Queen

chughes

Whatever about Brian May's gray hair, I was shocked by Midge Ure's no hair.

I_am_LOST

How have I mised this thread!! I'm a huge Queen fan. Unfortunatly I was born the year Freddie died so I never got to see them in concert. I saw Queen + Paul Rodgers, however.

If anyone is looking for a good book on Queen, apart from the usual Peter Freestone, Laura Jackson etc. books, I would highly recommend 'Queen - Comeplete Works' by an enthusiastic Queen fan Georg Purvis.

It's one of the most comprehensive Queen reference books I've seen. A must for all Queen fans

I haven't read through all this thread yet, so I may have missed the discussion, but what are everyones favourite albums?

I love Queen's diversity and while technically albums like Queen 2, Sheer Heart Attack and ANATO (and ADATR) are considered their best, I'm just as happy listening to Made In Heaven.

I even love Hot Space :D

mle1324

I_am_LOST wrote: »

I haven't read through all this thread yet, so I may have missed the discussion, but what are everyones favourite albums?

'A Night At the Opera' then 'The Works'

chughes

I don't have a favourite album as such. I have a preference for the hard rock Hammer To Fall type songs.

Havermeyer

Freddie Mercury was an amazing frontman. I grant them that...but:

I always thought Brian May was very over-rated. I don't really care that he made his own guitar/his own sound, tbh - there are/were many better guitarists than him.

And Queen as a band, very over-rated also. Although they do have some really good songs, they also have an absolute heap load of utter tripe.

Pompous, pretentious, and average for the most part - and I stress, it is just my opinion.

I just never got the appeal.

I think it's all down to Freddie's unbelievable vocals and showmanship as a frontman, and a great one at that - which is undeniable, whether you're a fan of the band or not.

chughes

It would be very easy to dismiss Nummnuts comments as the rantings of a heritic but....

It is true that some of Queen's songs are not great and the solo careers of all 4 were less than stellar. It was the combination of the 4 talents that made the magic that was Queen. Freddie was absolutely the best front man ever in rock music and, this is where I disagree with Nummnuts, Brian May is up there as one of the most technically gifted rock guitarists of the rock era. Roger Taylor and John Deacon provided a brilliant rhythm section which underlined the whole Queen sound.

Nummnuts, I'm sorry you don't get the whole Queen thing and you are, of course entitled to your opinion. As you can see from this thread, there are a number of us who are like minded and are happy to share our thoughts and reminicences with each other. Queen's music also acts as a mind map for me personally as I can associate various Queen songs with events which happened in my teens/twenties. I love the music and I love the memories it evokes.

Cole

I_am_LOST wrote: »

what are everyones favourite albums

I have a soft spot for "A Day at the Races" and "News of the World", probably because they just happened to be two of the albums I picked up when I really started to get into Queen in the 80's.

From "News of the World", always loved this track. Check out Brian May's solo at 3:30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mtnB3kNR_A

mle1324

nummnutts wrote: »

Freddie Mercury was an amazing frontman. I grant them that...but:

I always thought Brian May was very over-rated. I don't really care that he made his own guitar/his own sound, tbh - there are/were many better guitarists than him.

If anything Brian May is no where near as over rated as Hendrix, Jimmy Page or Slash, tbh I think he deserves the credit he gets. After all he wrote a lot if not most of the Queen songs. Likewise this is my opinion

nummnutts wrote: »

And Queen as a band, very over-rated also. Although they do have some really good songs, they also have an absolute heap load of utter tripe.

Pompous, pretentious, and average for the most part - and I stress, it is just my opinion.

I just never got the appeal.

I think it's all down to Freddie's unbelievable vocals and showmanship as a frontman, and a great one at that - which is undeniable, whether you're a fan of the band or not.

I do agree with you on this point. Roger and Brian did admit that they did take the piss sometimes with songs such as The Miracle ( and most of them from the same album) but by this time (1989) they earned there reputation and hadn't really got much to lose.

Freddie was a great showman but he was a better musician, without the song he wrote there was no showman.

Hannibal

mle1324 wrote: »

If anything Brian May is no where near as over rated as Hendrix, Jimmy Page or Slash, tbh I think he deserves the credit he gets. After all he wrote a lot if not most of the Queen songs. Likewise this is my opinion

Hendrix, Page and Slash over rated?? listen to their music, most of rock guitars greatest riff's came from those three.. Clapton is one i'd regard as over rated but not those three. Brian May was good at what he done his style suited the music. Couldnt imagine Hendrix or Slash playing on Queen songs.

mle1324

Dotsey wrote: »

Hendrix, Page and Slash over rated?? listen to their music, most of rock guitars greatest riff's came from those three.. Clapton is one i'd regard as over rated but not those three. Brian May was good at what he done his style suited the music. Couldnt imagine Hendrix or Slash playing on Queen songs.

