Queen - Queen II
EMI - Originally Released 1974
Review Dean Pedley
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It was on the strength of ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, the first single I owned, and its live B-side of the “fast” version of ‘We Will Rock You’ that I asked my parents for my first LP for my tenth birthday. They duly obliged with not one but two Queen albums, ‘Live Killers’ and the budget priced ‘Queen II’. Initially I was somewhat dubious on examining ‘II’; this didn’t look anything like the band I had seen on Top Of The Pops and the title was confusing – did this mean there were actually two bands called Queen? All was revealed when I began listening to the record and very soon became taken with Side 2 (the “Black” side, with all of the songs penned by Mercury) and the distinctive vocals on songs like ‘Ogre Battle’, ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke’ and the records stand out cut – ‘The March Of The Black Queen’. Eventually I began to love the “White” side almost as much, particularly ‘White Queen’ and ‘Father To Son’, although I could never understand why Freddie didn’t sing all of the album and wondering what it was he could possibly find to do when May or Taylor took over. Once I had become the proud owner of ‘Queen II’ and ‘Live Killers’ it wasn’t too long before I was looking to add to my LP collection, although this was pretty much restricted to Queen and Queen only for the first twelve months or so. Listening to it again for the purposes of writing this I think ‘Queen II’ is every bit as inventive as the early Zeppelin albums. It was also a reminder that even though they became increasingly focused on singles success in the 80’s, Queen were once a truly great rock album band. Let us know your views on Queen II
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