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Queen II

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Queen II
Studio album by
Queen
Released8 March 1974
RecordedAugust 1973
StudioTrident Studios, London
Genre
Length40:42
Label
Producer
Queen chronology
Queen
(1973) 		Queen II
(1974) 		Sheer Heart Attack
(1974)
Singles from Queen II
  1. "Seven Seas of Rhye"
    Released: 23 February 1974

Queen II is the second studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 8 March 1974 by EMI Records at midnight in the UK and by Elektra Records in the US. It was recorded at Trident Studios and Langham 1 Studios, London from February to August 1973 with co-producers Roy Thomas Baker and Robin Cable, and engineered by Mike Stone.

Described as "arguably the heaviest Queen album",[1] Queen II is notable for its combination of a heavy rock sound with an art rock sensibility and has been called "a pillar of grandiose, assaultive hard rock" by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[2][3] Queen II is not a concept album but a collection of songs with a loose theme running throughout.[4] The two sides of the original LP were labelled "Side White" and "Side Black" (instead of the conventional sides "A" and "B"), with corresponding photos of the band dressed in white or in black on either side of the record's label face. The white side has songs with a more emotional theme and the black side is almost entirely about fantasy, often with quite dark themes. Mick Rock's album cover photograph was frequently re-used by the band throughout its career, including the music videos for the songs "Bohemian Rhapsody" (1975), and "One Vision" (1985).

Released to an initially mixed critical reception, Queen II remains one of the band's lesser-known albums. Nonetheless, the album has retained a cult following since its release, garnered praise from critics, fans,[2][5] and fellow musicians alike, and is significant in being the first album to contain elements of the band's signature sound of multi-layered overdubs, vocal harmonies, and varied musical styles.[2][6]

Background and recording

Led Zeppelin and The Who are probably in Queen II somewhere, because they were among our favourite groups, but what we are trying to do differently from either of those groups [is] this sort of layered sound. The Who had the open chord guitar sound... but our sound is more based on the overdriven guitar sound.. I also wanted to build up textures behind the main melody lines. We were trying to push studio techniques to a new limit for rock groups – it was fulfilling all our dreams, because we didn't have much opportunity for that on the first album.

 —Brian May, on Queen II and the band's sound.[7]

After their self-titled debut album Queen was recorded and mixed by the end of November 1972, Queen set about touring and promoting it. Management problems forced the album to be released on the independent Trident/EMI label, but not until July 1973. During that time Queen were writing new material and were eager to record it. Some material, however, dated from even earlier. "See What a Fool I've Been" was left over from the Smile days. "Father To Son", "Ogre Battle", "White Queen (As It Began)" and "Procession" had all been premiered as early as 1972, with some dating back to 1969. The band elected to wait on recording them until they had more freedom and experience in the studio. "Stone Cold Crazy", from Mercury's Wreckage days, had been in the set list for years, but was held back and reworked for the third album, Sheer Heart Attack. Portions of "The Prophet’s Song" were also rehearsed during the Queen II sessions, but the song was not completed until the fourth album, A Night At The Opera.[8]

Queen demanded that Trident Studios allow them to record at more convenient hours instead of down-time, as they had for the first album. The band approached David Bowie to produce, but he declined because he was then recording Pin Ups and working on songs for Diamond Dogs.[9] Robin Geoffrey Cable, with whom Mercury had worked during the "I Can Hear Music" session, was asked to produce "Nevermore" and "Funny How Love Is", and collaborate with Roy Thomas Baker on the ambitious "March of the Black Queen”.

For what is generally considered a complex album (with layered vocals, harmonies and instruments), it took a very short time — only the month of August 1973 — to record Queen II. A full version of "Seven Seas of Rhye" was laid down, recorded with the specific intention of being the album's leading single. After the commercial failure of "Keep Yourself Alive", which was taken from the first album, Queen decided it needed a single that did not take "too long to happen" (without a lengthy guitar intro). So, Queen and Baker made sure that "Rhye" began in a way which would grab people.

