Queens 1973
Photo: Redferns, RB. All rights reserved.
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Did Queen pave the way for thrash metal with the song “Stone Cold Crazy”? Brian May asked himself that question – and he said that he and his band didn’t really take the title seriously.
May described the song as “just a little fun” in an interview with Guitar World. That is also the reason why the title only appeared on the third studio album “Sheer Heart Attack” in 1974, although it is much older. “It was one of the first songs we ever played together,” the guitarist told the magazine. “It’s pretty unusual that he only appeared on our third record, isn’t it? I think we played ‘Stone Cold Crazy’ on our very first gigs.”
However, the original version sounded very different and was slower. May liked the lyrics, though, and felt the music should be as “frantic” as the lyrics. “So I put in this riff that people say is the birth of thrash metal! I don’t know if that’s true. But it was unusual at the time to play at that pace.”
“Stone Cold Crazy” is special because the song captures the live atmosphere in the studio, May says. “I would say that’s when we started mastering the studio. Once you get the hang of something like that, you can fool yourself that it’s live. So it doesn’t sound calculated – it sounds real and spontaneous. And we caught it. I think it’s all in one take.”
Because of the fast tempo and the strong distortion, the title is often treated as a forerunner of speed metal. The music magazine “Q” described it as “thrash metal before the term was invented”. In 1990, Metallica covered the song. Here is their harder version in comparison:
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