I’ve featured a couple Queen Tracks of the Day in the last few weeks. I see no reason to stop now.
So why not feature a Queen track every Wednesday this month, right? I’ve been pretty into their deep cuts lately. I’ve also always loved their first few albums (1 through News of the World). The glam rock-era Queen was and will always be the best Queen.
With that in mind, let’s go all the way back to Queen’s self-titled album, which the band recently re-released in a remastered edition.
When I think of early Queen, I think of My Fairy King.
I love the glamour, baroque-pop and at times hard-rock style this song takes layered with the overdubs that made Queen famous.
I’m not quite sure what the origins of this song are, but its lyrics are rich in some made-up modern-day mythology rich with imagery.
But someone who spent a lot more time studying Queen’s lyrics than I have found that Freddie Mercury wrote a handful of songs alluding to this place called “Rhye” (for example, Seven Seas of Rhye, which appeared on this album). Other songs to mention this land include Lily of the Valley, In The Lap of The Gods, Ogre Battle and The March of the Black Queen.
The song references the fairy king, a lion’s den, fallow deer, rivers “made from wine so clear”, dragons and the figure Samson.
Much of these motifs, this writer finds, appear throughout a handful of song from Queen’s early catalogue that contain a rich tapestry of characters and geography in this mythological kingdom of Rhye.
It’s not something I’ve noticed going through Queen’s earlier work before. All I had noticed was that there were a few of these more colourful songs in Queen’s first three records (I always thought they were the most interesting). I’m excited to go back through them.
Fitzie’s track of the day: My Fairy King, by Queen
And now for your links:
Dan KP: “Mathys Tel is a major coup but Tottenham might have missed another golden opportunity”
Football London: “What Tottenham January business means for Cardoso, Guehi, Tel and the summer transfer plans”
BBC: “National League clubs demand three promotion spots”