Queen Biography
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Queen is a British rock band which came to
popularity during the mid-1970s, and has amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase
that continues to exist to this day. They have sold 190 million albums and 100
million singles worldwide, as stated during their 2004 UK Music Hall of Fame
induction, and remain second only to The Beatles in terms of collectibility.
Though often panned by critics, especially in the
US, in recent years the group's critical stock has increased considerably: they
have generally become recognized as pioneers of heavy metal, glam rock,
progressive rock and stadium rock and been cited as influential to the sound of
later artists (see "Influence on Modern Music" later in the article), and in
2001 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
The band also paved the way for the commercial music video, having promoted
their 1975 hit "Bohemian Rhapsody" with a conceptual promo released worldwide,
considered by many to be of the first true music videos.
Their band's crest (pictured) was designed by
Freddie Mercury and includes the zodiac signs of all four members surrounding a
Phoenix - two lions, to represent two Leos, a crab for Cancer and fairies
representing Virgo.
****
Members
Queen, 1990; Left to right: John Deacon, Brian May,
Freddie Mercury, Roger TaylorAlthough Freddie Mercury wrote the majority of the
songs on Queen's "Greatest Hits" album, he was not the only important songwriter
in the group. On the contrary, all four members of the group wrote major hits:
Freddie Mercury (1946-1991), vocals,
keyboards/piano ("Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Somebody to Love," "We
Are the Champions," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "Innuendo")
Brian May CBE (1946-), guitars, vocals,
keyboards/piano ("Tie Your Mother Down," "We Will Rock You," "Hammer to Fall,"
"Who Wants to Live Forever," "The Show Must Go On")
Roger Taylor (1949-), drums, percussion, vocals,
keyboards ("Radio Ga Ga," "A Kind of Magic," "These Are the Days of Our Lives,"
"Heaven for Everyone")
John Deacon (1951-), bass guitar, rhythm guitar,
keyboards ("You're My Best Friend," "Another One Bites the Dust," "I Want to
Break Free")
History
1968-1970
Brian May, the lead guitarist, and Roger Taylor,
the drummer, were playing in a band called Smile with Tim Staffell. Mercury was
Staffell's roommate at Ealing Arts College and followed Smile's music closely;
Mercury was a singer in other bands, such as Ibex (aka Wreckage) in 1969 and
Sour Milk Sea in 1970. Still, he was very eager to share his ideas so Smile
could develop. Staffell left Smile to join another band, Humpy Bong, while
Mercury stepped in for Staffell, changing the band's Queen to Queen in the
process. The band had a number of bass players during this period, but it was
not until 1971 that they found John Deacon and started to rehearse for the first
album, Queen.
1970s
1973
In 1973 Queen released their first album, a
self-titled effort. It drew little attention, but succeeded in giving the band
an FM radio anthem "Keep Yourself Alive." In hindsight, it's considered to be a
strong first album.
1974
It wasn't until 1974 that the band gained any
mainstream attention or commercial success. The album Queen II, was released,
which also sold poorly, but is revered by many of Queen's more devoted fans as
one of their best works. The album was highly experimental, so it garnered
little mainstream attention and was, like Queen I, a commercial flop, but the
band released the song "Seven Seas of Rhye" as a single, which reached number 10
in Britain, giving them their first hit. They toured as support to Mott the
Hoople (referred to in the "Now I'm Here" lyric "Down in the city it's just
Hoople and me") during this period, when they first began to gain notoriety for
their energetic and crowd-involving stage shows.
Later that same year, Sheer Heart Attack was
released. The album was huge in the UK and throughout Europe; and went gold in
the United States, giving the band their first taste of true commercial success.
Considered one of their greatest efforts, Queen made a surprisingly cohesive
album with a wide variety of different types of music; British music hall to
heavy metal tunes like "Stone Cold Crazy" (which Metallica would later cover and
earn a Grammy for) and "Now I'm Here" (a live concert favourite); ballads ("Lily
of the Valley"), ragtime ("Bring Back That Leroy Brown"), even Caribbean
("Misfire").
The single "Killer Queen" was a British number 2
hit which got as high as number 11 on the U.S. charts. It combined campy,
vaudeville British music hall with Led Zeppelin-like sound and Brian May's
virtuosity on the guitar. The album's second single, "Now I'm Here", was a
number 11 hit in Britain, a heavier track which they admitted was influenced by
the early work of The Who.
