Queen: Queen II - 1974

 

In 1974, Queen were still something of a "cult" band. One (comparatively) minor chart hit in Seven Seas Of Rhye had brought them to people's attention and this, my personal favourite Queen album, still slipped under the radar in comparison to later works. Lyrically, fairies, queens, dragonflies, ogres and the like were still prevalent and the music the mixture of "heavy" and piano-driven melodic lightness of touch that we had been introduced to on their 1973 debut album. 

Let's check out the fairy fellers and white queens.....👑

There was, thankfully, none of the 1920s-style Mercury foppery that, in my opinion, so blighted A Night At The Opera, A Day At The Races and, to a lesser extent Sheer Heart Attack. Give me white queens and ogre battles to lazing on a Sunday afternoon, which is a strange choice to make when assessing a "rock" band's music, but the "heavy" bits on White Queen, Father To Son and Ogre Battle always win out for me and thus make Queen II a very credible album. 

Despite the appeal of the industrial heavy rock of Father To Son and Brian May's Mercury-like and thoroughly beguiling White Queen (As It Began) as openers, the ethereal, ghostly May number Some Day One Day and the completely incongruous but strangely rockily appealing "Taylor track", The Loser In The End, (written by drummer Roger Taylor, where he regrets allowing his mother to wash his clothes for him in his youth), it is the old "side two" that completely steals the show. I have to say also, however, that the production on Father To Son is pretty ropey - the track sounds - as much of Queen's output did - muffled and quiet when it shouldn't be, and then loud when it also shouldn't be. I do like the grandiose Procession intro that precedes Father To Son, though, giving us as it did a little sign of Queen's regal persona. 

Anyway on to side two. Segued as one complete whole, Abbey Road style, we get one Queen classic after another, all written by Freddie Mercury - the afore-mentioned heavy grind of the phantasmagorical Ogre Battle; the artist Richard Dadd-inspired lyrical wonder of the breezily light The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke; the beautiful but brief piano-driven ballad Nevermore that leads us into the tour de force and forerunner to Bohemian Rhapsody that is The March Of The Black Queen (in many ways I prefer it to Rhapsody). The latter is a sensational mélange of images, musical changes and sheer overflowing creativity. It is like a detailed painting. Like Richard Dadd's Fairy Feller work, in fact. It sort of functions as a continuation of those images and characters. 

Finally, we get the harmonious, vaguely sixties and Beach Boys-ish Funny How Love Is before the catchy rock of the group's first hit single, Seven Seas Of Rhye, signs off on what is, in my opinion, the finest twenty minutes in Queen's career. By far. It was Freddie Mercury's master work, without a doubt. Many fans weaned on all those later hit singles will no doubt not agree but, for me, this was the very raison d'être of Queen. Add White Queen to side two and you have some serious Queen perfection. Forget Radio Ga Ga, Another One Bites The Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. 

With further regard to Seven Seas Of Rhye and glammy rock mixed with Mercury's vaguely vaudeville touches and lyrics - it laid the foundations for Killer Queen, didn't it? It was this infectious single that kick-started my liking for phase one Queen.

In conclusion, as you might have guessed, I will say that the album is simply great - rocking throughout, even around its more winsome moments. I love it. Queen II is proof that Queen weren't always the "singles band" that some later albums unfortunately suggested they may be.