The album Brian May thought defined Queen: “We can do this”
No one in Queen was going to be satisfied with being simply another rock and roll band. From the very start of the band during their Smile days, they were already looking to move away from the generic bluesy bands and move into different territory, whether that meant getting heavier when they needed to be or putting some tongue-in-cheek humour into some of their classic songs. But Brian May knew that the band had a vision, and it didn’t take them long to show the rest of the world their best work.
Queen’s “best” work fluctuates depending on what type of fan you talk to. The band may have started off as a quasi-hard rock outfit with a penchant for theatrics, but there are still a lot of people who feel that their defining work came when they were making synth-driven stuff in the 1980s when ‘Radio Gaga’ came out right next to ‘Hammer to Fall’ and ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’
But that was always the beauty of Queen. There was the odd track that might not have been conventional by their standards, but if they thought they had the right idea, they never half-assed anything they did. Even when looking at an album as reviled in some circles as Hot Space, it’s clear that everyone was going to give their best effort despite not liking the tune they were working on.
Whereas Freddie Mercury may have been in charge of the theatrics, May was always interested in getting some muscle behind all of their tracks. His guitar solos may have been mini-symphonies whenever he played, but since his favourite guitarists were people like Jimmy Page, he knew that there was more to explore if they hit upon the right guitar riff to drive the song forward.
And despite being known for making the most layered rock songs ever created, the band’s debut is still the breeding ground for all of their ideas. May definitely has his moments to shine like on ‘Keep Yourself Alive,’ but every member of the band has a chance to show their stuff, whether that’s Roger Taylor making an attempt at protopunk on ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’ or the band hamming up their soft-rock chops on ‘The Night Comes Down.’
There was still a lot of work to be done, but May felt that this was the best album for anyone who wanted to hear what Queen had to offer, saying, “That was a beginning, sort of like a demonstration: ‘Yes, we can do this, we can make our own rules!’ So, yes, I like that first album, because it does define us. Absolutely.”
Although May certainly had moments where he could stretch his muscles after this, a song like ‘Doing All Right’ has everything that someone would come to Queen for. The song may have dated back to the days before the band existed, but hearing them go from a soft-spoken ballad with heavenly harmonies to a riff that sounds like it should belong on a Zeppelin record are both sides of the band’s sound coming together on one track.
But let this be a reminder to everyone who thinks that it takes years to refine someone’s sound. Every music documentary might like to say that bands have to spend years tinkering in the studio before coming out with the classic, but if there’s a good idea there before anyone even hit ‘RECORD,’ it wasn’t going to take them long to make a classic out of it.
