why did rock critics hate Queen so much in the 1970s/80s?

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bravi

Pentatonic's Rendezvous Band (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 May 2014 02:42 (nine years ago) link

The plural is ariola

EZ Snappin, Thursday, 22 May 2014 02:46 (nine years ago) link

the record store around here decided their slogan would be "the plural of vinyl is vinyl" which is a terrible slogan

display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, 22 May 2014 02:48 (nine years ago) link

oh god that's awful

intheblanks, Thursday, 22 May 2014 03:05 (nine years ago) link

It's one thing for a pithy sign in your record store, but the official slogan…man.

intheblanks, Thursday, 22 May 2014 03:06 (nine years ago) link

kind of reminds me of "it's not the coffee, it's the bunk!" in christmas in july-- dick powell decides this is a great slogan for a coffee brand, and everyone who he tells this to is like, "um... ok?"

display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, 22 May 2014 03:13 (nine years ago) link

Let's just hope nobody in that record store is buying any luxury sofa-beds on credit based on his future slogan-writing prize-winnings.

Pentatonic's Rendezvous Band (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 May 2014 03:18 (nine years ago) link

It's an awful slogan, but if it convinces even one person not to ever fucking say "vinyls," we might have something.

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 22 May 2014 04:39 (nine years ago) link

oh wait, i guess this is a more general campaign, the local store didn't come up with it. but they've kind of owned it by handing out stickers and buttons and bags that say "the plural of vinyl is vinyl."

IDGI

display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, 22 May 2014 04:48 (nine years ago) link

http://thepluralofvinyl.com/

as soon as this era of vinyl fetishism is over, i'll be happy man.

btw we should be talking about QUEEN

display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, 22 May 2014 04:49 (nine years ago) link

The Plural of Queen Vinyl is Vinyl Fascism.

Damnit Janet Weiss & The Riot Grrriel (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 22 May 2014 05:01 (nine years ago) link

I knew a heavy metal sound guy who became a major opera fan by working on a good production of Don Giovanni for a full summer. Which brings us back to Queen.

Three Word Username, Thursday, 22 May 2014 06:40 (nine years ago) link

The plural of vinyl is RECORDS!

Mark G, Thursday, 22 May 2014 09:16 (nine years ago) link

that or nerds

katsu kittens (contenderizer), Thursday, 22 May 2014 10:34 (nine years ago) link

Wait are people saying "I need to buy some vinyls" the way some would saw "you were eating those popcorns" or "can I offer you some coffees" (cf Viva Shaf Vegas for the last)?

Took me decades to like opera. Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny turned out to be the gateway.

Pentatonic's Rendezvous Band (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 May 2014 10:51 (nine years ago) link

I had a dream last night where Ralf Hutter was fronting Queen, and the music and theatrics were just fucking insane. I believe this thread caused me to have said dream, so thank you all so fucking much!

Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 22 May 2014 12:54 (nine years ago) link

the problem is, U2's songs aren't generally about anything at all, so a book musical with their songs would be the most gaseous musical ever.

― display name changed. (amateurist), Wednesday, May 21, 2014 7:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's why they would be perfect! you could throw any ol' uplifting story on it.

i mean its not like abba's songs were about trysts on greek islands (or whatever that musical was about)

socki (s1ocki), Thursday, 22 May 2014 15:59 (nine years ago) link

dat's true.

except ABBA's tone is often playful and silly, U2's us unrelentingly Serious and Important

display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, 22 May 2014 20:42 (nine years ago) link

they've already done some U2 songs on glee AFAIK

display name changed. (amateurist), Thursday, 22 May 2014 20:43 (nine years ago) link

There was a monthly all-employee work rally at my job, and they closed the presentation with "We Will Rock You" blasting through the hotel ballroom speakers.

That's So (Eazy), Thursday, 22 May 2014 21:19 (nine years ago) link

(moments ago)

That's So (Eazy), Thursday, 22 May 2014 21:19 (nine years ago) link

Didn't U2 score an ill-fated Spiderman Broadway show?

a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Friday, 23 May 2014 02:19 (nine years ago) link

Bono, admitting that his description is a little "pretentious," has referred to it as "pop-up, pop-art opera," noting that Julie Taymor is calling it a "rock-and-roll circus drama."

scott seward, Friday, 23 May 2014 02:23 (nine years ago) link

calling anything a rock and roll circus drama is going to make me hesitate before moving forward. i might step back a little...

scott seward, Friday, 23 May 2014 02:25 (nine years ago) link

"Bono has also described the production as "wrestling with the same stuff" as "Rilke, Blake, Wings of Desire, Roy Lichtenstein, and the Ramones."

scott seward, Friday, 23 May 2014 02:25 (nine years ago) link

Bono starts to seem like a better lyricist when you realize how many terrible things he says in interviews that don't find their way into the songs

ςὖτ ιτ Οὖτ (some dude), Friday, 23 May 2014 02:32 (nine years ago) link

lol

The Reverend, Friday, 23 May 2014 03:44 (nine years ago) link

Lady Gaga could learn a thing or two from him

relentlessly pecking at peace (President Keyes), Friday, 23 May 2014 10:14 (nine years ago) link

turn off the dork

(what i say when bono is talking)

socki (s1ocki), Friday, 23 May 2014 14:36 (nine years ago) link

calling anything a rock and roll circus drama is going to make me hesitate before moving forward. i might step back a little...