Thats just my opinion but yeah.

Ok, to be fair Hendrix did deserve the credit, his sounds are unreal and I love listening to them myself.

But Slash is over rated i think, good guitarist, but over rated.

Don't know what context is meant by when you say that you couldn't imagine Hendrix or Slash playing on Queen songs but Slash did take part in a couple of performances after Freddie died with Brian playing Tie Your Mother Down.

I_am_LOST

nummnutts wrote: »

Freddie Mercury was an amazing frontman. I grant them that...but:

I always thought Brian May was very over-rated. I don't really care that he made his own guitar/his own sound, tbh - there are/were many better guitarists than him.

And Queen as a band, very over-rated also. Although they do have some really good songs, they also have an absolute heap load of utter tripe.

Pompous, pretentious, and average for the most part - and I stress, it is just my opinion.

I just never got the appeal.

I think it's all down to Freddie's unbelievable vocals and showmanship as a frontman, and a great one at that - which is undeniable, whether you're a fan of the band or not.

Pompous and pretentious is exactly how the press described them. I don't know - I find it very strange that Queen are my favourite band yet I absolutely HATE HATE pretentious people. Surprisingly it never entered my mind that Queen were pretentious until I heard it from so much of the press.

I guess they can just pull it off without sounding pompous to me.

Of course, your entitled to your opinion about their 'averageness'. I disagree although I admit, no band is perfect, and they had some extremely average songs. I think for the most part they had some amazing stuff though.

Might I ask, have you actually listened to most of their albums or are you basing your opinon on tid bits you've heard here and there?

As for my favourite album, I love Queen 2, A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races but it's so hard to choose. I definitly prefer their earlier stuff though

mle1324

Come to think of it I have seen two interviews where Brian kinda gets pissed off, but don't we all when we get asked the most ridiculous questions ?

One thing that always disappointed me about Freddie was that he refused to play a keyboard, most obvious evidence of this was when Your My Best Friend was being made, John Deacon had to go of and learn to play the piano/keyboard.

I_am_LOST

mle1324 wrote: »

Come to think of it I have seen two interviews where Brian kinda gets pissed off, but don't we all when we get asked the most ridiculous questions ?

One thing that always disappointed me about Freddie was that he refused to play a keyboard, most obvious evidence of this was when Your My Best Friend was being made, John Deacon had to go of and learn to play the piano/keyboard.

I think Deacon was happy enough to play on that record - it was his song after all. Freddie loved the record but thought it'd sound better on piano, John wanted it to be on electric piano so he played it. Fantastic more 'pop' kind of record from them.

irishh_bob

Dotsey wrote: »

Hendrix, Page and Slash over rated?? listen to their music, most of rock guitars greatest riff's came from those three.. Clapton is one i'd regard as over rated but not those three. Brian May was good at what he done his style suited the music. Couldnt imagine Hendrix or Slash playing on Queen songs.

hes also a humourless vegetarian - vegan wooly liberal do - gooder as anyone who has witnessed interviews with may can testify

ps , queen were more flamboyant than pretensious , pink floyd were pretensious , radiohead are pretensious

mle1324

I_am_LOST wrote: »

I think Deacon was happy enough to play on that record - it was his song after all. Freddie loved the record but thought it'd sound better on piano, John wanted it to be on electric piano so he played it. Fantastic more 'pop' kind of record from them.

He was yeah, well that was the impression I've always gotten from interviews/documentaries.

He seemed to like learning new instruments, he even went off and learned the double bass when he was asked in a joke type of way in 39 :P

Pity he didn't stay with the band.

BiffoGooner

nummnutts wrote: »

I always thought Brian May was very over-rated. I don't really care that he made his own guitar/his own sound, tbh - there are/were many better guitarists than him.

And Queen as a band, very over-rated also. Although they do have some really good songs, they also have an absolute heap load of utter tripe.

Overall I'd have to say May is deserving of the accolades he gets. In the studio, he was great technically and wrote songs and riffs that were different from anything else around at the time. His solos weren't just aimless shredding but were well thought out, multilayered, very melodic and again, were very different from the norm. I give him massive credit for those reasons alone. He's no Steve Vai or Paul Gilbert, but then again neither of those have ever written music that comes close to anything May wrote with Queen. He could be sloppy live at times perhaps, but so was Page, even moreso in fact.

