The 1974 album Axl Rose called the greatest in the history of rock: “I think it’s up there”
Axl Rose was never necessarily shy about putting attitude into rock and roll. From the minute that Guns N’ Roses hit the scene, half of what came out of his mouth was deemed some of the most shocking lyrics that the LA rock scene had heard in a while, whether that was to make him sound dangerous or absolutely filthy.
There was definitely some punk rock attitude in the way that Rose carried himself, but he did have an ear for the classics, and for him, Queen II stood alone as one of the best rock records the 1970s ever spit out.
That said, it’s not like Rose was trying to hide his Queen influence at all. He had been one of the highlights of the Freddie Mercury tribute concert when he performed ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ alongside Elton John, and someone who writes a song as powerful as ‘November Rain’ has definitely taken a few cues from what the rock monarchs had done throughout their prime as rockstars.
Even in that era, Queen II marks a significant shift in their career trajectory. Aside from boasting one of the best covers in rock history, with the band members shrouded in darkness and Mercury in the middle, this album is the closest Queen ever came to progressive music. This was largely due to the collaborative efforts of Freddie Mercury and Brian May.
The lion’s share of the tunes on the album are separated between both of them, and while there are breaks in the action like ‘Some Day One Day’, the best moments on the record are when everything starts flying off the rails. As much as a song like ‘Ogre Battle’ might not be cut out to be a single, it’s probably the most metallic song that the group ever made this side of ‘Stone Cold Crazy’.
Guns N’ Roses was still known as one of the most dangerous acts in the world in the early 1980s, but Rose thought nothing could top what Queen did on that record, saying, “The album Queen II wasn’t a very successful album for Queen in the States, but I think it is the best-recorded album in the history of rock and roll, I think it is up there with The Wall, and stuff like that.”
Part of what makes that assessment so interesting is that Queen II has always occupied an unusual place in the band’s catalogue. It lacks the household anthems of A Night at the Opera or News of the World, yet many long-time fans regard it as the moment Queen’s musical identity fully crystallised. The record captured a group with seemingly limitless ambition before commercial expectations began shaping their direction.
Rose was exactly the sort of musician who would gravitate towards that mentality. Guns N’ Roses built their reputation on raw energy, but beneath the swagger sat a songwriter who admired scale just as much as aggression. Hearing Queen stretch every idea to its breaking point no doubt reinforced Rose’s own belief that rock music could be theatrical without sacrificing its bite.
Although Bob Ezrin was a sonic wizard when working on the Pink Floyd masterpiece, Roy Thomas Baker wasn’t that far behind when finetuning Queen’s sound on the record. The core piece of any great Queen record is how layered every song sounds, and once you put on the headphones on this record, it feels like everything is swirling around your head as the group plays, up until those final moments when they deliver the revisited version of ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ from their first record.
Whereas ‘November Rain’ was Rose’s attempt to make something ambitious in Guns N’ Roses, the ethos of Queen II tends to come from a song like ‘Coma’ a lot more often. It still has that punk spirit, but the idea of using voiceover and different layers of noise for over ten minutes is only something that could come from listening to Queen. Because if there’s one thing that the group taught everyone who listened, it was to never be afraid to think outside the box.
