Queen: The Complete Works (14 page)

The first part of Brian’s statement about no one song sounding like its predecessor is quite true: there are considerable stylistic changes apparent throughout the album, and in this respect it may well be Queen’s most adventurous and experimental album to date. In addition to the proto-punk of ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, the band also dabbled in new wave with ‘Fight From The Inside’ and even tackled funk (‘Get Down, Make Love’) and Latin music (‘Who Needs You’), genres that
hadn’t previously been explored on any Queen album but which would eventually become commonplace in their work.

There were the occasional throwbacks to some of the band’s more extravagant works, especially with ‘We Are The Champions’, which revolutionized power ballads nearly a decade before such an approach became acceptable, while, surprisingly, the typical piano-oriented ballads (‘All Dead, All Dead’ and ‘Spread Your Wings’) were generated by Brian and John respectively. In fact, Freddie was eager to expand beyond the traditional rock approach; he had stated in a January 1977 interview with
Circus
that “I really feel that, on the next album, we’re going to get it orchestrated by an orchestra. I think we’ve really done as much as we can with guitars.” While it’s not quite as shocking as Dick Rowe’s assertion that “guitar groups are on the way out,” Freddie may have merely been having fun at the expense of his interviewer. However, apart from ‘We Are The Champions’, his two contributions were as far away from traditional rock music as possible, hinting at his eagerness to expand his ideas beyond the traditional power trio format.

Freddie continued with the assertion that “We always did it ourselves, and it was rewarding. But now we’ve done it, and it’s time to move on.” When asked if the next logical step was to introduce synthesizers, Freddie initially balked at the idea. “We’ve built up a terrible aversion to them, but you never know. To me, Brian always sounds better than a synthesizer.” Brian confirmed in a 1983
Guitar Player
interview that the spacey sounds in the middle of ‘Get Down, Make Love’ were the product of a harmonizer, not a synthesizer in the strictest sense. “That’s a harmonizer thing, which I’ve really used as a noise more than a musical thing. It’s controllable because I had a special little pedal made for it, which means I can change the interval at which the harmonizer comes back, and it’s fed back on itself so it makes all swooping noises. It’s just an exercise in using that together with noises from Freddie; a sort of erotic interlude.” Additionally, creating dismay and criticism, the album was the band’s first not to feature the legend “no synthesizers” on the sleeve, something that had been traditional on the first five albums.

It’s in the experimentation, though, that Queen are most successful. ‘We Will Rock You’ is a powerful opener and still, after nearly thirty years of exposure, remains one of the band’s most famous songs. The lighter moments, especially John’s ‘Who Needs You’ and Brian’s throwaway, slaphappy blues number ‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’, are refreshing bursts of breeziness which would have undoubtedly been dropped if the band were trying to create another
A Night At The Opera
. Roger had strengthened his songwriting, and was showing himself to be an adept and multi-talented instrumentalist: he handled both rhythm guitar and bass on ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ and ‘Fight From The Inside’, and the latter would have been a solo recording were it not for some rudimentary guitar riffs from Brian.

The only links to their past was on ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Spread Your Wings’ and especially ‘It’s Late’, a song so raucous that it should have put the punks to shame. It was impossible to end the album in any other fashion than with the rollicking drum burst concluding that song, but the band chose to close with ‘My Melancholy Blues’, Freddie’s sublime piano-based composition featuring no guitar whatsoever.

One complaint about the album may be the lack of coherence among the songs. Only five feature all four band members collectively: ‘We Are The Champions’, ‘Spread Your Wings’, ‘Get Down, Make Love’, ‘Who Needs You’ and ‘It’s Late’. Even though Freddie does harmonize with Brian on ‘All Dead, All Dead’, it’s almost entirely the guitarist’s show since the vocalist makes no other significant contribution. ‘We Will Rock You’ features footstomps and handclaps, but the only true instrumentals come from Brian’s guitar, and ‘Sleeping On The Sidewalk’ is performed by a power trio comprising Brian, Roger and John. Indeed, the only band member who’s consistently on every recording is Roger, and it’s this jostling of instruments and personnel that gives
News Of The World
a disjointed feel, and because the band weren’t recording with a producer (only Mike Stone, who assisted the band with their recording) and were working against a tight deadline, the result is rushed, with many of the tracks sounding like aggrandized demos.

