Queen II

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Queen II
Studio album by Queen
Released	8 March 1974 (UK) 9 April 1974 (USA)
Recorded	August 1973 at Trident Studios
Genre	Rock Progressive rock Experimental rock Hard rock Heavy metal
Length	40:42
Label	EMI/Parlophone (Europe), Elektra, Hollywood Records (US)
Producer(s)	Roy Thomas Baker and Queen "Nevermore" and "Funny How Love Is": Robin G. Cable and Queen "The March of the Black Queen": Roy Thomas Baker, Robin G. Cable and Queen
Professional reviews
AMG link
Queen chronology
Queen (1973)	Queen II (1974)	Sheer Heart Attack (1974)

Queen II is a rock album by English band Queen, originally released in 1974. It was recorded at Trident Studios, London, England in August 1973, and engineered by Mike Stone. The two sides of the original LP were labelled "Side White" and "Side Black" (instead of the conventional sides "A" and "B"), with corresponding photos of the band dressed in white or in black on either side of the record's label face. The US seemed to have the standard butterfly logo, as in reality, "Keep Yourself Alive" did better in the states than in the UK.

Mick Rock's album cover photograph was frequently re-used by the band throughout its career, most notably in the music video for the song Bohemian Rhapsody (1975). There are two versions of this photograph, one with black for the background and foreground (right), the other with a brown foreground.

Numerous problems beset the album's release. Its completion coincided with the 1973 oil crisis and consequently, government-enforced measures for energy conservation delayed its manufacture by several months. Once the long-overdue first pressing arrived in record shops, the band noticed a spelling error on the sleeve, and had to complain persistently to correct it.^{[citation needed]}

As with Queen's debut album, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury was the dominant songwriter. He composed and arranged the entire "Black" side, contributing virtuosic piano and harpsichord pieces and a wide range of distinctive vocal performances. The "White" side is very diverse: of the four songs composed by Brian May, one is instrumental, one is sung by Mercury & Taylor (with May at the piano), the next is sung by Mercury, and the last by May. John Deacon played acoustic guitar as well as bass on most of the album, except the songs "White Queen" and "Some Day One Day", which were performed by May — partly on an inexpensive Hairfred guitar that he had owned since his childhood.

Contents 1 Track listing 1.1 Procession 1.2 Father to Son 1.3 White Queen (As It Began) 1.4 Some Day One Day 1.5 Loser in the End 1.6 Ogre Battle 1.7 The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke 1.8 Nevermore 1.9 The March of the Black Queen 1.10 Funny How Love Is 1.11 Seven Seas of Rhye 1.12 Unreleased songs 2 Album history 3 Queen about the record 4 Charts 5 Press reviews 6 Personnel 7 Equipment 8 External links 9 References

[edit] Track listing

• Side White
  1. "Procession" (May) - 1:12
  2. "Father to Son" (May) - 6:14
  3. "White Queen (As It Began)" (May) - 4:33
  4. "Some Day One Day" (May) - 4:21
  5. "Loser in the End" (Taylor) - 4:01
• Side Black
  1. "Ogre Battle" (Mercury) - 4:08
  2. "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" (Mercury) - 2:41
  3. "Nevermore" (Mercury) - 1:17
  4. "The March of the Black Queen" (Mercury) - 6:33
  5. "Funny How Love Is" (Mercury) - 2:48
  6. "Seven Seas of Rhye" (Mercury) - 2:48 Sample (help·info)
• Bonus tracks on 1991 Hollywood Records re-issue
  1. "See What A Fool I've Been" (May) - original B-side
  2. "Ogre Battle ('1991 Bonus Remix' by Nicholas Sansano)" (Mercury)
  3. "Seven Seas of Rhye ('1991 Bonus Remix' by Freddy Bastone)" (Mercury)

[edit] Procession

"Procession" was performed by Brian May on multi-tracked guitar. He recorded it by playing overlapping parts on the Red Special through John Deacon's custom-made amplifier (the Deacy Amp). It also sounds vaguely similar to the last part of Bohemian Rhapsody.

[edit] Father to Son

"Father to Son" was written by May, being musically influenced by The Who^{[citation needed]}. It features heavy metal-like sections as well as quiet piano parts, some of which May played (Mercury took over for more complicated work).

[edit] White Queen (As It Began)

"White Queen" was composed by May while he was studying astronomy at Imperial College^{[citation needed]}. It concerns his feelings about a girl whom he had a crush on — he never had the courage to express his feelings to her. Contrary to what many people believe, it was never performed by May's former band Smile. All of the vocals were sung by Mercury, including some multi-tracked harmonies emulating an angelic choir.

