Queen The Greatest Special Limited Series - New series of The Greatest celebrates the hugely anticipated - Queen I boxset is Out Now

With the remixed, remastered and expanded version of Queen’s classic 1973 debut album now available, The Greatest goes behind the scenes with Brian May and Roger Taylor to explore the creation of this landmark album.

Queen The Greatest Special – The Story Of Queen I Part Two

Continuing our celebration of the release of the Queen 1 Box set, Brian May and Roger Taylor share their memories of recording those first tracks. Now signed to Trident, Queen can follow in the footsteps of some of their idols into the famous studios, and finally start work on their first album.  However, it's not quite the experience they imagined it to be.

As they walked into London’s Trident Studios for the first time in spring ’72 – following a brutal few years of rejection and poverty – the Queen lineup might have hoped they were finally in the fast lane. But as we discover from Brian May and Roger Taylor’s testimony for the latest episode of Queen The Greatest – a new video series to celebrate the freshly remastered and expanded Queen I boxset – the hard work had only just begun.

As Roger reflects, the first challenge was logistical. With Queen at that point a minnow amongst Trident’s roster of big-hitters, the lineup were expected to snatch sessions at dead of night. “It was tough in the beginning. We were really working off-peak hours when the studio was free . Trident Studios was regarded as the studio of the moment in the ’70s. But we’d arrive at three in the morning and go on for all the hours we could grab.”

“It was very tough because we never knew when we were going to get back in there,” adds Brian of the chaotic results. “Tapes got jumbled up and lost, and there was a discontinuity. Sometimes we had to have a different engineer who didn't realise what we'd done before. It was really a mess. It was a hodgepodge, difficult to hold it together.  They were tough times.”

Already, Queen had a distinct vision for their debut – which clashed with their Trident paymasters and left the band dissatisfied with the record’s sound until this year’s remastered Queen I. Even so, as Brian reflects, that original pressing still caught the band’s spirit. “As a band, I think we came through. The energy and creative power actually got onto tape. We had enough passion and belief and indulgence to see through that stuff and realise that even though the sounds weren't quite what we wanted, we still had our energy and our vibe.”

Even the debut album’s release on 13 July 1973 didn’t quite go according to plan. With Roger recalling “a tsunami of nothing” amongst a disinterested rock press, Brian explains that it took the word-of-mouth buzz from their tireless gigging to send Queen up the charts (the record ultimately went gold in the wake of 1975’s multi-platinum A Night At The Opera). “Once we had that first album out, we had an audience who understood us and were really behind us. There’s suddenly momentum coming in from outside. And that's incredibly helpful. That gives you the energy you need. So, we had internal energy and we had external energy coming to us from what became the Queen fans, which is incredible.”

Queen ascended to national treasure status many decades ago. But it’s only now – 51 years after its original release – that the band’s debut album is presented as it was meant to be heard. “Essentially,” explains Roger, “we've made the actual album sound the way we wanted it to sound. Using the techniques we have now, the overall sound is better, the mixes are better. And Brian and I thought it was a good idea to clarify exactly what it was by calling it Queen I…”     

Adds Brian: “So it's been amazing to go back into those tapes and build them, to rebuild them, so they have the sounds that we had in our heads at the time. And this is all four of us. It's not just me or just Roger. No, it's Freddie very much. John, very much. We always thought, ‘wouldn't it be great if we could go back to that first album and make it sound the way that we wanted it to sound at the time?’ So now we did it. I'm excited. I'm very excited.”

Received with rhapsodic reviews, it appears Queen 1 is finally being heard figuratively and literally the way the band always dreamed it would be.

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The 6CD + 1 LP Queen I box set contains 63 tracks with 43 brand new mixes, comprising the original album with its intended running order restored, intimate fly-on-the-wall audio of Queen in the studio, demos, rare live tracks, and previously unheard recordings from Queen’s first-ever live performance in London, August 1970. Absent from the 1973 release, the song “Mad the Swine” has been reinstated to its original place in the running order. A 108-page book containing handwritten lyrics and memorabilia accompanies the release. 
 
Pre-Order Queen I: https://Queen.lnk.to/QueenI
Queen I Website: http://www.queenIofficial.com/