a ballad where Freddie's voice is mangled to the point of unrecognizability, then the chorus is some bastardized Beatles latter day track and the scat wails by Roger echo Pink Floyd.
And the words "Lap of the Gods" are just repeated for a few mintues until the song disintegrates into nothingness replaced by the next. It's as though the guys had been listening to side two of Abbey Road non stop and this is what they came up with.
As a song, it's ho hum at best. As an experiment in studio manipulation and band boldness? It's a smash.

Grade: B+


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Queen for a Day - Now I'm Here

The first real stadium ready, blues breaking, anthem in the bands repertoire, comes at the end of Sheer's first side.
It's raucous, fun and a showcase for Brian. Who perhaps was making up for lost time on the first record.
Sort of the spiritual cousin of Brighton Rock, Now is the hybrid of glam and blues. A real tour de force that shows the band maturing into something great.

Grade: A


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Queen for a Day - Lily of the Valley

The kindred spirit of Nevermore. It's a lovely, if super short ballad featuring Freddie on piano and vocals and vocals and vocals. Wen the rest of the band comes in, you'd swear this song is longer and even more fully realized than it is. But it's just 1:45. And it's awesome.
This sort of sound and ballad would be expanded on in a few years on A Day at the Races.

Grade: A

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Queen for a Day - Flick of the Wrist

Another suite! Funster leads right into the dark screed that is Flick of the Wrist. A song that warns against signing with a devilish recording manager, it's well known that, in the early days, Queen were indentured servants to their management company. Hit songs on the radio and Freddie begging to borrow money to pay for a new piano. In the future the boys would become so guarded about their image that the propaganda would be off putting and impenetrable.
This song is a warm up for Death on Two Legs.
Here its a terrifically angry anthem. Multi vocals harmonizing like soaring bats and gargoyles. No filigree, no fat, just theatre and rock.
The song doesn't end, however, and that's a sorry part, as it tries to emulate the previous album by folding into a ballad.
But that's for tomorrow.

Grade: A

http://m.youtube.com/index?client=mv-google&desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US&rdm=4mltwaush#/watch?v=jeGZf97Q4m4


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Queen for a Day - Tenement Funster

It's the Roger song, what does that mean? Mid-tempo rocker, all down beats, relatively colorless. It is nothing more than a dress rehearsal for "I'm in love with my car".

Grade: C+

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPAkL3wO27E

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Queen for a Day - Killer Queen

Sorry about not posting this yesterday, the whole day got away from me. But the good news is that today is a twofer. Since it Tuesday, that seems appropriate.

Queen has a hit! Finally.
The funny thing is it's nothing like one would have expected, given their output the last two records. It's a piano/harpsichord driven piece of jaunt about a high class hooker. It's lyrical, yes, but musically, it's so steeped in the "glam" sound of 1974, it could have been written by Sparks. Or Raspberries, if they had the sensibility.
Killer also contains the tastiest and most melodic guitar solo Brian May had ever recorded.
It's a "pop" single in the purest 1974 sense of the word,yet it's also timeless.
Confection is a word often used to describe stuff like this and it fits for a reason.

Grade: A+

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6cEsOP9nQU

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Queen for a Day - Brighton Rock

Named after a candy, the first track off Queen's first breakthrough album, Sheer Heart Attack, is a Brian May tour de force. All the more interesting in that Brian was in the hospital with hepatitis during much of the album's initial recording, it's a real lead guitar tour de force. At about 3 minutes in the entire band drops out save for Brian and his multi-layered contrapuntal, six string electric call and response. In fact, the whole song is almost just an excuse for that and one that would show some real muscle in concert.

Freddie plays both the male and female in the song, who are worried that their love tryst will be found out and he avails himself well, as do the rest of the band, but, make no mistake, this is s Brian May Show. The third time in a row that a song by Brian would open a Queen album.

Grade: A

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdUKi3_QntE


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Queen for a Day - Seven Seas of Rhye

On the first album this song was half finished and yet, to whet the appetite for the future listener (read: fill time), the band included it. That version was sluggish and not well though out.
Things are mighty different this time out.
The piano is played with purpose. The guitar glisses are cinematic. The band is tighter. And, most important, Freddie is in full glam-bat out of hell vocal regalia.
There is tension as we come out of the solos that suggest an army of bat Ike gargoyles swooping down with a vengeance.
The song ends with a happy beach going chorus fighting their way in to be heard, and they win out in the end, suggesting out emergence from whatever funhouse fantasia this album has been.

Grade: A

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsXJ_bfy98c


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Queen for a Day - Funny How Love Is

Queen would never sound like this again. Employing Phil Spector's "wall of sound" technique, this tune actually harkens back to Freddie's Larry Lurex "I can hear music" days.
It's a fun tune, whimsical, with multi-layered vocals flying all over the place, I'm not sure any other other members are on it save Roger. The fourth track in the Side Black suite, it was never performed live, which is a shame, since it would have been such a fun song to sing along to.

Grade: A

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnIOd6EioWw


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Queen for a Day - March of the Black Queen

It starts off simply. A piano and an interstitial guitar. Within seconds it explodes with multilayered harmonies and before you know it, it revs up into a high gear, like a juggernaut. Even when it turns into a near a Capella it still rolls at 100mph.
Then, a guitar solo amidst a march the Red Queen would have been jealous of.
In short, it's March of the black Queen, the centerpiece of Queen II. And I've always wondered why anyone would have been surprised at the operatic hit a few years later since that's what this song is: opera.
If there is one song that truly represents all Queen was about, it's this one. Everyone shines from the players to the producers. There are so many surprises (and a beloved harpsichord) and treats and movements, it's an impossible song to deny. It plays like a five act play. Truthfully, all of side black begs to be turned into a musical theater experience.
Sublime.
(note: Blogger's servers were down yesterday when this was supposed to publish. There will be another entry later tonight.)

Grade: A+


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Queen for a Day - Nevermore

Clocking in at 1:15, the ballad in the middle of the four song suite acts more like the turning point in a musical. The banishment from love that freddie is singing about could just as easily be the banishing of a prince or princess. It's not. It's a love ballad, a sad one and one that doesn't linger for very long. The harmonies are majestic, far reaching and elegiac, the piano playing sparse and delicate. It's a lovely little piece, a harbinger (again) of music to come in about two years. It works fine as a sketch, a doodle. It's s little treacly but I don't really mind that either. Sweet.

Grade: B+



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Queen for a Day - The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke

So, Freddie saw this painting by Richard Dadd and wrote a song describing everything in it. In just over 2.5 minutes. It's speedy, it's wordy (a good apothecary man?!?), there's a guitar solo PRECEDED by a HARPSICHORD solo!! The song is an epic part of the multiple song suite that makes up Side Black and it was never played live. Why should they? At best it's piffle. Middle earthian piffle.
It's also one of the best songs Queen ever produced.

Grade: A+


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