QUEEN "QUEEN" 1974 REPRESS OF DEBUT LP PRC PRESSING EX/NM SUPER CLEAN LP COPY

$

25

TWO YEARS AGO I LOST ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS TO CANCER, HE WAS A COOL MUSICIAN A DRUMMER BY TRADE, ORIGINALLY FROM SEATTLE, BUT RELOCATED TO L.A. IN 1985, HE AMASSED A VERY LARGE MUSIC COLLECTION, AND HAD KILLER TASTE FOR ROCK & ROLL, SADLY I AM SELLING OFF A LOT OF HIS COLLECTION ON BEHALF OF HIS WIDOW TO HELP PAY OFF DEBTS INCLUDING HOSPITAL BILLS, TAXES AND STORAGE UNIT FEES. I AM NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR THIS SERVICE, DOING IT FOR MY FRIEND (MISS YOU DAVE!). THIS ITEM IS FROM HIS COLLECTION.

THE PHOTO'S MAY BE A LITTLE BLURRY, HAVE A LITTLE GLARE, SOME REFLECTIONS OR IN SOME CASES YOU MAY SEE SPECKS OF DUST. BUT THE PHOTO'S ARE OF THE ACTUAL ITEM YOU ARE BIDDING ON. I DO COMBINE SHIPPING. BUT I DO NOT ACCEPT “BEST OFFERS”, THE MONIES GO TO MY FRIENDS WIDOW.

THESE ARE VISUALLY & PLAY GRADED.

ARTISTS: QUEEN

TITLE: “QUEEN” 2nd PRESSING OF THEIR DEBUT LP

TRACK LISTING: SEE PHOTO'S & BELOW

A1

Keep Yourself Alive

3:42

A2

Doing All Right

4:11

A3

Great King Rat

5:42

A4

My Fairy King

4:06

B1

Liar

6:25

B2

The Night Comes Down

4:24

B3

Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll

1:49

B4

Son And Daughter

3:22

B5

Jesus

3:45

B6

Seven Seas Of Rhye...

1:15

Companies, etc.

• Manufactured By – Elektra/Asylum/Nonesuch Records

• Pressed By – PRC Recording Company, Richmond, IN

• Produced For – Neptune Productions

• Recorded At – Trident Studios

• Recorded At – De Lane Lea Studios

• Phonographic Copyright (p) – Elektra Records

• Copyright (c) – Elektra Records

• Published By – Feldman

• Published By – Trident Music (2)

Credits

• Art Direction [American] – Robert L. Heimall

• Bass Guitar – Deacon John*

• Design [Cover] – Brian May, Douglas Puddifoot, Freddie Mercury

• Engineer – Dave Hentschel*, Mike Stone, Roy Baker*, Ted Sharpe*

• Guitar, Piano, Vocals – Brian May

• Percussion, Vocals – Roger Meddows-Taylor**

• Photography By – Douglas Puddifoot

• Producer – John Anthony, Queen, Roy Thomas Baker

• Supervised By [American Production Supervision] – Jac Holzman

• Vocals, Piano – Freddie Mercury

Notes

EKS 75064 on the jacket and label. 75064 appears on the spine.
Butterfly label with Warner Communications (WEA) logo in fine print on labels.

Printed in U.S.A. (on cover)

? & © 1973 Elektra Records

Barcode and Other Identifiers

• Matrix / Runout (Label Side One): EKS-75064-A PRC

• Matrix / Runout (Label Side Two): EKS-75064-B PRC

• Matrix / Runout (Side A etched exc. SRC stamp): SRC EKS 75064A-7S?P?-1 11 PRC ESRTP 5-7-76 BERTA At AU

• Matrix / Runout (Side B etched exc. SRC stamp): SRC EKS 75064B-7S?P?-1 11 PRC ESRTP 5-7-76 1st FLOOR PAcker
  

LABEL: ELEKTRA RECORDS

CAT.#: EKS-75064

YEAR: 1974

RECORD CONDITION: THE RECORD IS IN EX/NM CONDITION. BOTH LABELS ARE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.. VISUALLY NICE SHINEY LUSTER TO THE VINYL. NO SCUFFS, BLEMS, LINES, VISIBLE SCRATCHES. VISUALLY THE RECORD LOOKS NEAR NEW. THE SONGS PLAY SUPER CLEAN! SONGS SOUND GREAT. I HEARD A SMALL CLICK BETWEEN TRACKS 1 & 2 ON SIDE ONE,

SLEEVE CONDITION: THE JACKET IS IN EX/NM CONDITION. NICE STRAIT EDGES, NO WRITING, TEARS, WRINKLES, CREASES.

