Queen: A Night At The Opera - 1975

"On Queen II we've gone berserk, but on this album I consciously restricted myself" - Freddie Mercury

 

This was the album that sent Queen into the stratosphere, largely due to the presence of the monster hit single Bohemian Rhapsody. For many, many people, it is their best album. Not for me, I prefer the three before it and the two after it. That is a matter of personal taste and mine is for Queen to rock, as opposed to swanning around on a Sunday afternoon. 

This album was too much of a mix of styles for my liking (although, admittedly, Queen albums were often like that). It is a veritable cornucopia of an album, full of different styles from one track to the next, which, for me, leads to a lack of cohesion and flow. Many love it like that, though, just as they loved Sgt. Pepper. The album pretty much sums up my ambivalent relationship with Queen. When they rocked they were good. When they were good, they rocked. 

Unfortunately, rather like with the Paul McCartney “whimsy” songs on Beatles albums, songs like the Edwardian jollity of Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon and Seaside Rendezvous or the jaunty Ukelele-driven jazz of Good Company annoy me somewhat and I question what place they have on a rock album, alongside genuinely heavy things like the vituperative, grudge-bearing Death On Two Legs and the chunky rock of Sweet Lady, both of which sound great on this 2011 remaster by the way, as does the vocal harmony bit in the monumental and lengthy The Prophet's Song as well. I have never heard it sounding so good, to be honest. The latter was a proper Queen rock song - full of heavy guitar and drums married with some inventive vocal indulgence. It is an underrated number indeed, overshadowed by the classic singles and the frothier material. It surely had to be influenced, vocally, by Yes's South Side Of The Sky, from 1971. however. 

The album as a whole falls short in my eyes, however, when a great rocker like Death On Two Legs suddenly morphs into Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon or when Sweet Lady is followed by Seaside Rendezvous. I was always puzzled as to what Queen's army of predominantly male rock fans made of this stuff - they probably did as I and my friends at the time did and pretended to like it, while waiting for the band to get back to rocking. 

A couple of more positive moments can be found in Roger Taylor's I'm In Love With My Car, which is a solid rocker, and John Deacon's summery, Beach Boys-esque You're My Best Friend with its catchy singalong appeal. The latter made an absolutely perfect choice for a summer single and duly populated the airwaves during the long hot summer of 1976. Roger Taylor's drum parts are big and powerful but overall the song is lightweight and poppy. I can fully understand its appeal, though, as it is just so damn radio-friendly. 

Brian May's folky, acoustic '39 is ok, but once again it is more than a little incongruous. However, on the other hand Mercury's Love Of My Life is, of course, completely and utterly sumptuous. 

A Night At The Opera was very much an album of contradictions, which these comments of mine once more highlight. 

Then, lest we forget, (how could we?) there is the titanic, ground-breaking Bohemian Rhapsody, the band's bountiful, burgeoning behemoth that really needs no introduction to anyone. Yes, everyone has heard it so many times but that doesn't stop it being a work of creative genius, the effect of which, upon release, was simply seismic. After that, six minute singles became de rigeur for a while. It is amazing to hear the rest of the group subsequently tell how they wanted to bin it but Freddie insisted he had something. Boy was he right. However many times I hear it, the feeling of November 1975 and the moment when I first heard it is brought back, without fail. While in many ways it is a totally preposterous song, it is undoubtedly one of the greatest singles of all time. No further comment is needed, really other than to reiterate that when it came out everyone was talking about it, even my Dad, who hated rock music. I bought the single and played it again and again and again....

On a broader level, the huge singles chart success apart, this was undoubtedly Queen’s big shot at the title. Their Sgt Pepper. Like Pepper it contained a few things I feel should not have been there and which, personally, render it unworthy of its “classic” status. The “Mercury foppery” tracks were - interestingly - rarely, if ever, played live by the band yet they and their similar follow-ons kept appearing on Queen albums alongside some great rock tracks. This exemplifies my eternal frustration with Queen. Were they a true rock band or were they something else? Maybe they were both and therein lay their appeal for many. If I just wanted rock, maybe I should have just stuck to Hendrix, Led Zeppelin or Free. 

As for their albums overall, I much preferred Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack and A Day At The Races anyway. A Night At The Opera is like a chocolate box - you've always got the coconut, hard toffees and coffee ones in there somewhere.