1975
If Sheer Heart Attack's blend of eclectic styles
and heavy-metal was considered to be gamut-running, their 1975 effort A Night at
the Opera was all-encompassing. Considered by many fans and critics alike to be
their greatest effort (some call it Queen's Led Zeppelin IV), this is the album
that featured the huge worldwide hit, "Bohemian Rhapsody". "Bohemian Rhapsody"
was number one in the UK for nine weeks, and another five weeks in 1991 when it
was re-released after Mercury's death. It originally reached number 9 in the U.S,
and number 2 when re-released in 1992. The song remains one of Britain's top 5
best-selling singles of all time. The album also featured "You're My Best
Friend" (which peaked at 14 on the U.S. charts), a sweet, pure pop gem that was
unlike anything Queen had ever done to that point. "I'm In Love With My Car" was
a hard-rock tune, written and sung by drummer Roger Taylor, which was used in
Jaguar car commercials. "Love of my Life", also on the album, is a stadium
anthem at any Queen concert. The entire album, however, featured incredible
diversity in music styles (similar to Sheer Heart Attack) and experimentation
with stereo sound (cf. The Prophet's Song, an 8-minute epic, the middle section
of which is simple phrases layered to create a full-choral sound).
The album was a smash in Britain, and went three
times platinum in the United States. It was official; Queen had hit the popular
music scene.
1976
Back in the studio and unable to top A Night At The
Opera in sales or quality, in 1976 Queen recorded what essentially was a
companion album, A Day At The Races, also in keeping with the Marx Brothers'
movie theme for the title. The cover was similar to that of A Night at the
Opera, a variation on the same Queen Crest. Plans were made to eventually
release the two together as a package, but those plans never came to fruition.
The album was done very much in the vein of A Night
at the Opera musically as well. Although it was by both fans' and critics'
standards a strong effort, it was unable to eclipse its predecessor, and thus as
a result has been somewhat underrated.
The standout tracks were "Somebody to Love" and
"Tie Your Mother Down." "Somebody to Love" was an incredible rock ballad, on
which Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor multi-tracked their voices to
make a 100-voice gospel choir. The song went to number 11 on the U.S. singles
chart and number 2 on the U.K. charts. "Tie Your Mother Down" was a typical
Queen hard-rocker that produced a very recognizable riff and displayed Queen's
trademark sense of humour.
It was during this same year that Queen played one
of their most famous gigs, a 1976 concert in Hyde Park. They set an attendance
record, with 150,000 people confirmed to be in attendance. (The actual number is
thought to be closer to 180,000 - usually stated as between 150,000 and
200,000.) By comparison, the 2005 London Live 8 concert, which featured numerous
of the world's highest drawing acts (including U2, Madonna, Coldplay, Sir Elton
John, Robbie Williams and a reunited Pink Floyd) drew about 150,000.
1977
1977 saw the release of News of the World, an album
that was critically panned at the time but has gained recognition over time as
being one of the stand-out hard rock albums of the late-70s as well as being one
of the albums most influential in creating stadium rock. This album had more of
a sonic punch to it, as well as songs that were tailor-made to be performed (and
subsequently have their greatest effect) live. This album produced the anthemic
"We Will Rock You" and the famous rock ballad "We Are The Champions" (both of
which combined together reached number 4 in the U.S.), as well as the punchy,
near-punk sound of "Sheer Heart Attack" (not to be confused with the album of
the same Queen released three years earlier) - and possibly an influence on
Queens Of The Stone Age's "Feelgood Hit of the Summer" which features an
alarmingly similar guitar riff. "Get Down, Make Love" was a funky, almost
electronic sounding tune which would prove to be hugely influential on the
industrial movement nearly 15 years later--Nine Inch Nails even covered the song
(produced by Al Jourgensen of Ministry, under the pseudonym Hypo Luxa.)
Roger Taylor released his first solo effort this
year in the form of a single. The A-side was a cover of a song by The
Parliaments ("I Wanna Testify") and the B-side was a song by Taylor called "Turn
On The TV".
1978
In 1978 the band released the Jazz album, including
the hit singles "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Bicycle Race", being a double-A-side
single. Although successful, the album was targeted by critics for its
eclecticism. Ironically, the well-known magazine Rolling Stone criticized it for
being "dull", continuing to say "Queen hasn't the imagination to play jazz—
Queen hasn't the imagination, for that matter, to play rock & roll." The album
cover was inspired by a painting on the Berlin wall, and none of the material
can really be defined as jazz even to the casual listener. Important tracks of
the album were "Dead on Time", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Let Me Entertain You" or
"Mustapha", a song by Freddie, which had a very Arabesque sound combined with
heavy rock guitar.
1979
Fan response was lukewarm to Jazz and for the first
time Queen's sales saw a bit of a dip. All band members, especially Mercury,
noted frustration and disappointment with the album, and as a result, took a
break from the breakneck schedule of one or more albums a year, and focused
during the year of 1979 totally on a new album to come out in 1980.
