183-679: Queen II is the second studio album by the British rock band Queen . It was released on 8 March 1974 by EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in the US. It was recorded at Trident Studios and Langham 1 Studios, London, in August 1973 with co-producers Roy Thomas Baker and Robin Geoffrey Cable, and engineered by Mike Stone . It is significant for being the first album to contain elements of
366-455: A Beautiful Day (reprise)" on the band's final album Made in Heaven (1995). Rock photographer Mick Rock was engaged to create the album's artwork. In Rock's words, the band wanted to "graft some of [the trademark] decadent 'glam' sensibility" of his previous work with artists such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed . According to Rock, Queen were looking to grab people's attention with
549-610: A Danish client named Gasolin' , who were recording their album Gasolin' 3 . On 18 August, Queen, Baker and Cable recorded the complex backing track for "The March Of The Black Queen". After taking a break for a bank holiday, the band began principal overdubbing on 28 August. Some backing tracks had to be cut into separate multi-tracks because of the extensive overdubbing. (The album's working title became "Over The Top" in reference to overdubbing.) During this period, John Deacon had to do his summer exams. In September, Brian recorded "Procession," which had its live premiere on 13 September when
732-484: A bass drum pedal. "Father to Son" was written by May and features heavy metal sections as well as quiet piano parts, in which both May and Mercury played. Like "Procession", "Father to Son" has parts with May on multi-tracked guitar played through the Deacy Amp. It is written from the father's perspective when talking or thinking about his son. Queen immediately added "Father to Son" to their live setlists. In 1975, it
915-514: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1098-492: A concept album but a collection of songs with a loose theme running throughout." Mercury later confirmed this in a 1976 Sounds interview, citing that "it just evolved to where there was a batch of songs that could be considered aggressive, or a Black Side, and there was a smoother side". The "White" side is very diverse: four of the five numbers were composed by Brian May , one of which is an instrumental. Freddie Mercury sings two songs; May sings one; and Roger Taylor sings
1281-422: A deal than they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music." Rock stated Mercury loved to quote Oscar Wilde . "Often, that which today is considered pretentious is tomorrow considered state of the art. The important thing is to be considered." Rock added, "To Freddie, that word [pretentious] was meaningless – 'But is it fabulous?' was all that mattered. Those were the days of androgyny, and Freddie
1464-448: A fellow student whom he revered and thought represented the idea of the "perfect woman". In a later interview he said, "I remember being totally in love with this girl from biology, and I never ever talked to her...I [was] dared to ask out this girl, and she became a lifelong friend, it's very strange...". The song features May playing his Hairfred acoustic guitar . The guitar had been given a replacement hardwood bridge, chiselled flat, with
1647-519: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
1830-481: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
2013-628: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
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#17327796512602196-506: A group of journalists, including Simon Reynolds and David Stubbs , who had run a music fanzine called Monitor from the University of Oxford , and Chris Roberts , from Sounds , who established MM as more individualistic and intellectual. This was especially true after the hip-hop wars at NME , a schism between enthusiasts of progressive black music such as Public Enemy and Mantronix and fans of traditional white rock ended in
2379-630: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
2562-486: A longer essay about the painting for Intelligent Life . For the intricately arranged studio recording, Mercury played harpsichord as well as piano, and Roy Thomas Baker played the castanets . Taylor called this song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment", referring to the use of panning in the mix. The song was performed only a few times during the Queen II Tour , and there was thought to be no live recording of
2745-573: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
2928-587: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
3111-495: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
3294-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
3477-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
3660-486: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
3843-534: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
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#17327796512604026-472: A new limit for rock groups – it was fulfilling all our dreams, because we didn't have much opportunity for that on the first album. —Brian May, on Queen II and the band's sound. Queen performed their first gig on 27 June 1970, but did not finish their self-titled debut album, Queen , until November 1972. In the interim, the band had developed other, more complex material but elected to wait to record it until they had more freedom and experience in
4209-411: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
4392-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