MORE INFO: THIS RECORD IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT. PRC PRESSING.

MORE INFO ON THE ARTISTS/RELEASE:

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury (lead vocals and piano), Brian May (lead guitar and vocals), Roger Taylor (drums and vocals) and John Deacon (bass guitar). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating further styles, such as arena rock and pop rock.

Before forming Queen, May and Taylor had played together in the band Smile. Mercury was a fan of Smile and encouraged them to experiment with more elaborate stage and recording techniques. He joined in 1970 and suggested the name "Queen". Deacon was recruited in March 1971, before the band released their eponymous debut album in 1973. Queen first charted in the UK with their second album, Queen II, in 1974. Sheer Heart Attack later that year and A Night at the Opera in 1975 brought them international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK for nine weeks and helped popularise the music video format.

The band's 1977 album News of the World contained "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions", which have become anthems at sporting events. By the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980) became their best-selling single, while their 1981 compilation album Greatest Hits is the best-selling album in the UK and is certified eight times platinum in the US. Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert has been ranked among the greatest in rock history by various publications. In August 1986, Mercury gave his last performance with Queen at Knebworth, England. In 1991, he died of bronchopneumonia - a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since 2004, May and Taylor have toured under the "Queen +" name with vocalists Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert.

Estimates of Queen's record sales range from 170 million to 300 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling music artists. In 1990, Queen received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music from the British Phonographic Industry. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Each member has composed hit singles, and all four were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2005, Queen received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2018, they were presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Queen is the self-titled debut studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 13 July 1973 by EMI Records in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. It was recorded at Trident Studios and De Lane Lea Music Centre, London, with production by Roy Thomas Baker, John Anthony and the band members themselves.

The album was influenced by heavy metal and progressive rock.The lyrics are based on a variety of topics, including folklore ("My Fairy King") and religion ("Jesus"). Lead singer Freddie Mercury composed five of the ten tracks, lead guitarist Brian May composed four songs (including "Doing All Right", which he co-wrote with his Smile bandmate Tim Staffell), and drummer Roger Taylor both composed and sang "Modern Times Rock and Roll". The final song on the album is a short instrumental version of "Seven Seas of Rhye," the full version of which would appear on the band's second album, Queen II.

Background

Queen had been playing the club and college circuit in and around London for almost two years when the band received a chance opportunity to test out the new recording facilities of De Lane Lea Studios. They put together a polished demo tape of five songs: "Keep Yourself Alive", "The Night Comes Down", "Great King Rat", "Jesus", and "Liar". Despite the demo tape's quality, the band received an offer from record label Chrysalis Records, which they used to try to entice other labels.

They were finally given a break and signed in 1972 by Barry and Norman Sheffield, who ran the successful Trident Studios; however, because the studio was very popular, Queen mainly recorded during the studio's downtime but were given free use of everything after the paying artists had left; including the latest technologies and production team. One day, while waiting to use the studio, Mercury was asked to record vocals by producer Robin Geoffrey Cable, who was working on a version of "I Can Hear Music" and "Goin' Back". Mercury enlisted May and Taylor to record the tracks. These recordings were released on a single under the name Larry Lurex.

Recording

The arrangement of recording only during downtime lasted from June to November 1972. The limitations this imposed led the band to focus on completing one track at a time, but problems arose almost immediately. The band had thought highly of their De Lane Lea demo tracks, but producer Roy Thomas Baker asked them to re-record the songs with better equipment. "Keep Yourself Alive" was the first song to be re-recorded, and Queen did not like the result. They recorded it once again, but during the mixing sessions, no mix met their standards until engineer Mike Stone stepped in. After seven or eight failed attempts, Stone's first try met with Queen's approval. Stone would stay on to engineer and eventually co-produce their next five albums. Another track that proved problematic was "Mad the Swine", which was recorded for the album but then derailed by Baker and Queen disagreeing on the quality of the percussion. The song was meant to be the fourth track on the album between "Great King Rat" and "My Fairy King". With the issue unresolved, the track was left off the album. It re-surfaced in 1991 as both the B-side to the "Headlong" CD single in the UK, and on the Hollywood Records re-release of the album.

