Speaking as they unveiled the newly renamed, “rebuilt” and reissued version of their 1973 debut album, Queen I, in London last month, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor recalled how the sessions at Trident Studios were not only the making of the record, but of the band, too – and in particular of their frontman, Freddie Mercury, whom May says was just finding his voice at the time.
May says there was no questioning Mercury’s energy, but he hadn’t worked out how to use it.
“Freddie was in a real transitional phase,” said May. “I’m sure Roger will agree but when we first met Freddie he charged around a lot, he screamed a lot, he shouted, and it made a huge impression on people. But people were quite taken aback. It was a kind of unbridled performance. He didn’t have the measure of his instrument.”
The studio experience changed everything. Mercury used it as a proving ground for how he could use his voice. Hearing himself on playback taught him everything he needed to know.
“As soon as he is in the studio, he hears his voicing come back at him through the speakers and says, ‘No, I don’t like that. I’ll do it again. Do another one.’ In a very short time, he tailored his performance to the way he wants to hear it,” said May. “He became a really expert vocalist really quickly. He found his voice and he found the means to use it.”
Pointing to the album cover – Mercury standing in a purple stage light, arms aloft with his mic stand – May says this was a prophecy that was about to come true. This was the performer Mercury was evolving into before their eyes.
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“He became a colossal force – and not just a voice,” said May. “A great musician and a great writer, and a person who could reach to the back of any gig, whether it was the Marquee, a room this size, or if it was a stadium in Argentina. He reached every person who was at that show.”
Mercury’s force shaped how Queen were going to perform. He would lead them. When they arrived at Trident Studios, they were young, callow, having to record on the studio’s downtime while the stars tracked their records during the day.
“We were signed to the owners of the studio so that is why we got that [time]. I remember there was Lou Reed and David [Bowie] producing Transformer,” says Taylor. “He’d just finished Hunky Dory and Ziggy [The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars.] This was the place to be.
“The Beatles did All You Need Is Love there. It really was the place to be, Harry Nilsson, et cetera. So we thought it was great. ‘We’re in Trident!’ But we were the ones on the downtime and we walked out when the cleaners came in.”
They were full of ideas, full of songs, and had no doubts about how how they wanted to present themselves. to their audience. Queen came from an era when bands were good but they stared at their feet – shoegazers before shoegaze the sound. Those bands couldn’t communicate with the audience.
“We had a different attitude,” said May. “From the very beginning, we said we would communicate. We would give people a great time. We would give our all for the hour, two hours we were onstage, and we would be connected. It would be showbiz, if you like. We would be projecting our ideas, and so it was different from the start, and Freddie led that.”
“Yeah, that’s true,” said Taylor. “[Deadpan] I don’t think he realised how dreadful he sounded before. I mean he sounded like some manic goat! But it was just extraordinary with this vibrato… Anyway, he turned out to be our beautiful, wonderful Freddie, whom we’ll never forget.”
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Queen I presents us with the wholesale remix of the band’s debut, in which they have digitally augmented every one of Roger Taylor’s drum beats because they hated the sound of the original drum kit, enhancing the electric guitar sound to give them more resonance, more life, and seemingly bringing everything forward in the mix.
It is as how they wanted it to sound originally, and it serves as a reminder of just how audacious Queen’s arrangements were from the start – some of which came together in the studio – and the lengths they would go to create their sound.
May revealed he put flint and a knitting needle under the bridge of his cheapo acoustic guitar to make it buzz like a sitar, using it to great effect on The Night Comes Down.
It was just extraordinary with this vibrato… he turned out to be our beautiful, wonderful Freddie, whom we’ll never forget
Roger Taylor
If Mercury made full use of the studio monitors in learning how to hone his vocals, everyone used the adrenaline from being in a top recording studio for the first time.
“We were excited to be in there at all,” said May. “I think you would have seen us very much immersed in it and we felt privileged to be there at all, and we were enjoying each other’s company, and we were enjoying working with each other and developing new ideas.
“We had written a lot before we went in. We had some songs that we had been rehearsing. But a lot of things took shape in the studio, like My Fairy King, which was an extraordinary piece of work.”
Queen I is available now on all formats, including a Super Deluxe six CD and vinyl box-set.
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