Classic Rock
Brian May recalls Queen dealing with bad reviews of the first album
Queen co-founder and guitarist Brian May recalled in an interview with Guitar how the band dealt with the harsh reviews of their debut album, Queen I, released in 1973.
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At the time, a brutal NME review described the record as a ‘bucket of urine.’ May explained that being part of a band was crucial because they felt the reviewers were wrong, and they supported each other to keep going. He noted that, as a solo artist, he might have just ‘laid down on the floor and cried.
Brian May recalls Queen dealing with bad reviews of the first album
“We looked at some of the reviews for the Led Zeppelin albums that had been out at that time, some of which were appallingly bad. And we thought, well, if they can run these people down, we shouldn’t be too worried about being run down ourselves.”
“Being a band is a great help. I think if I’d been a solo artist, I think I’d have laid on the floor and cried. It was bad, but we had the four of us and it’s like, ‘screw these guys, we know what we’re doing’. That saved us,” Brian May said.
The critics were certainly wrong at the time since Queen proved in the following decades they were one of the greatest bands in history. Formed also by Roger Taylor, John Deacon, they became one of the best-selling bands of all time. The British group sold an estimated amount of 250 to 300 million records worldwide.
Nowadays formed by Brian May (Guitar) and Roger Taylor (Drummer), Queen is currently promoting a remixed version of their debut album. The record has songs like “Keep Yourself Alive”, “Liar” and “Seven Seas of Rhye…” (Instrumental).
