Queen

[matt-zeus]

Haven't seen a Queen thread here (at least not for a long time) and wondered if anyone else had much of an interest? To me in many ways they are the ultimate pop-rock band combining the best pop bits of the Beatles and the Beach Boys plus also rocking stuff like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
For me my preference would be 70s Queen - all pretty much solid gold (my favourite being Queen II) but even in the 80s they did good stuff (including the underrated Hot Space).
Technically they are still going now but I have no interest in their current incarnation with Paul Rodgers on vocals (one of my least favourite rock singers of all!), so i'm not too bothered about discussing that! I'm well aware of the strong contributions of the other band members, but considering Freddie came up with their name, the band 'concept' and image, a lot of their artwork and most of their best songs - then I feel that without him they haven't got much going for them!
Anyway,  i'd love to hear from some fellow Queen enthusiasts!

[the captain]

Well, I don't know if you'd love to hear from me, but yes, I'm a Queen fan.

[Roger Ryan]

I think they were brilliant through JAZZ (although NEWS OF THE WORLD is a bit spotty), but everything from THE GAME on was horribly distressing. I'm sorry, but HOT SPACE is one of the worst albums any major band has released. INNUENDO returned them to some of their former glory (I suspect Freddie knowing he was on his way out was inspired to attempt something better than what had come before). After his death, there is no reason for the band to exist and the fact that Paul Rodgers is singing those songs in concert is very distasteful to me.

[matt-zeus]

Well, I don't know if you'd love to hear from me, but yes, I'm a Queen fan.

Let's hear some Queen talk Luther!

I think they were brilliant through JAZZ (although NEWS OF THE WORLD is a bit spotty), but everything from THE GAME on was horribly distressing. I'm sorry, but HOT SPACE is one of the worst albums any major band has released. INNUENDO returned them to some of their former glory (I suspect Freddie knowing he was on his way out was inspired to attempt something better than what had come before).

Good to hear from you, I like Jazz too, but the production is appalling (the drums especially) however, I think 'News of the World' has the best sounding production of all of their albums, listen to stuff like 'Fight from the inside' (recorded completely solo by Roger) and its a great sound, the drums sound very good on this one - sorry i'm being very anal!
I quite like 'Hot Space', I suppose its like a Beach Boys fan saying they like 'Summer in Paradise'! However, Queens real low point for me would be 'The Miracle' - Utterly soulless, at least on Hot Space they were trying. I know thats not an opinion shared by many Queen fans, half of what sounds a bit off with Hot Space is its sequencing, fiddle around with it a bit and I don't think anyone would have really noticed!

[Sheriff John Stone]

I guess it's old news now but Queen, with Paul Rodgers, is recording a new album.

I first read about Queen in Circus and Creem. I bought Queen and Queen II when they came out, and I liked them a lot. I was into hard rock back then, and Queen were that when they started out. I wasn't a huge Freddie Mercury fan; I knew he was talented and he was different, and I respected him. And I was a Sparks fan, so I was used to high voices.

I liked "Keep Yourself Alive", "Liar", "Modern Times Rock And Roll", "Ogre Battle", Fairy Feller's", and "Seven Seas Of Rhye". For some reason, I didn't buy Sheer Heart Attack", although I liked some songs from it. Around that time, I was buying a lot of new stuff, and Queen got bumped. In came Sparks, Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss, New York Dolls, and .....The Beach Boys.

I really liked Bohemian Rhapsody, but not many more of their "radio" songs. I don't know any of their good album tracks. Two last comments.....I do remember that Queen's albums (vinyl) sounded very clear and well produced/engineered. I also think that Freddie Mercury's death has NOT gotten the recognition (that's not really the word I'm looking for, but you know what I mean) that other rock stars have gotten. Freddie was as good as anybody of his era. He was so young, it's really sad....

[the captain]

SJS, you're right about the way those albums--the 70's ones, anyway--sounded. They were just immaculate, so clean. So clear. So amazingly good sounding, almost from the get-go. Roy Thomas Baker, and later the band themselves, were really skilled at capturing sound on tape.

[matt-zeus]

I also think that Freddie Mercury's death has NOT gotten the recognition (that's not really the word I'm looking for, but you know what I mean) that other rock stars have gotten. Freddie was as good as anybody of his era. He was so young, it's really sad....