Other recordings from this period, such as two Smile tracks ("Silver Salmon" and "Polar Bear"), "Rock and Roll Medley" (a live encore staple from the era), and the infamous track "Hangman" (whose existence was long denied officially, beyond live concert recordings), have surfaced in the form of a studio acetate disc.

Songs

Side one

Main article: Keep Yourself Alive

Brian May wrote "Keep Yourself Alive" after the band had been formed, but before John Deacon joined, as confirmed by former bass player Barry Mitchell (on an unofficial Q&A session held on an online forum). According to what May said in a radio special about their 1977 album, News of the World, he had penned the lyrics thinking of them as ironic and tongue-in-cheek, but their sense was completely changed when Freddie Mercury sang them. Roger Taylor and May sing the vocal bridge of the song.

Mercury might have helped on the musical arrangements based on the fact that (as it has been recalled by former bassists and the band themselves) they were in a more collaborative period in the pre-studio days and he was usually the one getting his way with structural ideas. While it is highly possible that he contributed ideas to the song (the modulation types and the expanded form are closer to his style than to May's), the bottom line is that even in that case Mercury would be more a co-arranger than a co-writer per se (like George Martin on The Beatles' songs)

"Doing All Right" was written by May and Tim Staffell while in Smile. This is one of the few Queen songs to feature May on the piano. He also played his old Hallfredhacoustic guitar on this track and on later tracks such as "White Queen (As It Began)" and "Jealousy". The band played this song as early as 1970, and it was notable as the band's first song Mercury played live on the piano. Staffell sang it when it was a Smile song, and Mercury tried to sing in the same manner when it became a Queen song.

"Great King Rat" was written by Mercury. This song is an example of Queen's earliest sound, with lengthy, heavy compositions with long guitar solos and sudden tempo changes. Despite it not being released as a single, it remains hugely popular among the Queen fanbase.

"My Fairy King", written by Mercury, deals with Rhye, a fantasy world he created and which features in other Queen songs, most notably "Seven Seas of Rhye". "My Fairy King" is the first song on the album to feature Mercury's piano skills – as the piano on "Doing All Right" was played by May, who was quite impressed by Mercury's piano playing on the track. From this point on Mercury handled most of Queen's piano parts.

Mercury was born Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara, but the lyric "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" inspired him to change his surname. May said that after the line was written, Freddie claimed he was singing about his own mother. Subsequently, Freddie Bulsara took the stage name Freddie Mercury. This was another attempt to separate his stage persona ("extroverted monster", as Mercury himself oncedescribed it) from his private one (introverted).

The song was written while the band was in the studio, and contains many vocal overdubbed harmonies, which Mercury was fond of. Taylor also displays his vocal skills, hitting some of the highest notes in the composition. The vocal overdubs technique would later be used in many Queen songs, most notably "Bohemian Rhapsody". Mercury borrowed some lines from Robert Browning's poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".

Side two

Main article: Liar (Queen song)

"Liar" was written by Mercury in 1970 while he was still known as Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara, and before Deacon joined the band the following year. It is one of the band's heavier songs. As mentioned on the transcription on EMI Music Publishing's Off the Record sheet music, this is one of the band's few 1970s tracks to feature a Hammond organ. "Liar" was a staple of early concerts, but its inclusion was intermittent in later years, before returning in a shortened form for The Works Tour. For the Magic Tour, it was shortened to just the opening guitar section as a segue into "Tear It Up".

May wrote this song shortly after the band's formation in 1970, following the break-up of Smile. It was first recorded at De Lane Lea Studios in December 1971, when the band were hired to test the studio's new equipment in exchange for being allowed to record proper demos for their attempt to find a label. The agreement was mutually beneficial and Queen took full advantage of the state-of-the-art equipment to put five of their tracks to tape.

