Considering how many unpleasant things there are to learn about your average rock star, the fact that Queen were basically nice boys should come as a relief to their fans, but it also makes reading Queen: As It Began somewhat less thrilling than listening to Sheer Heart Attack. That Jacky Smith and Jim Jenkins book was authorized by the band (May even penned a brief foreword) is a tip off that it isn't going to delve much into their personal lives. That's nice for them, but it does readers a disservice since we don't get much of a sense of who the band members are, and that's never a great thing in a biography. The authors render the band members so inadequately that I was taken aback to see Freddie described as "volatile" three-quarters of the way through the book. I had no idea!
Instead of a deep, intimate look at these men, we get a dispassionate run through the events of their career. Those events might be amusing —I love the fact that Queen actually befriended Groucho Marx, who appreciated how the band had named a couple of their albums after his movies—or emotionally charged—Freddie's finale—but if they resonate it's only because of the events themselves. The writing just kind of plows forward.
A bio of a nerdy, not-especially-debauched band does not need to be dry: see Martin Popoff's three-volume Rush biography. Smith and Jenkins could have infused As It Began with more humor and a greater sense of the writers' personal love for the music, which two such super-fans must feel. Instead, they leave most of the music-talk to period critics, who notoriously loathed the band. This is neither a bad nor inadequate biography of Queen, but a band as weird and passionate as they deserves flashier and more emotional storytelling.
