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Guitar World
Guitar World
Entertainment
Henry Yates

“I had doubts about the Red Special – I knew it sounded different from what everybody else was using, from a Strat and a Gibson. But hearing it back was thrilling”: Brian May on reworking Queen’s regal debut, bad reviews, and Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Magic”

Queen live in 1974: Freddie Mercury and Brian May stand shoulder to shoulder on stage, while (left) John Deacon holds down the bass.

Half a century later, when discussing the road to Queen’s self-titled 1973 debut album with Brian May, it’s necessary to suspend your disbelief. Imagine, if you can, a time when the classic line-up of May, Freddie Mercury, John Deacon and Roger Taylor were not multi-platinum national treasures.

A time, in fact, when they were penniless nobodies, typically found bottom of the bill at a sweatbox club, being ushered from record label offices or facing tough questions from parents convinced these four bright boys were burning their futures for an impossible dream.

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