In November of 1974, Queen released their 3rd album Sheer Heart Attack to the masses, a watershed moment for them, as they climbed out from any definition already affixed upon their music. Having dug deep into a hard rock power sound for their Queen I album, and showing their progressive styles with Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack was indeed an attack on a multitude of styles, sounds and attitudes (including humor) that would eventually become Queen’s legacy. At the time of its release, SHA was arguably rock & roll’s most eclectic collection of songs since the Beatles’ White Album, just 7 years before.
The story of the album starts a few months before its release in May of 1974, as Queen was backing Mott The Hoople in their historic 6-night residency in New York’s Uris Theater (boasting to be the first R&R band to play Broadway). On closing night, guitarist Brian May fell to a spell of hepatitis, pulling the band out of the rest of the Mott tour, and compelling May to fly home to England for rehab.
“I felt bad at having let the group down at such an important (historic) place.” May recalled in 1974, “But there was nothing to do about it. It was hepatitis, which you get sometimes when you’re emotionally run-down.” But Brian May was not going to let his bed rest stop him, he used his convalescing time to write, coming up with a few songs that would end up on SHA including the huge “Now I’m Here.” “It (the song) came out quite easily,” May reflected, “Where I’d been wrestling with it before without getting anywhere.”
That writing liberation was a common theme for the other writers in the band, for after they reconvened with May in the studio 6 weeks later, they all felt a sense of freedom not having the touring road to contend with. Even John Deacon contributed with his first written song. Now the band enjoyed four writers, along with May, Freddie Mercury, and drummer Roger Taylor.
The 70s were a time when FM radio used to offer a feature known as “Perfect Album Sides” for their listening audience. Sheer Heart Attack’s side #1 certainly met that criterion and was often showcased in the day:
“Brighton Rock”- The album opens with Brian May’s guitar-driven rocker. Once Jimmy Page introduced his extended unaccompanied guitar solo in “Heartbreaker” in 1969, many others would follow this trend. May took his turn with a 3-minute run of harmonizing riffs utilizing his newly purchased echoplex device.
“Killer Queen”- The album’s best-known song, Freddie Mercury’s genius for a four-minute track blossomed with the use of a tack piano, campy vocals, and a memorable melody. As a single, “Killer Queen” broke the band in the USA reaching the top 15 on Billboard (#2 on UK charts) and established them as a band of many sounds, including Producer Roy Thomas Baker’s Beatle-ish layered backing vocals that would become a trademark of Queen (and later perfected in 1975 with “Bohemian Rapsody”). No one missed the comparison when British band 10cc mimicked the song’s sound for their biggest hit, “The Things We Do for Love” later in 1976.
Next up on side one was “Tenement Funster”/”Flick of the Wrist”/ “Lily of The Valley “- the album’s three-song suite…that is, Sgt. Pepper-like, these three songs segue into each other without definitive track silence:
“Tenement Funster”– Roger Taylor’s contribution, continuing his teenage angst theme that he began on Queen II (“Loser In the End”), and continued into the next couple of albums (1977’s “Drowse”). With loaded echo and scaling guitar sequences from May, this is Taylor’s most underrated contribution.
“Flick of The Wrist” – Seamlessly segued via the last cord of “Tenement Funster,” Mercury takes over to spit out a torrid array of hate for their business manager at that time (and he continued to conclude this story with “Death On Two Legs” on their next album- A Night at The Opera).
“Lily of The Valley”- Dropping down the volume after Mercury’s isolated vocal (“Baby You’ve Been Had”), this piano-based fantasy ballad (some have taken the lyrics as metaphors for the gay experience), reveals Brian May’s talent for creating beautiful orchestra guitar arrangements, a tone that would be a full-blown feature for their next album (see “Love Of My Life”).
“Now I’m Here”- As mentioned above, the song reflects Brian May’s disconnect between touring and ending up in a West London bedsit for his rehabilitation. With a shout-out to Ian Hunter (“Down in the city, just Hoople and me”) “Now I’m Here” would become one of their show centerpieces for the next 4-5 years. From: https://www.culturesonar.com/50-years-of-sheer-heart-attack/
