Freddie Mercury

Autograph draft working lyrics of songs for the album Queen II, comprising: 

i) 'Ogre Batt💙le', partial draft lyric fragments and notes on musical structure, in black ballpoint, 2 pౠages, on a single leaf of plain notepaper (203 x 127mm)

ii) 'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke', autograph draft lyric fragments, 3 pages, and notes on vocal h🌠armonies, 4 pages, blue and black b🀅allpoint and fibretip, on 4 leaves of different papers ranging in size from foolscap to 197 x 125mm

iii) 'Nevermore', autograph draft lyric f🎉ragments and notes on vocal harmonie🌳s, 4 pages, blue and black ballpoint, on two leaves of lined notepaper (202 x 125mm)

iv) 'The March of the Black Queen', extensive autograph draft lyric fragments, 12 pages, detailed notes on vocal harmonies, 7 pages, overdubs, bass lines, and recording notes, 5 pages, on 14 leaves (plus one 🤪blank leaf) of different papers ranging in size from foolscap to 197 x 125mm

v) 'Funny How Love Is', autograph draft lyrics and vocal harmonies, in blue ballpoint, 3 pages, on 2 leaves of ꧅lined notepaper (207 x 1🦹30mm)

altogether 23 leaves, c.1973

Queen cut their second album at Soho's Trident Studios in August 1973, just a month after the release of their debut. The band had a number of songs in their existing repertoire that had not been recorded for Queen, so not every song was fresh for the album. Freddie Mercury wrote six of the eleven tracks on the album, comprising the entire second side ("side black") of the album, but 'Ogre Battle', 'March of the Black Queen', and 'The Seven Seas of Rhye', all dated back - at least in part - several years. The album's attitude is encapsulated by its working title, "Over The Top", as Queen developed the🏅 extrav🀅agant multi-layered sound that would characterise their work in the 1970s.

This group of manuscripts includes drafts for five of Freddie's six songs on the album (for 'Seven Seas of Rhye see lot 116). These songs are also written into the notebook (lot 104) that Freddie kept at the time, however, so many of the drafts are incomplete, and a large proportion of these manuscripts relate to vocal harmonies and other musical q⛎uestions that confronted the band in the recording studio.

'The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke' is characteristic of Freddie Mercury's early songs in its use of fantastical i𓆏magery. It was explicitly inspired by the extraordinary painting of the same name by Victorian artist Richard Dadd (a fold-out reproduction of which was issued with the album), which was one of his favourite artworks (see also lot 1847). Mercury's lyrics describe the scene depicted in Dadd's unfinished masterpiece, painted while the artist was incarcerated in an asylum. The current manuscripts comprise an early draft of the lyrics and extensive notes on the harmonies.

Unsurprisingly, the most extensive drafts in the current lot relate to 'March of the Black Queen'. This song was six and a half minutes long and proved too complex ever to be performed live. In a 1974 interview for Melody Maker, Mercury contrasted his struggles with the song with the ease with which he wrote 'Killer Queen': "Now, March Of The Black Queen, that took ages. I had to give it everything, to be self-indulgent or whatever." Brian May has identified the song as a precursor to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in it꧂s unusual and complex musical structure, enigmatic lyrics, and the extensive use of overdubbing in its recording. The current notes include extensive draft lyrics as well as pages of notes on vocal harmonies and other features such as a list of overdubs, making very clear the hard work that went into recording this epic track. 

The album was released in March 1974 with exceptional cover art by Mick Rock. Characteristically, the album riled many music critics but it was vastly more successful with the record-buying public than their 1973 debut. It reached number 5 in the UK charts and even made some im🍌pression on the American charts (peaking at number 49): Queen were on their w🌠ay to stardom.  

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