Queen: News Of The World Album (1977)

A Stadium Rock Triumph

Queen’s News Of The World LP, was released in the UK on October 28, 1977, on EMI Records (catalogue: EMA 784). This 11-track album, their sixth studio effort, blended hard rock, glam, and theatrical pop, delivering the iconic anthems “We Are The Champions” and “We Will Rock You.” Produced by Queen and assisted by Mike Stone, it featured Freddie Mercury’s soaring vocals and Brian May’s searing guitar.

Overview

In 1977, punk rock acts, most notably the Sex Pistols, sparked massive backlash against progressive rock artists such as Queen, to which the band responded by simplifying their symphonic rock sound and gearing towards a more spontaneous hard rock sound. The album subsequently reached number 4 on the UK Albums Chart and number 3 on the US Top Albums chart while achieving high certifications around the world. It has sold over 4 million copies in the United States. Its lead single, "We Are the Champions," reached number two on the UK Singles Chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Critical reaction to "News of the World" was initially mixed, with many reviewers commenting on the band's change in musical style. However, it has since come to be regarded as one of Queen's greatest albums, while "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" have since become rock anthems.

After completing the "A Day at the Races Tour" in June 1977, the quartet entered the studio to begin work on their sixth studio offering in July 1977, enlisting Mike Stone as assistant producer at Sarm East and Wessex studios in London. The initial activity began on 4 July when Taylor and assistant 'Crystal' Taylor arrived in a lorry at Sarm to set up his drum kit, which continued over the next two days. That Wednesday, on 6 July, the rest of the band arrived at Sarm. They did backing track takes for "It's Late".

After recording all the backing tracks, work moved to Wessex Sound, again preceded by two days dedicated to drum kit setup. The lorry arrived on 1 August, and drum kit construction continued well into 2 August. Andy Turner, a tea boy at Wessex, recalls thinking, "You're being charged £200 an hour for this!" At Wessex, the band overdubbed onto the backing tracks. Some songs had been previously overdubbed, such as "It's Late," "Who Needs You," "All Dead, All Dead," and "Sleeping on the Sidewalk." During the last few days of overdubbing, on 22 August, calls to the U.S. were made regarding venues for the band's tour in November.

According to studio documentation, many sessions had late arrivals, which were usually pre-arranged around an hour before the band would actually arrive. The median shift length was around 3–11 pm, but sometimes the band would stay in the studio until 4 am if they were falling behind schedule. The last principal overdubbing session was on 23 August, with the first mixes the next day on 24 August. Occasionally, further overdubbing would occur as mixing

continued. On 26 August, "We Are The Champions" was mixed, followed by "Spread Your Wings" and "We Will Rock You" on 27 August, and Take 12 of "Sheer Heart Attack" on 28 August.

After taking a day off for the Summer Bank Holiday, the band went to Leighton Mans Studios and Primrose Hill Studios on 30 August, although the output of these sessions is unknown. They also spent a day at Olympic Studios on 31 August. The last documented overdubbing session was on 1 September. Mixing continued until 4 September at Wessex, during which there was a delay on 3 September due to technical issues. That day, Roger appeared on the last episode of the show "Saturday Scene." The mixes were delivered back to Sarm Studios on 5 September for mastering, which would be completed on 16 September.

They scaled down their complex arrangements and focused on a "rootsier" sound (as Brian May put it). However, the staple of the Queen sound—multi-tracked harmonies and guitar orchestrations—still exists on this album, albeit more subtly than previously. Having received some criticism that their first completely self-produced album, A Day at the Races, was a "boring" album, Queen decided to shift their musical focus towards the mainstream but remain as the producers of the next album. Races garnered criticism as many critics felt that it was too similar to A Night at the Opera, something which the band members themselves acknowledged. In addition, the arrival of punk rock, led by the Sex Pistols, saw the mainstream shift away from progressive rock and more towards simpler rock music. Queen were seen as the antithesis of punk, particularly in their camp influences and elaborate production.

Brian May stated in an interview that "We'd already made a decision that...[after] A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, we wanted to go back to basics for News of the World. But it was very timely because the world was looking at punk and things being very stripped down. So in a sense we were conscious, but it was part of our evolution anyway."

In contrast to A Day at the Races, which had taken five months to record, only two months were booked to record at Sarm East and Wessex Sound Studios. Most of the recording sessions took place in Wessex Studios, which was also where the Sex Pistols were busy recording Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols. As such, the two groups had several interactions, including the famous meeting between Mercury and Sid Vicious. Vicious, upon stumbling into

Queen's recording studio, asked, "Have you succeeded in bringing ballet to the masses yet?" in response to a comment the singer had made in an interview with NME, to which Mercury called him "Simon Ferocious" (a playful reference to Vicious' stage name) and replied, "We're doing our best, dear." Johnny Rotten also expressed a desire to meet with Mercury. According to Bill Price, who engineered Never Mind the Bollocks, Rotten crawled on all fours across Queen's studio to Mercury, who was playing piano, and said, "Hello Freddie" before leaving. Queen's history with the Sex Pistols dated back to December 1976, when Queen were set to appear on Bill Grundy's Today show. However, Mercury had a toothache and was forced to schedule a dentist appointment on the same day, his first one in 15 years. As a replacement, EMI offered the Sex Pistols instead, which led to their now famous appearance on the Today show.