[edit] Some Day One Day

May got the inspiration for "Some Day One Day" from the idea of a place where relationships could be perfect. May would revisit that theme many years later on his solo record Another World.

This is the first song sung entirely by May on lead vocals. It features May on acoustic guitar and electric guitar and the last guitar solo (during the fade-out) features three solo guitars. This kind of complex guitar arrangement is typical of May, however, usually the guitars are harmonious, but in this case all the guitars are all playing different parts.

[edit] Loser in the End

"Loser in the End" was Taylor's sole contribution on the album as a songwriter and lead singer. Although Queen II is not a concept album, all of the songs seemed to be connected, either lyrically or in general tone (or both), this one seems to be lone track lacking either attribute.

[edit] Ogre Battle

Mercury wrote "Ogre Battle" on guitar in 1972 and played it remarkably fast in its original form^{[citation needed]}. The band didn't want to record it for their first album, but rather waited until they could have more studio freedom to do it properly. The ogre-like screams in the middle are Mercury's, and the high harmonies at the end of the chorus hook are sung by Taylor. The introduction is simply the last few bars of the song played in reverse.

As the title suggests, it tells the story of a battle between ogres, and features a May guitar solo and sound effects to simulate the sound of a battle. The guitar riff along with Roger Taylor's drumming give it a very "thrash" sound.

The song is complex musically including an acyclic structure and some strange harmonic modulations. For the recording sessions many progressive effects were included at the request of Mercury to producer Roy Thomas Baker. Those effects include reversed snare rolls, wild screaming, and a heavily reverbed gong.

[edit] The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke

Mercury was inspired to write "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" after seeing a painting of the same name by Richard Dadd. For the intricately-arranged studio recording, Mercury played harpsichord as well as piano, and producer Roy Thomas Baker played the castanets. Taylor called this song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment", referring to the intricate use of panning in the mix.

The song, like most of the songs on the album, features medieval fantasy-based lyrics, and makes direct reference to the painting's characters as detailed in Dadd's poem, such as Queen Mab, Waggoner Will, the Tatterdemalion, and others. Apparently whenever Queen had spare time, Mercury would drag them to the London's Tate Gallery, where the painting was, and still is today.

The complex arrangements are based around a backing track of piano, bass guitar and drums, but also included harpsichord, multiple vocal overdubs, and overdubbed guitar parts. The lyrics follow the claustrophobic atmosphere of the painting, and each of the scenes are described. The use of the word "Quaere" has no reference to Mercury's sexuality, according to Queen's drummer, Roger Taylor. Queen never performed this song live.

[edit] Nevermore

The previous track ends with a three-part vocal harmony from May, Mercury, and Taylor which flows into Mercury playing the piano on this track. All the vocal parts were by Mercury, who added some contemporary piano 'ring' effects as well. These effects were widely suspected to be synthesizers, however they were created by someone plucking the piano strings while Mercury played the notes.

[edit] The March of the Black Queen

Many point to this song as evidence that Queen has always been a progressive rock band; it changes mood and tempo numerous times throughout, contains fantastic lyrical themes and is over six minutes long. Because of this and the complex vocal and guitar harmonies many compare it to their hit "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Mercury composed it at the piano in 1973 the song is the only Queen song containing polyrhythm (two different time signatures simultaneously 8/8 and 12/8), which is very advanced for popular music.

The full piece was never performed live by the band, however the uptempo section containing the lines "My life is your hands, I'll foe and I'll fie..." etc was sometimes included in a live medley during the 1970s.

This track flows seamlessly into the next song, "Funny How Love Is". This song ends with an ascending note progression, which climaxes in the first second of the following track.

[edit] Funny How Love Is

"Funny How Love Is" was born in the studio. Mercury wrote it and played the piano while Robin Cable produced. It was produced using the "wall of sound" technique.

[edit] Seven Seas of Rhye

Main article: Seven Seas of Rhye

"Seven Seas of Rhye" had been half-written at the time of recording for Queen's first album, so a short clip of it was included there. However, when Queen finished the song, it ended up being much different from what they'd first envisioned. It was the band's first hit single, peaking at #10 in the UK charts.