I agree,I think in many ways Queen are given a bit of a raw deal, their relationship with the press was never great anyway and since Freddies death they've had a little bit of retrospective appreciation but not enough and not in the right way.
In some ways they are thought of as a 'novelty' act (their quirky songs) and in other ways as an almost Status Quo-like run of the mill old man rock band because of Brian Mays (and Roger Taylors to a lesser extent) seeming inability to say 'no' when collaborating with high profile pop stars -Five, Robbie Williams, Brtiney Spears (on a pepsi ad with Pink and Beyonce).
I think however after the Beatles, they may be the most successful singles act in the UK having had top ten hits spanning from 1974 through to 1991 (and 1995/96 to include the stuff after Freddies death) so they should be thought of as being up there with the Beatles and with Led Zeppelin, but they have never been considered as 'cool' as those bands.
I remember when I was very young back in 86 when 'A kind of Magic' came out that they were absolutely huge, they were in the papers, on the TV, always on the radio, that seemed like their biggest album and it was one of those giants of the mid 80s (at least) along with Graceland, Brothers in Arms, So, Tango in the night, The hounds of love, Invisible Touch etc...
Freddie may have not been as blatantly political as Lennon, as 'real' as Cobain or as whatever the appeal was of Jim Morrison etc but as far as 'late' rock stars go, he's the one I think of first, as to my mind he was the 'ultimate' rock star!

[BiNNS]

My girlfriend got me into Queen about a year ago. Up until then i had never given the band a chance. Little did i know that Freddie Mercury was such a talented songwriter. We only have four of their albums: Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races and Jazz, all of which i really enjoy. I never get tired of listening to Seaside Rendezvous.

[8o8o]

I'd say that "Queen II" and "Sheer Heart Attack" are my two favourite Queen records, excellent rock records. Great band.

Side note: Freddie, as "Larry Lurex", even recorded "I Can Hear Music". For those of you who haven't heard it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5tr6O1XvjM

 

[matt-zeus]

Side note: Freddie, as "Larry Lurex", even recorded "I Can Hear Music".

That version I heard many years before I heard the Beach Boys version so to my ears is the definitive one! Freddies voice is sublime on it. One thing to note is how completely different Freddies voice was at the beginning and how it was by the mid 80s, its like hearing two different singers, though it tends to sort of go unnoticed!

[Roger Ryan]

I think they were brilliant through JAZZ (although NEWS OF THE WORLD is a bit spotty), but everything from THE GAME on was horribly distressing. I'm sorry, but HOT SPACE is one of the worst albums any major band has released. INNUENDO returned them to some of their former glory (I suspect Freddie knowing he was on his way out was inspired to attempt something better than what had come before).

Good to hear from you, I like Jazz too, but the production is appalling (the drums especially) however, I think 'News of the World' has the best sounding production of all of their albums, listen to stuff like 'Fight from the inside' (recorded completely solo by Roger) and its a great sound, the drums sound very good on this one - sorry i'm being very anal!
I quite like 'Hot Space', I suppose its like a Beach Boys fan saying they like 'Summer in Paradise'! However, Queens real low point for me would be 'The Miracle' - Utterly soulless, at least on Hot Space they were trying. I know thats not an opinion shared by many Queen fans, half of what sounds a bit off with Hot Space is its sequencing, fiddle around with it a bit and I don't think anyone would have really noticed!

I was thinking more of the song quality being a little lacking on NEWS... not necessarily the sound quality. After three albums where nearly every song sounded fully-formed, NEWS seemed to drop a bit in quality and I thought JAZZ was a great return to form as far as the quality and variety of the songwriting went. I think the worse thing that happened to the band was having a hit with "Another One Bites The Dust". It was such a throwaway and HOT SPACE has a number of attempts to throw the same thing away. As those 70s albums showed, Queen was about ambition and showmanship, the "Spike Jones" wacky side of art rock. As "Bohemian Rhapsody" proves, they could deliver a parody that was actually heartfelt. I'm glad the band didn't want to just repeat themselves, but the stripped-down dum-dum funk was not a good substitute. Instead of ambition and showmanship, the albums started sounding like bland 80s films soundtrack collections (in some cases, they were!).

Anyway, I don't want to get down on them too bad; when they were good, they were spectacular. The idea that Roger and Brian are actually recording a QUEEN album with Paul Rodgers is like Mike Love recording a new BEACH BOYS album on his own. Have the decency to call the band something else!

[matt-zeus]

I know what you mean about the songs sounding 'lesser' but I reckon that has a lot to do with the stripeed down production, 'We are the Champions', 'All dead all dead', 'Spread your wings', 'My melancholy blues', 'It's late' and to a lesser extent 'Who needs you' are pretty much classic Queen I think, however that does leave 'Fight from the inside', 'WE will rock you', 'Get down make love', 'Sheer Heart attack' and 'Sleeping on the sidewalk' which although I enjoy them, I can see how they would be construed as filler to some extent.
I think song for song Jazz is stronger, but the running order is confusing and seems all over the place!

[Sheriff John Stone]

The idea that Roger and Brian are actually recording a QUEEN album with Paul Rodgers is like Mike Love recording a new BEACH BOYS album on his own. Have the decency to call the band something else!