As for the comment about Queen's music as a whole, well, name a band that doesn't have a few lemons in their discography. I don't think there are any. There are only a handful of bands that were as consistently good over such a long timeframe as Queen were, in my opinion. Having the greatest frontman in Rock history counts for a lot too of course. Up there with Zeppelin and Floyd as the best bands ever for me.

Riddle101

I see a lot of Queen songs being played on ads on TV these days. It really annoys me it does :mad:

BiffoGooner

Riddle101 wrote: »

I see a lot of Queen songs being played on ads on TV these days. It really annoys me it does :mad:

Why? Sure if it gets a few kids into Queen surely that's a good thing?

Riddle101

BiffoGooner wrote: »

Why? Sure if it gets a few kids into Queen surely that's a good thing?

I just hate the fact that the advertisers are using Queen as a way of making money. By name value alone, people will recognise the songs, and think Queen are endorsing their products or something. Sure maybe it not be so terrible. But I still find it annoying.

I_am_LOST

I love the Innocent smoothie ad

Btw, not sure if it's been mentioned before but 2011 is Queen's 40th anniversary So hopefully some cool releases to be expected this year.

Also can't wait for the movie (I think it's more about Freddie than Queen) to be released in 2012

BiffoGooner

I_am_LOST wrote: »

I love the Innocent smoothie ad

Btw, not sure if it's been mentioned before but 2011 is Queen's 40th anniversary So hopefully some cool releases to be expected this year.

Also can't wait for the movie (I think it's more about Freddie than Queen) to be released in 2012

That's right, 40th anniversary of the band and 20th of Freddie's death this year. They've a few things planned for it. The filming of the Freddie movie is starting this year, plus they're producing a film version of We Will Rock You, apparently. There's also supposed to be an exhibition of Queen memorabilia called 'Stormtroopers and Stilletoes', sounds interesting..
There's a new book about Freddie coming out this year too that May and Taylor had some input in. It's memories and annecdotes about Freddie from various friends and aquaintences, might be worth a read.

chughes

Riddle101 wrote: »

I just hate the fact that the advertisers are using Queen as a way of making money. By name value alone, people will recognise the songs, and think Queen are endorsing their products or something. Sure maybe it not be so terrible. But I still find it annoying.

I used to have mixed feelings about Queen's music being used in advertising. One of the first I remember was a Ford ad and the song was Driven By You. Since then there has been quite a lot of Queen songs used to advertise various products. It actually makes me smile now when I hear a Queen song used because, in a way, it keeps the music in the current domain.

As for advertisers making money from the songs, I'm sure they would have had to buy the rights to use the music so Brian/Roger etc are also making from it too. With all the free downloading of music that happens these days and the subsequent loss of revenue from this, I'm sure B&R are happy to have this additional revenue. I wouldn't begrudge them one penny of it.

Crann na Beatha

This post has been deleted.

take everything

BiffoGooner wrote: »

That's right, 40th anniversary of the band and 20th of Freddie's death this year.

Christ, 20 years since he died. :eek:
Seems like only yesterday for some reason.

mle1324

Riddle101 wrote: »

I just hate the fact that the advertisers are using Queen as a way of making money. By name value alone, people will recognise the songs, and think Queen are endorsing their products or something. Sure maybe it not be so terrible. But I still find it annoying.

Yeah haha I could imagine Queen doing that for Xtra-Vision :pac:

leincar

chughes wrote: »

I don't remember these but I'd love to see them, Leincar. Any chance of scanning them and posting here ?

Typically I have put them in that safe place where I have to jog the memory to remember where that safe place is. Once I've found them I'll post it.

leincar

leincar wrote: »

Typically I have put them in that safe place where I have to jog the memory to remember where that safe place is. Once I've found them I'll post it.

The safe place is still safe. While looking, I found the following poster which I had totally forgotton about. It is the poster handed out by Harp at the entrance to Slane '86. The post card is a smaller version of this.

chughes

Two part documentary being shown by BBC2, first part tonight and second part tomorrow night.

After tomorrow night's programme, they are showing the Hammersmith Odeon Christmas Eve 1975 concert.

I meant to post this sooner.

mike65

BBC4 showed the Hammersmith concert about 18 months ago wasn't that impressed to be honest but the new two parter looks worth a view.

richymcdermott

Queen is my favourite band

Till the day i die i will forever listen to their music

John deacon inspires me to pick up the bass
Brian may inspires me to be the best person i can be
Roger taylor inspires me to play loud
Freddie mercury inspires me to be the best musician i can be.


Im forever grateful god put these talents together.