4575-404: A replacement act was urgently needed. Queen were booked for the show and lip-synched "Seven Seas of Rhye". EMI then rushed the single into release on 22 February, just five days after the television appearance was confirmed. It was the band's first hit single , peaking at number 10 in the UK charts. On 8 November 2010, record company Universal Music announced a remastered and expanded reissue of
4758-407: A reproduction of the painting. Author Neil Gaiman wrote about the painting and the album on his blog: Reason tells me that I would have first encountered the painting itself, the enigmatically titled "Fairy Feller's Master Stroke," reproduced, pretty much full-sized, in the fold-out cover of a Queen album, at the age of fourteen or thereabouts, and it made no impression upon me at all. That's one of
4941-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
5124-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
5307-721: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
5490-487: A single that did not take "too long to happen" (i.e., without a lengthy guitar intro). "Seven Seas of Rhye", recorded with the specific intention of being the album's leading single, began in a way designed to grab attention. Rehearsals for the Queen II sessions commenced on or around 26 July. (Due to management problems, the first album was finally released as the band prepared to record Queen II .) During these rehearsals,
5673-481: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
Queen II - Misplaced Pages Continue
5856-571: A small piece of fret wire placed between it and the strings, which lay gently above. The strings produce the buzzing effect of a sitar . "White Queen" was performed regularly between 1974 and 1977, and last performed in London in 1978. The live version usually included a long instrumental break with Mercury on piano that was not part of, or omitted from, the album version. This is the first Queen song to feature May on lead vocals throughout. It also features May on acoustic guitar and electric guitar and
6039-408: A time when they were praised by the rest of the press. In 1993, they gave a French rock band called Darlin' a negative review calling their music "a daft punky thrash". Darlin' eventually became the electronic music duo Daft Punk . Australian journalist Andrew Mueller joined MM in 1990 and became Reviews Editor between 1991 and 1993, eventually declining to become Features Editor and leaving
6222-464: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
6405-529: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
6588-410: A very "thrash" sound. The ogre -like screams in the middle are Mercury's, and the high harmonies at the end of the chorus hook are sung by Taylor. As the title suggests, it tells the story of a battle between ogres, and features a May guitar solo and sound effects to simulate the sounds of a battle. The opening of the song is actually the end of the song played in reverse. A version of "Ogre Battle"
6771-509: A victory for the latter and the departure of writers such as Mark Sinker and Biba Kopf (as Chris Bohn was now calling himself), and the rise of Andrew Collins and Stuart Maconie , who pushed NME in a more populist direction. While MM continued to devote most space to rock and indie music (notably Everett True 's coverage of the emerging grunge scene in Seattle ), it covered house , hip hop , post-rock , rave and trip hop . Two of
6954-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
7137-675: Is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
7320-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
7503-540: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
Queen II - Misplaced Pages Continue
7686-472: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
7869-555: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
8052-485: Is not a concept album but a collection of songs with a loose theme running throughout. The two sides of the original LP were labelled "Side White" and "Side Black" (instead of the conventional sides A and B), with corresponding photos of the band dressed in black on the front cover and white on the inner gatefold. The white side has songs with a more emotional theme and the black side is almost entirely about fantasy, often with quite dark themes. Mick Rock 's cover photograph
8235-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
8418-449: Is one of two Queen songs (the other being "Bohemian Rhapsody") containing polyrhythm / polymeter (two different time signatures simultaneously 8/8 and 12/8) and a simpler polyrhythm around the end uptempo section, which is very rare for popular music. The lead vocals cover two and a half octaves (G2 – C5). May regards it as a precursor to " Bohemian Rhapsody ", stating, "You've got to bear in mind that we'd already made 'My Fairy King' on
8601-470: Is only known to have been played live once, at Providence Civic Center on 14 November 1978 (likely in response to a fan shouting for the song near the beginning of the concert). After playing the intro the band quickly transitioned into "Bohemian Rhapsody". This was also the final time a Queen II track would be played live until the revival of "Seven Seas of Rhye" in 1984 for The Works Tour. This song ends with an ascending note progression, which climaxes in
8784-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
8967-494: Is the Band." Melody Maker Melody Maker was a British weekly music magazine , one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media , the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born composer, publisher Lawrence Wright ; the first editor was Edgar Jackson. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publication) New Musical Express . Originally