Songs

Overview

Queen II has since been attributed to art rock,[2] hard rock,[3] glam rock,[10][11] and heavy metal.[2] The "White" side is very diverse: four of the five numbers were composed by Brian May, where one is instrumental, one is sung by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor (with May at the piano), the next is sung by Mercury, and the last by May. The closing track of The "White" Side is Taylor's only composition in the album, which he also sings. John Deacon played acoustic guitar on "Father to Son" in addition to normal duties on bass guitar. Mercury composed the entire "Black" side, contributing piano and harpsichord pieces and a wide range of distinctive vocal performances.

White side

"Procession"

"Procession" is a short instrumental piece (a funeral march) performed by Brian May on multi-tracked guitar. He recorded it by playing overlapping parts on the Red Special through John Deacon's custom-made amplifier (the Deacy Amp). Roger Taylor also contributes to this instrumental, using only a bass drum pedal.

"Father to Son"

"Father to Son" was written by May and features heavy metal sections as well as a quiet piano part, which May played. Like the preceding number, "Father to Son" has parts with May on multi-tracked guitar, played through the Deacy Amp. It is written in the father's perspective when talking or thinking about his son. Queen added "Father to Son" to their live setlists immediately and toured extensively, but the song was dropped from the setlists in 1975 (Although it was performed a few times in 1976). The song covers a two-octave range: Mercury (G3-A4), Taylor (G4-A5).

"White Queen (As It Began)"

Written by May in 1968, this song features contrasting acoustic and heavy metal sections. May explained that he conceived the idea for this song while reading The White Goddess by Robert Graves. The song also had personal significance for May; he drew inspiration from a fellow student whom he revered and thought represented the idea of the "perfect woman".[4] In a later interview he said, "I remember being totally in love with this girl from biology, and I never ever talked to her...I [was] dared to ask out this girl, and she became a lifelong friend, it's very strange...".[12] The song features May playing his Hairfred acoustic guitar. The guitar had been given a replacement hardwood bridge, chiselled flat, with a small piece of fret wire placed between it and the strings, which lay gently above. The strings produce the buzzing effect of a sitar.[13]

"White Queen" was performed regularly between 1974 and 1977, and then was last performed in London in 1978. The song was also performed at the BBC in April 1974. It has a similar feel to the live version of the song because of the piano being omitted from the album version.

"Some Day One Day"

This is the first song sung entirely by May on lead vocals. It features May on acoustic guitar and electric guitar and the last guitar solo (during the fade-out) features three solo guitars. This kind of complex guitar arrangement is typical of May; however, usually the guitars are harmonious, but in this case, all of the guitars play different parts.

"The Loser in the End"

"The Loser in the End" was Taylor's sole contribution on the album both as a songwriter and lead vocalist.[14] The original handwritten lyrics of the song were almost lost in 2004 when they were nearly shredded, and are now the oldest example of handwritten lyrics in the Queen archive.

Black side

"Ogre Battle"

Mercury wrote "Ogre Battle" on guitar (as confirmed by May in several interviews)[15] in 1971 and it was one of the earliest songs in the Queen setlist despite not being recorded until the Queen II sessions. The band did not want to record it for their first album, but rather waited until they could have more studio freedom to do it properly.

The ogre-like screams in the middle are Mercury's, and the high harmonies at the end of the chorus hook are sung by Taylor. As the title suggests, it tells the story of a battle between ogres, and features a May guitar solo and sound effects to simulate the sound of a battle. The beginning of the song is the end of the song in reverse including the final gong, which when played backwards at the start of the song, creates the building wave sound. The ending gong flows into the next track, with added clock ticks.

The song is one of Queen's heaviest works. The guitar riff along with Taylor's drumming give it a very "thrash" sound. It was a longtime live favourite. The song was last played on the 1977 News Of The World North America Tour and was performed at every concert up until that tour.