[edit] Unreleased songs

Unreleased songs from these sessions include Deacon's first song, titled "Fly By Night", as well as two songs called "Deep Ridge" (by May) and "Surrender To The City" (by Mercury). Initial ideas for "Brighton Rock" and "The Prophet's Song" were laid down during these sessions.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Album history

With their debut album recorded and mixed by the end of November, 1972, Queen set about touring and promoting it. Management problems forced the album to be released under the independent Trident label, but only after eight months had gone by since completion. During that time, Queen were writing new material and anxious to record it. Several new songs were written immediately after the first album, and some dated from even earlier. "See What A Fool I've Been" was left over from the Smile days (and was actually built around Brian's recollection of a blues diddy he had heard on a television program; the song was "That's How I Feel" by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, which Brian finally re-discovered in 2004 after an eager fan tracked it down for him). "Ogre Battle" was written during the debut album sessions, as was "Father To Son", but the band decided to wait on recording them until they had more ample studio time.

August 1973 found the band back in Trident, now allowed to book proper hours there, with an album under their belts. For what is generally considered a complex album (with layered vocals, harmonies and instruments), it took a very short time — only one month — to record Queen II. A full version of "The Seven Seas of Rhye" was laid down, recorded with the specific intention of being the album's leading single. After the commercial failure of "Keep Yourself Alive", which was taken from the first album, Queen decided it needed a single that did not take "too long to happen" (without a lengthy guitar intro). So, Queen and Baker made sure that "Rhye" began in a way which would grab people. Mythology and art were passions of Freddie's, and Richard Dadd's painting "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" (which currently hangs in the Tate Gallery) sparked his creativity. This scene from Dadd's imagination was inspired by characters from faery myths, which in the painting are gathered around the Feller of Trees to watch him crack a walnut for Queen Mab's new carriage.

Mick Rock was employed to do the photography for the album's artwork. Mercury was inspired by a picture of Marlene Dietrich looking into a white spotlight in the dark, as smoke from her cigarette swirled about her. This single picture of Queen, used on the Queen II album cover, would become one of the band's most iconic images, revisited and brought to life for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional film.

Robin Cable, with whom Mercury had worked during the "I Can Hear Music" session, was recruited to reproduce the Spector production sound for "Funny How Love Is".

The album was completed by the end of August 1973. Queen added "Ogre Battle", "Procession" and "Father to Son" to their live setlists immediately and toured extensively. Once again, however, Trident delayed the record since Queen's first album had only just been released in the UK and had yet to be issued in the US. Queen II finally entered stores in the UK on March 8th of 1974.

The only single released from the album worldwide in 1974 (February 23rd in the UK) was "The Seven Seas Of Rhye", with the B-Side "See What A Fool I've Been" (which did not appear on the album) in most territories. Japan's B-Side was album track "Loser In The End".

In 1977, Queen's First E.P. was released, featuring "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" (from A Day At The Races) and "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to..." (from A Night At The Opera) as the A-Side, and "Tenement Funster" (from Sheer Heart Attack) and "White Queen (As It Began)" (from Queen II). This version of "White Queen" is a stand-alone version, eliminating the segue (from "Father To Son") which appears on the album.

In 1987/1988 the UK three-inch CD single reissue of "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" featured "See What A Fool I've Been" and a unique edit of "Funny How Love Is" (featuring the last verse of the album track "The March Of The Black Queen" as an intro).

In 1991 the same three-inch singles as previously released in the UK are issued in Japan. "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" single in this set features the standard "See What A Fool I've Been" track and a stand-alone version of "Funny How Love Is" (different from the UK CD3 release).

Also in 1991, Hollywood Records re-released Queen II in the US and Canada with "See What A Fool I've Been" as a bonus track plus updated remixes of "Ogre Battle" and "Seven Seas Of Rhye".

Queen II was Queen's first UK Top 5 album while it sold poorly on the US peaking in the lower reaches of the Top 100 on Billboard's album chart and remains the only 1970s era Queen album not to be certified either Gold or Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

[edit] Queen about the record

	For some strange reason, we seemed to get a rather different feel on the album because of the way we were forced to record it, and even allowing for the problems we had, none of us were really displeased with the result. Led Zeppelin and The Who are probably in there somewhere, because they were among our favorite groups, but what we are trying to do differently from either of those groups [is] this sort of layered sound. The Who had the open chord guitar sound, and there's a bit of that in "Father To Son", but our sound is more based on the overdriven guitar sound, which is used for the main bulk of the song... but I also wanted to build up textures behind the main melody lines. To me, Queen II was the sort of emotional music we'd always wanted to be able to play, although we couldn't play most of it onstage because it was too complicated. We were trying to push studio techniques to a new limit for rock groups — it was fulfilling all our dreams, because we didn't have much opportunity for that on the first album. It went through our minds to call the album Over the Top.
—Brian May