9150-419: Is told about the "Bohemian Rhapsody" sessions. Despite never being released as a single, it remains a favourite amongst Queen's fans. The full piece was too complicated to be performed live; however, the uptempo section containing the lines "My life is in your hands, I'll foe and I'll fie..." etc. was sometimes included in a live medley, with vocals by Mercury and Taylor, during the 1970s. The opening piano piece
9333-535: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
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#17327796512609516-524: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
9699-534: The Hammersmith Odeon on 14 December, followed by a standalone gig at Leicester University on 15 December. Rough mixing for the album commenced on 17 December. Martin Hayman of Sounds visited the band on 22 December while they were finishing rough mixes for "Loser In The End", "Ogre Battle", and "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke". Queen went back into the studio in early January. At this point, all of
9882-679: The Melody Maker ( MM ) concentrated on jazz , and had Max Jones , one of the leading British proselytizers for that music, on its staff for many years. It was slow to cover rock and roll and lost ground to the New Musical Express ( NME ), which had begun in 1952. MM launched its own weekly singles chart (a top 20) on 7 April 1956, and an LPs charts in November 1958, two years after the Record Mirror had published
10065-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
10248-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
10431-456: The "saving grace of timely and well-chosen power chords and some rather pretty tunes." Melody Maker wrote, "It's reputed Queen have enjoyed some success in the States, it's currently in the balance whether they'll really break through here. If they do, then I'll have to eat my hat or something. Maybe Queen try too hard, there's no depth of sound or feeling." Record Mirror wrote, "This is it,
10614-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
10797-467: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
10980-566: The 60th greatest album ever released on the Elektra label. Along with the Queen albums Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera , Queen II is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die , where it is described as "a distinctly dark album" which "displayed their diversity," and contrasted with their later "expansive, stadium-pleasing anthems." Rock music Rock
11163-471: The 70s," being listed alongside Sheer Heart Attack as one of the 20 greatest albums of 1974. In 2008, IGN named Queen II as one of their "10 Classic Glam Rock Albums", writing, "Queen gave glam a bigger, more anthemic sound with this glittery opus. Combined with Freddie Mercury's underrated keyboard work, Brian May's ringing leads and pristine riffs created a backdrop for songs that were by turns ferocious and elegant." In 2010, Mojo ranked Queen II as
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#173277965126011346-477: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
11529-897: The Beatles to be honoured by the British state. This duly happened on 12 June that year, when all four members of the group (Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and Starr ) were appointed as members of the Order of the British Empire . By the late 1960s, MM had recovered, targeting an older market than the teen-oriented NME . MM had larger and more specialised advertising; soon-to-be well-known groups would advertise for musicians. It ran pages devoted to "minority" interests like folk and jazz, as well as detailed reviews of musical instruments. A 1968 Melody Maker poll named John Peel best radio DJ, attention which John Walters said may have helped Peel keep his job despite concerns at BBC Radio 1 about his style and record selection. Starting from
11712-628: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
11895-617: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
12078-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
12261-594: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
12444-507: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
12627-471: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
12810-506: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
12993-503: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
13176-539: The Osmonds , the Jackson 5 , and David Cassidy . The music weekly also gave early and sympathetic coverage to glam rock . Richard Williams wrote the first pieces about Roxy Music , while Roy Hollingworth wrote the first article celebrating New York Dolls in proto-punk terms while serving as the Melody Maker ' s New York correspondent. Andrew Means started writing for Melody Maker in 1970. During his time, he
13359-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
13542-588: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
13725-672: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
13908-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
14091-457: The US, improving on their debut album Queen , which peaked at number 83. In interviews the group promoted the album with a theme of "good versus evil," and made numerous public appearances to gain exposure: aside from touring in 1973, they performed BBC specials, broadcast a gig at Golders Green Hippodrome on In Concert and appeared on John Peel 's Sound of the Seventies . However, despite