A different version of "Ogre Battle" exists, recorded in December 1973 for the BBC Radio 1 Sound of the 70s programme. This version starts right away with its riff (without any long intro), does not have any effects that the version on Queen II has and sounds much less polished. The BBC version of "Ogre Battle" did originally have a long intro featuring a grand guitar build up; it was not used for this release, allegedly because the original tape was damaged. Not long after the song was re-recorded by the group for the BBC, an acetate was made consisting of an edit of the BBC version for a possible single release, which would unfortunately never happen.[16] It's been said that if Queen were to release a second single from the album it would either be this one or "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke".

"The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"

The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke by Richard Dadd.

Mercury was inspired to write "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" by Richard Dadd's painting The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke at the Tate Gallery in London. For the intricately arranged studio recording, Mercury played harpsichord as well as piano, and Roy Thomas Baker played the castanets. Taylor called this song Queen's "biggest stereo experiment", referring to the intricate use of panning in the mix.

The song, like most on the album, features medieval fantasy-based lyrics and makes direct reference to characters and vignettes detailed in the painting and in Dadd's companion poem, Elimination of a Picture & its Subject—called The Feller's Master Stroke. Characters include Queen Mab, Waggoner Will, the Tatterdemalion, and others. The use of the word "quaere" in the twice-repeated line "What a quaere fellow" has no reference to Mercury's sexuality, according to Taylor.

In some markets the album included a fold-out cover with a reproduction of the painting. Author Neil Gaiman wrote about the painting and the album on his blog:

Reason tells me that I would have first encountered the painting itself, the enigmatically titled "Fairy Feller's Master Stroke," reproduced, pretty much full-sized, in the fold-out cover of a Queen album, at the age of fourteen or thereabouts, and it made no impression upon me at all. That's one of the odd things about it. You have to see it in the flesh, paint on canvas, the real thing, which hangs, mostly, when it isn't traveling, in the Pre-Raphaelite room of the Tate Gallery, out of place among the grand gold-framed Pre-Raphaelite beauties, all of them so much more huge and artful than the humble fairy court walking through the daisies, for it to become real. And when you see it several things will become apparent; some immediately, some eventually.[17]

(Apparently whenever Queen had spare time, Mercury would bring them to the Tate to see the painting in person.) Gaiman wrote a longer essay about the painting for Intelligent Life.[18]

The song was performed only a few times during the Queen II Tour. There was thought to be no live recording of the song until 2014, when it was released on Live at the Rainbow '74.

"Nevermore"

The previous track ends with a three-part vocal harmony from Mercury, May, and Taylor which flows into Mercury playing the piano. This piano carries on to open this track making "Ogre Battle," "The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke" and the current track, into a medley. All the vocal parts were performed by Mercury, who added some contemporary piano "ring" effects as well. These effects were widely suspected to be synthesisers; however, they were created by someone plucking the piano strings while Mercury played the notes. "Nevermore" is a short ballad written by Mercury about the feelings after a heartbreak.

"The March of the Black Queen"

In a 1974 interview with Melody Maker, Mercury, who had been working on the song even before Queen formed, said, "...that song took me ages to complete. I wanted to give it everything, to be self-indulgent or whatever."[19] The multifaceted composition, the band's second-longest (6:34), is one of two Queen songs (the other being "Bohemian Rhapsody") containing polyrhythm/polymeter (two different time signatures simultaneously 8/8 and 12/8) and a simpler polyrhythm around the end uptempo section, which is very rare for popular music. The lead vocals cover two and a half octaves (G2 - C5). The song segues into the next track, "Funny How Love Is". This song ends with an ascending note progression, which climaxes in the first second of the following track.

May regards it as a precursor to "Bohemian Rhapsody", stating "You've got to bear in mind that we'd already made 'My Fairy King' on the first album and we'd done 'The March of the Black Queen' on the second album, so we were well in tune with Freddie's excursions into strange areas, and that was something that we really enjoyed."[20] Taylor recalled in a 1977 interview, "The tape went transparent, genuinely...It was 16-track...The tape had gone over the (recording) head so many times, overdubbing, that the oxide had worn off."[19] (This anecdote was later mis-attributed to the "Bohemian Rhapsody" sessions.)

