The rock musician Lemmy thought sounded “samey”
Every artist dreads falling into a creative rut. While churning out the same type of song repeatedly may be tempting, there’s a risk of losing fan interest and being overshadowed by more innovative artists. Lemmy, while having honed his signature sound to perfection, felt that Queen’s orchestral elements sometimes blended too seamlessly, potentially hindering distinctiveness in certain areas.
Then again, it’s not exactly hard to pinpoint a sweet spot for most of Lemmy’s greatest work, either. Although Motörhead was able to stretch out into new territories every time they made a record, the core ethos of the band came down to the signature sounds of rock and roll that lit a fire in Lemmy when he heard people like Little Richard for the first time.
In fact, the influence that Lemmy had on an entire generation wasn’t by design. Despite having a signature sound due to Lemmy’s trademark vocals and the relentless energy of their playing, Motörhead ended up accidentally becoming the precursor to speed metal without trying, with an entire generation of musicians studying songs like ‘Overkill’ and ‘Killed By Death’.
Whereas Lemmy was making the kind of music designed to be grimy, Queen was making the shiniest take on rock and roll ever conceived. They may have been able to make lowdown and dirty riffs when they wanted to, but the lion’s share of the band’s material originated from how layered their sound was, creating amazing vocal overdubs that sounded like a rock and roll choir whenever they played.
While Freddie Mercury could get up to his fair share of antics onstage and in the studio, Brian May was just as much a genius as his bandmate. Designing his guitar by himself, much of May’s greatest moments came from when he would harmonise his guitars, sounding like a musical symphony all on his own.
Even though the spectacle of having different guitars cascading off each other was something to behold at the time, Lemmy was not as impressed with a handful of the band’s later albums. After asking May to lend his talents to one of Motörhead’s final albums, Bad Magic, the frontman admitted there was something lacking with the guitarist in some areas, telling Yahoo!, “I knew he’d nail it. Brian’s a nailer, all right. I thought he got a bit samey at the end of Queen. He’s said that himself. But it was great to have him on the album”.
That’s not to say that May hasn’t been able to branch out whenever he can. Outside of his own solo projects and working alongside fellow rock and roll technicians like Eddie Van Halen, May would lend his skills to many hard rock bands, eventually turning in time with Black Sabbath on the song ‘When Death Calls’ from the album Headless Cross.
May even left his signature stamp on the Motörhead song ‘The Devil’, playing with the same kind of fury that could be heard on Queen’s fiercest rockers like ‘Ogre Battle’ and ‘March of The Black Queen’. Yes, all artists tend to have a signature sound after a while, but Brian May practically wears those sonic similarities as a badge of honour. It’s not just a trademarked sound…it’s a musical fingerprint.
