06-22-1989 – Chicago Tribune
QUEEN INVADES WITH NEW ALBUM, BRITISH BAND AGAIN TRIES TO CONQUER U.S.
Not much has been heard from Queen in recent years, especially in America. The British supergroup, once wittily and aptly described by singer Freddie Mercury as “the Cecil B. De Mille of rock `n` roll,” hasn`t toured here in five years, and they haven`t had a bona fide hit since the heady days of international anthems such as “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions.”
But that`s about to change. Their 16th album, “The Miracle” (Capitol), is in the stores this week, and the veteran band is seriously considering going back on the road to promote it.
A year in the making, “The Miracle” marks the first time in the group`s 18-year history that all tracks have been written jointly by all four members, and the result is one of the band`s most cohesive efforts.
“I Want It All,” the first U.S. single, is vintage-sounding Queen, and other songs include the playful “Khashoggi`s Ship,” “Scandal” and the title track, the first single in Europe.
For the last 18 years, Queen have lived up to their royal moniker by ruling the charts and dominating the field of larger-than-life live performance, and without much of a break. While other veteran rock acts routinely take sabbaticals of two or three years to recharge their batteries, Queen has kept up a punishing regimen of recording and touring.
The numbers alone tell quite a story. Since their eponymous debut album in 1972, singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon have sold nearly 90 million albums. And they`ve played live in front of more than 6 million fans worldwide.
Despite the success and adulation, however, Queen have not always enjoyed a trouble-free reign. “It`s very weird being so big everywhere else in the world and having to struggle in America,” May said. “In a way, we feel we were born here as a group and to find it`s now the only place where we can`t sell out football stadiums is extremely frustrating.”
May is soft-spoken but passionate as he analyzes some of the band`s recent disappointments, in particular the relative failure, as he sees it, of 1984`s “Radio Ga Ga.”
“That was a major disappointment for us in America,” he said. “In the rest of the world, it was quite a breakthrough, and we were very proud of it, because it was a song that actually talked about radio and its problems, and yet it hit big on radio, and influenced radio I think. But once we lost it here, it made it very difficult for us, and to be honest, that`s when we started concentrating on touring other places.
“At the same time, we all began to realize that if we didn`t tour here, we might lose our audience totally, and I think that`s what ended up happening. You lose that momentum.”
May can`t explain the popularity loss except to say, “We`ve always been the kind of group that didn`t pay much attention to fads and fashions.
We`ve always just gone out and done our own thing, regardless.
“When we recorded `Crazy Little Thing Called Love,` rockabilly was quite uncool at the time. But it caught on in a big way, and I think influenced a lot of other artists to try stuff in that area. Look at George Michael and `Faith.`
“Of course, we`ve also done things that didn`t work, like the `Hot Space` album in 1982. That was funk meets rock `n` roll, and I think it was way ahead of its time. Michael Jackson did a similar thing on `Thriller,` but for us the time wasn`t right.
“In fact, `Hot Space` was one of our least successful albums here, even though our collaboration with David Bowie on `Under Pressure` was a hit single.”
The latest album is another departure from the norm. “Cowriting every song was a big step for us,” May agreed. “In the past, it got to the point where there`d only ever be one or two members of us in the studio at a time, so Queen wasn`t really functioning as a group, as far as recording went. But this time, it was like the old days, with all of us there and plenty of arguments, but constructive ones.”
Squabbling nearly broke the band in the early `80s.
“There`s still a lot of musical friction, because we`ve gone off in very different directions,” May said. “But personally, we`re getting on much, much better than we used to. Around the `Jazz` album we were all getting into our own things and nobody much liked what the other guys were doing. To be honest, there were times when we couldn`t tolerate each other off-stage.
“We were on this treadmill of album, tour, album, tour, and that`s why we took some time off to really concentrate on this project. We just decided that if we were a group, we`d better act like one.
“As for the future, we`re all very sad that our fans here couldn`t see the last few shows we took around the world, so we`re definitely planning to tour here.
“That`s our goal now-to conquer America again.”