In hindsight, with an additional month and better production, this album could have been as polished as the previous five, but this was the opposite desired effect: the band were deliberately pushing themselves out of their comfort zone to redefine their sound. More importantly, it worked: upon its release in October 1977, the album, boosted by ‘We Are The Champions’, raced to No. 4 in the UK. If this was a disappointment after the chart-topping
A Night At The Opera
and
A Day At The Races
, there was consolation from the USA, where it hit No. 3, making it the band’s only studio album that did better in America than in
Britain. No doubt the band’s two American tours in 1977 contributed to that status.

“In many ways this is the most intriguing Queen album since their finest,
Sheer Heart Attack
,” commented the
Daily Mirror
. “Whether all the obvious tension within the band will spur them on to greater things, or simply pull them apart, remains to be seen.”
Record Mirror
, however, was indifferent: “This is Queen stripped down to almost basics. The track ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ is a Queen attempt at new wave, a classy version of the Sex Pistols with some very heavy lyrics. It’s not a bad album by any means, but could have been better.” And
Sounds
nitpicked over the little things: “Aw, Queen, why did you
do
this to us? Why doesn’t this album say ‘no synthesizers’? Side one is foreboding, side two much better after a disillusioning beginning with ‘Get Down, Make Love’ ... but how nice of [them] to finish so exquisitely with ‘My Melancholy Blues’. Sweet fantasy.”

The
Valley News
opined that their first four albums were their strongest, and picked out high points of the new album, but wasn’t impressed overall: “Although
News
is a rockier disc than
Races
, it appears that Queen wants to focus on accessible styles that have wide appeal. As a result, the two latest albums are tamer, less exciting works than the band’s first four LPs. But Queen still pulls off top honors with its colorful vocals (Mercury reigns supreme here), rich harmonies, May’s guitar virtuosity and the band’s sharp production work.” Meanwhile,
The Washington Post
boiled the album’s sound down to pure pop: “Queen’s sixth album,
News Of The World
, reveals another facet of the group’s musical identity. This album represents a departure from the usual Queen flamboyance and dynamism of musical effects which sustained, for example,
A Night At The Opera
or
Sheer Heart Attack
. Less flamboyance, less implicit drama, less operatic overtones characterize this album; more understatement (with one monumental exception – ‘Get Down, Make Love’), more experimentation in the range between hard and soft rock, more intelligence and moderation of conception ... Because of Queen’s liberal absorption of musical styles and themes over the last ten years, it is difficult to pinpoint what individualizes their personal style. But if we can isolate their most distinguishing characteristic, it is a heavy metal bass line – heavy on guitar and drums – which both support and play against a multi-voiced melodic line. A case in point is the first cut of the album, ‘We Will Rock You’, which has a marvelously primitive, ritualistic, tribal quality to it ... ‘It’s Late’, a plaintive rock song in typical Queen style about a failed relationship, is less successful than ‘We Will Rock You’, though it is still likable. It is flawed by the instrumental break and high-powered instrumental ending, both of which go off on a drum and guitar bonanza, interrupting the otherwise neat structure and undercutting the melodic poignancy. And this seems to be a major problem with Queen: they don’t know when to end a song, they frequently succumb to excess in effects, and they tend to supply their songs with instrumental breaks that have little to do with anything. Still, ‘We Will Rock You’ is a song that both reflects and helps the criteria applicable to the best in rock music: energy, communal reveling, insistent percussion, celebrative rebelliousness against any norm. And, fortunately, there are additional rays of intelligence, talent and craft throughout the album.”

Rolling Stone
offered a backhanded compliment, noting that the album “makes Queen the first major band to attempt a demonstration of superiority over punk rock by marching onto its stylistic turf. It works, too, because the power trio behind vocalist Freddie Mercury is truly primitive. Once you’ve seen Queen on stage, away from the cut and paste of the studio, it’s painfully clear that ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ is less a matter of slumming than of warfare among equals in incompetent musicianship.” The review continued, calling the material “chilling stuff, but the coldness seems to befit Queen ... Late sons of the Empire though they may be, Queen has nothing to fear, or to do. In their moneyed superiority, they are indeed champions.”

It’s difficult to argue with that assertion. From this point on, Queen were no longer innocent progressive rockers playing campy songs about call girls, faeries and ogres. They were now world-class champions with one eye focused on the charts and the other on world domination, and they couldn’t have been happier.

