QUEEN – QUEEN OF BRITISH ROCK
By the time Queen appeared in the musical horizon, the world was already sick with Beatlemania, a fan of the Rolling Stones rebels and Pink Floyd philosophers. However, this did not stop the “queens” from catching the wave and lighting their star, a phenomenon which can be understood by turning over the pages of the history of the formation of the collective.
“We Are the Champions”, “The Show Must Go On”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Innuendo”, “We Will Rock You” and “Radio Ga Ga”. Well, who among music lovers does not know these outstanding compositions that made the Queen group a cult and reference. They also became innovators in the production of clips, for the first time applying original special effects and testing editing techniques.
Musical dystopia
The story of the group began with the student group “1984”, which was played by students of Queen College of Art at Ealing, Brian May and Tim Staffell. Back in 1967, carried away by the work of their compatriot George Orwell, they gave the name to their group in honor of his famous anti-utopian novel “1984”. After a year of performances in front of the school public, the guys renamed the collective Smile. Then the young people realized that it was time to expand and began to look for a drummer. Roger Taylor, who studied at the dentist, responded to the vacancy announcement.
Together they managed to agree with the organizers of the concert of the Pink Floyd band and perform at their opening act. The first step towards a musical career was made, but then unexpectedly Tim Staffell decided to leave the group. I had to urgently look for a replacement for him. They offered to come to audition his roommate Faruh Bulsar. He repeatedly attended the rehearsals of the group, but he never showed to his mind that he himself could sing and want this.
The birth of the unique Queen
Farukh, who was also called Freddie in an English boarding school in Bombay, had a clear idea of how to behave on stage, correctly present Queen’s voice and, most importantly, how to organize the work of the whole team.
As soon as he was accepted into the group, he decided to give her a new majestic name Queen and even developed a coat of arms-logo (not for nothing that he studied at an art college!). The core of the group was vocalist keyboardist Freddy Boulsar, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Not enough bass player. Mike Groves, Barry Mitchell and Doug Gods stayed at this place for several months. And only in 1971 they managed to find a new team member – John Deacon, who secured the main composition of the Queen group for the next 20 years.
Two Queens in 3 years
Almost all critics are unanimous in their opinion that from the very beginning of their creative career the Queen group was distinguished by its unique style of progressive rock. The secret of their corporate identity was the competent combination of several musical styles – heavy metal, hard rock, Queen disco, lyrical ballads, performed by Freddy’s unique voice with a power of four octaves. By the way, Freddie considered his outstanding idols Jimi Hendrix and the equally popular Led Zeppelin.
For two whole years (in between studies), the “queens” worked on the first album of the same name. The public saw him in 1973. In parallel, the musicians managed to get to concerts in Germany and Luxembourg, travel to the cities of their native Great Britain and sometimes perform at the opening act of already titled groups.
In another year, I managed to create and record the album “Queen II”, which managed to get to fifth place in the British chart. The year was fruitful. The new Sheer Heart Attack collection presented music lovers with Killer Queen and Stone Cold Crazy hits. During one of the entries, Faruh decided to change his surname and took the pseudonym Freddie Mercury, under which he became famous throughout the world.
Prolific four
The next album “A Day at the Races” was criticized in the press, but this did not stop him from taking Freddie Mercury first place in the country’s charts, and the song “Somebody to Love” achieved mega-hit status. Until the late 1970s, the world heard “We Are the Champions,” “We Will Rock You,” “Don’t Stop Me Now.”
In the early 1980s, the group “matured” and moved to a completely different level of development, becoming a symbol of rock music for a decade. Not only the creative style of the collective has changed, but also the image of the vocalist. Freddie Mercury changed his long hair for a short haircut, grew a small mustache and began to go on stage in more elegant clothes than tights. Only the part of the microphone stand that was in his hands remained unchanged.
The best album of the collective Freddy considered the collection “The Game” (1980). Then for the first time when recording, musicians used a synthesizer instead of a piano. Prior to this, they basically did not recognize him in his work. From now on, compositions from this disc are heard at all concerts of the group. Freddie also loved the disco-funk item “Another One Bites the Dust”.
