Queen's Roger Taylor left scratching head over Freddie Mercury's work

Queen drummer Roger Taylor has been left scratching his head over the more esoteric elements of his late bandmate Freddie Mercury's earlier works.

'I am horrified at how religious a lot of Freddie's lyrics are,' he said at the launch of the newly remastered Queen 1 boxset at the Ham Yard Hotel in London's Soho.

'Freddie was not religious in the slightest way, so God knows what he had been reading.'

The debut Queen album in 1974 is full of songs on Christian themes, including Freddie's song 'Liar' which seems to concern a Catholic confessional.

He sings: 'Father please forgive me,' before the song repeats the accusing word 'liar'.

Freddie's songs often evoke biblical concepts, including his 1985 solo song Made in Heaven.

The lyrics go: 'Made in heaven/I'm playing my role in history/Looking to find my goal/Taking in all this misery/But giving it all my soul'

Roger previously admitted Freddie sang like a 'manic goat' as he revealed how 'dreadful' the front-man sounded when they first got together. 

The drummer, 75, explained how the late singer's famously operatic singing voice left his mother horrified when the band first started out.

Roger said Freddie - who died in 1991 of bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS - 'turned out to be wonderful', but the distinctive vibrato for which he is known took some fine tuning.

Speaking at the launch of the band's remastered eponymous debut album - originally released in 1973 - he said: 'I don't think you realise how dreadful he sounded before.

'I mean, he sounded like some manic goat. He sounded extraordinary, his vibrato. My mother's face when she saw him...'

Roger added: 'He turned out to be our wonderful Freddie whom we will never forget.

'He became this colossal force who could reach to the back of any gig or a stadium in Argentina. He reached everyone.'

The drummer also admitted they had full confidence in their abilities during those early years.

'We had confidence and faith,' he said. 'Because we could play, and we believed in Freddie.'

Despite Queen splitting after Freddie's death at the age of 45, Roger and Brian May have continued to tour under the band's name, with lead vocalist Adam Lambert .

The special launch event at London's Ham Yard Hotel celebrated the newly mixed, mastered, expanded edition release of Queen's iconic self-titled debut album.

Matt Everitt hosted the evening which included a Q&A with Brian and Roger, followed by an album playback.

The band have completely reworked their debut album, more than 50-years after its original release.

The mammoth six CD release features a rearranged track-listing, alternative takes, demo versions and live recording - notably from their very first gig in 1970.

Speaking to Guitar.com , Brian admitted the album is now in a better state than it was upon its initial release in1973.

He said: 'I'm not saying the original version was bad – it just wasn't what we dreamed of. Freddie and John, too, were always conscious of this thing in our past which seemed like it couldn't be fixed.

'Every instrument has been re-examined from the bottom up. The guitars were originally recorded very dry, so we've remedied that.

                 QUEEN 1 2024 MIX                                  (VINYL TRACKLISTING) 

Side one

1. Keep Yourself Alive

2. Doing All Right

3. Great King Rat

4. Mad The Swine

5. My Fairy King

Side two

1. Liar

2. The Night Comes Down

3. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

4. Son and Daughter

5. Jesus

6. Seven Seas of Rhye...

'I remember my dad saying, 'There's no ambience, Brian. I don't feel like I'm in the room with you playing next to me.'

'But we weren't in a position to lay down the law, and we felt that if we stepped out of line we would lose the opportunity altogether.'

May also insisted the reworked album is not a remaster.

'This is a brand new 2024 rebuild of the entire Queen debut album,' the guitarist wrote on his official website.

'All the performances are exactly as they originally appeared in 1973, but every instrument has been revisited to produce the 'live' ambient sounds we would have liked to use originally.

'The result is Queen as it would have sounded with today's knowledge and technology – a first.'

Speaking at a press conference to launch the album, the band revealed every drum beat had been augmented, because they hated the kit originally used by Roger while recording the album in the early '70s.

'The performances are exactly as they were,' he explained. 'They have not been replaced, they haven't been added to, but we've just changed the sound, really, just to make it sound better, the way it should have sounded.'

Heading out after the launch party on Monday evening, Roger did the Can-Can in Soho with his daughters Tigerlily, Rory and Lola.

The family enjoyed a night out in London, with Tigerlily, 30, sharing the moment they decided to break out and dance down the street on Instagram on Friday.

