52 Song #14 - Queen, The Night Comes Down

This week: Queen, The Night Comes Down, from the lp Queen , released in 1973.

I was a little too young to appreciate this album when it was released, but again, my big brother's musical taste made it possible for me to discover it a few years later. It is no exaggeration to say I was obsessed with Queen for a long time; they were the first "real" concert I ever went to at age 12, and I paid a stupid amount of money to join the British Queen fanclub for many years. I wonder if I still have all that stuff!

So, from Queen's first wacky album, please enjoy this song. It is so English. It has acoustic guitars, falsetto vocals, and amazing harmonies on the guitar (the Queen trademark). I found out recently that this song was actually a demo that they included on the record - the take was so good that they didn't bother to re-record it. The album version is a little cleaned up; this version is the demo and to me sounds just a little rougher, and has some kind of nervous energy that got flattened out in the lp mix.

Why has Brian May turned into such a cranky old man? He used to be such fun.



Come back next Monday for another of the 52 songs!