“If I had been a solo artist, I probably would have just collapsed in tears,” reflecting on the harsh critiques of their debut album in 1973, Queen sought solace in reading negative reviews of Led Zeppelin’s albums.
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Brian May and Roger Taylor take fans behind the scenes of the creation of their debut album.
Queen guitarist Brian May revealed that the band found solace after receiving negative reviews for their debut album by reading similarly harsh critiques of Led Zeppelin’s albums.
However, not all feedback was unfavorable. In the U.S., Rolling Stone acknowledged that Queen possessed “all the tools they’ll need to lay claim to the Zep’s abdicated heavy-metal throne, and beyond that to become a truly influential force in the rock world,” praising the album as “superb” and “a monster.”
In contrast, back in the UK, the NME’s notoriously pompous critic Nick Kent dismissed the album, calling it “a bucket of urine.”
May discusses how the band dealt with such harsh reviews in the second part of Queen The Greatest Special: The Story of Queen 1, where he and drummer Roger Taylor reflect on the creation of their first album, which was reissued last month as an expanded 50th anniversary edition.
“We examined some of the reviews for Led Zeppelin’s albums from that time, and some were incredibly harsh,” May reflects. “We figured if they could get criticized like that, we shouldn’t be too concerned about our own reviews.
“Being in a band is really beneficial. If I had been a solo artist, I think I would have just laid on the floor and cried. It was tough, but we had each other, and it was like, ‘Forget them; we know what we’re doing.’ That camaraderie helped us through.”
In another segment of Queen The Greatest Special: The Story of Queen 1, Taylor and May reminisce about Queen’s first experience in a recording studio and discuss how they returned to those original recordings 50 years later to enhance the sound.
“We’ve achieved the sound for the album that we always envisioned,” Taylor explains. “With the techniques available to us now, we’ve enhanced the drums to reflect how they should truly sound, and the overall quality has improved significantly. The mixes are superior, and we’ve reworked everything, which I believe has led to a considerable enhancement.”