Talon's Take:
Great King Ratwritten by Freddie Mercury
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals
Brian May - acoustic & electric guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, tambourine, backing vocals
- This is the first Freddie Mercury penned track to appear on the album and it begins his 2 album long fantasy lyrics binge. Many of his songs tend to explore religion/religious figures or the fantasy world he created called Rhye.
- This is a true rocker - great tempo changes, and rocking vocals.
- The band played this at their early concerts sporadically up until 1975 but there are not many recordings - and none of them very good quality. They did resurrect it...kind of during an old school medley in 1984...but they only did a minute of it.
ALTERNATIVE RELEASED VERSIONS:
DE LANE LEA DEMO- ESSENTIAL LISTENING
- Released on the 2011 Island remastering of
Queen Deluxe Version.
- A slightly extended version. Very raw and Freddie's vocals are certainly not as polished. But a great look into one of the first recordings of the band. Again the drum sound is very different and preferable to the album version.
BBC SESSION #1- NOT Essential listening.
- Released on
Queen At The Beeb in 1989 in the UK and
Queen At The BBC in 1995 in the US.
- Not much difference to be honest - some differences on the drum sound and some more effect on the guitar. Not significantly different.
PRLEIMINARY MIX- NOT essential listening.
- When Queen (the album) was remastered in both 1991 and 1994 the master used had been slightly damaged so they used a slightly different mix that was intact. I didn't even search on You Tube as it is really unnecessary. But I wanted it placed here for sake of completeness
UNRELEASED VERSIONS:
TAKE 1EARLY DEMO- NOT essential listening.
- Recorded by a fan at a Queen convention. Bad sound quality and it has Greg Brooks, Queen archivst saying "Property of Queen Productions" over it throughout as they try to discourage bootleggers...without much success! It features some very different vocal takes from Freddie as they record for the first album.
LIVE VERSIONS:
LIVE IN JAPAN - 1975- One of the few complete versions existing.
LIVE IN AUSTRIA - 1984- From a medley.
PERSONAL NOTES:
This is one of 3 songs that rotate through my favs from this album. I love the tempo changes, and I love the tribal rhythmic moments. Very nice stuff. It is strange to see how the band goes from this to stuff like Radio Ga Ga years later...they never sat still that's for sure. And I hope you all stick with me as I get from their creative peaks in the early 70s til we get towards songs you definitely know later on
