Earlier this week, Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor announced that their debut album Queen I has been remastered and remixed to finally sound how they, Freddie Mercury and John Deacon wanted it to.
If that wasn’t enough the 77-year-old rocker has a special treat for fans this afternoon in a half-century first.
In a new Instagram video, he said: “Hi folks, this is me giving you no notice whatsoever because I don’t know what’s going on, but the new video for The Night Comes Down, was only just finished last night will be available for viewing at 2pm today… apologies for not giving you a heads up.
“The track is something I’m incredibly proud of. I wrote it, what is it 50 years ago? Maybe a bit more than 50 years ago. It’s taken all this time for it to become a single and a video as well, so I’m excited! It finally happened! I hope you enjoy.
“We’re all really proud of the work that’s been done on these tracks to rescue them from the murk and hope you enjoy.” Check out the new music video below.
The Night Comes Down is the first single from Queen I and one of the earliest of the band’s recording to ever appear on an official release. The track is released physically on 7” October 4 , shortly ahead of the anticipated Queen I 6-disc box set release on October 25.
The band also shared an insightful behind-the-scenes of the song’s conception with new quotes from Brian: “The song was recorded on January 7,1972 during Queen’s first ever recording sessions at De Lane Lea Studio in Wembley, London, where the then-unsigned band had been hired to test the audio set-up of each room.
“Their payment was a five-song demo, which they believed captured their natural energy and spark, and evoked a live performance rather than a rigid studio session. ‘The demos were closer to what we dreamed of. This was much more the way we wanted it to go,’ says Brian.
“In May 1972, Queen began the challenging process of recording their first album at London’s Trident Studios, with co-producers John Anthony and Roy Thomas Baker. After their De Lane Lea experience, the sessions would be frustrating: “We were regarded as the new boys who didn’t know anything, and nobody really wanted to listen to the way we wanted to do things,” explains May. “So there were an awful lot of overdubs on that first album, which I would say perhaps made it a bit more stiff than it otherwise would have been.”
“In particular, Brian had reservations about even attempting a Trident re-recording of The Night Comes Down. However, including the demo version of the song on the album required a little subterfuge. ‘The band decided to use the De Lane Lea recording – remixed at Trident – at the last minute,’ writes Brian in Queen I’s liner notes. They smuggled in their demo multi-track tape in a newly labelled Trident box in order to mix the song for the album.”
Queen added: “The band’s songs already demonstrated how quickly Queen’s music was evolving. Weaving together folk guitar with the fluid and piercing beauty of Brian’s trademark Red Special, The Night Comes Down trailered a sound that would become part of Queen’s musical signature but challenged the received wisdom of the time.
“‘The Night Comes Down is based on acoustic guitar, my beautiful old acoustic,’ explains Brian. ‘But the guitar harmonies are all electric. People in those days used to say, ‘You can’t mix electric guitar with acoustic guitar.’ They would say the electric guitar is too loud for the acoustic. And I went, ‘Come on, it’s just a question of balancing in the mix.’ ‘The Night Comes Down’ was like a demonstration. ‘Yes, we can do this. We can make our own rules!’’
“In 2024, a newly remixed “The Night Comes Down” introduces Queen I and includes a previously unreleased instrumental version of the song on the B-side.”