Queen Read Bad Reviews Of Led Zeppelin To Cope With Critical Responses To Their 1973 Debut

In an episode of the docuseries, Queen The Greatest Special: The Story of Queen 1, guitarist Brian May reveals how the band comforted themselves after receiving terrible reviews of their self-titled 1973 debut album. In one scathing review in the NME, music critic Nick Kent likened the album to “a bucket of urine.” Queen coped with negative criticism by reading bad reviews Led Zeppelin received at the start of their legendary career. “We looked at some of the reviews for the Led Zeppelin albums that had been out at that time, some of which were appallingly bad,” says May. “And we thought, well, if they can run these people down, we shouldn’t be too worried about being run down ourselves. Being a band is a great help. I think if I’d been a solo artist, I think I’d have laid on the floor and cried. It was bad, but we had the four of us and it’s like, ‘screw these guys, we know what we’re doing.’ That saved us.” (Louder Sound)