the development of the band
traced back to the source, the birth of Queen was based on the band Smile. In 1968, Brian May of Imperial University London, England, with his homemade guitar Red Special, set up Smile with Roger Taylor, a medical student, and Tim Staffell, a classmate. The band style is mainly tough heavy metal, Brian's infectious guitar solo laid a solid foundation in this period, and Roger's powerful and explosive drums also began to take shape. At this time, Freddie Bulsara, the later Queen soul lead singer, just graduated from Yiling University and met Roger Taylor in the clothing business after graduation, thus becoming the first audience of Smile. However, in this period, Freddie moved around in several bands and didn't join Smile. It is worth mentioning that at that time, he had a close personal relationship with every member of the band-Roger Taylor, a business partner, later let Freddie move into his apartment, and Tim Staffell was his classmate for many years. Perhaps this laid the foundation for Queen's tacit understanding in the future.
Soon, Tim Staffell decided to leave Smile, and Freddie, who left the dissolution of another band, Sour Milk Sea, joined Smile on the same day that Tim left. This membership change is a milestone for Queen in the future. Then Freddie decided to change the name of the band to Queen. In February 1971, John Deacon, who graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Chelsea College, University of London, officially joined Queen. The band was born.
John Deacon spent some time in the Queen group, and his participation was a bit of a mistake. Chris, a friend of Freddie's, also took part in the competition when recruiting bass players. Chris was equally skilled and had a good relationship with Freddie. Seeing that the right time, the right place and the right people were messed up by Chris's abnormal play. Guitarist Biran May finally chose a more stable and rigorous John, and Freddie himself was naturally disappointed. John's identity as an "outsider" has become very subtle. But soon, John won the trust with his strength. His calm and steady bass line gave Queen a yardstick for her unrestrained and unconstrained style, which made her works tortuous without being messy. In addition, the science high flyers knows how to manage money. After successfully firing two pig-headed agents who only care about how to squeeze the interests of the band, he began to take care of Queen's internal and external affairs.
When it comes to science high flyers, we have to mention another member, guitarist Brian May. The cornerstone of this band is a great source of Queen's "noble lineage". Brian later became a Ph.D. student in Astrophysics at Imperial University London, England, but his precise rational thinking did not hinder the development of perceptual inspiration. His guitar solo was no longer just an ornament of songs-if Queen is compared to a person, Roger's drums and John's bass line are bones and muscles, and Brian's guitar solo is the flesh and blood in between.
Freddie, the lead singer, plays the role of soul.
speaking of which, it's time to explain why he was called Freddie Bulsara before. In fact, Freddie Mercury is an out-and-out stage name. Freddie was originally named Farrkoh Bulsara. When he was a teenager, he got the nickname "Freddie". When he arrived in Britain at the age of 17, he claimed to be Freddie. Later, when Freddie wrote the song My Fairy King, he was inspired by a lyric and decided to change his surname to Mercury (which also hit it off with Queen's brand Mercury), so he got the name Freddie Mercury, which was later known.
in the debut novel Queen I, released in 1973. You can clearly hear the influence of Led Zeppelin on Queen's genre (Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix are Queen's idols). Although the genre is beginning to show signs in its gorgeous style, Freddie's high-pitched shouting has some traces of imitating Robert Plant, the lead singer of LED Zeppelin. However, this debut is finally a good start. Queen I gave birth to Queen's first hit single Seven seas of rhye.
In p>1974, Queen released the second album "Queen II". In this album, Queen took a very valuable step, and they found their own style. Freddie's slightly thin voice was in a crazy transformation, and it became more colorful and more explosive. The progress is more obvious. Queen's overall arrangement is full of fantasy opera colors, among which guitarist Brian May's solo personally thinks that it has begun to mature in this period. Of course, the arrangement and production in this period felt a little flashy and impetuous-like a young writer who just entered the literary world, he tried his best to show his words in his writing.
There is a song in Queen II that is worth mentioning. It is not a popular song, but it laid the foundation for Queen's later classic Bohemian Rhapsody, and that is The march of the black queen. Using an inappropriate metaphor, Bohemian Rhapsody is like an evolutionary version of The march of the black queen. Surrealism-filled lyrics, weird, dark and exquisite music styles, gorgeous and slightly playful guitars solo and Bassline-perhaps the biggest difference is the interpretation. The opera color in the middle part of Bohemian Rhapsody is stronger, and the lead singer Freddie's control is more wonderful (it can even be said that Freddie's singing in Bohemian Rhapsody overshadows his equally excellent compilation. ）。
Then, Queen released her third album Sheer Heart Attack, which was the real beginning of Queen's glory. A very obvious sign is that Freddie's voice has broken into a butterfly. Whether it's killer queen, Misfire or Stone cold crazy with strong metal style, he can control it with ease. What really reaches perfection is the arrangement and production. At this time, Queen has learned how to choose in the process of tempering, not in the excessive superposition of fancy paragraphs, but in the pursuit of a sense of harmony and integrity in the beauty. In the hit single "Killer Queen", Freddie's bright and naughty voice skillfully shuttles through Brian May's agile guitar solo, and with humorous harmony, this song is full of black humor while being pleasant to the ear. Killer Queen has reached the peak level of Queen to a certain extent, and its popularity seems to indicate the arrival of a gorgeous dynasty.
