Queen: A Musical Journey

I have no time for critics. ...that tells us everything we need to know about critics. ...In my opinion, they do not form any part of the music industry...
Exactly. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time they fail to realize the minute difference between personal review and opinion versus deliberate attack and teardown. Most of the men (and quite a few women) in these positions of influence (in the sense that their writings may sway popular opinion) have neither one iota of the talent they critique nor a thimble-full of courage to get their asses on stage in front of five people, much less tens of thousands to perform something they created from their own ingenuity. They'll never put in the sweat equity, run the risk of being panned/booed/humiliated/merely disliked, experience stage fright, malfunctioning equipment/stage props... and jet lag all while living out of suitcases and hopping from hotel to hotel on a potentially global scale. Notice I didn't mention the incidence of subpar (current music format) sales. They rarely, if ever, will have their work raked over the coals by someone who may not understand the context, history, or struggle from which it emanates. In short, it's sooo easy to judge... until you have to do it.
 
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This is an excellent thread. Another huge fan checking in. In regard to their discography, News of the World is my overall favorite followed by A Day at the Races, A Night at the Opera, Queen II, Hot Space, and the quirky Innuendo. I also love the sequencing of the tracks on Sheer Heart Attack which I (like millions of others...) happen to have on vinyl. :music:

Jazz is by far their best album from a poster lovers point of view :)
 
I was driving home from work this afternoon listening to the local classic rock radio station when "Killer Queen" came on. I remember when it was being played on the radio back in the day it was so different then the other music on the radio. It's still one of my favorite songs.
Thanks for starting this thread Kevin. Good stuff!

-Dave
 
As I started earlier, Killer Queen was the first Queen LP I ever heard. Made a huge change to my listening. I think I would have to put Jazz in as my second favorite. And not just for the poster. :)
 
I hate to derail. My apologies if I do. But, had to tell the story here:
I stopped at a Garage Sale on a Thursday (already strange) in a one-horse town in west Texas (stranger). The lady operating the "sale" (really a pile full of random crap) was about 65, had no bra, three teeth, used a walker and looked like Mama from "Throw Mama From The Train".
Like always, I asked just in case....."You got any records?"
She lisped "Yeah. Some over yonder. My dead husband's old crap."
Reluctantly, I looked......expecting dusty, cat pee covered, moldy crap.
What did I find?
Flawless, mint copies of:
Jazz (with Poster)
A Night at the Opera
The Game
Flash Gordon
Greatest Hits

$2 each. I also bought a Culture Club, an Adam Ant, and a Cure.
Her husbands? I doubt it.
Anyway....they get steady rotation.

Side-note: The first item of music that I ever purchased with my own money was a 45rpm of Another One Bites The Dust. Been a fan since I was 7 years old. I'm now 43.
 
A Night At The Opera

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Track List:

1. Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to…) (Mercury)
2. Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon (Mercury)
3. I'm In Love With My Car (Taylor)
4. You're My Best Friend (Deacon)
5. '39 (May)
6. Sweet Lady (May)
7. Seaside Rendezvous (Mercury)
8. The Prophet's Song (May)
9. Love Of My Life (Mercury)
10. Good Company (May)
11. Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury)
12. God Save The Queen (Trad., arr. May)

By 1975, there was no doubt that Queen were one of the up and coming bands. Songs like Killer Queen had seen the band becoming established and frequently heard on the radio.

And then something happened which upped the ante considerably. Perhaps I'm projecting too much of my own thoughts into this, but the "thing" that happened was Bohemian Rhapsody, which propelled the band into the spotlight like few songs ever do. It reached No 1 in the U.K. and stayed there for 9 weeks. Twice as long as singles were expected to be for uncut airplay, it was played and woe betide any DJ who dared to talk over it. I've been unable to discover whether there's any truth to the rumour that Roger Taylor locked himself in a closet and refused to come out until I'm In Love With My Car was selected as the B side. Whether that rumour is true or not, his composition earned him a tidy sum in royalties as Bohemian Rhapsody sold in unprecedented numbers worldwide.

What impresses me about A Night At The Opera is that Bohemian Rhapsody is only one of many great songs. On first listening, there are some strange offerings such as Seaside Rendezvous and Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, but subsequent spins reveal some of the genius involved in the music. Songs like '39, Love Of My Life and The Prophet's Song keep the excellence going, while Death On Two Legs shows a darker side of Mercury, as his hatred towards the band's first manager boils over.

As usual, the album sleeve proclaimed "No synthesisers" and, alongside the regular instruments, the band employed a number of other "real" instruments including double bass (Deacon on '39),
thimbles tapped on a table (Mercury and Taylor on Seaside Rendezvous), harp (May on Love Of My Life). Mercury and Taylor also mimicked woodwind and brasswind instruments using only their voices on the "instrumental" section of Seaside Rendezvous.

Bohemian Rhapsody is generally credited with popularising the music video, which was originally supplied to the BBC so that the band did not have to appear live on Top Of The Pops.

