I recently played this album front to back. The treatment Mobile Fidelity gave it is excellent, but musically it's too spliced together for me. Too many “look mom, no hands” show-offy things going on, like the band listened to Sgt Pepper before they entered the studio and decided to try and emulate it. I liked it when it came out but I think I’ve outgrown it and I was never a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody at all.
This record certainly was different from anything else out there at the time of its release - maybe even still - and it stomped all over the cheesy disco sounds that were spewing out of the radio. Opera and rock? Who’da thunk it was possible? But it’s not really my thing.
This record pointed in the direction a lot of other bands opted to go in subsequent years – and without it, who knows? – but I think Queen got better musically later on, and more confident too, and those records – to my ears, anyway – sound better.
I saw Queen, back in the late-70s, and it was a good show. But they had to use tapes to replicate their music live, which is something I was never particularly fond of. I really like to see a band play live without having to resort to tapes, even - especially - if it changes things up a bit.
The copy in my collection is a Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs promotional copy, which increases its trade-in value. So I decided to capitalize on that. I traded it for all three Tom Waits 2018 Record Store Day Orphans records (Bawlers, Brawlers and Bastards), an Oscar Peterson suit dedicated to the Stratford Festival and the Thievery Corporation’s Treasures From The Temple. I can always get a remastered copy of Opera if I feel I need to own it again, but I don't think I will.
A Night at the Opera is Queen's fourth studio album, released in November, 1975. It was said to be the most expensive album ever recorded up to that time, and its title is borrowed from the Marx Brothers film of the same name. It took four months to record.
Upon release it topped the UK Albums Chart and peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200. It was Queen's first platinum album in the US and would go on to sell more than six million copies. It also produced the band's most successful hit single in Bohemian Rhapsody, despite the songs unusual non-AM radio friendly length.
Queen's previous album, Sheer Heart Attack - more to my liking - was their first commercial success and delivered mainstream attention to the band. The single Killer Queen reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, as well as providing the band with their first top 20 hit in the United States. Personally, I like it a lot more than Bohemian Rhapsody. Opera was an effort to top that record that made them stars - a feat not easily accomplished by a lot of bands - and in that respect Queen was successful. The album was a breakout smash that sent the band into the stratosphere of superstardom.
Despite their success the band was broke, largely due to the management contract they had signed at the outset of their career. As a result Queen saw almost none of the money they earned, other than the reported £60 weekly wage each band member received. It is said their finances were in such a poor state that Roger Taylor was asked not to hit his drums too hard as they were unable to afford new drumsticks. Not sure how true that is, though.
In December, 1974, Queen hired a lawyer and began negotiating their way out of that deal. They were able to eventually wriggle out of it and regain control of their back catalogue, but they had to pay their ex-production company, Trident, £100,000 and promise to fork over one per cent of the royalties they would earn on their next six albums.
Opera was recorded at seven different studios after a three week writing and rehearsing session in a rented house near Kingston, Herefordshire. Unlike Queen's earlier albums, which had used 16-track tapes, it was recorded using 24-track tapes that allowed for multiple layers of music to be laid on top of each other, probably most notable in Bohemian Rhapsody. It would become their signature sound.
I recently played this album front to back. The treatment Mobile Fidelity gave it is excellent, but musically it's too spliced together for me. Too many “look mom, no hands” show-offy things going on, like the band listened to Sgt Pepper before they entered the studio and decided to try and emulate it. I liked it when it came out but I think I’ve outgrown it and I was never a fan of Bohemian Rhapsody at all.
This record certainly was different from anything else out there at the time of its release - maybe even still - and it stomped all over the cheesy disco sounds that were spewing out of the radio. Opera and rock? Who’da thunk it was possible? But it’s not really my thing.
This record pointed in the direction a lot of other bands opted to go in subsequent years – and without it, who knows? – but I think Queen got better musically later on, and more confident too, and those records – to my ears, anyway – sound better.
I saw Queen, back in the late-70s, and it was a good show. But they had to use tapes to replicate their music live, which is something I was never particularly fond of. I really like to see a band play live without having to resort to tapes, even - especially - if it changes things up a bit.
The copy in my collection is a Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs promotional copy, which increases its trade-in value. So I decided to capitalize on that. I traded it for all three Tom Waits 2018 Record Store Day Orphans records (Bawlers, Brawlers and Bastards), an Oscar Peterson suit dedicated to the Stratford Festival and the Thievery Corporation’s Treasures From The Temple. I can always get a remastered copy of Opera if I feel I need to own it again, but I don't think I will.
A Night at the Opera is Queen's fourth studio album, released in November, 1975. It was said to be the most expensive album ever recorded up to that time, and its title is borrowed from the Marx Brothers film of the same name. It took four months to record.
Upon release it topped the UK Albums Chart and peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200. It was Queen's first platinum album in the US and would go on to sell more than six million copies. It also produced the band's most successful hit single in Bohemian Rhapsody, despite the songs unusual non-AM radio friendly length.
