Songs from the bands early days, pre-Queen even, were constantly being worked on and when it came time to work on the band’s sophomore album some of those found their way into the recording studio. Certain ones, such as “Seven Seas Of Rhye” were completely redone from the first album, or perhaps, finished, for this second album.
Along with Hot Space, Queen II is my least listened to album in the band’s oeuvre. It shows the band stretching and flexing their creative muscles in the studio but overall there just isn’t anything on here that quite holds up to their later releases. As a matter of fact, I believe the only reason “Seven Seas Of Rhye” was included on their first Greatest Hits album (or at least many versions of the original version) is due to space and wanting to have something represent the album – I mean, there isn’t anything from the band’s debut on that track listing.
Queen II Version
Queen Version
Rhye is a fantasy land, where apparently much, if not all, the second side of Queen II is set. Actually, there isn’t a first or second side, there is a “white” and “black” side. The “white” side opens with “Procession” which is an instrumental and serves as an introduction to Queen’s growing sound. Essentially a bunch of multi-layered guitars it is a great showcase for Queen’s growing prowess with the studio machinery (and a prelude to their work on the Flash Gordon soundtrack).
Another example of the band’s growth in studio use is the song “Some Day One Day” which also features quite a bit of guitar overdubs with a variety of parts being played simultaneously as well as layered, textured vocals.
Queen II really seems more like a stepping stone for the band than anything else. Almost as if these first two albums were demos, allowing the band to explore the tools at their disposal and then write the songs they had within them. An early song, “Ogre Battle” was passed over for recording on the band’s debut album because they wanted to grow more proficient with the studio as an instrument to fully realize their vision for the song, so it was recorded for Queen II. This second album would see the band beginning to find their sound in the studio, and it would be the next album where they would also really start coming together with the songwriting.
Sorry, I just think that as enjoyable as some of these songs are, the album as a whole just doesn’t quite measure up to what we expect from Queen.