Queen II

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Queen II is a rock album by British band Queen originally released in 1974. The album was recorded at Trident Studios, United Kingdom in August 1973, and engineered by Mike Stone. The LP used "Side White" and "Side Black" instead of Sides A and B, with corresponding photos of the band dressed all in white and all in black.

The photograph for the album cover was frequently 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 both for the background and the foreground, the other (right) with a brown foreground.

There were problems with the release of this album. A small spelling error was noticed on the sleeve, and the entire band complained persistently until it was corrected. The album's completion coincided with the 1973 oil crisis. Consequently government enforced measures for energy saving also delayed the album's release.

As with the band's prior album, vocalist Freddie Mercury was the dominant songwriter, composing and arranging the entire Black Side and contributing virtuoso piano and harpsichord supporting instrumentals as well as a wide range of vocals. The White Side is very diverse: one track is composed and sung by Taylor, and of the other four (composed by May), one is sung by Mercury, one by May, one by Mercury & Taylor (with May at the piano) and one is instrumental. John Deacon played acoustic guitars on most of the album, except for the song "White Queen", which was performed by guitarist Brian May using an inexpensive acoustic guitar which he had owned since his childhood.

The album is regarded for its musicality, with musicians as diverse as Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins and Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses each considering it as one of their favourite albums. Extreme's Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cherone became friends because they both enjoyed Queen II.

1 Track listing
2 Album history
3 Queen discussing the record
4 Press reviews
5 Personnel
6 Equipment
7 Songwriting Trivia
8 External links
9 Source

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Track listing

Side White

"Procession" (May) - 1:12
"Father to Son" (May) - 6:14
"White Queen (As It Began)" (May) - 4:33
"Some Day One Day" (May) - 4:21
"Loser In The End" (Taylor) - 4:01

Side Black

"Ogre Battle" (Mercury) - 4:08
"The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" (Mercury) - 2:41
"Nevermore" (Mercury) - 1:17
"The March Of The Black Queen" (Mercury) - 6:33
"Funny How Love Is" (Mercury) - 2:48
"Seven Seas of Rhye" (Mercury) - 2:48

Bonus Tracks on 1991 Hollywood Records re-issue

"See What A Fool I've Been" (May) - original B-side
"Ogre Battle (1991 Remix)" (Mercury)
"Seven Seas of Rhye (1991 Remix)" (Mercury)

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Album history

With their debut album recorded and mixed by the end of November, 1972, Queen set about touring and promoting it. Problems with their Trident Studios management getting the record released forced the Sheffield Bros. to release the album under their own Trident label, but only after eight months had gone by. During that time, Queen were writing new material, anxious to get it put on tape. Several songs had been written already during the time of the first album, and some even earlier. "See What A Fool I've Been" dated from the Smile days (and was actually Brian taking what he could remember from a blues diddy he heard on a television program and building his own song around it; the song was "That's How I Feel" by Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, the identity of which Brian finally discovered in 2004 after an eager fan tracked it down for him). "White Queen" dated from Brian's days at Imperial College, around the Smile days, but was never recorded by that band. "Ogre Battle" was written during the debut album sessions, as was "Father To Son", but the band decided to wait on recording them until the next album.

August 1973 found the band in the studio, 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, Queen took only one month to record Queen II. A full version of "The Seven Seas Of Rhye" was laid down and it was recorded with the specific intention of being the album's leading single. After "Keep Yourself Alive", from the first album, was a commercial failure, Queen decided it was because that song "took too long to happen" (the guitar intro was too lengthy). The band made the next single begin in a way which would grab people. Whilst writing "Black Queen", the band decided to be different and make the album Side White and Side Black, thus tieing the themes and eventually the artwork together. "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" was inspired by artist Richard Dadd's painting of the same name, which currently hangs in the Tate Gallery, London, England. Mythology and art was a passion of Freddie's and this scene from Dadd's imagination, wherein all the major and minor characters from faery myths and writings gather to witness a Fairy wood-cutter (the Feller of trees) crack the walnut for Queen Mab's new carriage directly sparked his creativity.

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, smoke from her cigarette swirling 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 and released in the UK on March 8th of 1974. Once again, Trident delayed the release, as Queen's first album had only just been released in the UK and had yet to be issued in the US. Queen, however, added "Ogre Battle", "Procession" and "Father To Son" to the live set lists and toured more extensively.

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Queen discussing the record

Brian May:
"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 was 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."

Roger Taylor:
"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."

Freddie Mercury (about b/w era):
"Well... that was a concept that we developed in that time was... 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..."

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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."Template:Ref

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Personnel

Lead Vocals by:

- Father To Son: Mercury & Taylor (ending)

- White Queen: Mercury

- Some Day One Day: May

- Loser In The End: Taylor

- Ogre Battle: Mercury

- The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke: Mercury

- Nevermore: Mercury

- The March Of The Black Queen: Mercury & Taylor (one line at 4:35)

- Funny How Love Is: Mercury

- Seven Seas Of Rhye: Mercury

Backing vocals by Mercury, Taylor & May, except:

- White Queen: Mercury

- Some Day One Day: May

- Loser In The End: Taylor

- Nevermore: Mercury

- Album outro: Band + Studio Crew

Screams on 'Ogre Battle' by Freddie Mercury

All drums by Roger Taylor

Gong and marimba by Roger Taylor

Bells on 'Black Queen' by Brian May

Castanets on 'Master-Stroke' by Roy Thomas Baker

All acoustic guitars by John Deacon, except 'White Queen' and 'Some Day One Day' (Brian May)

All bass guitars by John Deacon

All electric guitars by Brian May, including orchestration on 'Procession'

Angelical choir on 'White Queen' by Freddie Mercury

All pianos, harpsichords and organs by Freddie Mercury, except 'Father To Son' (Mercury & May)

Piano effects on 'Nevermore' by Freddie Mercury & Robin Cable

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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 (everywhere), using John Deacon's homemade bespoke amplifier (gutiar choirs and effects) and Vox Ac30s (solos and straight rhythm parts)

Keyboards:

- Bechstein D Concert 9 ft 2 in Acoustic Grand Piano, recorded via Neumann U87 mics

- Harpsichord (unknown brand)

- Hammond Organ

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Songwriting Trivia

"White Queen' was written while Brian May was in college, inspired by the book The White Goddess by Robert Graves, and by a girl he met there but to who he never had the courage to speak.

"Some Day One Day" is about a place where relationships could be perfect, and the sustained electric choirs were to picture that place.

- "Ogre Battle" was written by Freddie Mercury on guitar.

- "Ogre Battle" was already part of the band`s live set in 1972 (one year before the album`s recording, two before the release). Roger Taylor said in a 1973 interview that they had saved some material for the moment they could use the full capacity of the studios.

- After Mercury wrote "The March Of The Black Queen", the band decided to employ the 'white side / black side' contrast.

- "Funny How Love Is" was developed in the studio. The band later on felt they couldn`t adequately reproduce the song on stage.

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