The model showed off her long legs as she threw them into the air, with Roger also giving it his all.

Rory, 38, struggled to keep up, while Lola, 24, giggled in the short clip.

Tigerlily captioned the post: 'Da da daaaa da da da daaaa BDE, big dork energy. Can-canning around soho with these freaks last night'.

She added about her sister Rory: 'I can't. The lack of coordination and look of confusion'.

Tigerlily is the daughter of Roger and his ex-wife Debbie, who were together for 15 years before splitting in 2004 .

The exes also share daughter Lola and a son Rufus, 33 - who is a touring drummer for the Queen + Adam Lambert stage shows.

Roger is also a father to son Felix, 44, and a daughter Rory, who is a GP, who he shares with Dominique Beyrand.

 QUEEN 1 2024 MIX (CD LISTING)  

 Disc one  (2024 mix)

1. Keep Yourself Alive

2. Doing All Right

3. Great King Rat

4. Mad The Swine

5. My Fairy King

6. Liar

7. The Night Comes Down

8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll

9. Son and Daughter

10. Jesus

11. Seven Seas of Rhye...

Disc two (De Lane Lea Demos - 2024 Mix) 

1. Keep Yourself Alive' (De Lane Lea Demo) 

2. The Night Comes Down (De Lane Lea Demo)

3. Great King Rat (De Lane Lea Demo) 

4. Jesus (De Lane Lea Demo)

5. Liar (De Lane Lea Demo)

Disc three - (Queen 1 sessions)

1. Keep Yourself Alive (Trident Take 13 - Unused Master)

2. Doing All Right (Trident Take 1 - with Guide Vocal)

3. Great King Rat (De Lane Lea Take 1 - with Guide Vocal) 

4. Mad The Swine (Trident Take 3 - with Guide Vocal)

5. My Fairy King (Trident Backing Track In Development) 

6. Liar (Trident Take 1 – Unused Master) 

7. The Night Comes Down (De Lane Lea Takes 1 & 2 - with Guide Vocal)

8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Trident Takes 8 & 9)

9. Son and Daughter (Trident Takes 1 & 2 - with Guide Vocal) 

10. Jesus (De Lane Lea Take 2 - with Guide Vocal) 

11. Seven Seas of Rhye... (Instrumental, Trident Take 3) 

12. See What A Fool I've Been (De Lane Lea Test Session)

Disc four (Queen 1 backing tracks)

1. Keep Yourself Alive (Backing Track) 

2. Doing All Right (Backing Track)

3. Great King Rat (Backing Track) 

4. Mad The Swine (Backing Track) 

5. My Fairy King (Backing Track) 

6. Liar (Backing Track)

7. The Night Comes Down (Backing Track) 

8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Backing Track) 

9. Son and Daughter (Backing Track)

10. Jesus (Backing Track) 

11. Seven Seas of Rhye... (Instrumental)

Disc five (Queen 1 at the BBC)

1. My Fairy King (BBC Session 1, February 1973) 

2. Keep Yourself Alive (BBC Session 1, February 1973) 

3. Doing All Right (BBC Session 1, February 1973)

4. Liar (BBC Session 1, February 1973)

5. Keep Yourself Alive' (BBC Session 2, July 1973)

6. Liar (BBC Session 2, July 1973)

7. Son and Daughter (BBC Session 2, July 1973) 

8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (BBC Session 3, December 1973) 

9. Great King Rat (BBC Session 3, December 1973)

10. Son and Daughter (BBC Session 3, December 1973)

11. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (BBC Session 4, April 1974)

Disc six (Queen 1 live)

1. Son And Daughter (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

2. Guitar Solo (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

3. Son And Daughter (Reprise) (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974)

4. Great King Rat (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

5. Keep Yourself Alive (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

6. Drum Solo (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

7. Keep Yourself Alive (Reprise) (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

8. Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974) 

9. Liar (Live at the Rainbow, 31 March 1974)

10. Hangman (Live at San Diego Sports Arena, 12 March 1976) 

11. Doing All Right (Live at San Diego Sports Arena, 12 March 1976)

12. Jesus (Live at Imperial College, 23 August 1970)

13. I'm A Man (Live at Imperial College, 23 August 1970)