Despite never being released as a single, it remains a favourite amongst Queen's fans. The full piece was too complicated to be performed live by the band; however, the uptempo section containing the lines "My life is in your hands, I'll foe and I'll fie..." etc. was sometimes included in a live medley, with vocals by Mercury and Taylor, during the 1970s.[21][22][23] The opening piano piece is only known to have been played live once, at Providence Civic Center on 14 November 1978 (likely in response to a fan shouting for the song near the beginning of the concert.) The intro to the song is all that was played, as they quickly transitioned into "Bohemian Rhapsody". This was also the final time a Queen II track would be played live until the revival of "Seven Seas of Rhye" in 1984 for The Works Tour.

"Funny How Love Is"

"Funny How Love Is" was created in the studio. Mercury wrote it and played the piano while Robin Cable produced. It was produced using the "wall of sound" technique. The song is written in the key of C, in which it goes up from an E minor chord (in "The March of the Black Queen") to a C chord in this song. The song was never performed live, largely due to the demanding high-register vocals from Mercury throughout the song.

"Seven Seas of Rhye"

Main article: Seven Seas of Rhye

Mercury had half-written "Seven Seas of Rhye" at the time of recording for Queen's first album, so a short clip of it was included there. However, when Queen finished the song, it ended up being much different from what they'd first envisioned. It was the band's first hit single, peaking at number 10 in the UK charts.[24]

The song, like many of the songs on the album, and on Queen and Sheer Heart Attack, is about a fantasy world named Rhye. The song became a live favourite throughout Queen's existence. It features a distinctive arpeggiated piano introduction – on the Queen II recording, the arpeggios are played with both the right and left hands, an octave apart, whereas on the Queen recording, and most live performances, Mercury played the simpler one-handed version of these arpeggios. The theme also appears at the end of "It's a Beautiful Day (reprise)" on the album Made in Heaven (1995). This version ends with a cross fade, instruments blending into a "singsong"-style rendition of "I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside".

The Seven Seas of Rhye are also mentioned in another Queen song, "Lily of the Valley" from Sheer Heart Attack; in the lyric "Messenger from Seven Seas has flown/To tell the king of Rhye he's lost his throne".

Artwork and packaging

Inspiration was drawn from this image of Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express

Rock photographer Mick Rock was engaged to create the album's artwork.[25] The band wanted to, in Rock's words, "graft some of [the trademark] decadent 'glam' sensibility" of his work with artists such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. According to Rock, the group were looking to grab people's attention with the cover, especially since their first album had failed to do so. "They realised that if you could catch people's eyes you could get them interested in music."[26]

The brief he received from the band conceived a black and white theme for the album.[27] The album cover features a photograph taken by Rock of, according to VH1, "Queen standing in diamond formation, heads tilted back like Easter Island statues" against a black background.[26] The iconic chiaroscuro cover image of Queen was inspired by a similar photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 film Shanghai Express.[26] "And of course no one was ever more 'glam' than the divine Ms Dietrich," Rock quipped.[27] “It was just one of those flashes of inspiration that happens sometimes,” Rock explained. “There was a feeling that [echoing the Dietrich pose] might be pretentious,"[28] but Rock convinced them otherwise. "It made them look like much bigger a deal than they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music."[26] Rock said, "To Freddie, that word was meaningless – 'But is it fabulous?' was all that mattered. Those were the days of androgyny, and Freddie was prepared to push it quite a way.” Added Freddie, “It doesn’t have any special meaning, but we were fascinated with this type of thing, and the wardrobe we used at the time described it perfectly well.”[29] The image would later be brought to life for the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional film.[25]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Chicago Tribune[30]
CreemC−[31]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[32]
Pitchfork7.9/10[5]
PopMatters7/10[33]
Q[34]
Record Collector[34]
Rolling Stone[35]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[36]