They did, however, release their first-ever live
album, in response to the exorbitant amounts of money Queen bootlegs were
fetching. The album, entitled Live Killers, went platinum (twice in the U.S.) in
most developed countries. They also released the very successful single, "Crazy
Little Thing Called Love," a song done in the style of Elvis Presley; the single
made the top 10 in most countries and was the band's first number one single in
the U.S.
1980s
1980
Queen kicked off the 1980s with the hugely
successful album, The Game. The album turned out to be their highest selling
(barring greatest hits collections). The album featured the "Crazy Little Thing
Called Love" single, as well as the monster hit "Another One Bites The Dust" a
track that was released in the summer of 1980 after Michael Jackson suggested it
would make a great single. Inspired by both the Sugar Hill Gang song, "Rapper's
Delight" and the guitar riffs from Chic's song "Good Times" (which itself
inspired the work of the Sugar Hill Gang), it combined Queen's rock
sensibilities with a funky minimalism that resulted in a discofied rock classic.
It stayed at number one for four weeks in the United States, and the album went
four times platinum States-side. It was also the only song to ever top the
Billboard rock, dance, and R&B charts simultaneously. The album also featured
two of Queen's greatest ballads; "Play the Game" and the fan-favourite "Save
Me," both of which were hits in Britain and well-remembered by rock fans in the
States.
The album was the first appearance of a synthesizer
on a Queen album. Although some have suggested that it was their 1977 album News
Of The World (specifically, the song "Get Down, Make Love") where the
instruments first appeared, the effects were created solely by Brian May's
famous Red Special guitar.
1980 also saw them do the innovative and
critically-acclaimed soundtrack for the movie Flash Gordon. The album sold
poorly, but served as a showcase for Queen in a different light.
1981
1981 saw Queen collaborate with another artist,
David Bowie, for the first time for the single "Under Pressure". The single
netted a number one in Britain and a well-remembered rock anthem, a fan-favourite
of both Queen and Bowie legionnaires. The memorable riff showed up for Vanilla
Ice's 1990 hit, "Ice Ice Baby", prompting a successful lawsuit over the use of
the sample. Under Pressure was recently re-recorded together by The Used and My
Chemical Romance for the Hurricane Katrina Relief. The group also released a
widely successful greatest hits album, their first, which showcased their rock
highlights during the first phase of their career. In this year, Roger Taylor
became the first member of the band to release his own solo album, entitled "Fun
In Space".
1982-1983
The response to "Another One Bites The Dust" was
overwhelming, and many of Queen's new songs featured danceable funk riffs and
disco-influenced beats. The result was the 1982 album Hot Space, which, fairly
or not, tends to be regarded by critics and die-hard, loyal fans alike as being
one of their worst. The album was especially disappointing to the hard-rock
faithful that had followed Queen from their early years. Nonetheless, the album
included "Under Pressure," the only real highlight, and "Body Language," a
single that gained attention only in the U.S., netting a surprise number 11 hit.
After working solidly for over ten years, either
touring or recording new material, Queen decided that they would not perform any
live shows in 1983. During this time they recorded the album "The Works" and
several members of the band explored side projects and solo work which
constantly led to rumours that the band were going to split, rumours that would
persist throughout the rest of their career. Brian May released a mini-album
entitled "Star Fleet Project" on which he collaborated with Eddie Van Halen.
1984
In 1984, Queen successfully bridged the gap between
hard rock and pop with the album The Works, which included the incredibly
successful glitzy rock anthem "Radio Ga Ga," the gorgeous pop of "I Want to
Break Free" (a song later to be used both as an anthem of the democracy movement
in Brazil and later in commercials for the Coca-Cola C2 soda), and the heavy,
hard-rock live favourites "Hammer to Fall" and "Tear It Up." Despite these hit
singles and live barn-burners, the album failed to fare well in the US,
contributing to tensions within the band.
The remarkable music video for "I Want to Break
Free" parodied Coronation Street, a British soap opera, and was popular there,
but as it showed the band in drag, was thought to work against them elsewhere,
where viewers did not get the joke. Mercury was booed when he performed the song
at the Rock in Rio concert wearing stockings and suspenders as in the video,
because he was seen to be degrading the democratic anthem. Many claimed that the
video hurt the band's sales in the United States in subsequent years. The
surprisingly poor sales of "The Works" in the US led to the members of Queen
branching off onto solo projects during this period.
Late in 1984, Queen embarked on a set of dates in
Bophuthatswana, South Africa at the arena at Sun City. Upon returning to
England, Queen was the subject of outrage after having played Sun City during
the height of apartheid in that country. Although Queen maintained that they
were just playing music for people who wanted to hear it, this possibly
contributed to the poor sales of The Works around the world.
1985
Then came 1985, and the benefit concert Live Aid,
at which Queen were invited to perform. In the eyes of critics and fans alike,
the group stole the show at the worldwide extravaganza, performing some of their
greatest hits and wowing audiences with their energy and superb musicianship and
showmanship, including one point during "Radio Ga Ga" where Freddie got the
entire capacity crowd at Wembley Stadium to clap in time with him and the song.
