Handwritten notes by Queen’s Freddie Mercury, unsigned, no date, penned in blue ballpoint on a light blue 5.75 x 8.5 sheet of Elektra Records ‘Something Out of the Ordinary’ stationery, which contains an extremely early near-complete track list for the 1974 Queen album Sheer Heart Attack. Mercury’s handwritten track listing reads: “SIDE 1, Happy Little Day, Killer Queen, Leroy Brown, She Makes Me, Now I’m Here / SIDE 2, In the Lap of Gods I, Stone Cold Crazy, Leroy, Funster, Flick of the Wrist, Lilly of the Valley.” At the bottom of the page, Mercury has written, “Links, Backwards, Flick of Wrist,” and added a small doodle; he’s also added an outline to the Elektra butterfly. The order of this track list differs substantially from the final released version of the album: the song ‘Brighton Rock’ still has the very early working title of ‘Happy Little Day’; it appears that Mercury was unsure as to which side of the album ‘Bring Back Leroy Brown’ should be placed on; and there are three missing tracks from the released version: ‘Dear Friends,’ ‘Misfire,’ and ‘In the Lap of the Gods...Revisited.’ In very fine condition. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tracks. The lyrics were previously sold as part of lot 136 from the Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own, On Stage sale held at Sotheby's on September 7, 2023.
Sheer Heart Attack was recorded between July and September 1974 and was the band's last outing with Trident Studio. The band had to abandon their American tour in support of Mott the Hoople when Brian May fell sick with hepatitis, but they were desperate not to lose the momentum that was now unmistakably building behind Queen: they played their last gig on the tour on May 11th and were in the studio two months later.
May was still in hospital recuperating when work on the album began and missed most of the early recording sessions. To compound matters, May suffered yet another setback when he was diagnosed with a duodenal ulcer. In that challenging environment, it’s easy to see how Brighton Rock – with its furious outburst of blues-metal guitar set amid Mercury’s story of star-crossed love – came to be. Despite these conditions, the album shows the band’s, and especially Mercury’s, growing confidence as songwriters. ‘The album is very varied, we took it to extremes I suppose, but we are very interested in studio techniques and wanted to use what was available’ (Freddie Mercury, interviewed in Melody Maker, November 1974).
To compound matters, Trident Productions, Queen’s management firm, put the band on a stipend that barely covered daily costs in an effort to recoup their investment for sprawling studio costs. That wouldn’t take long. Sheer Heart Attack was released in November 1974, and following the success of 'Killer Queen,' it marked a breakthrough for Queen, reaching No. 2 in the UK album charts and also making a positive impact on the American charts. Queen were well on their way to superstardom.
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