The Smiley Smile Message Board

Before even the BB, Queen are my fave band, most particularly the 70s stuff which is stunning (especially Queen 2), but I like all of it really. There's a big BB (and Beatles) influence there. Anyone in BB land share my passion?

Love them!!  I only own A Night At The Opera and the two compilations released in the early 90's with the wave of sucess through Wayne's World:  Classic Queen and Greatest Hits.  I especially love '39 and Love Of My Life from opera as far as album cuts go.  Seven Seas Of Rhye is another favorite of mine.  Brian May's guitar tone is instantly recognisable and there may not be a more gorgeous voice in rock history than Freddie!  I can't, however, get into the "new" Queen with Paul Rodgers on vocals.  Not that he is bad.  Well, I really don't like Bad Company but Free was  a great band!  I just can't do Paul singing those songs that are so much a part of Freddie!

queen rocks and yes, there some other die hards on here. most everything is fantastic, however, you really don't need to go past the game and about half of hotspace.  take a few singles off of flash gordon and the works. ok, maybe for cheesy indulgence you can squeeze a couple off of kind of magic.  man, i really love this cheesy group. by far the best cheesy group of all time.  and i dont mean that as some kind of qualifying statement.  news of the world, while it does contain two of their biggest most commercial hits, its one of their most genuine and raw/honest rock records.  imagine if the singles we will rock you and we are champions were never released, and they just happened to be the openers of that album.

"Death On Two Legs" might just be one of the most Ferocious songs Queen ever wrote.
And "Prophet Song" just kills me with the Delay Echoes in the middle.
Bri

As I heard all the Queen stuff when I was fairly young, I know it all inside out, and .i've never been able to distinguish between the quality, so Hot Space to my ears is as good as Sheer Heart Attack. In fact there are less than a handful of tracks that I'm not keen on.

I'm a huge fan, especially of the music done in the mid- to late-70s. But I do like at least something off of every release, and often quite a bit. I adore Freddie. Queen was one of those unique bands--joined by only the Beatles and beach Boys, I think-- whose music I knew before I realized I knew it.  Songs like We Are the Champions, We Will Rock You, Bicycle Race, You're My Best Friend...it was as if I was born knowing them.

God, this is an old topic----ten years! It was the Queen topic across the road that prompted me to bump it.

I never really "got" Queen until I saw them (on TV) at Live Aid in '85 (which is when I finally "got" Duran Duran as well).

I have A Night at the Opera on an old tape (and very good it is too, despite the shoddy sound quality) but the Queen album that really does it for me is A Kind of Magic, the stand-out track being "Who Wants To Live Forever". Chills-down-the-spinesville when Freddie takes over from Brian for the second verse...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jtpf8N5IDE

Before I forget: my soprano friend (the one I help with her parts) recently sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" with her chamber choir (with piano accompaniment)...

Incredible band, but my favorite songs of theirs are the deep cuts from the 70s like Death On Two Legs, The Prophet's Song, White Queen (As It Began), Mustapha (so my jam), Spread Your Wings, It's Late, Son and Daughter, Stone Cold Crazy or You Take My Breath Away.

I know I've been on another Queen thread, but Queen was the first band I ever really got into. 

Like many of my generation (born 1980), I first heard Bohemian Rhapsody via Wayne's World around 1992.  I bought a cassette single of it, and wore it out pretty fast.  Then, I started getting into the catalog. 

To me, their first five LPs are pretty tough to beat, especially the first two - Queen & Queen II.  But, even if the albums weren't exactly classics anymore, there was still a lot to like in the 1980s and early 90s.  Even their patchwork final album, Made In Heaven, has some great moments (ie. Mother Love). 

Sadly, there will never be another band like them. 

I'm a HUGEEEEEE Queen fan.

love the early albums especially Queen 2 but my favorite album is the last one with Freddie alive INNUENDO.

I love live recording from them too. one of the best live bands.

Back in the seventies, I used to see this intriguing LP cover in a local shop on my way to work. Last night I listened to News of the World all the way through (on YouTube) for the first time. Yes, those two tracks are fantastic but even the two openers, which have been through the mill since then, sound great in context. I can imagine the impact they had back in '77...

Next up is Queen II. I remember hearing "Seven Seas Of Rhye" in '73 and deciding it was a cut above most of the heavy stuff going down at that time. There was something special about it----little did I know...

Still, Queen like U2 largely passed me by at the time. I'm now looking forward to exploring their music in greater depth. :=)

IMHO, start with Queen's first five albums (Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, Night at the Opera, Day at the Races).  If you ask me, there's not one weak track on those five albums. 

Queen II is a personal favorite. 

Queen II is fantastic! I never realized just how fully formed they were in those pre-"Killer Queen" days.

Next up is A Night at the Opera, which I have on a cheap cassette tape that never gets played for that reason...

Queen II always gets overlooked, but I think it's their best album.  Even the band themselves kinda of abandoned it after 1976, only playing Seven Seas of Rhye on occasion. 

No love for their last masterpiece, Innuendo?

I like Innuendo a lot.  And I feel it gets unfairly overlooked since it was a later album. 

But I think it's their best post 1970s album.  The title track is pretty much a heavy prog masterpiece.  The Show Must Go On is absolutely brilliant, especially considering the circumstances in which it was recorded.  I'm amazed that Freddie could sing like that all while basically withering away.  It's extremely impressive. 

I think the circumstances project a tragic, but defiant aura on the album, and the songs are strong enough to support that without collapsing under the weight. That's why I consider it a masterpiece.

Makes sense.  You're right, the album could've been bogged down by that subject matter.  But, outside of These Are the Days of Our Lives and  the finale The Show Must Go On, it really didn't.  It also offered everything great about Queen.  Freddie's vocals, there's some heavy songs (The Hitman, Headlong),  a showcase for Brian's guitar (Bijou), some more poppy stuff (I'm Going Slightly Mad), and bombastic Queen (the title track).

And I still consider it the final "true" Queen album. 

After all, Made in Heaven was cobbled together with some stuff recorded after Innuendo, plus Brian, Roger, and John backing up already existing Freddie solo songs. 

Bumped an old Queen thread

Today's a big day for Queen fans as the trailer for the long awaited biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is being released. 

I know biopics can be a mixed bag, but considering Queen were the first band I ever really got into, I'm really looking forward to this one. 

I saw the trailer and I think this movie looks quite promising. I'm really looking forward to it.

Looking through this topic, I see I've heard more Queen albums than I thought--News of the World, Queen II, A Night at the Opera and my favourite, A Kind of Magic.

Not sure about watching a biopic about them but maybe I can be persuaded. ;=)

Here's a joyous track from A Night at the Opera for this sunny Friday afternoon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOvTmtUFFmo

It's beginning to look like one Queen post a year. :lol

This gorgeous track wouldn't have gone amiss as a Motown 45 although Berry Gordy might have frowned at the lyrics. ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2W2mU8R7-A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_Is_So_Close_to_Pleasure

I've been thinking about this recently--and I'm no fan of cars at all! What a band, what a song! ::)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMmtZro1IgQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_in_Love_with_My_Car