After the album's completion in the end of August 1973, Queen added "Ogre Battle", "Procession" and "Father to Son" to their live setlists immediately and toured extensively. Once again, however, Trident delayed the record since Queen's first album had only just been released in the UK and had yet to be issued in the USA. Other problems beset the album's release: the energy conservation measures put in place during the 1973 oil crisis delayed its manufacture by several months, then, when released, John Deacon was credited as "Deacon John", and the band insisted it had to be corrected.[37]

Considering the abuse we've had lately, I'm surprised that the new album has done so well. I suppose it's basically that audiences like the band... we took so much trouble over that album, possibly too much, but when we finished we felt really proud. Immediately it got really bad reviews so I took it home to listen to again and thought "Christ, are they right?" But after hearing it a few weeks later I still like it. I think it's great. We'll stick by it.

 —Roger Taylor on the critical reaction to Queen II.[38]

Disc wrote, "The material, performance, recording and even artwork standards are very high."[10] NME opined that the record showcased "all their power and drive, their writing talents, and every quality that makes them unique,"[10] while Sounds wrote, "Simply titled Queen II, this album captures them in their finest hours."[10] Rolling Stone, who had highly praised the band's first LP, awarded the album two-and-a-half stars out of five. While the magazine had little enthusiasm for "Side Black", they applauded "Side White", writing that it featured the "saving grace of timely and well-chosen power chords and some rather pretty tunes."[35]

Melody Maker wrote, "It's reputed Queen have enjoyed some success in the States, it's currently in the balance whether they'll really break through here. If they do, then I'll have to eat my hat or something. Maybe Queen try too hard, there's no depth of sound or feeling."[10] Record Mirror wrote, "This is it, the dregs of glam rock. Weak and over-produced, if this band are our brightest hope for the future, then we are committing rock and roll suicide."[10] Robert Christgau, writing in Creem magazine, derisively referred to it as "wimpoid royaloid heavyoid android void."[31]

Queen II entered UK stores on 8 March 1974. The album enjoyed chart success in the UK, peaking at number 5. It peaked at number 49 in the US, improving on their debut album Queen, which peaked at number 83. The only single taken from Queen II, "Seven Seas of Rhye" (released in February 1974) peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, giving the band their first chart hit.

Legacy

As 1974 drew to a close, public reaction to Queen II had been enthusiastic.[10] The album was also ranked by Disc as the 5th best of the year.[39] While the album remains one of the band's lesser-known works, it has since retained a cult following and has in recent years been cited by a number of music publications, fellow artists and fans as one of Queen's finest works. In 1987, the Post-Tribune ranked Queen II 9th in an article covering "albums that should be in everyone's record collection, but aren't."[40] In the 1994 edition of The Guinness All Time Top 1000 Albums, Queen II was voted number 202 in the all-time greatest rock and pop albums.[41] In 2003, Q magazine included Queen II in a list of fifty little-known albums recommended by the magazine to supplement their "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" poll.[42] In 2005, Kerrang! readers voted Queen II the 72nd greatest British rock album ever.[43] In 2006, the album was featured in Classic Rock and Metal Hammer's "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 70s," being listed alongside Sheer Heart Attack as one of the 20 greatest albums of 1974.[44] In 2008, IGN Music named Queen II as one of their "10 Classic Glam Rock Albums", writing, "Queen gave glam a bigger, more anthemic sound with this glittery opus. Combined with Freddie Mercury's underrated keyboard work, Brian May's ringing leads and pristine riffs created a backdrop for songs that were by turns ferocious and elegant."[11] In 2010, Mojo ranked Queen II as the 60th greatest album ever released on the Elektra Records label.[45] Along with the Queen albums Sheer Heart Attack and A Night at the Opera, Queen II is featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, where it is described as "a distinctly dark album" which "displayed their diversity," and contrasted with their later "expansive, stadium-pleasing anthems."[46]