14274-415: The US. Other problems beset the album's release: the energy conservation measures put in place during the 1973 oil crisis delayed its manufacture by several months; then, when released, John Deacon was credited as "Deacon John", and the band insisted it had to be corrected. Queen II was released on 8 March 1974. The album enjoyed chart success in the UK, peaking at number five. It peaked at number 49 in
14457-619: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
14640-454: The Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack , the song references a fantasy world or kingdom named Rhye. "It's really fictitious," Mercury told interviewer Tom Browne in 1977. "It's a figment of your imagination." A short, instrumental version of "Seven Seas of Rhye" was included as the outro on their first album, with the intent of starting this album with the full version. A similar idea occurred with
14823-751: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
15006-408: The Who are probably in Queen II somewhere, because they were among our favourite groups, but what we are trying to do differently from either of those groups [is] this sort of layered sound. The Who had the open chord guitar sound... but our sound is more based on the overdriven guitar sound... I also wanted to build up textures behind the main melody lines. We were trying to push studio techniques to
15189-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
15372-444: The album coming out, Freddie went, 'I wrote that.' And we all went, 'Okay.' (Laughs) Because it didn't seem like that big a deal. But Freddie said, 'You know, I wrote the words and it was my idea, so it's my song.' The sort of unwritten law was the person who brought the song in would get the credit for writing that song, and the money for writing that song. Much, much later in Queen history, we recognized this fact." Along with "Lily of
15555-460: The album set for release in May 2011. This was as part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which meant Queen's association with EMI Records would come to an end after almost 40 years. All of Queen's studio albums were remastered and reissued in 2011. Considering the abuse we've had lately, I'm surprised that the new album has done so well. I suppose it's basically that audiences like
15738-468: The album. On 3 November, Queen had their first publicity shoot with Mick Rock, producing the album's iconic cover image. Queen took another break from recording in November to tour with Mott The Hoople. Rehearsals began on 5 November and the tour started in Blackburn on 13 November. The band would come near London a few times in early December, and popped into the studio on their days off. The tour ended at
15921-515: The band played at the Golders Green Hippodrome in London. (This was also their first recorded concert.) On 24 September the band did their first radio interview with Bob Harris. In early October, Queen met with photographer Mick Rock for the first time to discuss album concept art. They took a short break starting on 12 October to begin a promotional tour around Europe. On 18 October, the band returned to London to continue work on
16104-498: The band to storm off stage halfway through their set. On 31 January, Queen returned to London to complete the album. The last pressings were made on 20 February. The music of Queen II has been attributed to several genres, including art rock , hard rock , glam rock , heavy metal , and progressive rock . Music journalist and author Jerry Ewing described the album as displaying a "proggy art rock tendency". Daniel Ross of The Quietus described it as "the exact intersection" between
16287-493: The band were interviewed by Melody Maker and told the magazine that their new album would have a theme of "good versus evil". The band also ended its collaboration with John Anthony, who had co-produced the first album, due to clashes between Mercury and Anthony. On 3 August, the band performed at a gig in Newcastle, then returned to London for a pre-recording rehearsal on 4 August. Sessions began on 5 August with takes 1–12 of
16470-405: The band's "murky, metallic beginnings" and "the absolute pop perfection incarnation of Queen, leather trousers and Formby pastiches." Rather than the conventional Side 1 and Side 2, the album was split into "Side White" and "Side Black", dominated by May and Mercury compositions respectively. Although some have interpreted it as a concept album , Queen biographer Georg Purvis stated that it is "not
16653-713: The band's live set up to and including the A Day at the Races Tour , and was only played a couple more times on the North American leg of the News of the World Tour before being dropped from the set for good. Mercury was inspired by Richard Dadd 's painting The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke at the Tate Gallery in London. The fantasy-based lyrics make direct reference to characters and vignettes detailed in
16836-470: The band's signature sound of multi-layered overdubs , vocal harmonies, and varied musical styles. Described as "arguably the heaviest Queen album", Queen II marked the end of the first phase of the band's career. The album combines a heavy rock sound with art rock and progressive rock elements, and has been called "a pillar of grandiose, assaultive hard rock " by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . Queen II
17019-507: The band... we took so much trouble over that album, possibly too much, but when we finished we felt really proud. Immediately it got really bad reviews so I took it home to listen to again and thought "Christ, are they right?" But after hearing it a few weeks later I still like it. I think it's great. We'll stick by it. —Roger Taylor on the critical reaction to Queen II . Disc wrote, "The material, performance, recording and even artwork standards are very high." NME opined that