Revitalised by the response to Live Aid and the
resulting increase in record sales, Queen ended 1985 by releasing the single
"One Vision", an uptempo guitar-based song credited, unusually for this period,
to the four members of the band. It was used in the film Iron Eagle.
1986
In early 1986 Queen recorded the album "A Kind of
Magic", containing several songs written for the Russell Mulcahy film Highlander
of the same year, as well as a few inspired by (but not used in) the film. This
album was very successful, producing a string of hits including the title track
"A Kind of Magic", "Who Wants To Live Forever?" and "Friends Will Be Friends".
Later that year, Queen went on a sold-out final
tour, known as The Magic Tour, in support of "A Kind Of Magic", whose highlight
was at Wembley Stadium in London and resulted in the triumphant live double
album, Queen Live At Wembley Stadium, which for many fans and critics has become
Queen's ultimate live document, released both on CD and as a live concert film
on VHS and later DVD. Freddie teased the capacity crowd of 89,000 that Queen
might be breaking up, only to tell the crowd that it was just a silly rumour,
and that Queen would be together until "we fucking will die, I'm sure!" much to
the delight of the crowd.
On this tour, Queen performed for the last time
together. They could not book Wembley for a third night because it was already
booked, but they managed to get Knebworth Park. It sold out within 2 hours, and
over 120,000 fans packed the park to get a glimpse of Queen one last time live.
Queen had to date sold over 80 million albums worldwide.
1989
After working in various solo projects during 1988
(including Mercury´s collaboration with Montserrat Caballé, "Barcelona") the
band released The Miracle in 1989. This record continued the direction of A Kind
of Magic with a polished pop-rock sound and hits like "I Want it All,"
"Invisible Man," "The Miracle," and "Breakthru."
1990s
In 1991, rumours started spreading in the tabloid
press and elsewhere that Freddie Mercury was suffering from AIDS. Although they
were true, Mercury flatly denied these rumours. However, the band decided to
make an album free of conflict and differences. That album became Innuendo.
Although his health began to deteriorate, Mercury was courageous in handling his
contributions. Highlights of the album were the epic title track, reminiscent of
Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir"; the hard-rocking, rollicking powerhouse "Headlong";
and the anthems "The Show Must Go On" and "These Are The Days Of Our Lives".
On November 23, 1991, in a prepared statement made
on his deathbed, Freddie Mercury finally acknowledged he had AIDS. Within 24
hours of the announcement, Mercury was dead at the age of 45. His funeral
services were private, held in accordance with the Zoroastrian religious faith
of his family.
On April 20, 1992, the public shared in the
mourning of Mercury's passing at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, held at
London's Wembley Stadium in Mercury's honour. Musicians such as Annie Lennox,
Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Elton John, George Michael, David Bowie, Metallica,
and Liza Minnelli (along with the three surviving members of Queen) performed
most of Queen's major hits. It became perhaps the most successful live concert
in history, generating over one billion TV viewers worldwide.
Queen never actually disbanded, although their last
album of original material (not including compilations) was released in 1995,
titled Made In Heaven, put out four years after Freddie Mercury's death, and
constructed from Freddie's final recording sessions in 1991 (which the last
session was said to have been only 10 days before his death), plus material
leftover from their previous studio albums. May and Taylor have been involved in
projects-often related to raising money for AIDS research and promoting its
support. John Deacon generally keeps a very low profile, only re-appearing to
quash the notion of Queen re-forming. May and Taylor do participate in the
making of "Queen + ..." projects with various guest musicians, something which
Deacon is said to generally support, although he is alleged to have expressed
criticism towards the projects with Five ("We Will Rock You", 2000) and Robbie
Williams ("We Are The Champions", 2001).
Dragon Attack was an obscure 1997 tribute album
titled after one of Queen's earlier recordings. Put together by Billy Sherwood,
it featured musicians including Yngwie Malmsteen, Lemmy Kilmister, Glenn Hughes,
Carmine Appice and John Petrucci and was one of a number of "tribute albums"
featuring performers of modest notoriety released late in the decade.
2000s
At the end of 2004, it was announced that Queen
would reunite and return to touring in 2005, with Paul Rodgers (founder and
former lead singer of Free, Bad Company, and The Firm) who would be singing in
Freddie Mercury's place, as frontman, but would not be in the band as Brian May
had announced to the Queen fan club, that Paul Rodgers would be "featured with"
Queen, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury. The officially retired Deacon
would not be participating; Danny Miranda of Blue Öyster Cult replaces him on
bass. Other members of the tour included keyboardist Spike Edney who has played
guitar and keyboards in Queen live shows since the early '80s and additional
guitarist Jamie Moses who has worked with Brian May on solo efforts since the
early '90s.
