I first heard “Killer Queen” on the radio in 1974, and I had never heard anything like it. The piano, the stacked harmonies, that guitar that sounded like a music box. That alone sent me to the record store.
The album was Sheer Heart Attack, and at probably $4.99 it was a big purchase. I took it home, dropped the needle, and “Brighton Rock” came roaring out of the speakers. I could not believe how good it was.
Brian May wrote “Brighton Rock” in 1973 with Queen II in mind, but it did not fit anywhere on that record, so it waited for the next one. The title is a pun on the long stick of seaside candy sold at English resort towns. The guitar solo came first. The solo section in the middle of “Son and Daughter” on stage became the foundation of the song. As May later put it, “In the beginning, the solo was there and the song was around it.” Guitar World ranked it No. 41 on its list of the 100 greatest guitar solos.
The timing makes it more remarkable. May came down with hepatitis during Queen’s first US tour, opening for Mott the Hoople, and ended up in the hospital. The band started the sessions without him, and he was still adding his parts as the album neared the finish line.
Then there is “Killer Queen.” Freddie Mercury wrote it in a single night (he said it was about a high-class call girl), and May’s multitracked guitar solo is a small masterpiece of its own. It went to No. 2 in the UK and became the band’s first Top 20 hit in the US.
But the hit was far from the only reason to own this record. Flip through the rest of side one. “Tenement Funster” rolls into “Flick of the Wrist,” which rolls into “Lily of the Valley,” and the three feel like one long piece of music. Then “Now I’m Here” closes the side with a riff that still rattles the windows. Side two is just as good. “Stone Cold Crazy” goes back to Freddie’s days in Wreckage, and “Misfire” was the first John Deacon song the band recorded. It was the first Queen album with songs from all four members.
That is why I love this band. Nobody else sounded like them. They had the theater, the humor and the harmonies, and sometimes people forget they were also a really good rock band. “Brighton Rock” is Exhibit A.
That summer I met a guy who had seen Queen live. He told me I should listen to Queen and Queen II, and I did. Both were every bit as good. Remember, this was well before “Bohemian Rhapsody” and A Night at the Opera turned them into worldwide superstars. I was already a believer.
Side one, track one. Turn it up.