	We took so much trouble over that album, possibly too much, but when we finished we felt really proud. Immediately it got really bad reviews, so I took it home to listen to and thought, 'Christ, are they right?'. But after hearing it a few weeks later, I still like it. I think it's great. We'll stick by it. Considering the abuse we've had lately, I'm surprised that the new LP has done so well. I suppose it's basically because people like the band.
—Roger Taylor

	Well, that was a concept that we developed in that time... it doesn't have any special meaning. But we were fascinated with this type of thing... the wardrobe that we used at the time described it perfectly well.
—Freddie Mercury

[edit] Charts

	Charts		Sales
Country	Peak position	Weeks	Certification	Sales
United Kingdom	5	29	Gold	350.000
Norway	19
Japan	26
United States	49	13	Gold	700.000

[edit] Press reviews

Melody Maker: "It's reputed Queen have enjoyed some success in the States, it's currently in the balance whether they'll really break through here. If they do, then I'll have to eat my hat or something. Maybe Queen try too hard, there's no depth of sound or feeling."

Sounds: "Simply titled Queen II, this album captures them in their finest hours."

Disc: "The material, performance, recording and even artwork standards are very high."

Record Mirror: "This is it, the dregs of glam rock. Weak and over-produced, if this band are our brightest hope for the future, then we are committing rock and roll suicide."

New Musical Express on the single Seven Seas Of Rhye: "This single showcases all their power and drive, their writing talents, and every quality that makes them unique."^[1]

[edit] Personnel

• Freddie Mercury: Lead vocals, background vocals, piano, harpsichord, organ
• Brian May: Guitars, bells on "The March of the Black Queen", lead vocals on "Some Day One Day", background vocals, some piano on "Father to Son"
• Roger Taylor: Drums, gong, marimba, background vocals, lead vocals on "Loser in the End"
• John Deacon: Bass guitar, acoustic guitar
• Roy Thomas Baker: Castanets on "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"
• Robin Cable: Piano effects (with Freddie Mercury) on "Nevermore"

[edit] Equipment

Percussion:
- Ludwig drum kit: 13" x 9" rack tom, two floor toms (16"x 16" & 18"x 16") and 26" x 14" bass drum.
- Ludwig and New Era tambourines and cowbells
- Paiste Gong
- Ludwig (educated guess) Marimba, Bells and Castanets

Strings:
- Fender Precision Pre-CBS Electric Bass, Orange OR120 amplifier
- Martin D-18 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar ("Funny How Love Is")
- Hairfred Acoustic Guitar ("White Queen")
- Ovation Pacemaker 12-String Acoustic Guitars (elsewhere)
- Red Special Electric Guitar, using John Deacon's homemade bespoke amplifier (for guitar choirs and effects) and Vox AC30s (for solos and straight rhythm parts)

Keyboards:
- Bechstein D Concert 9'2" Acoustic Grand Piano, recorded via Neumann U87 mics
- Harpsichord (unknown brand)
- Hammond Organ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] External links

• Tate Gallery: Richard Dadd's "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"
• Queen Picture Hall: Queen II
• Melody Maker, August 14, 1993: Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins talks about the records that changed his life
• Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974, Issue 163 - album review by Ken Barnes

[edit] References

1. ^ Quoted in Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins (1992): Queen. As It Began. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, pp. 75-77. ISBN 0-283-06052-2

Queen
John Deacon | Brian May | Freddie Mercury | Roger Taylor History | Live performances | Songs
Discography
Studio albums: Queen | Queen II | Sheer Heart Attack | A Night at the Opera | A Day at the Races | News of the World | Jazz | The Game | Flash Gordon | Hot Space | The Works | A Kind of Magic | The Miracle | Innuendo | Made in Heaven
Live albums: Live Killers | Live Magic | Live at Wembley '86 | Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl | Return of the Champions
Compilation albums: Greatest Hits | At the Beeb | Greatest Hits II | Classic Queen | Queen Rocks | Greatest Hits III | Stone Cold Classics
DVDs: We Will Rock You | The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert | Greatest Video Hits 1 | Live at Wembley Stadium | Greatest Video Hits 2 | We Are the Champions: Final Live in Japan | Queen on Fire - Live at the Bowl | Return of the Champions | Super Live in Japan
Related Articles
Ibex | Larry Lurex | Smile | The Cross | Queen + Paul Rodgers | We Will Rock You Musical
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