AllMusic awarded the album 4/5 stars and said, "Queen is coiled, tense, and vicious here, delivering on their inherent sense of drama, and that gives Queen II real power as music, as well as a true cohesion". The review observed the album's heaviness and stated "this never feels as fantastical as Genesis or Uriah Heep", concluding "Queen II is one of the favorites of their hardcore fans".[2] Pitchfork awarded the album 7.8/10, writing, "Dizzying, overstuffed, and unflinching, Queen II is a die-hard fan favorite, and arguably the band's most underrated record."[5] In 2009, The Quietus published an article highlighting Queen's "lesser-known brilliance" to coincide with the release of that year's Absolute Greatest compilation, describing Queen II as "an absolute scorcher of an album" which features two of the band's best tracks: "Ogre Battle" and "Father to Son".[47] Writing for Classic Rock in 2016, Malcolm Dome ranked Queen II as the band's sixth greatest album. He wrote: "Stylistically there was nothing here that wasn’t on the superior debut, and you can hear the band struggling with the traditional 'difficult second album' problems. Queen II marked end of the first phase of the band’s career. They had pushed their rock and metal roots as far as they could, and were clearly looking to jump off the train and expand their horizons. It’s probably for this reason that the album lacked the sparkle and bite of Queen and the audacity of the subsequent Sheer Heart Attack."[1]

I don't think enough is really said about the brilliance of Brian May's guitar playing, in the sense that it's overshadowed by the music itself. The Queen II album was one of those pivotal moments that just nailed me to the wall.

 —Steve Vai.[48]

Endorsements from younger recording artists have introduced the album to a new generation of fans. In a 1989 Rolling Stone Magazine interview, Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose said of the album, "With Queen, I have my favorite: Queen II. Whenever their newest record would come out and have all these other kinds of music on it, at first I'd only like this song or that song. But after a period of time listening to it, it would open my mind up to so many different styles. I really appreciate them for that. That's something I've always wanted to be able to achieve".[49] Smashing Pumpkins lead singer Billy Corgan spoke to Melody Maker in August 1993 about "the records which changed his life," stating, "I worked at this record store where we had lots of old records, and I found Queen II, probably their least popular album. It's so over the top, so many vocal and guitar track overdubs – total Queen overload. I loved it. I loved the cool, weird, ambiguous songs about Freddie’s sexuality and the way it shifts from heavy to beautiful ballads."[50]

Band appraisal

(On the concept of Side White and Side Black) Well... that was a concept that we developed at the time... it doesn't have any special meaning. But we were fascinated with these types of things... the wardrobe that we used at the time described it perfectly well...

— Freddie Mercury[51]

The most important thing to me was the Queen II album going into the charts – especially satisfying that, since the first one didn't do so well. It's nice to see some recognition for your work though I don't usually worry too much. Roger tends to worry more about what's happening on that side.

— John Deacon[52]

That's when we first really got into production, and went completely over the top.

— Roger Taylor[53]

I hated the title of the second album, Queen II, it was so unimaginative.

— Roger Taylor[54]

When Queen II came out it didn't connect with everyone. A lot of people thought we'd forsaken rock music. They said: "Why don't you play things like 'Liar' and 'Keep Yourself Alive?'" All we could say was, give it another listen, it's there, but it's all layered, it's a new approach. Nowadays people say: "Why don't you play like Queen II?" A lot of our close fans think that, and I still like that album a lot. It's not perfect, it has the imperfections of youth and the excesses of youth, but I think that was our biggest single step ever.

— Brian May[55]

2011 re-issue

On 8 November 2010, record company Universal Music announced a remastered and expanded reissue of the album set for release in May 2011. This was as part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which meant Queen's association with EMI Records would come to an end after almost 40 years. All of Queen's studio albums were remastered and reissued in 2011.

Tour

Main article: Queen II Tour

Track listing

All lead vocals by Freddie Mercury unless noted.

