Sheer Heart Attack (1974)
I’ve already carried on about Queen once in the SotW but today I’m digging back a little more deeply.
Once the disco and Star Wars soundtrack dam had been broken by AC/DC (thanks to Dr. Demento and the Columbia Record Club), it wasn’t long before I discovered Queen. As a dedicated listener to rock radio, I was well familiar with the likes of “We Will Rock You” and “Another One Bites The Dust” by the time I entered Jr. High. My best friend had a copy of News of the World and we would stare at the album cover, fascinated and bewildered by its unusual and retro-futuristic gatefold art. But it wasn’t until I had won the level of freedom that would allow me to take the bus into Harvard Square to madly flip through bins upon bins of used records (ahh, that smell of masses of vinyl and aged dust jackets!) that I really learned what Queen was all about.
I early on became not only a completist, but also a seeker of original pressings. If I couldn’t find the gatefold-sleeve release of Rainbow Rising, then I wasn’t going to settle for the plain ol’ second issue version. It would just have to wait. And so it went with Queen. After picking up Queen II and A Night At The Opera, I needed it everything they’d done. And I needed the right copies. Next up was Queen’s third LP: Sheer Heart Attack, and it took me a little while to find the original butterfly-label release with the added lyric sheet insert but it was so worth it.
This record was the turning point in their career: they scored their first real hit with “Killer Queen” and the record also contained two songs that would be staples in their live set for the rest of their career (“Brighton Rock” and “Now I’m Here”). But the album was also a turning point in my interest in Queen, fueled not only by the wildly androgynous album cover photo but by the varied and brilliant songs within. After a stuttering start, Queen were picking up where the Beatles left off and fucking running with it! And the track that most excited my young guitarist mind was “Stone Cold Crazy.” Here was a song that rocked – and rocked hard – and was almost a decade older than most of the heavy shit I was eating up at the time! I was transfixed not only by the relentlessness of the riff but also by the juxtaposition of the playful, almost cornball lyrics. Queen was beginning my education in the school of rock and roll as a no holds barred dramatic experience, not as merely a vehicle for guitar indulgence. And “Stone Cold Crazy” was so heavy that years later Metallica would cover it with no discernible increase in rockitude (some might argue a decrease).
I would listen to it over and over again, trying to force my pudgy little fingers into submission as I aped the riff on my crappy Memphis “Strat.” Ultimately, I did complete my Queen collection, even including the very curious soundtrack to Flash Gordon and the very patchy Hot Space. But Sheer Heart Attack remains my favorite LP. It’s a completely inspired work. It set the tone for what was to come but also maintained a live band energy that is the sort of magic that bands still aim to capture in the studio today – failing more often than not. Queen decidedly did not fail here.
Here’s the video that started my week’s obsession:
