With every album, Queen had always strived for being bigger. This would be something of a stumbling block in the UK, where punk was all about tearing down pomposity (in others, anyway). In America, loud and heavy music still ruled the high school parking lot, so News Of The World was not only welcomed, but expanded the group’s popularity.Still, they throw a curve at the start. Rather than another rococo fanfare, the stamping feet and clapping hands of “We Will Rock You” take a football chant worldwide, and Brian May’s guitar solo is one of his best. On the radio stations we listened to, the song went right into “We Are The Champions”, which anyone else would have put at the end of the album. It only took us a zillion listens to realize that the melody under “no time for losers” is the same as the schoolyard “nyeah nah na-nah nah” taunt. For another curve ball, “Sheer Heart Attack” isn’t just the long lost title track from a previous album, but a solid punk track that doesn’t take the piss in the slightest. For another whiplash-inducing switch, “All Dead, All Dead” is more morbid lyrically than musically, and it turns out Brian never got over the death of his pet cat. While “Spread Your Wings” could be read as a suicide note, it’s actually a strong message advocating survival, and another songwriting success for John Deacon. (We wonder if Sammy ever got to compare life lessons and melody with Anthony from Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”.) “Fight From The Inside” was recorded almost completely by Roger Taylor, and is more of the dirty and stupid rock and roll he usually delivered.
If parents weren’t already disturbed by the album’s gory cover art, they would have had major conniptions over the content of “Get Down, Make Love”, where the extremely minimalist accompaniment leaves plenty of room for the lyrics to be heard and understood as intended. The effects-laden interlude provides a link between Led Zeppelin and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Brian sings the bluesy “Sleeping On The Sidewalk” in a nice Bad Company pastiche; John’s bassline is particularly deft. Deacon’s also responsible for “Who Needs You”, and its overly Spanish samba mélange unfortunately only predicts George Michael today. The severe stereo mix obscures the lyrics. While using very simple chords and the most basic of riffs, “It’s Late” is this album’s version of a suite—indeed, the lyric sheet even splits the verses up into stage “scenes”—but without the piano that earlier ones sported. We also hear echoes of Meat Loaf and Asia in here, and the double-time sections are particularly welcome. Just in case you thought Freddie wasn’t camp anymore, “My Melancholy Blues” put paid to that, bringing the album squarely back to where they left off the last time.
Being so popular, it was natural that the album would be expanded for reissues, but this didn’t happen right away. The 1991 CD added merely a “bonus remix ruined by Rick Rubin” that extended the final guitar figure over bass and drums from Flea and Chad of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This was eschewed on the later remaster for the rockin’ outtake “Feelings, Feelings”, two songs from a BBC session, “Sheer Heart Attack” live in 1979, and a revved-up “We Will Rock You” three years after that. The album’s 40th anniversary gained the most, kinda, with two full CDs—one dedicated to so-called Raw Sessions, comprising alternate takes and rough mixes save for a live “Sleeping On The Sidewalk”, and the other containing the 2011 bonus tracks, previously released BBC sessions and live versions, “karaoke” tracks, and one radio edit. (By that time box sets like this included the original album on vinyl as well, which this did, plus a DVD and a book, yanking up the price and further angering fans who already had most of the material already.)
Queen News Of The World (1977)—3½
1991 Hollywood reissue: same as 1977, plus 1 extra track
2011 remaster: same as 1977, plus 5 extra tracks
2017 40th Anniversary Edition: same as 2011, plus 25 extra tracks (and DVD)
I got this as a Christmas present that year from a new friend who wasn’t all that familiar with my musical tastes. Of course, I had heard their two previous albums, thinking that they had some very cool stuff surrounded by some lousy filler. This one is more consistent, but it doesn’t reach the peaks of “A Night of the Opera”, avoiding some of its lows.
ReplyDeleteAs with their earlier work, the album is very diverse, thanks to the band’s democratic approach to songwriting. However, sometimes the diversity works against it. For instance, this time they really should have given all the lead vocals to Mercury, who could sing anything. That they didn’t meant that “Fight from the Inside” was never going to be more than a mediocre track. Brian’s lead vocals are very dull. Mercury would have made “All Dead, All Dead” more moving, but may have not been able to do much for the ordinary 12 bars of “Sleeping on the Sidewalk”.
I must agree that John Deacon kept turning out consistently great songs, unconstrained by him wanting to sing. “Spead Your Wings” is very touching, while “Who Needs You?” is reminiscent, of all people, the Raspberries (specifically, “Come Around and See Me”). Mercury brings a theatrical flair to May’s “It’s Late” that’s fitting, if somewhat over the top. Of course, he wouldn’t be Freddie if he wasn’t.
Speaking of which..sometimes, there’s a fine line between sexy/sultry and crude/gross. Mercury definitely crosses it with “Get Down, Make Love”, at least with those verses. He does everything except telling his partner that he’s going to give him or her every inch of his love. The bridge, on the other had, sounds like Aerosmith. Of course, it was extremely obvious that they meant the psychedelic freakout section to emulate the middle of “Whole Lotta Love”, although it isn’t as well integrated into the song. The two massive hit openers, of course, are Queen at it’s bombastic best. I wonder if they knew that and performed them with tongue at least partly in cheek. Finally, Freddie delivers more of his corny granny music with “My Melancholy Blues”, which Paul McCartney must have loved, but which I find quite annoying. Nice piano, though.
This record didn’t turn me into a hardcore Queen fan. However, it’s fun for an occasional spin. Despite some excellent singles that followed, I doubt that they ever made a better one.