17202-585: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
17385-461: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
17568-649: The closing track, which is his only composition on the album. John Deacon played acoustic guitar on "Father to Son" in addition to normal duties on bass guitar. Mercury composed and sang all six songs on the "Black" side. "Procession" is a short instrumental piece (a funeral march) performed by Brian May on multi-tracked guitar. He recorded it by playing overlapping parts on the Red Special through John Deacon 's custom-made amplifier (the Deacy Amp ). Roger Taylor also contributes to this instrumental, using only
17751-455: The cover, especially since their first album had failed to do so. "They realised that if you could catch people's eyes you could get them interested in the music." The brief he received from the band conceived a black and white theme for the album. The cover features a photograph described by VH1 as "Queen standing in diamond formation, heads tilted back like Easter Island statues " against a black background. The iconic chiaroscuro image of Queen
17934-411: The cover. Several journalists, such as Chris Bohn and Vivien Goldman, moved to NME , while Jon Savage joined the new magazine The Face . Coleman left in 1981, the paper's design was updated, but sales and prestige were at a low ebb through the early 1980s, with NME dominant. By 1983, the magazine had become more populist and pop-orientated, exemplified by its modish "MM" masthead, regular covers for
18117-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
18300-457: The dregs of glam rock . Weak and over-produced, if this band are our brightest hope for the future, then we are committing rock and roll suicide." Robert Christgau , writing in Creem magazine, derisively referred to it as "wimpoid royaloid heavyoid android void." As 1974 drew to a close, public reaction to Queen II had been enthusiastic. The album was also ranked by Disc as the 5th best of
18483-455: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
18666-403: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
18849-462: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
19032-519: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
19215-581: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
19398-502: The finished version of "Seven Seas of Rhye". On 6 August, they started recording "Father To Son", working on takes 1–4. They continued to work on the album until 9 August, when they made promotional videos for " Keep Yourself Alive " and " Liar " from the debut album. According to the August 11 issue of Record Mirror , the band was scheduled to go back into the studio on 15 August. However, David Bowie and Ken Scott were producing Pin Ups in
19581-445: The first UK Albums Chart . From 1964, the paper led its rival publications in terms of approaching music and musicians as a subject for serious study rather than merely entertainment. Staff reporters such as Chris Welch and Ray Coleman applied a perspective previously reserved for jazz artists to the rise of American-influenced local rock and pop groups, anticipating the advent of music criticism . On 6 March 1965, MM called for
19764-477: The first album and we'd done 'The March of the Black Queen' on the second album, so we were well in tune with Freddie's excursions into strange areas, and that was something that we really enjoyed." Taylor recalled in a 1977 interview, "The tape went transparent, genuinely... It was 16-track... The tape had gone over the (recording) head so many times, overdubbing, that the oxide had worn off." A similar anecdote
19947-498: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
20130-503: The first second of the following track. The song segues into the next track, "Funny How Love Is". "Funny How Love Is" was created in the studio. Mercury wrote it and played the piano while Robin Cable produced. It was produced using the " wall of sound " technique. The song was never performed live, largely due to the demanding high-register vocals from Mercury throughout the song. Mercury began developing "Seven Seas of Rhye" in 1969 when he
20313-455: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
20496-513: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
20679-458: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
20862-467: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
21045-517: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
21228-481: The last guitar solo (during the fade-out ) features three solo guitars. This kind of complex guitar arrangement is typical of May; however, usually the guitars are harmonious, but in this case, all of the guitars play different parts. "The Loser in the End" was Taylor's sole contribution on the album both as a songwriter and lead vocalist. The original handwritten lyrics of the song, which were nearly shredded in 2004, are
21411-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
21594-403: The likes of Duran Duran and its choice of Eurythmics ' Touch as the best album of the year. Things were to change, however. In February 1984, Allan Jones , a staff writer on the paper since 1974, was appointed editor: defying instructions to put Kajagoogoo on the cover, he led the magazine with an article on up-and-coming band The Smiths . In 1986, MM was invigorated by the arrival of
21777-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
