ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 208 QUEEN - QUEEN (1973)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Artist: Queen

Genre: Rock

Country Of Origin: England

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: Yes (2001)

Album: Queen

Producer: John Anthony/Roy Thomas Baker/Queen

Singles: Keep Yourself Alive/Liar

RJ's Top 5 Tunes: 1. Keep Yourself Alive...2. Great Rat King...3. Son And Daughter...4. Doing Alright...5. Liar

Disclaimer:  All "facts" still come from wikipedia.com unless otherwise noted (no matter what Jon's attitude toward it is).

Let's do a classic debut album this week.  It's Queen's self-titled debut, from way back in 1973.  Check this out:

• Queen is certified Gold in the U.S. and The U.K. (It's Platinum in Poland, in case you were wondering).
• It cracked the U.S. Top 100 Albums at #83.
• The two singles did not burn up the American chart.  Liar did not chart at all and Keep Yourself Alive reached #89.
• The band included on the album sleeve the comment "and nobody played synthesizer".
• Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll is a cool song and I struggled whether it should be top 5 or not, in the end I gave the 5th spot to Liar, but either song would easily fit there.

I think this is a good, solid debut album.  I'd probably rank it around the 6th or 7th spot out of all of Queen's albums.  I just love Brian May's style and tone.  It's unlike anyone's in rock music and is easily identifiable.  Queen's style as a whole is also like no one's before or after.

You can find this quite easily in different packages, some with bonus tracks or in various collections or box sets.  I imagine if you are a Queen fan you already own it, if not I certainly recommend picking it up.

Side One:

1. Keep Yourself Alive

2. Doing Alright

3. Great King Rat

4. My Fairy King

Side Two:

5. Liar

6. The Night Comes Down

7. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

8. Son And Daughter

9. Jesus

10. Seven Seas Of Rhye

[Niels (Mod)]

I wouldn't count Queen between my 10 favorite-bands (maybe they are at 11th. spot), but they have made imo the best song ever, and it appears on one of the 3 best albums ever.

It's not this album, though.

It's a good/decent debut-album. My gavorite track is "Liar", but it's not a GREAT track, it's okay. "Keep Yourself Alive" is probably the most well-known track from the album, and it's not bad either, neither is "Great King Rat".

I kind of prefer this to Q2, but all in all, it's not in top 5 over queen-albums.

When they released "Killer Queen", the single, they became the Queen, that I love, and it lasted, periodically, until 1980.

[Scott]

SIDE 1...

Yes!  I love the guitar riffage on Keep Yourself alive.  I wish the production was better, I miss the thundering drums.  Doing Alright is a cool ballad I even like its weird interlude, that comes as no surprise looking back at their work, but I wonder what people thought hearing it for the first time.  Monster guitar opening on Great King Rat!  Cool song!  My Fairy King is the weakest on Side 1 but its enjoyable.  4 for 4!

SIDE 2...

Liar is another cool side opener, lots of that Roger Taylor signature drumming.  Back in the days of vinyl I always was excited for the opening tracks on each side they very often turned out to be some of the best on the album.  This album has two great side openers! The Night Comes Down is pretty cool, no complaints yet...  Modern Times Rock n Roll may be the first slip on the entire album, but its not terrible, it was a fun listen for 1:48, much more maybe would have been a problem.  Son and Daughter is just ok, we've hit filler!  Jesus is, well ... interesting (the song in case you were wondering)  nice geetar work to close it out. Seven Seas of Rhye is really cool, could've went somewhere with that one but apparently they didn't finish it.

OTHER NOTES...

• I've never heard this album in its entirety
• Side 1 wins but Side only really has one filler tune, the rest is stellar!
• I need to pick this up

Very good work!!!

[Jon]

I believe this is the fourth Queen album I bought, maybe not. But I do know that I did buy it after hearing "A Night At The Opera"and at first I was let down because it wasn't really anything like that album. I also didn't "get" their second album, it took a few listens for me to realized how much of a classic it is. The one song I did play over and over from this album was "Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll" because it was heavy and had geetar™ upon geetar™ upon geetar™ especially during the solo, and then it goes into "Son And Daughter" which is also quite heavy plus Freddie swears. That's cool stuff. 

This album also took me a few listens before I really appreciated it. Sure it's a bit raw, but for a first album it's aces in my book. The one thing I regret was not hearing this in '73, I'm sure it would have blown my mind. Still pretty mind-blowing actually, considering other albums that came out during that time. Then came "Queen II" followed by "Sheer Heart Attack" and the rest is history. Queen has never released a bad album, I don't care what anyone says.