JAZZ

EMI EMA 788, November 1978 [2]

Elektra 6E-166, November 1978 [6]

EMI CDP 7 46210 2, December 1986

Hollywood HR-61062-2, June 1991

Parlophone CDPCSD 133, 1994

‘Mustapha’ (3’01), ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ (4’17), ‘Jealousy’ (3’13), ‘Bicycle Race’ (3’03), ‘If You Can’t Beat Them’ (4’15), ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (3’02), ‘Dead On Time’ (3’23), ‘In Only Seven Days’ (2’29), ‘Dreamers Ball’
(3’30), ‘Fun It’ (3’29), ‘Leaving Home Ain’t Easy’ (3’15), ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ (3’29), ‘More Of That Jazz’ (4’15)

Bonus tracks on 1991 Hollywood Records reissue
: ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ (
remix by Brian Malouf
) (4’27), ‘Bicycle Race’ (
remix by Junior Vasquez
) (4’57)

Bonus tracks on 2011 Universal Records deluxe reissue
: ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ (
single version
) (3’23), ‘Bicycle Race’ (
instrumental mix
) (3’09), ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ (
long-lost guitar mix
) (3’34), ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (
live version, Montreal Forum, November 1981
) (2’48), ‘Dreamers Ball’ (
early acoustic take, August 1978
) (3’40)

Bonus videos, 2011 iTunes-only editions
: ‘Bicycle Race’ (
promotional video
), ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ (
live version, Milton Keynes Bowl, June 1982
), ‘Let Me Entertain You’ (
live version, Japan, April 1979
)

Musicians
: John Deacon (
bass guitar, acoustic guitar on ‘In Only Seven Days’
), Brian May (
guitars, vocals, lead vocals on ‘Leaving Home Ain’t Easy’
), Freddie Mercury (
vocals, piano, co-lead vocals on ‘Fun It’
), Roger Taylor (
drums, percussion, vocals, electronic drums on ‘Fun It’, lead vocals, rhythm and bass guitars on ‘Fun It’ and ‘More Of That Jazz’
)

Recorded
: July–October 1978 at Superbear Studios, Nice, and Mountain Studios, Montreux

Producers
: Queen and Roy Thomas Baker

Queen were due for a mis-step; they already had six studio albums under their collective belts, and they had been working non-stop since 1970. Nobody expected them to falter so soon, but Jazz demonstrates just that: it was as if the endless concentric circles that make up the cover sleeve was a visual representative of the band, going round and round in circles, repeating endless style after endless style, and delivering a Queen-like album whenever it was expected of them. The only visual that would have been more telling would have been if the band took a plate of food, threw it at a wall, and took a picture of whatever stuck – but Yes beat them to that punch with their equally directionless and confused
Tormato
, released the same year.

It should have been the perfect formula for success: Roy Thomas Baker, after amicably parting ways with Queen in 1975, was asked to produce their follow-up to
News Of The World
. Instead of recording in England, though, the band became tax exiles and recorded their album inexpensively in France and Switzerland. The surroundings were enough to inspire new musical outlets: Freddie wrote ‘Bicycle Race’ after watching it in his Swiss hotel room, and Brian’s ‘Dreamers Ball’ was inspired by the legion of jazz musicians performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

So what went wrong? To begin with, there are thirteen tracks on the album, the most ever presented on a Queen album since
Sheer Heart Attack
. How songs like ‘Mustapha’, ‘Fun It’ and ‘More Of That Jazz’ ever made the cut invites an analysis of Queen’s creative health; a bit of prudent trimming, or perhaps a few rewrites, would have made the album more palatable. Even worse is the line-up of songs, imposing a disjointed feel on the album. ‘Bicycle Race’ and ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ should have been placed side-by-side, while ‘Let Me Entertain You’ should have opened the album instead of being placed at the close of the first side. The album bounces back and forth between different styles and, with little regard to a prescribed sequence, results in an uneven and awkward listen.

The production, too, is uncharacteristic. Gone are the natural drum sounds the band had so meticulously perfected; instead, Roger’s kit is tinny and devoid of depth. Fresh from production duties with new wave rockers The Cars, Baker introduced those new techniques into Queen’s sessions, while Queen were still rooted in their own methods. Even Brian, the eternal diplomat, wasn’t convinced, telling
Guitar
in 1991, “
Jazz
suffered from having too much level in too short a space ... Some of our backing tracks on the
Jazz
album had become quite perfect but had lost the initial enthusiasm – our method was to do it and do it until it was right, because we had been told you couldn’t drop in to a multi-track machine.”