I really didn't intend to dwell on Bohemian Rhapsody in this write up. There are so many great songs on this album that deserve equal play, but to write anything about the album without going into detail about the song would be like writing about Led Zep IV without mentioning Stairway To Heaven.

By the time 1975 was out, Queen had their rock anthem and the beginnings of a set list which would stand them in good stead for the arena rock for which they would become noted.
 
I can recall being in the car with my mom, on the way to the market. It was about a five minute drive and Bohemian Rhapsody came on the radio. We had to wait in the parking lot to hear the whole song.
I remember picturing in my mind what this band must look like. What this new kind of rock opera music is all about. It must be very high brow! I walked as if in a daze through the market, playing the song back in my head. This song had a profound effect on me. I had to understand who this band was.
It was this point I figured out I could BUY this record and have this music all to myself, to dissect it and figure out what it was and what it meant. The journey begins...
 
Giving this thread a shameless bump. Just wanted to let those who are interested know that I haven't forgotten about it. I want to listen to each album before I write anything about it. It occurred to me that it has been years (and in some cases, decades) since I heard some of Queen's albums. I really can't remember the last time I spun Day At The Races, which comes up next and since it comes from my favourite Queen era, I particularly want to give it a critical listen.

More to come...
 
A Day At The Races

A_Day_at_the_Races_(Queen).jpg

Track List:

1. Tie Your Mother Down (May)
2. You Take My Breath Away (Mercury)
3. Long Away (May)
4. The Millionaire Waltz (Mercury)
5. You And I (Deacon)
6. Somebody To Love (Mercury)
7. White Man (May)
8. Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (Mercury)
9. Drowse (Taylor)
10. Teo Torriate (Let Us Cling Together) (May)

A Day At The Races was Queen's 5th studio album, and featured compositions by each of the members. Two Torriate was written by May as a tribute to the band's Japanese fans and was partly sung in Japanese. The album title, like that of the preceding "Night At The Opera", was taken from a Marx Brothers movie.

The album hit the UK, Japanese and Dutch charts at #1, the Billboard chart at #5, and charted in several other countries. A Day At The Races was certified platinum in the US and gold in the UK.

There was little movement by the band members from their established rôles, although Roger Taylor took the lead vocals for his own composition "Drowse" and John Deacon played acoustic guitar on "You And I". Deacon is not credited with vocals on this album. For the first time, synthetic keyboards were used by May. Mercury took his seat at the piano, as usual.

A Day At The Races yielded 3 singles, Somebody To Love, Tie Your Mother Down and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, with Teo Torriate being released as a single in Japan.
 
Thank you Kevin for the latest chapter. I like a "A Day At The Races" as much as 'A Night at the Opera". I didn't know that May used synthesizers for this album. This is their first album without Roy Thomas Baker. I find it interesting that it got mixed reviews from the music critics. Some critics marked the album as a new direction for the band, other said that they were just treading water. Dave Marsh, in Rolling Stone, stated that Freddie Mercury had only a "passable pop voice." I can't recall ever hearing Dave Marsh sing.

-Dave
 
Thank you Kevin for the latest chapter. I like a "A Day At The Races" as much as 'A Night at the Opera". I didn't know that May used synthesizers for this album. This is their first album without Roy Thomas Baker. I find it interesting that it got mixed reviews from the music critics. Some critics marked the album as a new direction for the band, other said that they were just treading water. Dave Marsh, in Rolling Stone, stated that Freddie Mercury had only a "passable pop voice." I can't recall ever hearing Dave Marsh sing.

-Dave

I think history recounts that Marsh was completely wrong, as he and Rolling Stone so often are. If there's any doubt, Mercury's duet with Monserrat Caballé firmly puts that idea to rest. It has always been my opinion that Mercury had only scratched the surface of his capabilities, and that, had he lived, he was destined for a huge solo career away from the rock genre. Of course, we will never know that now.

I wasn't able to listen to the album before I wrote the post and it has been several years since I heard it, so I'm not sure what to what extent the keyboards were used, but the list of instrumentation credits May with their use.
 
I think that Marsh's assertion about Mercury's voice is absurd. I agree that Mercury was destined for even greater things than what he achieved with Queen. But as you say, this is all speculation.

-Dave
 
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A friend in HS had their NOTW album which I asked him to play all the time. Though Champions was well covered on the radio, it was the rest of the album that blew me away.
 
This is a post somehow Queen related. As everyone knows, Freddie passed, and the band tried to replace him with Paul Rodgers, a great vocalist, but not reminiscent of Mercury in any way. Now they are touring with the American Idol guy Adam Lambert, who is probably doing a good job. But!!!! There is this guy in The Netherlands named Valensia, he is a multi-instrumentalist and writes prolifically, his vocals, and arrangements are very much inspired by Queen, check out Youtoob (https://www.youtube.com/user/ValensianMusic/videos)and do a search for him, he has quite a bit of recorded material, I have 7 cds of his, there are very good. Here is a taste of him doing Bohemian Rhapsody.
and
 
