The instrument, also known as the Old Lady or the Fireplace, became iconic for Queen fanatics.īrian’s “Father to Son” was written with Harold in mind and combines metal guitar bridges and introspective piano played by the writer as well as John Deacons’ acoustic guitar and a neat vocal harmony. It starts with “Procession,” played by May in funeral march time on multi-tracked guitar, the Red Special hand-built by Brian and his father, Harold, when the aspiring musician was a teenager. Mick Rock’s photograph, which the boys thought was slightly pretentious at first, showed them to be a band or a gang and this time the potential purchaser was left intrigued by the potential content. A fine conceit, considering Queen were far from that status yet, it didn’t really give the viewer a sense of what lay inside. Freddie, of course, couldn’t resist the faintest of smirks as he looked up at Rock with arms crossed.įor the debut Queen’s friend Douglas Puddifoot had depicted Mercury holding his soon to be familiar short microphone stand, performing in a spotlight on what looked like an arena stage. Photographer Mick Rock was hired to shoot the cover on the strength of his striking images of David Bowie, Iggy Pop (Stooge), and Lou Reed, and he had the band posed to look suitably moody and vampish a la Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express. The gatefold sleeve and the album’s label reflected the B&W mood and when they hit the road to support it they invested in monochrome stage gear designed by Zandra Rhodes. Realizing that as songwriters Mercury and May had radically different lyrical agendas – Brian the guitarist preferring a personal or emotional slant, while Freddie the singer liked to operate in realms of the phantasmagorical – it was decided to give the record a loose concept, splitting the material into “White” and “Black” sides to match the light and shade of the songs.
What became Queen II was done and dusted in that hot month. Quite a team in other words, and May and company had plenty of their own ideas to bring to the party. So while other rock stars went on their holidays Queen worked like Trojans…Īll four took to the recording process like a duck to water with the notable assistance of Roy Thomas Baker and in-house man Robin Geoffrey Cable, an ally of the band since he’d produced Larry Lurex aka Freddie Mercury on a spectacularly operatic attempt at the Phil Spector-Ellie Greenwich-Jeff Barry masterpiece “I Can Hear Music.” Also on that session was engineer Mike Stone, yet another highly talented sound man who’d learned his trade at Abbey Road, sitting in on The Beatles’ Beatles For Sale album and more recently thrown some magic dust over Nursery Cryme for Genesis and Joe Walsh’s heavy guitar gem The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get.
It is certainly the first time one hears their trademark multi-layered overdubs, those rich harmonies, and the sheer joie de vivre of a group of young men refusing to be hindered by boundaries and conformity. Still they were anxious to resume work before going back on the road and preparing for a tour with Mott the Hoople so they grabbed a vacant August slot in Trident and began making the record that is many a fan’s favorite.
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