Songs

Overview

News of the World shows Queen's songwriting less dominated by Mercury and May than previously, with Roger Taylor and John Deacon composing two songs each. It has been classified as hard rock and arena rock, and has been regarded as a transitional album due to its shift towards a more minimalist production. Its songs are notable for their eclectic themes which would crystallise on future albums Jazz and The Game: "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" are arena rock, "Who Needs You" features a Latin influence, "Sheer Heart Attack" is punk rock, "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" is based upon blues rock, "Get Down, Make Love" features funk overtones, "My Melancholy Blues" imitates jazz and "Fight from the Inside" was the group's first disco related song. Chuck Eddy said the album was widely regarded as a "back-to-basics" offering, minimising the group's more ornate and "multi-part-epic tendencies", with some even dubbing it Queen's response to punk rock. He added, however, that the record "sounds even more often like a response to funk", citing "Fight from the Inside" and "Get Down, Make Love", as well as the "proto-rap sparseness" of "We Will Rock You".

Artwork and packaging

The album's cover was a painting by American sci-fi artist Frank Kelly Freas. Taylor had an issue of Astounding Science Fiction (October 1953) whose cover art depicted a giant intelligent robot holding the dead body of a man. The caption read: "Please... fix it, Daddy?" to illustrate the story "The Gulf Between" by Tom Godwin.] The painting inspired the band to contact Freas, who agreed to alter the painting for their album cover, by replacing the

single dead man with the four "dead" band members (with Mercury and May dead in the robot's hand—Mercury bleeding from his chest and blood on the robot's middle finger of its opposite hand—and with Taylor and Deacon falling to the ground, Taylor only visible on the back cover).

The inner cover (gatefold) has the robot extending its hand to snatch up the petrified fleeing audience in the shattered auditorium where the corpses were removed. Freas said he was a classical music fan and did not know Queen, and only listened to the band after doing the cover "because I thought I might just hate them, and it would ruin my ideas", but eventually liked their music.

Data courtesy of Wikipedia.

Tracklist

A1 We Will Rock You 2:01

A2 We Are The Champions 2:59

A3 Sheer Heart Attack

Bass, Rhythm Guitar – Roger 3:24

A4 All Dead, All Dead

Vocals – Brian, Freddie 3:09

A5 Spread Your Wings 4:32

A6 Fight From The Inside

Bass Guitar, Vocals – Roger

Guitar – Brian, Roger 3:03

B1 Get Down, Make Love 3:51

B2 Sleeping On The Sidewalk

Vocals – Brian 3:07

B3 Who Needs You

Acoustic Guitar – Brian, John

Cowbell – Freddie

Maracas – Brian 3:07

B4 It's Late 6:27

B5 My Melancholy Blues 3:29

Record Company – EMI Records Ltd.

Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Queen Productions Ltd.

Copyright © – Queen Productions Ltd.

Printed By – Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd.

Published By – EMI Music Publishing Ltd.

Published By – Queen Music Ltd.

Pressed By – EMI Records

Artwork [Original Artwork By] – Frank Kelly Freas

Bass Guitar – John Deacon

Coordinator – Paul Prenter, Peter Brown

Crew [Equipment Supervision] – John Harris

Crew [Road Crew] – Brian Spencer (2), Chris Taylor (25), Peter Hince, Ritchie Anderson

Drums, Backing Vocals – Roger Taylor

Engineer – Mike Stone

Guitar, Backing Vocals – Brian May

Layout, Sleeve [Sleeve Coordination] – Cream

Management – John Reid

Producer – Queen

Producer [Assisted By] – Mike Stone

Tour Manager – Gerry Stickells

Vocals, Piano – Freddie Mercury

Written-By – May (tracks: A1, A4, B2, B4), Mercury (tracks: A2, B1, B5), Deacon(tracks: A5, B3), Taylor (tracks: A3, A6)

On back cover:

℗ 1977 Queen Productions Ltd

On printed inner die-cut sleeve:

EMA 784(I)

G & L

On labels:

℗ 1977 Queen Productions Ltd

© 1977 Queen Productions Ltd

Made in Great Britain.

Durations are not given on release.

Weekly charts

Chart (1977–1978) Peak

position

Australian Albums (Kent Music Report) 8

Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) 9

Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM) 2

Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) 1

Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts) 9

French Albums (SNEP) 1

German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) 7

Japanese Albums (Oricon) 3

New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) 15

Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) 4

Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) 9

UK Albums (OCC) 4

US Billboard 200 3

Sources

Discogs: News Of The World (1977)

45cat: Queen Singles

Official Charts Company: Queen Albums

AllMusic: News Of The World

Wikipedia: News Of The World

Billboard Chart History: Queen

YouTube: News Of The World Full Album (2011 upload, 2M+ views)