Artist: Queen
Label: Parlophone Records
Release: 1974
Running time: 40:42
The year was 1974. On March 8, to be exact, a bunch of exceptional characters showed themselves to the world again with Queen II. The band? Queen. After the hugely promising and, let’s say, different Queen I, along came another record that was even more different and prog-flavored. By the look of it, Fredy, Roger, Brian and John didn’t see the point in coming up with a fancy extra title for the album, so they named it pretty much like the last one. Looking back at their output today, you could say that quality music didn’t need any extra advertising. Drummer Roger Taylor did say he never liked the title, though. The album is a concept record. It’s split into two parts, which is what the vinyl release dictated, too, with a design that was half black and half white. The “white side of tracks” was supposed to have a more emotional theme, while the “black side of tracks” went for fantasy. The cover of the physical release is the legendary photo of all four members, which was used again later in their career.
Listening to the whole album, you can hear that the guys were still very young when it came to ideas. I don’t mean that as a knock on quality, but as that early drive where ideas just come gushing out. There’s a ton of experimental approaches (for the time), like multi-part vocals. Queen used vocal harmonies as yet another instrument. They wove them into dynamic sections that carry the listener along the waves of the songs. The walls of vocals let the band sound as if keyboards were constantly present. In one interview, Mr. Brian May even said they’d been incredibly lucky with their voices. Because whenever they opened their mouths, their individual voices automatically settled into their own registers and sounded downright fantastic. They made the most of that on Queen II. And not just there, but throughout their whole career. So much so that for a non-prog music fan, it’s maybe a bit too much. There was also a lot of overdubbing. Back then everything was still recorded on tape, and it was a real art to put it all together without losing the tone. The album was never one of their best-known works, but it did deliver the track that got them onto television. That track was the hit Seven seas of rhye, and it made it onto the then-notorious Top of the pop’s. Even though the instrumental version had already come out on their debut, the vocal version was tacked onto Queen II as the last track.
WHITE SIDE
The white part of the album is made up of: Procession, the instrumental intro of the album; Father to son, White queen (as it began); Some day one day and The loser in the end. All the songs were written by Brian May, except the last one, which came from Roger Taylor. Brian’s talent with words shows right away. He pulls off linking the word “succession” with the everyday idea of fatherhood brilliantly. And of course, the amazing backing vocals are immediately obvious in the music. As mentioned, they really do manage to carry the song along the waves of its tempo. Father to son has a whiff of good old-fashioned prog, and it works in such a way that we almost unnoticeably drift into the next track, White queen. Once again, it’s worth repeating how great the backing vocals are. They stroll along very unobtrusively in the background of the rhythm instruments. There are pleasant sounds of an orientalish guitar, which sounds nicely rocking against the distorted, pompous closing solos of the song. We hear one last chorus and the exit of the track. Although, given how the song is built, it’s hard to say what’s a chorus and what’s a verse. Next up is a sweet pop number, Some day some day. Nicely emotional lyrics and lovely melodies make the track very easy to listen to and give the listener a bit of a breather, as it feels very typically structured. The last song of the first half is a track about growing up. Although the vocal part is good, since Roger has an exceptional voice, the song somehow feels like a foreign body. The wording also feels a bit clumsy and far-fetched. Maybe it’s really down to the tone of the voice, because the music floats along nicely. In a similar way to the previous tracks.
BLACK SIDE:
The bombastic opening of the gong and guitar promises a lot. The vocal part kicks off very pompously and dramatically, and you can really hear how exceptional Freddie’s vocal abilities are. From this moment on, we’re definitely talking about more progressive tracks full of ups and downs. Ogre battle is the intro to the lead vocalist’s compositions. The story is fictional and is about a fight of a “green man”, who may be called Shrek. Next up is the breathtaking The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke. The listener doesn’t know exactly what to be more thrilled by: the vocals, the drums, the structure… The vocal parts, with their originality and perfect timing, paint a dynamic picture. The lead vocal glides from incredible differences in pitch to rhythmic accents to falsetto flourishes. There’s plenty to say about the amazing solo section that simply takes the listener’s breath away. The interplay between the lead guitar and the rhythmic backing vocals is almost unbelievable. We can only imagine what kind of talent, and what kind of vision, it takes to create something this complex. Almost unnoticeably, the rollercoaster of complex musical delights brings us to piano calm, and the track Nevermore appears. It works as an ending and doesn’t look like a standalone song. The epic six-and-a-half-minute march of the black queen is a further step up from the previous composition. Of course, it’s somewhat understandable why the album didn’t succeed on a bigger scale, since the complexity of the songs is too much for the average listener. The track The march of the black queen plays out like a good movie. You can hardly wait for the next chapter to unfold. A surprise is Roger’s vocal help, too. Funny how love is comes across as a kind of vocal peak of the second “black” part. The complexity calms down. At least as far as the instruments go. And the whole thing flows nicely toward the truly hit-worthy Seven seas of rhye. It wins over your skin and heart right away. And it wraps up a pretty exhausting listen nicely.
There’s a lot more to say about the second part of the album, which is the lead vocalist’s bread and butter. We can only imagine what his head was capable of. He was lucky that the bizarreness of his ideas had no trouble coming out of his mouth, because his vocal cords had no limits. By now it’s clear that Queen would have the final say in the vocal department. Not that the other instruments delivered any less, but Mercury’s vocal goodness was already considered a kind of unique fascination back then, the kind that comes along on this planet only once and never again.
Line-up
Freddie Mercury – vocals, backing vocals, piano, harpsichord on “The Fairy-Feller’s Master-Stroke”, string piano on “Nevermore”
Brian May – guitars, bells on “The March of the Black Queen”, vocals on “Some Day One Day”, backing vocals, piano, organ on “Father to Son”
Roger Taylor – drums, gong on “Ogre Battle”, marimba on “The Loser in the End”, backing vocals, additional vocals on “The March of the Black Queen”, vocals on “The Loser in the End”
John Deacon – bass guitar, acoustic guitar on “Father to Son”
Production
Roy Thomas Baker
Track list
White Side (side one)
1. Procession (Instrumental) (1:12)
2. Father to Son (6:14)
3. White Queen (As It Began) (4:34)
4. Some Day One Day (4:23)
5. The Loser in the End (4:02)
Black Side (side two)
6. Ogre Battle (4:10)
7. The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke (2:40)
8. Nevermore (1:15)
9. The March of the Black Queen (6:33)
10. Funny How Love Is (2:50)
11. Seven Seas of Rhye (2:50)