In 2004, ThreeOneG Records (The Locust, Some Girls)
released "Dynamite With a Laserbeam: Queen as Heard Through the Meatgrinder of
ThreeOneG", a tribute album by noise/progressive hardcore/metal heavyweights.
On August 9, 2005, a tribute album of the band,
entitled Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen was released and included song covers
perfomed by Breaking Benjamin, Sum 41, Los Lobos, Joss Stone, Jason Mraz, Gavin
DeGraw, The Flaming Lips, Eleven, Josh Homme and Rooney, among others.
On September 19, 2005, a live double CD album was
released, Return of the Champions, featuring Paul Rodgers. It was recorded live
in May, 2005 during the Queen plus Paul Rodgers tour at the Sheffield Arena in
Sheffield, England.
For the 30th aniversary of the album A Night at the
Opera 21 November 2005, a newly restored two-disc version was released which, in
addition to the CD album, contained a DVD with new videos for every song, except
Bohemian Rhapsody and You're My Best Friend.
In November 2005, Queen also announced a 23-city US
tour set to kick off in March 2006. This tour, apart from the two US dates from
the first Queen+Paul Rodgers tour, marks Queen's first full-on USA tour since
Hot Space in 1982. Bassist John Deacon remains in retirement and will not tour
with May, Taylor, and Rodgers.
Historical success
In 2005, with the release of their live album with
Paul Rodgers, Queen moved into third place of the acts with the most aggregate
time spent on the British record charts, outranking The Beatles.
Current
rankings:
Elvis Presley (2,574 weeks)
Cliff Richard (1,982)
Queen (1,755)
The Beatles (1,749)
Influence on modern music
Queen is remembered for its never-seen-before
theatrics, showmanship, camp and bombast so much that critics have since
classified the band as a major player in the evolution of rock music. Queen is
noted in particular for its musical eclecticism and ground-breaking live shows.
Queen is credited by artists as diverse as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mötley
Crüe, Guns N' Roses, Def Leppard, Metallica, Extreme, Dream Theater, Steve Vai,
Trent Reznor, Robbie Williams, George Michael, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins,
Green Day, Foo Fighters, Muse, The Darkness, Franz Ferdinand, and Joan Osborne
as having a major influence on their sounds.
Queen's theme music for Flash Gordon later became
the inspiration of the theme music for The Big O, a popular Anime series.
The
Digital Realm
Under the supervision of Brian May and Roger
Taylor, numerous restoration projects have been underway involving Queen's
lengthy audio and video catalogue. DVD releases of their famous 1986 Wembley
concert (titled Live At Wembley Stadium) and 1982 Milton Keynes concert, and two
Greatest Video Hits (Volumes 1 and 2, spanning the '70s and '80s) have seen the
band's music remixed into 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound. So far, two of Queen's
most acclaimed albums, A Night At The Opera and The Game, have been fully
remixed into DTS Surround on DVD-Audio albums. Known for their densely layered
arrangements and backing, this medium seems tailor-made for Queen's music. Brian
May has said he would like to see the entire Queen catalogue reproduced in this
format, as it is closer to what the band envisaged for their work years ago.
In 1998 Queen (in conjunction with Electronic Arts)
released a computer game Queen: The Eye to commercial and critical failure. The
music itself was by and large well received, but the experience was hampered by
poor gameplay.
The Queen camp continues to work on future concert
releases, at least one more video collection (Volume 3) and the rest of album
catalogue in the DVD-Audio format. True to form, Taylor and May are in constant
communication with fans, collectors and industry experts to find out where
demand lies for future releases and where the industry and new technology is
headed.
Queen
Live
Queen's live performances were truly
ground-breaking, employing massive lighting rigs, pyrotechnics, and other
special effects to make their shows into engaging theatrical events. Along with
their contemporaries KISS and David Bowie, they changed live concerts forever
from the staid, stodgy events that had prevailed since the time of the Beatles,
where performers would merely stand around and play their instruments. The
energy with which they performed, the excitement, enthusiasm and pure adrenaline
Freddie Mercury brought with his vocal performance, was so natural and so
genuine that the audience almost always joined in and sang. Mercury immersed
himself in the crowd's adulation and thrived off their excitement, a trait for
which many, including Kurt Cobain (in his suicide note), have expressed
admiration. Beginning with "News Of The World" in 1977, Queen began to write
songs with the specific purpose of involving the crowd, like "We Will Rock You"
and "We Are The Champions," and tailored some songs, like "Radio GaGa" to
involve claps. This resulted in a stunning moment at Live Aid at which almost
80,000 people at Wembley Stadium clapped their hands over their head in unison
to "Radio Ga Ga."
