Rock review

John Deacon and Freddie Mercury setting out on the road to superstardom.

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ROCK REVIEW
9
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10
ROCK REVIEW
under the radar, and the album was 
passed over by the critics and the band 
alike. Roger Taylor, for example, recently 
recalled, ‘There were lots of things on the 
first album I don’t like, for example the 
drum sound. There are parts of it which 
may sound contrived but it is very 
varied and it has lots of energy.’
Touring the album in support 
of Mott the Hoople, Brian 
May quickly became infatuated 
with the glam-rockers from 
Hertfordshire, England, and 
there are clear signs of the band’s 
influence throughout his own 
writing career.
In 1974, Queen quickly 
followed up the small success of 
their first studio outing with two 
new releases, the first of which was 
Queen II, featuring hit single Seven 
Seas of Rhye. The album garnered 
the band a plethora of new fans, and 
despite the album as a whole being highly 
experimental and gaining little critical 
acclaim, Seven Seas of Rhye went to No. 5 
in the charts, and Queen were more than 
pleased with the results.
Reflecting on the success of Queen 
II Roger Taylor remarked, ‘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.’ Speaking a few 
years later Taylor added that, ‘It’s very 
difficult to choose one album I prefer out 
of all of them. But I do like a lot of the 
work on the second album, second side. 
It all runs into one – very epic. Musically 
it’s quite daring because we did lots 
of counter seven part harmonies 
and things.’
Later that same year, the third 
studio album Sheer Heart Attack 
was released. Killer Queen – the 
first single – proved to be the 
album’s standout track, and a 
major jumping-off point for the 
band. Shooting into the Top 10 
of the UK Single Charts, as well 
as peaking at No. 11 in the US 
Billboard Single Charts, the track 
combined the Led Zeppelin-esque 
sound of their first two albums, 
along with Mercury’s grandiose 
music hall stylings. Brian May quickly 
picked up on the track’s importance: 
‘Killer Queen in 1974, was the turning 
point. It was the song that best summed 
up our kind of music, and a big hit, and 
we desperately needed it as a mark of