Queen‘s self-titled debut turns 50 this year, and Brian May admits that he’s still a bit irked by the sound of the album.
In a new interview with Total Guitar, May says they weren’t happy with the studios that were booked for the album. “Trident Studios were very emergent as a force in the world. And they thought they had it down. But the Trident sound was very dead. It was the opposite of what we were aiming for. So Roger [Taylor’s] drums would be in a little cubicle, and all the drums would have tape on them. They’d all be dead and down…
“I remember saying to [producer] Roy Thomas Baker, ‘This isn’t really the sound we want, Roy.’ And he said, ‘Don’t worry, we can fix it all in the mix.’ Which of course is not the best way, is it? And I think we all knew: It ain’t going to happen!”
May adds that he also thought he could have done fewer guitar overdubs. “There [were] an awful lot of overdubs on that first album, which I would say now [were] unnecessary, and perhaps made it a bit more stiff than it otherwise would have been.”
REUTERS PHOTO