21960-487: The magazine in 1993. He then went on to join NME under his former boss Steve Sutherland, who had left MM in 1992. The magazine retained its large classified ads section, and remained the first call for musicians wanting to form a band. Suede formed through ads placed in the paper. MM also continued to publish reviews of musical equipment and readers' demo tapes , though these often had little in common stylistically with
22143-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
22326-674: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
22509-609: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
22692-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
22875-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
23058-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
23241-477: The mid-1960s, critics such as Welch, Richard Williams , Michael Watts and Steve Lake were among the first British journalists to write seriously about popular music, shedding an intellectual light on such artists as Steely Dan , Cat Stevens , Led Zeppelin , Pink Floyd and Henry Cow . By the early 1970s, Melody Maker was considered "the musos' journal" and associated with progressive rock. However, Melody Maker also reported on teenybopper pop stars such as
23424-418: The new editor and attempted to take Melody Maker in a new direction, influenced by what Paul Morley and Ian Penman were doing at NME . He recruited Jon Savage (formerly of Sounds ), Chris Bohn and Mary Harron to provide intellectual coverage of post-punk bands like Gang of Four , Pere Ubu , and Joy Division and of new wave in general. Vivien Goldman , previously at NME and Sounds , gave
23607-465: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
23790-608: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
23973-605: The odd things about it. You have to see it in the flesh, paint on canvas, the real thing, which hangs, mostly, when it isn't travelling, in the Pre-Raphaelite room of the Tate Gallery, out of place among the grand gold-framed Pre-Raphaelite beauties, all of them so much more huge and artful than the humble fairy court walking through the daisies, for it to become real. And when you see it several things will become apparent; some immediately, some eventually. Gaiman wrote
24156-455: The old music hall song " I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside ", which is sung at the end of "Seven Seas of Rhye" here and whistled during the intro to the third album, Sheer Heart Attack . Ken Testi recalled, "I joined in on the reprise at the end of 'Seven Seas of Rhye'. So did Pat McConnell and a whole bunch of us. I recall an awful lot of reverb, and Brian played the stylophone on it, but it
24339-441: The oldest example of handwritten lyrics in the Queen archive. Mercury wrote "Ogre Battle" on guitar (as confirmed by May in several interviews) in 1971 and it was one of the earliest songs in the Queen set list despite not being recorded until the Queen II sessions. The band waited until they could have more studio freedom to do it properly. The song is one of Queen's heaviest works. The guitar riff and Taylor's drumming give it
24522-526: The painting and in Dadd's companion poem, Elimination of a Picture & its Subject—called The Feller's Master Stroke. Characters include Queen Mab , Waggoner Will, the Tatterdemalion, and others. The use of the word " quaere " in the twice-repeated line "What a quaere fellow" has no reference to Mercury's sexuality, according to Roger Taylor. In some markets the album included a fold-out cover with
24705-510: The paper improved coverage of reggae and soul music , restoring the superior coverage of those genres that the paper had in the early 1970s. Internal tension developed, principally between Williams and Coleman, by this time editor-in-chief, who wanted the paper to stick to the more "conservative rock" music it had continued to support during the punk era. Coleman had been insistent that the paper should "look like The Daily Telegraph " (renowned for its old-fashioned design), but Williams wanted
24888-546: The paper to look more contemporary. He commissioned an updated design, but this was rejected by Coleman. In 1980, after a strike which had taken the paper (along with NME ) out of publication for a period, Williams left MM . Coleman promoted Michael Oldfield from the design staff to day-to-day editor, and, for a while, took it back where it had been, with news of a line-up change in Jethro Tull replacing features about Andy Warhol , Gang of Four and Factory Records on
25071-518: The paper's writers, Push and Ben Turner, went on to launch IPC Media's monthly dance music magazine Muzik . Even in the mid-1990s, when Britpop brought a new generation of readers to the music press, it remained less populist than its rivals, with younger writers such as Simon Price and Taylor Parkes continuing the 1980s tradition of iconoclasm and opinionated criticism. The paper printed harsh criticism of Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker , and allowed dissenting views on Oasis and Blur at
25254-425: The piano strings while Mercury played the notes. "Nevermore" is a short ballad written by Mercury about the feelings after a heartbreak. Mercury had been working on this song even before Queen formed. In a 1974 interview with Melody Maker , he said, "... that song took me ages to complete. I wanted to give it everything, to be self-indulgent or whatever." The multifaceted composition, the band's second longest (6:34),
25437-471: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