This is a post somehow Queen related. As everyone knows, Freddie passed, and the band tried to replace him with Paul Rodgers, a great vocalist, but not reminiscent of Mercury in any way. Now they are touring with the American Idol guy Adam Lambert, who is probably doing a good job. But!!!! There is this guy in The Netherlands named Valensia, he is a multi-instrumentalist and writes prolifically, his vocals, and arrangements are very much inspired by Queen, check out Youtoob (https://www.youtube.com/user/ValensianMusic/videos)and do a search for him, he has quite a bit of recorded material, I have 7 cds of his, there are very good. Here is a taste of him doing Bohemian Rhapsody.
and

Thanks for sharing that. He's very talented. He does a very nice job on "Bohemian Rhapsody". Earlier in this thread I posted that a music professor stated that Freddie Mercury could squeeze a note, which was quite unique. You can hear that here. Valensia sounds a lot like Freddie but you can tell that something is missing. That "something" is the note squeezing. Still, it's an admirable rendition.

-Dave
 
Valensia has been around for quite some time, He is not really a FM clone, but writes and performs all the instruments, in the Netherlands he is quite a musical treasure, considered a prodigy of sorts. He has recorded with another Dutch artist named Valentine, who also has a very similar voice, anyway, for fans of the unique Queen sound, there is at least some more artists out there that can scratch the itch.
 
Valensia has been around for quite some time, He is not really a FM clone, but writes and performs all the instruments, in the Netherlands he is quite a musical treasure, considered a prodigy of sorts. He has recorded with another Dutch artist named Valentine, who also has a very similar voice, anyway, for fans of the unique Queen sound, there is at least some more artists out there that can scratch the itch.

I hope that my post didn't come across as disparaging. That was not my intent.

-Dave
 
No problem, having a long time fascination with the music of Queen, the music of Valensia was very impressive without being a clone, just wanted to spread the good word about great music.
 
News Of The World

Queen's 6th studio album was released on 28th October 1977, amid something of a revolution in the UK music scene. That revolution was punk rock, heralded by Malcolm McLaren's Sex Pistols. Compared with the anarchic approach to music, which was clearly taking the audience with it, bands like Queen risked being left behind, being viewed as somehow stuck in the past. Suddenly, the rules had changed and to stand any chance of survival, bands had to adapt, or carry their own audience with them.

As usual, the entire band was employed in the writing, all members making noteworthy contributions. The entire album has a harder edge to it that previous offerings, but with the unmistakeable flavour of Queen. Brian May's "We Will Rock You" has become a familiar sound at sports stadia the world over as the "Stomp Stomp Clap Pause Repeat" thunders out. In fact, it is so well known that one has to wonder whether a good percentage of those taking part actually know where it originally came from. Freddie Mercury's "We Are The Champions" follows "We Will Rock You", featuring Freddie on piano during a gentle intro, which soon has the heat turned up under it.

Roger Taylor's "Sheer Heart Attack follows, with Mercury and Taylor sharing the vocals. The song has a much harder rock edge to it than pretty much anything that had gone before it. "All Dead, All Dead" was composed by Brian May. He took the lead vocal, singing about his childhood experience of losing his pet cat. "Spread Your Wings" was composed by John Deacon. It seems to have been written with Mercury's voice in mind. It's difficult to imagine anyone else singing the song.

"Flight From The Inside" was written by Roger Taylor, and was pretty well performed by him too. John Deacon's bass guitar can be heard, but Taylor is playing it. Brian May performed some of the guitar too, but most of the guitar work is also done by Taylor.

Side Two of the LP opens with "Get Down, Make Love", composed and sung by Mercury. What appears to be a synthesizer solo was actually Brian May's guitar played using an effects pedal. The song was covered by Nine Inch Nails in 1990 as the B-side of Sin". May composed the next track "Sleeping On The Sidewalk" and took the lead vocal. Mercury does not appear on this track.

John Deacon plays Spanish guitar on the next track; his composition "Who Needs You" which is sung by Mercury. May composed "It's Late"; lead vocals on the track were supplied by Mercury, with the rest of the band supplying backing vocals. The album closes with Mercury's "My Melancholy Blues", which is unusual for a Queen song in that there is no guitar part, the melody being played on piano by Mercury.

Album Art

Queen_News_Of_The_World.png

The art was adapted from a 1953 painting by Frank Kelly Freas, which had appeared on the cover of an issue of Astounding Science Fiction. The artist was responsible for the adaptation, replacing the dead bodies of his original painting with those of the band members.

Track listing

"We Will Rock You" (2:01)
Brian May

"We Are the Champions" (2:59)
Freddie Mercury

"Sheer Heart Attack" (3:26)
Roger Taylor

"All Dead, All Dead" (3:10)
Brian May

"Spread Your Wings" (4:34)
John Deacon

"Fight from the Inside" (3:03)
Roger Taylor

"Get Down, Make Love" (3:51)
Freddie Mercury

"Sleeping on the Sidewalk" (3:06)
Brian May

"Who Needs You" (3:05)
John Deacon

"It's Late" (6:26)
Brian May

"My Melancholy Blues" (3:29)
Freddie Mercury
 
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