Band of Joy Records released Queen at the Beeb in 1988, and was only available as an import. Not until 1995 when Hollywood Records released an official Queen version that we have here, Queen at the BBC.
The album notes within the two CDs are almost identical with slight differences in the credits. They both have great album cover art. Two classic Queen photos from early 1970s are used on either CD, but now since the Band of Joy version is now out of print, the Hollywood version is truly the superior of the two.
The album starts off with the first BBC session that Queen were involved in. Queen had a total of six sessions from 1973-1977. All are historic and deserve some sort of official release by EMI and Hollywood Records sometime in the future. The songs here all showed up on the debut album slightly more polished except for Ogre Battle which made its appearance on their second release, Queen II.
BBC Session 1
This first BBC session was recorded in 1973.
My Fairy King begins the CD, and if you're familiar with the version on their debut, Queen , you would hear the big differences right away. John Deacon's bass is buried unfortunately here on the BBC version quite a bit more. The bass fills a hole on the first album that is gaping here. This is Freddie's first piano driven song written for Queen that was not one of his old band Ibex or Wreckage songs, so it's only right that this song opens this collection of songs.
Brian's Keep Yourself Alive sounds almost identical to the debut album version. There are as many guitar layers here than there. I can't believe that this song was chosen as the single, it's so un-radio-friendly that it never had a chance here in the States. Apparently even in the UK, this single did nothing. I love the song, don't get me wrong, but it's way too heavy and it has too many different parts to the song that the average radio listener would change the dial immediately. There's even a drum solo in this for goodness sake.
An old Smile song, (probably the best one at that)Doin' Alright was hardly changed at all when this demo was made. Smile was the band that drummer Roger Taylor and guitarist Brian May were in for about two years before Queen formed when bassist and lead vocalist Tim Staffel walked. This song keeps true to the Smile version as far as the arrangement goes. It even has Roger sing the third verse as he did with his old band. This song incorporates some jazzy interludes, which is scarce in Queen music, but this version does well. I guess it makes sense as far as Smile went, that they would have some of those jazzy trio numbers.
BBC Session 3
The second session was also in 1973, this is their third from 1974.
If anyone cares, the 2nd session included the songs:
1. See What A Fool I've Been
2. Liar
3. Son & Daughter
4. Keep Yourself Alive
I have this session on a bootleg called From the Beeb to Tokyo Liar is a song from Freddie's previous band Wreckage. It's a very heavy guitar dominate song, and the only difference here between the debut and the BBC version is Freddie's voice and the production which seems rushed, or at best an actual live performance.
As I've mentioned above, Ogre Battle, is the only song here that did not appear on the debut release. This to me is the most interesting track in this collection. The sound production here shows what kind of album Queen II could have been if Queen were not allotted the studio time needed to make it so over the top. The debut, Queen was recorded in studio downtime, so little bits and pieces here and there were recorded at a time for only a couple of months. It's a shame Queen could never go in and rerecord the album properly. Brian's guitar sounds very live, as do the rest of the band. The only thing that sounds prerecorded is the background vocals.
Great King Rat is another song from Freddie's previous bands that he stole and forever entered into Queen's back catalog of songs. Another very live song here, compared to the first session. By far, the best song in this collection, if only for the true live feeling it gives (except for Brian's dual layered guitar solo, at least it's just two layers). This is a great song anyway, but it shows what kind of awesome band Queen was live.
It sounds as though Queen recorded the music live and Roger came in and recorded his vocals after on Modern Times Rock 'N' Roll. During the break directly in the middle you can hear Freddie slurring
"It's not that I'm bright
I'm just happy-go-lucky"
Instead of the debut's version of Roger singing
"Yeah, listen little baby
Let me tell you what it's all about"
I think they fixed that nicely.
Brian's Son And Daughter is one of Queen's heaviest songs with the weirdest (dumbest) lyrics written by any member. Queen has always performed this song very well live, and here is no exception. This song is the most live that the band gets in this collection. Brian's lengthy guitar solo at the end brings the song to over seven minutes. The solo has some hints at what will be on their third album Sheer Heart Attack. This guitar solo has bits and pieces of what will be on Brian's amazing Brighton Rock. This guitar solo is live, and sounds rather unstructured and sometimes sloppy. The song ends the way it did when they performed it live, and it sounds a little silly without the cheers overpowering the uninspired standard rock and roll dragged out ending.
I always had the impression that the BBC was a radio show where they recorded the live version at the radio station. Queen has provided what sounds like somewhat polished demos as live performances for the first session unfortunately. Freddie is almost always double tracked, Brian's orchestral multilayered guitars are present in every song, and the vocals are still many.
Luckily in the last four songs during the second session, Queen get bare and go live at the BBC the way they should have in the first place.
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