25620-464: The publicity, the group received negative reviews from the media, who criticised the band for being "excessive and self indulgent." "Seven Seas of Rhye", along with the non-album B-side "See What a Fool I've Been", was released as a single sooner than planned due to a fortuitous circumstance. In February 1974, David Bowie was unable to appear on the show " Top of the Pops " to perform " Rebel Rebel ", and
25803-445: The record showcased "all their power and drive, their writing talents, and every quality that makes them unique," while Sounds wrote, "Simply titled Queen II , this album captures them in their finest hours." Rolling Stone , who had highly praised the band's first album, awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five. While the magazine had little enthusiasm for "Side Black", they applauded "Side White", writing that it featured
25986-653: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
26169-582: The rest of the paper, ensuring sales to jobbing musicians who would otherwise have little interest in the music press. In early 1997, Allan Jones left to edit Uncut . He was replaced by Mark Sutherland, formerly of NME and Smash Hits , who thus "fulfilled [his] boyhood dream" and stayed on to edit the magazine for three years. Many long-standing writers left, often moving to Uncut , with Simon Price departing allegedly because he objected to an edict that coverage of Oasis should be positive. Its sales, which had already been substantially lower than those of
26352-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
26535-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
26718-436: The rough mixes had been finished, and the band were ready to move onto the final stages of production. According to studio documentation, most of the songs were mixed by 19 January, but still required equalization. Brian had also contracted gangrene from a tainted inoculation needle in mid-December, and couldn't attend some sessions. The band flew to Australia on 25 January and performed to an unruly crowd on 27 January that led to
26901-522: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
27084-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
27267-545: The singer's dormant career. During the interview Bowie said, "I'm gay, and always have been, even when I was David Jones." "OH YOU PRETTY THING" ran the headline, and swiftly became part of pop mythology. Bowie later attributed his success to this interview, stating that, "Yeah, it was Melody Maker that made me. It was that piece by Mick Watts." During his tenure at the paper, Watts also toured with and interviewed artists including Syd Barrett , Waylon Jennings , Pink Floyd , Bob Dylan , and Bruce Springsteen . Caroline Coon
27450-546: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
27633-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
27816-606: The song until 2014, when it was released on Live at the Rainbow '74 . The previous track ends with a three-part vocal harmony from Mercury, May, and Taylor which flows into Mercury playing the piano. This piano carries on to open this track making "Ogre Battle", "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" and the current track, into a medley . All the vocal parts were performed by Mercury, who added some contemporary piano "ring" effects as well. These effects were widely suspected to be synthesisers; however, they were created by someone plucking
27999-574: The studio Queen had been using. The band were put into Studio 2, with producer Robin Geoffrey Cable. Although this studio only had an 8-track tape machine at the time, Queen decided to work on backing tracks nonetheless. Takes of Nevermore were recorded that day, and Funny How Love Is was recorded on 16 August. Queen had to cancel a studio session on 17 August to perform a gig in Peterborough. They returned to London around 3:00 a.m. Roy Thomas Baker had also left (around 12–18 August) to work with
28182-520: The studio. "Father To Son", "Ogre Battle" and "Procession" had all been premiered as early as 1972. "Seven Seas of Rhye" dated to Freddie Mercury 's Wreckage days in 1969. "See What a Fool I've Been", the B-side to the "Seven Seas of Rhye" single and "White Queen (As It Began)" were left over from the Smile days. "Stone Cold Crazy", also from Mercury's Wreckage period, had been in the set list for years, but
28365-615: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
28548-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
28731-536: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
28914-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
29097-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
29280-513: The year. While the album remains one of the band's lesser-known works, it has since retained a cult following and has in recent years been cited by a number of music publications, fellow artists and fans as one of Queen's finest works. In 1987, the Post-Tribune ranked Queen II 9th in an article covering "albums that should be in everyone's record collection, but aren't." In the 1994 edition of The Guinness All Time Top 1000 Albums , Queen II
29463-582: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
29646-681: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " and " Kon-Tiki ", while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
29829-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
30012-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
30195-413: Was done in one day and we were all totally pissed at the time." "Seven Seas of Rhye" features a distinctive arpeggiated piano introduction. On the Queen II recording, the arpeggios are played with both hands, an octave apart, whereas on the abbreviated Queen recording, and most live performances, Mercury played the simpler one-handed version of these arpeggios. The theme also appears at the end of "It's
