On November 24th 1991 Freddie Mercury died. He was my age. That just really blows my mind…
Queen really started in 1972 although they formed 2 years prior, and, like lightning, were topping the british charts in no time. They exploded here for a while and by 1985 had almost retired from making music. It was the Live Aid show that reignited them. In those 15 years they did everything from glam, pop, rock, metal, dance, you name it. So, in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Freddie’s death I present Queen for a Day. Each day, one queen song, in released order, in album order. About 100 words and some media to go with it, if I can find it.
Let us begin at the beginning.
Queen – Keep Yourself Alive – from the album Queen – 1973.
Ironic, isn’t it? In the end that’s really what Freddie was trying to do. But the song isn’t about that. It seems to be about not rocking the boat and just keeping status quo to get by. The narrator talks about being told that there’s so much adversity out there that he should just keep himself alive and make due. And then it switches in the second verse and the narrator is a success and sated and still unsure of what his goal should be. Basically, it’s a paean to avarice, greed and unrest. But that’s not what the song is.
What it is is a tour de force, out of the gate, uber-rocker. Hard to believe that this group was just three guys and a lot of power. It’s all about Brian May’s overdub guitar playing. he would do this throughout the band’s career; make one guitar sound like an orchestra, with delay pedals and a genius imagination.
The song COULD fall apart and be just another glam rock, power pop track. In fact, after listening to it back to back with some music of the era, I can definitely hear Bay City Rollers or Raspberries, but May won’t allow it to crumble because he’s a Hendrixian and those bands never had any of that. And Taylor won’t allow it either, because he’s as full of bombast as Mercury. This is a song with not one, but two breakdowns. One of them is a DRUM SOLO that prefaces the GUITAR SOLO in the same break! The other one is a call and response.
One of my favorite studio techniques in the song that I tried to find a place for on Throttle Back Sparky’s album was how Freddie’s voice will trail off and the next line will come in before the previous one is done. It’s electric because it’s obvious showmanship that never once detracts from the flow of the song. In fact, I think it enhances it.
The track is really a calling card. Queen are here. Deal with it.
It’s a showstopper. That they chose to open the record and their career with.
Brilliant.
Grade: A
