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Outer Limits Queen have been many things to many people. A balls-out hard rock band. Purveyors of fine pop music and big hit singles.
And once, in what some fans decry as a misstep, funkateers (1981's in case you were wondering). But they could also, as this list shows, prog out with the very best of them. Happy listening.
.. 1975's is a career highlight in a career packed with many.
Overshadowed, to a certain extent by the epic hit single , it's the opening track on side two that represents Queen's progressive peak. Written by guitarist after he had a dream about a flood The Prophet's Song was originally worked on but abandoned during sessions for . The wind effect was created by recording the sound of an air-conditioning unit through a phaser.
It’s Queen's longest song too. "That song took me ages to complete," once said of . "I wanted to give it everything – to be self-indulgent or whatever.
" If that doesn't sum up progressive rock, what does? is often cited as the band's most overtly prog album, and is six and a half minutes of wonderfully prog pomp. If was their most overtly prog rock statement, then from 1973's was the signpost. Lengthy, rocking out and packed with time changes, it typifies the early Queen sound and remains a huge favourite with fans to this day.
With lyrics inspired by Robert Browning's and packed with Mercury’s beloved vocal overdubs, this song – also from the debut album – almost serves as a forerunner to . It was also the first chance Queen fans got to hear Mercury hammering away on the piano. Not the longest Queen song by a long shot, but certainly packs a hell of a lot in to its two minutes and 46 seconds.
Inspired by and named after Richard Dadd's painting of the same name and full of fantasy based characters, once called it Queen's "biggest stereo experiment". Sounds damn proggy to us. Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! Mixing quiet acoustic passages with barnstorming hard rock, is another indicator that the band were headed towards and .
Written by May and inspired by Robert Graves' , as well as a. female student May was besotted with, it’s another of 's proggy standouts. Proof that the band’s progressive inclinations were not restricted to their early years, the title track of 1991's recalled the glory days of , threw in a nod to 's epic and featured guitarist – who explained: “I started noodling around on the guitar, and it was pretty tough.
After a couple of hours, I thought, ‘I’ve bitten off more than I can chew here.'," Queen’s longest-ever single – exceeding by 35 seconds – it also went straight to No. 1.
It's back to for the rocking opening cut from side two. dates back to 1971, although the band apparently waited until they had freedom in the studio to do the song justice. And the opening of the song is, in fact, the ending played backwards.
Now how prog is that? There's not much to revisit 1989's for, save for the rocking big hit and this, the final track on the album. On a record that misses the mark in most places, this is evocation of the kind of musicality that was so synonymous with Queen in their early days. It's John Deacon's favourite song on the release.
It's been mentioned throughout this article, and all over the progosphere, so it would be churlish not to include arguably Queen's best-known song. Their first No. 1, one of the longest-ever No.
1s, the only song released by the same band to hit No. 1 over Christmas twice, yaddaa yadda yadda..
. Yes, we've probably all heard to too much. But it's also a triumph of vision, creativity, talent and imagination.
All key ingredients in progressive rock, are they not? O.R.k.
share video for acronymically titled new single PUTFP Threshold, Elegy, Kyros and more announced for ProgPower Europe 2025 Jerry Cantrell says some bands earn just "1000th of a cent" each time their song is streamed Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others.
He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock..