Towards the Peak
In p>1975, Queen was crowned with the imperial robe of A Night At The Opera. This album is not only a classic handed down by all Queen fans, but also a dazzling milestone in the history of rock and roll (if you are new to Queen's friends, you might as well listen to it from this album, because it represents Queen's highest level from any angle. )
In this album, lyric ditties, metal masterpieces and opera chapters are patchy and relaxed on the whole, which truly presents a colorful queen. The album begins with the satirical and explosive style of Death On Two Legs, and ends with a guitar cadence of the British national anthem "God Save The Queen" after several emotional ups and downs and dynamic and static changes. The harmony between the songs can be described as natural. And just looking at each song, it is also perfect and impeccable. The drummer Roger Taylor's "I'm In Love With My Car" is full of momentum. Roger's hoarse and grainy voice makes the song very hormonal, but then "39" makes a 18-degree turn. Brian May, a guitarist with literary temperament, picks up the acoustic guitar and gently sings a sad story. The accompaniment of pure acoustic guitar is full of rural flavor, which is very rare in Queen's works.
as for Freddie Mercury's performance in this album, there is no need to say more. How to describe his voice? Gorgeous? Too shallow; Sexy? Seems too frivolous. He sometimes sings softly and sometimes shouts loudly, and every detail of his voice blooms with strange flowers. That's the magic of Queen. They can easily build a palace, and they can pluck the strings with a guitar to make it disappear in an instant. At this time, you have been led by Freddie to the bright moonlight. When you are about to fall asleep in that tenderness, everything is desolate again, and the whispering a moment ago has turned into a series of painful cries ...
The perfect masterpiece naturally attracts people's attention. "A Night At The Opera" has just reached 5 million copies, among which the hit single "Bohemian Rhapsody" swept the major charts and occupied the top spot in the British charts for a record nine weeks! Even more than ten years later, in 1992, Bohemian Rhapsody was the runner-up in the American singles charts for several weeks. The famous bird's crown pattern on the album cover was designed by Freddie, the lead singer, in which Cancer, Maiden and Lion respectively represent the constellations of the band members. Variants of this pattern are also used in Queen's later albums A Day At The Race and Greatest II.
However, the peak is often a death sentence, which is often the case, just as Raphael's unprecedented style doomed the classical and delicate painting style to be the last one. After A Night At The Opera, no matter how hard Queen tried, she couldn't surpass this peak-it was so perfect that everything later was called a "replica". Jumping out, the later releases of A Day At The Race》《News Of The World and Jazz are all masterpieces, but in people's minds, they can only exist in the shadow of A Night At The Opera.
Nevertheless, these three albums have produced many classic works, among which We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You are undoubtedly the most popular works of Queen (I believe many China fans know Queen from them). They have appeared in numerous sports events and advertisements, and have also become the symbol of Queen in the eyes of most people.
Queen's early works are famous for not using synthesizers, but how are those colorful opera effects made? This brings us back to the two science high flyers-guitarist Brian May and bassist John Deacon. These two people not only have extraordinary talent in music, but also are first-class in mechanical production. Brian's decades-old red and black guitar, Red Special, was made by himself (it is said that the original material was the door panel at home). The Red Special has a special tone, and Brian handled it with ease. It not only became a symbol of Brian May, but also set up a guitar brand. In addition, he also made Treble Booster Pedal (Treble Booster Pedal, used to improve the timbre of the treble). John Deacon, who was born in the department of electronic engineering, is even better. He made great contributions to the sound effect of Queen's music art by assembling a magic power amplifier Deacy Amp with a bunch of discarded transistors. Treble Booster Pedal and Deacy Amp were improved to give birth to Vox Brian May Special, which was later sold as an independent product. This set, together with Vox AC3 (an acoustic simulator) and three rock pieces, is all the stuff of Queen's gorgeous sound effects.
In recording, Brian May usually adopts the method of recording multiple tracks by superposition, and they are also very diligent about the recording effect. The creation time of Bohemian Rhapsody only took Freddie Mercury15 minutes, but the post-production took several weeks! In that era when there was no advanced recording technology, Queen rejected the fast but unrealistic synthesizer with a rigorous attitude, and made music that will last forever in history with her own inventions and efforts, which is worth learning from many bands with various tricks but impetuous.
falling into a low ebb
The 198s was a watershed in Queen's music. First of all, Freddie cut short her previous curly hair and grew a dark beard. The dress at the concert was changed from tights that looked like ballerinas to men's coats and even vests. In addition, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist JohnDeacon also cut off their long hair, changing their feminine temperament. The only thing that hasn't changed much is guitarist Brian May, whose "mushroom cloud" is still the same today.
what is more important than the change in image is Queen's style. Queen had always hated punk, and both songs "We Will Rock You" and "Sheer Heart Attack" smacked of satire on Sex Pistols. However, they didn't resist the attack of the trend of pop dance music in the 198s.
generally speaking, during this period, Queen was divided into two camps. Brian and Roger insist on metal style, but John has a strong interest in pop and funk. Freddie is on John's side-he is Aretha F, the queen of soul songs.