In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Queen’s Roger Taylor spoke about Freddie Mercury’s voice.
“I don’t think you realise how dreadful he sounded before,” the drummer said while introducing the remastered version of their 1973 debut album. “I mean, he sounded like some manic goat. He sounded extraordinary, his vibrato. My mother’s face when she saw him…”
Taylor added, “He turned out to be our wonderful Freddie whom we will never forget. He became this colossal force who could reach to the back of any gig or a stadium in Argentina. He reached everyone.”
After Freddie’s death, Queen split, but Roger and Brian May kept touring under the band’s name with singer Adam Lambert. A special event at London’s Ham Yard Hotel celebrated the new edition of Queen’s first album, with new mixes and expanded features.
Matt Everitt hosted the evening, which included a Q&A with Brian and Roger and a playback of the reworked album, released over 50 years after it first came out.
The huge six-CD set includes a new track list, alternative versions, demos, and live recordings from their first concert in 1970. May told Mojo that the album is in better shape now than when it was first released in 1973.
“I’m not saying the original version was bad – it just wasn’t what we dreamed of,” the guitarist explained. “Freddie and John, too, were always conscious of this thing in our past which seemed like it couldn’t be fixed.”
He continued, “Every instrument has been re-examined from the bottom up. The guitars were originally recorded very dry, so we’ve remedied that. I remember my dad saying, ‘There’s no ambience, Brian. I don’t feel like I’m in the room with you playing next to me.’”
“But we weren’t in a position to lay down the law, and we felt that if we stepped out of line we would lose the opportunity altogether,” the rocker also noted.
Queen mostly recorded their music at Trident Studios. This was just three years after their first gig in 1970. They often worked overnight. Roger said they would arrive at the studio at three in the morning and work as long as they could.
The new version of Queen I has a fresh mix and master. It also includes ‘Mad The Swine’ as the fourth track. This song was removed before because of a fight with a producer.