In 1972, Trident Studios signed Queen to a recording contract which limited them to only down-time studio access (when paying artists were not recording) and they began working with Roy Thomas Baker. He and Studio owners/management Norman and Barry Sheffield insisted on re-recording the five De Lane Lea demos. A new studio version of "The Night Comes Down" was recorded, and this was the version which appears on the album. The early remains unreleased.

With the release of the original De Lane Lea demos as bonus tracks in 2011, the difference in the mixing of "The Night Comes Down" is quite noticeable when compared to the original LP and digital remasters. The demo is roughly the same mix that appeared on the album except that there is a distinct difference in the drum sound.

The song follows what would become trademark May themes such as coming-of-age, nostalgia over the loss of childhood to the past, and the difficulties of life as an adult. There is also what could be an ambiguous reference to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", in the lyric: "When I was young it came to me; And I could see the sun breaking; Lucy was high and so was I; Dazzling, holding the world inside."May is admittedly a Beatles fan and has commented in numerous interviews on their impact on him.

Taylor wrote and sang the song, which was re-recorded on two occasions for the BBC. The first dates from December 1973 and was broadcast on John Peel's show. This version was eventually released on the 1989 Queen album At The Beeb, and sounds similar to the album version. The second re-recording dates from April 1974 and was first broadcast on Bob Harris's show. The later version, only available on bootleg recordings prior to the release of On Air, differs from the original album version in its slower tempo and additional vocals from Mercury.

In the concert versions included in Live at the Rainbow '74, lead vocals were handled by Mercury.

"Son and Daughter" was written by May and was the B-side for the single "Keep Yourself Alive". The song was played in the very first concert under the name of Queen in 1970. It was a regular feature in Queen's live set until well into 1976, the song originally housed his famous guitar solo. The album version of the song does not feature the guitar solo. The solo would not be properly recorded until 1974, with "Brighton Rock" from Sheer Heart Attack. Until this time, and occasionally afterward, the guitar solo would take over the middle of "Son and Daughter" during concerts, allowing the rest of the band a bit of a rest and costume change.

Unlike other songs from Queen's early period which crept back into circulation in the live set of their 1984-86 tours, such as "Liar", "Keep Yourself Alive", "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited", "Son and Daughter" stayed off the setlists after Queen's hit singles began to dominate their live show. The song is indicative of their very earliest sound, influenced by blues rock and heavy metal.

The lyrics tell part of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Mercury, credited with writing the song, was a Parsi Zoroastrian. The track features a two-chord rhythm section during the verses with a long instrumental break toward the end of the song. Because of the effects created by May's Red Special guitar, among other things, many early followers of Queen viewed the band as something of a psychedelic rock band.

Main article: Seven Seas of Rhye

"Seven Seas of Rhye..." was written by Mercury, who had half-written what would become Queen's first hit single. On this album it is only a short instrumental to finish the album. The full version of the song was completed by Mercury on the next album, Queen II.

Release

Though the album was completed and fully mixed by November 1972, Trident Studios spent months trying to get a record company to release it. After eight months of failing that, they took the initiative and released it themselves in a license deal with EMI Records on 13 July 1973. During this time, Queen had begun writing material for their next album, but they were disheartened by the album's delay, feeling they had grown past that stage, even though the record-buying public was just getting wind of them. They recorded two BBC sessions during the interim. The first single, "Keep Yourself Alive" (the Mike Stone mix, now considered the standard album version) was released a week before the album(UK dates, 6 and 13 July respectively). The track length was edited for release in the US, from 3:47 to 3:30. The US single was issued in October. All countries had the B-side "Son and Daughter". The album was released in the US on 4 September.

Elektra Records released a single of "Liar" in a heavily edited form on 14 February 1974, with the B-side "Doing All Right". Elektra later reissued the edited version of "Keep Yourself Alive" in July 1975, this time with the rare double B-side (rare for a 7" single) of "Lily of the Valley" and "God Save the Queen". Both versions are unique compared to the album versions.

Hollywood Records released a CD single featuring five versions of "Keep Yourself Alive" to promote the forthcoming Crown Jewels box set (1998). The versions on the CD are: "Long Lost Re-take", "BBC Session No. 1 Version", "Live Killers Version", "Album Version (Unremastered)", and "Album Version (1998 Remastered Version)". 

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