White side
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Procession"Brian Mayinstrumental1:12
2."Father to Son"May 6:14
3."White Queen (As It Began)"May 4:34
4."Some Day One Day"MayBrian May4:23
5."The Loser in the End"Roger TaylorRoger Taylor4:02
Black side
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."Ogre Battle"Freddie Mercury 4:10
2."The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke"Mercury 2:40
3."Nevermore"Mercury 1:15
4."The March of the Black Queen"MercuryMercury with Taylor6:33
5."Funny How Love Is"Mercury 2:50
6."Seven Seas of Rhye"Mercury 2:50
Bonus tracks (1991 Hollywood Records reissue)
No.TitleLength
12."See What a Fool I've Been" (May)4:32
13."Ogre Battle" (1991 Bonus Remix)3:27
14."Seven Seas of Rhye" (1991 Bonus Remix)6:35
Bonus EP (2011 Universal Music reissue)
No.TitleLength
1."See What a Fool I've Been" (BBC session, July 1973 - remix 2011)4:22
2."White Queen (As It Began)" (live at Hammersmith Odeon, December 1975)5:34
3."Seven Seas of Rhye" (instrumental mix 2011)3:10
4."Nevermore" (BBC session, April 1974)1:29
5."See What a Fool I've Been" (B-side version, February 1974)4:31
Bonus videos (2011 iTunes deluxe edition)
No.TitleLength
6."White Queen (As It Began)" (live at The Rainbow '74) 
7."Seven Seas of Rhye" (live at Wembley Stadium '86) 
8."Ogre Battle" (live at Hammersmith Odeon '75) 

Personnel

Queen

Additional personnel

Charts

Chart (1974) Peak
position
Canadian Albums Chart[57] 40
Norwegian Albums Chart[58] 19
UK Albums Chart[59] 5
US Billboard 200[60] 49

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
Poland (ZPAV)[61]
2009 Agora SA album reissue 		Platinum 20,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[62] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[63] Gold 500,000^

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ a b Dome, Malcolm (29 August 2016). "Queen albums ranked from worst to best". Louder. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Queen II". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 October 2015. This hits like heavy metal but has an art-rock sensibility through and through
  3. ^ a b "Queen Biography". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 16 October 2015. Their massively overdubbed second album, Queen II (1974), exploited cutting-edge studio technology and remains a pillar of grandiose, assaultive hard rock
  4. ^ a b Georg Purvis (2011). Queen: Complete Works. Titan Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0857685513.
  5. ^ a b c Leone, Dominique. Queen reviews. Pitchfork. 24 March 2011. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  6. ^ Queen: First Five Albums Reissued – 14 March Queen Online. Retrieved 14 August 2011
  7. ^ Mark Hodkinson (2004) Queen: The Early Years Omnibus Press, 2004. Retrieved 28 August 2011
  8. ^ Georg Purvis. "Queen: The Complete Works." Titan Books. ISBN 9781789090499
  9. ^ Georg Purvis. "Queen: The Complete Works." Titan Books. ISBN 9781789090499
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Gunn, Jacky; Jenkins, Jim. Queen. As It Began. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. 1992. pp. 75–77. ISBN 0-283-06052-2.
  11. ^ a b Hall, Russell. "10 Classic Glam Rock Albums Archived 24 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine". IGN. 20 September 2008. Retrieved on 16 January 2010.
  12. ^ "Brian May Documentary 2012". Retrieved 19 March 2014.
  13. ^ "Guitar Player magazine US Jan 83". www.brianmay.com.
  14. ^ Kearns, Gareth. "The Vindication of Roger Taylor". We Are Cult
  15. ^ e.g., Guitar World, October 1998.
  16. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y7T7xEIuFU
  17. ^ Gaiman, Neil (6 April 2002). "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke". journal.neilgaiman.com. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  18. ^ Gaiman, Neil (July–August 2013). "Neil Gaiman's Fantasy Painting". Intelligent Life. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
  19. ^ a b Phil Chapman. The Dead Straight Guide to Queen. This Day in Music Books.
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  63. ^ "American album certifications – Queen – Queen II". Recording Industry Association of America.
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