Queen embarked upon many popular tours, with
memorable shows (including the historic Live Aid concert) held at Wembley
Stadium in England, and at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil, although only the
group's final tour, in support of the album "A Kind of Magic", ever actually
made any money.
The Wembley concert, part of a UK tour in 1986,
attracted 150,000 people over two nights. A memorable and prophetic moment
occurred when Freddie Mercury told the audience: "There's been a lot of rumours
lately about a certain band called Queen... the rumours are that we're gonna
split up. What do you think?" Audience: "No!" Freddie: "Forget those rumours,
we're gonna stay together 'till we fucking well die, I'm sure!".
At the Knebworth concert held with some 150,000 in
attendance on August 9th that same year, Freddie makes the following statement:
"...and earlier on, there were rumours of us
splitting up, but I mean, fuck 'em! I mean, really, look at this! (cheers). I
mean, how can you split up when you have an audience like this, I mean, really!
We're not that stupid!"
Ironically, the band were to hardly meet for
another 3 years, during which time Freddie Mercury did some solo work and Roger
Taylor did some work with The Cross.
According to Jim Hutton's book, Mercury and Me,
Freddie Mercury was diagnosed HIV positive the following year (1987), which
probably explains why they went quiet after such a successful tour. (Jim Hutton
was Mercury's final partner, together from the mid-80s until his death.)
Members
Of The Band As Instrumentalists
It's well known that in the basic line-up, Deacon
played bass, Taylor played drums, Mercury played piano and May played guitar.
But, like their heroes The Beatles, Queen members explored different kinds of
instrumental functions throughout their career.
Roger Taylor was more than competent with a guitar;
in fact in the late 1980s he formed a parallel band in which he was solely the
rhythm guitarist. Occasionally he played bass for his own songs with Queen (e.g.
"Sheer Heart Attack"), and he knew some notes at the keyboard, although mostly
he used synths for atmospheric effects. Still, he reportedly composed many songs
at the piano because he didn't know how to play it well, and therefore he came
up with nonstandard ideas when he played. He admitted that he didn't even know
the Queens of some of the chords in "Radio Ga Ga".
Freddie Mercury was a pianist with the ability to
cover many different styles and performances. Mostly he used grand pianos, but
throughout the years he occasionally played upright jangle and electric piano.
He was an experienced synth player and programmer as well: the orchestral
interludes of "Was It All Worth It" were completely composed, arranged and
played by him on a Korg M1 keyboard, as well as the string sections of "Bijou".
Mercury was often self-deprecating about his guitar skills, introducing "Crazy
Little Thing Called Love" by "I only know three chords" jokes. However, he would
write on guitar occasionally, especially in the early days, such as the famous
riff from "Ogre Battle," and the rock part in the world number one "Bohemian
Rhapsody."It's unknown if he could play bass or drums to any extent, but it's
been confirmed that he came up with very elaborate parts for them on various
songs. In fact he composed the bass-line of Roger's "A Kind Of Magic", and
programmed many rhythm parts in his first solo album, Mr. Bad Guy.
John Deacon played guitar in addition to bass,
taking over rhythm parts in many albums, as well as several acoustic
performances. Reportedly he could keep basic drum patterns and, even if he never
mastered his keyboard abilities, he would occasionally play synths on his own
compositions and often composed at the piano, playing an electric one on his top
ten hit "You're My Best Friend", He can also be seen playing the grand piano in
the video to "Spread Your Wings." He took over double-bass roles sometimes;
reportedly Brian May had told him to play it on "'39" as a joke, but some days
later John appeared at the studio with the instrument and he had already learnt
how to play it.
Brian May played piano and ukelele in addition to
guitar. He played rhythm instruments less than the other Queen members, but
occasionally he did some bass or drum parts in his solo albums, and within the
band he composed some parts for bass and drums, like in "Sweet Lady" or "Teo
Torriatte". He added some special instruments here and there, but most of them
were via studio tricks; for example, to nail the harp parts of "Love Of My
Life", he played each chord separately in a different take, then the producer
merged them to form the entire part. "The Prophet's Song" is probably his finest
work, with an acoustic arrangement which features a (toy)koto given to him by a
fan. This can be heard in the intro and the wonderful outro of this eight minute
and twenty seconds long epic.
Queen
in film
Queen contributed music directly to the movies
Flash Gordon and Highlander (the original film directed by Russell Mulcahy).
Several other films featured their songs, including Iron Eagle, National
Lampoon's Loaded Weapon, Wayne's World, Small Soldiers, Super Size Me, A
Knight's Tale, The Girl Next Door, Revenge of the Nerds, and Shaun of the Dead.
The song "Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released after appearing in Wayne's World,
and subsequently made number 2 on the US billboard chart. A year earlier it went
to number 1 in the UK for a second time, the first time this had happened in
that chart's history.