30378-407: Was dropped from live shows, but revived a few times in 1976. The song covers a two-octave range: Mercury (G3-A4), Taylor (G4-A5). Written by May in 1968, this song features contrasting acoustic and heavy metal sections. May explained that he conceived the idea for this song while reading The White Goddess by Robert Graves . The song also had personal significance for May; he drew inspiration from
30561-575: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
30744-419: Was frequently re-used by the band throughout its career, including the music videos for the songs " Bohemian Rhapsody " (1975) and " One Vision " (1985). Released to an initially mixed critical reception, Queen II remains one of the band's lesser-known albums. Nonetheless, it has retained a cult following since its release, and garnered praise from critics, fans, and fellow musicians alike. Led Zeppelin and
30927-409: Was headhunted by Melody Maker editor Ray Coleman in the mid-1970s and promptly made it her mission to get women musicians taken seriously. Between 1974 and 1976, she interviewed Maggie Bell , Joan Armatrading , Lynsey de Paul , and Twiggy . She then went on to make it her mission to promote punk rock. In 1978, Richard Williams returned – after a stint working at Island Records – to the paper as
31110-444: Was held back and reworked for the third album, Sheer Heart Attack . Portions of "The Prophet's Song" were also rehearsed during the Queen II sessions, but the song was not completed until the fourth album, A Night at the Opera . Queen insisted that Trident Studios allow them to record at regular hours instead of studio down-time, as they had for the first album. The band approached David Bowie to produce, but he declined because he
31293-482: Was inspired by a similar photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express . "And of course no one was ever more 'glam' than the divine Ms Dietrich," Rock quipped. "It was just one of those flashes of inspiration that happens sometimes," Rock explained. "There was a feeling that [echoing the Dietrich pose] might be pretentious," but Rock convinced the band otherwise. "It made them look like much bigger
31476-417: Was prepared to push it quite a way". Freddie added, "It doesn't have any special meaning, but we were fascinated with this type of thing, and the wardrobe we used at the time described it perfectly well". The image would later be brought to life for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" music video. To expand on the black and white theme, Rock made a second image of the band, dressed in white against a white background, that
31659-432: Was prolific and had the responsibility of covering folk music. He was with the paper until 1973. He later wrote for The Arizona Republic . He was also a freelancer and wrote for Sing Out! , Billboard , Jazziz , Rhythm and Songlines etc. In later years he was a fiction writer. In January 1972, Michael "Mick" Watts, a prominent writer for the paper, wrote a profile of David Bowie that almost singlehandedly ignited
31842-564: Was recorded in December 1973 for the BBC Radio 1 Sound of the 70s programme. An acetate was made of an edited version of the BBC recording without the long intro or any of the sound effects in the album version, potentially for release as a second single. However, other sources state that "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" was also considered for the second single. "Ogre Battle" was a staple of
32025-526: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
32208-614: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
32391-499: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
32574-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
32757-455: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
32940-419: Was then recording Pin Ups and working on songs for Diamond Dogs . Robin Geoffrey Cable, with whom Mercury had worked during the " I Can Hear Music " session, was asked to produce "Nevermore" and "Funny How Love Is", and collaborate with Roy Thomas Baker on the ambitious "March of the Black Queen". After the commercial failure of the single "Keep Yourself Alive" from the first album, Queen decided it needed
33123-409: Was used in the album's gatefold, advertising, and the "Seven Seas of Rhye" single sleeve. After the album's completion at the end of August 1973, Queen immediately added "Ogre Battle", "Procession" and "Father to Son" to their live set lists and toured extensively. Once again, however, EMI delayed the album's release since the first album had only just been issued in the UK and had yet to be released in
33306-495: Was voted number 202 in the all-time greatest rock and pop albums. In 2003, Q magazine included Queen II in a list of fifty little-known albums recommended by the magazine to supplement their "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" poll. In 2005, Kerrang! readers voted Queen II the 72nd greatest British rock album ever. In 2006, the album was featured in Classic Rock and Metal Hammer ' s "The 200 Greatest Albums of
33489-435: Was with the band Wreckage. He eventually fleshed the song out with contributions from May. In the documentary Queen: Days of Our Lives , May recalled, "I've probably never spoken about this before, ever, but I remember 'Seven Seas of Rhye' being—it was Freddie's idea. He had this lovely little riff idea on the piano, and I think all the middle eighth is stuff that I did. So we definitely worked on it together. But when it came to
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