Queen - A Day at the Races
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On this episode, we discuss the fifth album by Queen, 1976’s A Day at the Races. The band blended elements of hard rock, prog rock, power pop, glam rock, and even opera into their own unique rock-n-roll stew. While this often makes Queen’s music difficult to categorize, there is little doubt that what they created was a sound that was completely and uniquely their own.
A Day at the Races was the follow-up to their previous and most well-known LP, 1975’s A Night at the Opera. With its grandiose use of multi-tracked vocals, especially on the ambitious “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Queen A Night at the Opera stretched studio production to the limit. It became at the time the most expensive rock album ever recorded. It's easy to dismiss A Day at the Races as more of the same; a sequel with nothing new to offer. To do so does a disservice to both the album and the band. Instated of treading the same ground, the band tones down the pomp a couple of degrees (for Queen a least). As such, the album really showcases the band. Several tunes feature Brian May's layering technique (dubbed "guitar orchestra" in the credits) and singer Freddy Mercury uses his amazing four-octave range to full effect and contains some of his most beautiful vocals. All band members contribute songs and stray from their usual instruments (drummer Roger Taylor, in fact, plays most of the guitars on one song). A Day at the Races has some of the band's most enduring tunes. It has hard rockers, gorgeous ballads, playful odes to the 1920s, and even an amazingly soulful nod to Aretha Franklin.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
Publicity photo of Smile, which was the band Brain May and Roger Taylor were in before Queen. (Pictured L to R) Taylor, May and Tim Staffell)
Formed in 1968 by college friends May (guitar) and Staffell (lead vocals and bass), they were later joined by Taylor on Drums after May placed an ad for a "Ginger Baker type" drummer.
Ibex was Freddie Mercury’s (né Bulsara) first band. Based in Liverpool, it consisted of Mercury on vocals, Mike Bersin on guitar, John Taylor on bass, and Mick Smith on drums. Below is a recording of the band covering the Beatle’s “Rain” and from the only known live recording of the band at the Sink Club in Liverpool. Please note, the audio quality is not the best.
Sour Milk Sea was Freddie Mercury’s second band after his brief stint as vocalist for the Liverpool based band Ibex. (Pictured L to R) Freddie Mercury, Jeremy Gallop, Chris Chesney, Paul Milne, and Rob Tyrell.
Here is a picture of Mercury (Left) at Ealing Art College where he studies graphic art and design. He later used his graphic design skills to design the Queen crest, which contained, among other stylistic notes, the zodiac signs of the four band members
In 1974, Top of the Pops was scheduled to show a vidoe for David Bowie’s new song “Rebel Rebel.” Unfortunately the video was not delivered on time to be broadcast. This prompted frantic phone calls from the BBC to various labels and EMI’s head of promotions suggested Queen, who performed their newly revamped version of “Seven Seas of Rhye” off of their album Queen II. It was their fisrt appearance on the show. After their performance, EMI took advantage of the unexpected outpouring of interest for the song and rushed it out as a single. It entered the UK charts at #45 and peaked at #10.
The original video has evidently been lost or damaged. Below is a video composite of the best versioned available of that that performance.
Watch Queen’s first performance of “Killer Queen” from their LP Sheer Heart Attack on Top of the Pops in 1974.
You can listen to the isolated vocals for “Somebody to Love” off of A Day at the Races. This was Mercury’s attempt ans singing something soulful in the vein of Aretha Franklin. The vocals are indeed remarkable (and very soulful). However, isolating the vocals also brings into sharp relief how vital the rest of the band is to Queen’s sound.
On September 18, 1976, a mere three months before the release of A Day at the Races, Queen performed a free concert at London’s Hyde Park before an audience of somewhat between 150,000 and 200,000 people. Several of the songs m that would appear on that LP would be played at that show, including “You Take My Breath Away,” which you can watch below.
Both A Day at the Races and its predecessor A Night at the Opera were named after Marx brothers movies. The 86-year-old Groucho Marx actually sent the band telegram congratulating the band on their success (‘I know that you are very successful recording artists. Could it, by any chance, be your sage choice of album titles?)
In 1977, members of Queen (minus John Deacon) visited Groucho in Los Angeles in and gave him a gold record with pictures of A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera.
Queen’s performance at Live Aid is considered by most people to be THE performance of the entire event. You can watch the entire performance below and decide for yourself.
