“Screw these guys, we know what we’re doing” Brian May reveals how Queen responded to bad reviews of their debut album
How does a band cope when their debut effort is met with scathing reviews? Well, looking up equally damning reviews of those who came before you might help, according to Queen legend Brian May.
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Released in 1973, Queen I was both a bold declaration of the band’s artistic aspirations and a target for critics. One particularly brutal review in NME described the album as “a bucket of urine,” a sentiment that might’ve caused a young May to shed tears had he been a solo artist.
The guitarist explains in the second part of the Queen The Greatest Special: The Story of Queen 1 video series that the members found solace in the knowledge that even the biggest bands at the time like Led Zeppelin had faced similar backlash.
“We looked at some of the reviews for the Led Zeppelin albums that had been out at that time, some of which were appallingly bad,” says May. “And we thought, well, if they can run these people down, we shouldn’t be too worried about being run down ourselves.”
He adds that “being a band is a great help. I think if I’d been a solo artist, I think I’d have laid on the floor and cried. It was bad, but we had the four of us and it’s like, ‘screw these guys, we know what we’re doing’. That saved us.”
Last month, Queen released Queen I Collector’s Edition — an expanded reissue of their self-titled debut album that’s been remixed, remastered, and completely reworked “to sound the way the band always wanted it to”.
“Every instrument has been re-examined from the bottom up,” May explains. ”The guitars were originally recorded very dry, so we’ve remedied that.”
“I remember my dad saying, ‘There’s no ambience, Brian. I don’t feel like I’m in the room with you playing next to me.’ But we weren’t in a position to lay down the law, and we felt that if we stepped out of line we would lose the opportunity altogether.”
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