Queen's previous album, Sheer Heart Attack - more to my liking - was their first commercial success and delivered mainstream attention to the band. The single Killer Queen reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, as well as providing the band with their first top 20 hit in the United States. Personally, I like it a lot more than Bohemian Rhapsody. Opera was an effort to top that record that made them stars - a feat not easily accomplished by a lot of bands - and in that respect Queen was successful. The album was a breakout smash that sent the band into the stratosphere of superstardom.
Despite their success the band was broke, largely due to the management contract they had signed at the outset of their career. As a result Queen saw almost none of the money they earned, other than the reported £60 weekly wage each band member received. It is said their finances were in such a poor state that Roger Taylor was asked not to hit his drums too hard as they were unable to afford new drumsticks. Not sure how true that is, though.
In December, 1974, Queen hired a lawyer and began negotiating their way out of that deal. They were able to eventually wriggle out of it and regain control of their back catalogue, but they had to pay their ex-production company, Trident, £100,000 and promise to fork over one per cent of the royalties they would earn on their next six albums.
Opera was recorded at seven different studios after a three week writing and rehearsing session in a rented house near Kingston, Herefordshire. Unlike Queen's earlier albums, which had used 16-track tapes, it was recorded using 24-track tapes that allowed for multiple layers of music to be laid on top of each other, probably most notable in Bohemian Rhapsody. It would become their signature sound.
BONUS TRACK
As I write this it's been almost 30 years since Freddie Mercury died of bronchopneumonia related to AIDS. It was a problem for the band because Queen basically begins and ends with Freddie Mercury, which is interesting considering that in the beginning he wasn't even there.
He was born in 1946 in Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa, to a Parsee family that practiced Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. In 1964, when revolution and violence broke out, the family fled to England, just as Swinging London - with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones - was getting off the ground.
Brian May and Roger Taylor were attending college in the late 1960s, and May was playing in a band called Smile with a bass-playing school friend named Tim Staffell. They posted a note on the college bulletin board, seeking a drummer who could play like Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell, which Taylor answered. Staffell knew Mercury - then still going by his real name of Farrokh Bulsara - and took him to meet May and Taylor in early 1969. May, Taylor and Mercury were soon sharing an apartment, and when Staffell announced he was leaving the band, Mercury - who was devloping into an exceptional singer - stepped in on vocals. John Deacon completed the lineup when he joined the band on bass in 1971. It was Mercury who came up with the name Queen. “It’s ever so regal,” he told the others.
Mercury influenced the band's new look and musical direction, whiich started to show up on their second album, Queen II. Bohemian Rhapsody, which would appear two records later, was Freddie Mercury's doing. May explains: "We were sitting in his apartment and he said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a song. So he started playing it on the piano. Then he suddenly stopped and said, ‘Now, dears, this is where the opera section comes in.'”
There are many stories about how Mercury coped with his carefree sexual promiscuity and the risk of contracting AIDS in the 1980s. In 1985 an AIDS test produced negative results, but another one in 1987 was positive. He publicly denied reports he had AIDS until November 23rd, 1991, when he issued a statement admitting his condition. He died in his sleep the next day.
As I write this it's been almost 30 years since Freddie Mercury died of bronchopneumonia related to AIDS. It was a problem for the band because Queen basically begins and ends with Freddie Mercury, which is interesting considering that in the beginning he wasn't even there.
He was born in 1946 in Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa, to a Parsee family that practiced Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions. In 1964, when revolution and violence broke out, the family fled to England, just as Swinging London - with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones - was getting off the ground.
Brian May and Roger Taylor were attending college in the late 1960s, and May was playing in a band called Smile with a bass-playing school friend named Tim Staffell. They posted a note on the college bulletin board, seeking a drummer who could play like Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell, which Taylor answered. Staffell knew Mercury - then still going by his real name of Farrokh Bulsara - and took him to meet May and Taylor in early 1969. May, Taylor and Mercury were soon sharing an apartment, and when Staffell announced he was leaving the band, Mercury - who was devloping into an exceptional singer - stepped in on vocals. John Deacon completed the lineup when he joined the band on bass in 1971. It was Mercury who came up with the name Queen. “It’s ever so regal,” he told the others.
Mercury influenced the band's new look and musical direction, whiich started to show up on their second album, Queen II. Bohemian Rhapsody, which would appear two records later, was Freddie Mercury's doing. May explains: "We were sitting in his apartment and he said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a song. So he started playing it on the piano. Then he suddenly stopped and said, ‘Now, dears, this is where the opera section comes in.'”
There are many stories about how Mercury coped with his carefree sexual promiscuity and the risk of contracting AIDS in the 1980s. In 1985 an AIDS test produced negative results, but another one in 1987 was positive. He publicly denied reports he had AIDS until November 23rd, 1991, when he issued a statement admitting his condition. He died in his sleep the next day.