Maybe Celebration?

I just thought of another Queen song that I like, a Christmas song, "A Winter's Tale".....

[the captain]

In some ways they are thought of as a 'novelty' act (their quirky songs) ...

Freddie may have not been as blatantly political as Lennon, as 'real' as Cobain or as whatever the appeal was of Jim Morrison

I think it's true that Queen is--at least in the U.S.--seen as a novelty act in part. Their songs were funny, camp and all over the map; it's almost like Weird Al Yankovic, but if he weren't admitting he's kidding. I am not sure Americans know quite what to do with Queen ... and to me, the answer is easy: enjoy their music.

And that leads into the second phrase I quoted above. One thing I absolutely LOVE about Queen was their willingness to be a pop band. As Freddie sang, "I don't want to be the president of America." It makes no sense to me that people expect something other than music from musicians. They're looking for philosophy, wisdom, depth of meaning, and occasionally they can find it. Other times I think they probably manufacture it in order to believe it's there. But sometimes it's just music. Sometimes they are just pop songs, funny, sad, joyous, sexy or whatever--just pop. You won't go to heaven for listening. Queen were great for that reason. In fact, I wish they had never done "Is This The World We Created?" because it seems trite to me. I'm sure they meant it, but sometimes I'd rather hear "Bicycle Race," where the jabs are clever.

Kurt Cobain's death did nothing for me. I am not proud to say it, but the part of it that saddened me most was that I knew he'd be immortalized for certain then, rather than to fade out as I think he would've. I was never impressed with his music, and I have a hard time buying the anti-establishment sentiment of someone signing big-money deals with major labels, or posing for Rolling Stone covers. Frankly, I found him to be boring, tedious and probably a hypocrite. Lennon's overt politics, too, bored the hell out of me, and were usually accompanying bad music. Queen mostly avoided that tedium by making music that was meant as music. Not music-as-wisdom. Not music-as-politics. Music.

[matt-zeus]

And that leads into the second phrase I quoted above. One thing I absolutely LOVE about Queen was their willingness to be a pop band. As Freddie sang, "I don't want to be the president of America." It makes no sense to me that people expect something other than music from musicians. They're looking for philosophy, wisdom, depth of meaning, and occasionally they can find it. Other times I think they probably manufacture it in order to believe it's there. But sometimes it's just music. Sometimes they are just pop songs, funny, sad, joyous, sexy or whatever--just pop. You won't go to heaven for listening. Queen were great for that reason. In fact, I wish they had never done "Is This The World We Created?" because it seems trite to me. I'm sure they meant it, but sometimes I'd rather hear "Bicycle Race," where the jabs are clever.

Kurt Cobain's death did nothing for me. I am not proud to say it, but the part of it that saddened me most was that I knew he'd be immortalized for certain then, rather than to fade out as I think he would've. I was never impressed with his music, and I have a hard time buying the anti-establishment sentiment of someone signing big-money deals with major labels, or posing for Rolling Stone covers. Frankly, I found him to be boring, tedious and probably a hypocrite. Lennon's overt politics, too, bored the hell out of me, and were usually accompanying bad music. Queen mostly avoided that tedium by making music that was meant as music. Not music-as-wisdom. Not music-as-politics. Music.

I agree, Queen are about the music first and foremost, much in the same way that we look to Brian and the Beach Boys for powerful music, the lyrics are secondplace for me.
I've just got distracted and excited by the post on the main board with the news of Brian May and Roger Taylor being on the remake of Holy Man (the London version), here's the link of the main article;

http://www.buddyhead.com/2008/05/05/dennis-wilson-pacific-ocean-blue-reissued-finally/#comment-7795

I know this runs counter to what I was saying a few posts ago about the nature of their collaborations, but half of Queen and Dennis?! (sort of) - that is exciting!
Maybe Brian and Roger should back up BW and then he can do the 'Rock and roll' album he's been talking about! Better than Paul Rodgers anyway....

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

Sheer Heart Attack is a great album.  also like A.N.A.T.O a lot and A.D.A.T.R to a lesser extent

I was in the Queen fanclub when i was 13, now if i could just find that membership card 

[matt-zeus]

I was in the Queen fanclub when i was 13, now if i could just find that membership card 

Cool! I joined the fanclub for few years when I was 8, I still have the magazines, they were kind of cool in the pre-internet days!

[Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll]

I think i still have those somewhere as well. Woman called Jackie used to run it i think. I wrote them a long letter the day freddie died. still waiting for that reply 

I was in the Queen fanclub when i was 13, now if i could just find that membership card 

Cool! I joined the fanclub for few years when I was 8, I still have the magazines, they were kind of cool in the pre-internet days!