― scott seward,

not a fan of Bowie's non-linear Gothic drama hypercycle?

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 23 May 2014 14:41 (nine years ago) link

There was only one rock and roll circus drama:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhwie_the-who-a-quick-one_music

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 23 May 2014 14:51 (nine years ago) link

two years pass...

Surprised this thread didn't get revived when this happened: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/18/rnc-donald-trump-we-are-champions-queen

goodoldneon, Saturday, 5 November 2016 15:14 (seven years ago) link

that review OP posted makes Queen sound so much better than they actually were.

punksishippies, Saturday, 5 November 2016 16:03 (seven years ago) link

Queen were awesome. I was so OTM on this thread.

scott seward, Saturday, 5 November 2016 17:00 (seven years ago) link

By the way I think there's a legitimate case to be made for "We Will Rock You" being a "Born in the USA"-style ironic anthem (albeit a bit of a clumsy one). If I'm reading the lyrics right they follow the protagonist through three phases of life: first he's a rowdy kid "playin' in the street," next some kind of nationalist thug ("waving your banner all over the place"), and then finally an old man "pleadin' with your eyes gonna make you some peace some day" — i.e. regretting his life of violence? At the very least there's some ambiguity there, though it does tend to be overshadowed by the stomping and the giant chorus.

goodoldneon, Saturday, 5 November 2016 17:10 (seven years ago) link

Also, yes, Queen are/were awesome

goodoldneon, Saturday, 5 November 2016 17:11 (seven years ago) link

Queen is one of the best rock bands of all time fuiud

though she denies it to the press, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 5 November 2016 19:09 (seven years ago) link

i still can't get over the fact that Brian May played the same guitar that he made when he was a kid on every Queen album. that is just so endlessly cool to me! You think of all those big flashy rock bands with their truckloads of guitars...

scott seward, Saturday, 5 November 2016 19:11 (seven years ago) link

Surprised this thread didn't get revived when this happened: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/07/18/rnc-donald-trump-we-are-champions-queen

― goodoldneon

I wrote this in July: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/5-reasons-trump-shouldnt-use-a-queen-song-in-his-campaign-w430028

The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 5 November 2016 19:14 (seven years ago) link

I tried listening to a Queen album a while back and there were like THREE 20s/30s pastiches on it - I thought, fuck this McCartneyesque empty eclecticism tbh.

― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Sunday, 18 May 2014 16:13 (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ah so this is the thread where I posted this. OTM, still.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Saturday, 5 November 2016 19:34 (seven years ago) link

Queen is one of the best rock bands of all time fuiud

― though she denies it to the press, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, November 5, 2016 7:09 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM.

Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Sunday, 6 November 2016 19:02 (seven years ago) link

id

195,000 Momus Threads Can't Be RONG! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 November 2016 19:44 (seven years ago) link

i still can't get over the fact that Brian May played the same guitar that he made when he was a kid on every Queen album. that is just so endlessly cool to me! You think of all those big flashy rock bands with their truckloads of guitars...

I love that story about how when they were tracking "Crazy Little Thing..." it was decided they needed a Telecaster tone to achieve the desired Rockabilly feel, and Brian was all like, "Give me a couple hours, and I can make [my guitar] sound like a Tele!"--To which Mercury or somebody responded by having an engineer pull a Telecaster from the gear vault and saying something to the effect of, "No! Real Telecaster! You play--Now!"...and that ended up being the one song in the catalogue he didn't use his own guitar on.

a full playlist of presidential sex jams (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 6 November 2016 20:36 (seven years ago) link

haha

brimstead, Sunday, 6 November 2016 20:37 (seven years ago) link

The solo to 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' was done on an Esquire, I think, even though he used a Tele in the vid.

Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Sunday, 6 November 2016 21:20 (seven years ago) link

this is one of my fave things on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ_OamX-PA8

scott seward, Sunday, 6 November 2016 23:21 (seven years ago) link

I think there's a video on Youtube from the early '80s where he just demonstrates riff after riff...

Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Sunday, 6 November 2016 23:33 (seven years ago) link

Spent the afternoon reading this thread, it was fun!

JacobSanders, Monday, 7 November 2016 01:17 (seven years ago) link

Few rock bands had every one of its members write songs, all of which were hits in some chart or other.

I just noticed that every member of Madness wrote songs - that's seven writers. I don't know if they all wrote hits but at least five of them did.

The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Sunday, 13 November 2016 10:58 (seven years ago) link


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