Taken from the band's very first album in 1973; 'Keep Yourself Alive' is arguably one of the oldest Queen compositions in existence, serving as the band's first single backed with 'Son & Daughter' on B Side. The song was originally composed by Brian May in 1970 and was written before the band had a permanent bassist. None of Queen's members have ever spoken publicly about any bassists who played any part in the band prior to John Deacon's arrival and nobody has ever admitted publicly to having been in that position. The track 'Doin Alright' from the same album was co-written by Tim Staffel (the original lead vocalist of pre-Queen band Smile) and he has stated that the subsequent residual royalties from this one track across 40 years of sales has compensated him generously for that service. The song lyrics refer to the idea of being satisfied with the acceptance of your life, not to take chances and just hope to do the best with what you've been given. In 1977 May gave an interview in which he stated that the lyrics were actually meant to be a little tongue in cheek and ironic - given the band's predicaments at that time - but when Mercury sang them they took on a more motivational meaning.