Queen - Keep Yourself Alive (1973)
28This is my first Queen music video, and it has taken years for me to finally give this song a try. "Keep Yourself Alive" was the first song I ever heard by Queen. Autumn 1973
and it got a lot of air plays on FM underground radio, now declining in a very slow death. By 1975 FM radio as we had known it since the late 60's was no more and by mid-1975 was replaced by something that was called "album rock." Not quite the same thing and a lot of lesser-known bands and obscure artists that might have gotten play, never did again. Of course, by 1982, MTV would change all that.
Queen was one of the last of the bands that got recognition on FM underground radio, and that was enough to quickly propel it from obscurity to Top 40 when they released "Killer Queen" as a single in 1975. Other bands of that period that got a shot from FM radio included The Alex Harvey Band, Kiss, Genesis (with Peter Gabriel), Focus, Mike Oldfield, and
others. This track from Queen's self-titled debut album was possibly one of the wildest tracks they ever recorded ... very fast and somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It was released as
a single but failed to chart. But it was a popular favorite of mine and for the FM crowd.