Documentary
In the BBC series Classic Albums one episode is
about the A night at the opera album. In this documentary it is revealed that
the song Death on two legs dedicated to .... is dedicated to a man in the music
industry, who is blamed for the band being in debt despite the relative success
of the third album and the hit Killer Queen. According to the show, Freddie
Mercury wanted this song to be a morbid rocker, due to the hatred he had towards
this man. The band were very uncertain from the word go about this song, seeing
as it explores the hard rock genre, but Mercury insisted, and today has become a
favourite of Queen's world-wide audience.
Queen
in musical theatre
In 2002, a musical or "rock theatrical" based on
the songs of Queen, entitled We Will Rock You, opened at the Dominion Theatre on
London's West End. The musical was written by British comedian and author Ben
Elton in collaboration with Brian May and Roger Taylor. It has since been staged
in Barcelona, Spain; Melbourne and Sydney, Australia; Cologne, Germany; and Las
Vegas, United States. The musical is now due to end its Dominion run 7th October
2006, with the joint producers of the show, Phil McIntyre Entertainment and
Queen Productions, opting for a touring production of We Will Rock You
throughout the UK. We Will Rock You became the longest running musical ever to
run at this prime London theatre, overtaking the previous record holder the
Grease musical.
The launch of the musical coincided with the
Queen's Golden Jubilee. As part of the Jubilee celebrations Brian May performed
a guitar solo of God Save the Queen, as featured on Queen's A Night at the
Opera, from the roof of Buckingham Palace. The recording of this performance was
used as video for the same song on the jubilee version of A Night at the Opera
Discography
Studio
albums
Queen (1973) #24 UK
Queen II (1974) #5 UK
Sheer Heart Attack (1974) #2 UK, #11 US
A Night at the Opera (1975) #1 UK, #4 US, #1
Netherlands
A Day at the Races (1976) #1 UK, #5 US, #1 Japan,
#1 Netherlands
News of the World (1977) #4 UK, #3 US, #3 Japan, #1
Netherlands
Jazz (1978) #2 UK, #6 US
The Game (1980) #1 UK, #1 US
Flash Gordon (1980) #10 UK, #23 US, #1 Austria
Hot Space (1982) #4 UK, #22 US, #1 Austria
The Works (1984) #2 UK, #23 US, #1 Netherlands
A Kind of Magic (1986) #1 UK, #46 US
The Miracle (1989) #1 UK, #24 US, #1 Austria, #1
Netherlands, #1 Switzerland
Innuendo (1991) #1 UK, #30 US, #1 Netherlands, #1
Switzerland
Made in Heaven (1995) #1 UK, #58 US, #1 Austria, #1
Italy, #1 Netherlands, #1 Switzerland. Sold in excess of 10 million by 1997.
The band have had 9 of their 15 albums at number 1.
Live
albums
Live Killers (1979) #3 UK #16 US
Live Magic (1986) #3 UK
Live at Wembley '86 (1992) #2 UK #53 US
Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl (2004) #20 UK
Queen + Paul Rodgers: Return of the Champions
(2005) #12 UK
Compilations
Greatest Hits (Elektra: 1981, Parlophone: 1994) #1
UK (11x Platinum), #14 US (7x Platinum), #1 Austria, #1 Netherlands. Sales to
date in excess of 26 million copies worldwide (inc the 1992 release).
The Best Of Queen (198?) (A variation of Queen's
"Greatest Hits" from Poland and Korea)
The Complete Works (1985) - all albums from
1973-1985 plus bonus material
Queen at the Beeb (1989) #67 UK; Queen at the BBC
(US/Hollywood: 1995)
Greatest Hits II (1991) #1 in UK (8x Platinum),
Italy, Germany (4x Platinum), Argentina (Diamond award), Austria, Brazil,
Denmark, Hungary, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland
Classic Queen (US only: 1992) #4 US
Greatest Hits (US/Hollywood: 1992)
Greatest Hits, Vols. 1-2 (1994) #37 UK
Queen Rocks (1997) #7 UK
The Crown Jewels (1998)
Greatest Hits III (1999) #5 UK, #2 Austria, #4
Switzerland
Platinum Collection, Vols. 1-3 (2000) #2 UK, #48
US. Sales in excess of 3 million albums ( 9 million single units) within Europe.
Greatest Hits: We Will Rock You Edition (US only:
2004) #42 US
Jewels (Japan only: January 28, 2004) #1 Japan
sales in excess of 1.5 million
Jewels II (Japan only: January 26, 2005) #9
Tribute
albums
Dragon Attack - A Tribute to Queen (1997) - tribute
album
Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen (August 9, 2005) -
tribute album
"Dynamite With A Laserbeam: Queen As Heard Through
The Meat Grinder Of Three One G. 2005 - tribute album
Singles
"Keep Yourself Alive/Son And Daughter" (1973) -
Didn't chart UK, #89 US (Cashbox)
"Seven Seas Of Rhye/See What A Fool I've Been"
(1974) #10 UK
"Killer Queen/Flick Of The Wrist" (1974) #2 UK, #12
US
"Now I'm Here/Lily Of The Valley" (1975) #11 UK
"Bohemian Rhapsody/I'm In Love With My Car" (1975)
#1 UK, #9 US
"You're My Best Friend/'39" (1976) #7 UK, #16 US
"Somebody to Love/White Man" (1976) #2 UK, #13 US
"Tie Your Mother Down/You And I" (1977) #31 UK, #49
US
"Good Old Fashioned Loverboy/Death On Two
Legs/Tenement Funster/White Queen" (1977) #17 UK
"We Are the Champions/We Will Rock You" (1977) #2
UK, #4 US
"Spread Your Wings/Sheer Heart Attack" (1978) #34
UK
"It's Late/Sheer Heart Attack" (1978) #72 US
"Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls" (1978) #11 UK,
#24 US
"Don't Stop Me Now/In Only Seven Days" (1979) #9
UK, #86 US
"Love Of My Life(LIVE)/Now I'm Here(LIVE)" (1979)
#63 UK
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love/We Will Rock
You(LIVE)" (1979) #2 UK, #1 US
"Save Me/Let Me Entertain You(LIVE)" (1980) #11 UK
"Play The Game/A Human Body" (1980) #14 UK, #42
"Another One Bites The Dust/Dragon Attack" (1980)
#7 UK, #1 US, #2 Black Singles (US), #2 Club Play Singles (US)
"Need Your Loving Tonight/Rock It" (1980) #44 US
"Flash" (1980) #10 UK, #42 US
"Under Pressure (with David Bowie)/Soul Brother"
(1981) #1 UK, #29 US, #7 (US Rock Chart)
"Body Language" (1982) #25 UK, #11 US, #30 Black
Singles (US), #62 Club Play Singles (US)
"Las Palabras De Amor" (1982) #17 UK
"Calling All Girls" (1982) #60 US, #40 (US Rock
Chart)
"Back Chat" (1982) #40 UK
"Put Out The Fire" (1982) #7 (US Rock Chart)
"Life Is Real" (1982) #57 (US Rock Chart)
"Radio Ga Ga" (1984) #2 UK, #16 US
"I Want To Break Free" (1984) #3 UK, #45 US
"It's A Hard Life" (1984) #6 UK, #72 US
"Hammer To Fall" (1984) #13 UK
"Thank God It's Christmas" (1984) #21 UK
"One Vision" (1985) #7 UK, #61 US, #19 (US Rock
Chart)
"A Kind Of Magic" (1986) #3 UK, #42 US
"Friends Will Be Friends" (1986) #14 UK
"Who Wants To Live Forever" (1986) #24 UK
"I Want It All" (1989) #3 UK, #50 US, #3 (US Rock
Chart)
"Breakthru'" (1989) #7 UK
"The Invisible Man" (1989) #12 UK
"Scandal" (1989) #25 UK
"The Miracle" (1989) #21 UK
"Innuendo" (1991) #1 UK, #17 (US Rock Chart)
"I'm Going Slightly Mad" (1991) #22 UK
"Headlong" (1991) #14 UK, #3 (US Rock Chart)
"I Can't Live With You (1991) #28 (US Rock Chart)
"The Show Must Go On" (1991) #16 UK, #2 US
"Bohemian Rhapsody"/"These Are The Days Of Our
Lives" (1991) #1 UK
"Bohemian Rhapsody"(1992) #2 US
"Hammer To Fall" (1992) #35 (US Rock Chart)
"Five Live (EP)" (with George Michael and Lisa
Stansfield - 1993) #1 UK
"Heaven For Everyone" (1995) #2 UK
"A Winter's Tale" (1995) #6 UK
"Too Much Love Will Kill You" (1996) #15 UK
"Let Me Live" (1996) #9 UK
"You Don't Fool Me - The Remixes" (1996) #17 UK
"No-One But You"/"Tie Your Mother Down" (1998) #13
UK
"Another One Bites The Dust" (with Wyclef Jean
featuring Pras and Free - 1998) #5 UK
"Under Pressure '99" (with David Bowie - 1999) #14
UK
"We Will Rock You" (with 5ive - 2000) #1 UK
"Flash" (with Vanguard - 2003) #15 UK
"Reaching Out / Tie Your Mother Down / Fat Bottomed
Girls" (Queen + Paul Rodgers - 2005)
The band have had a total of 6 number ones in the
UK.
* * * *
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