Queen: Classic Or Dud

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Biggest model for Spinal Tap = Saxon.

Anyone who dares deem Queen a dud has lost control of his/her senses, and ought to be dunked in a barrel of rancid milk until reason reclaims its rightful iron fist on the steering wheel of their brain bus.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 28 March 2003 23:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

HONOUR THE BICYCLE!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 29 March 2003 15:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

I refuse. Frankly, I hate the Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls single. There's a reason after Jazz Freddie cut his hair and they brought the synths in.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm not anti-gay or homophobic or anything but I hate the 'extreme faggot' kind who want to show their gayness of in all ways possible. Mercury was one of those. I simply can't stand the character. It's way too over the top, as is the music. Which is simply overrated. I hate Bohemian Rhapsody, never understood why it always tops the 'best ever' charts.

― Tijn, Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oh man, I say it with total respect and admiration when I say Freddie Mercury was one EXTREME FAGGOT!

Buy "Hot Space". I'm curious what Tijn would make of that album.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

I used to totally agree with Tijn's above statement, and I'm gay! I'm really starting to warm up to them now, which is promising for my own self-awareness as well. "Over the top" is and always was their reason for being.

The Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls is lucicrous, preposterous, beyond words. Also catchy, funny, and genius (or at least crafty).

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

that was meant to be "ludicrous"... Also, there's no question Mercury was an extreme faggot! I'm particularly amused by his transition from eyebrow-plucked lame wearing fairy to mustachioed leather-bar queen... considering their enormous popularity I wonder how many people really saw the humor in the music AND the image.

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:49 (twenty-one years ago) link

and, natch, you're supposed to see the accent over the 'e' in lame above; that's in 'gold lame' darlings...

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ha! I mean their very name was Queen! Geddit??

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 29 March 2003 17:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Who cares about Freddy's "extreme gayness" (that makes it sound like a sexual orientation that requires a safety helmet at all times). Q U E E N R O C K E D, and if you can't appreciate that -- you lead a bland, colorless, and humorless life.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

but, Alex. I'd argue that Freddie's extremeness (which may well have been inspired by cock frenzy - who am I to say?), is a major reason that the band rocked!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

cock frenzy

Hahahahahahaaha

Could very well be, Anthony.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 29 March 2003 20:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

i bought "a kind of magic" the other week. people who say 80s queen sucked are mistaken. that album is full of great songs. one vision, who wants to live forever, princes of the universe, pain is so close to pleasure, a kind of magic, friends will be friends. wow. when freddie died, me and my mum were really upset. and my mum HATES homos. their first greatest hits album is also very great.

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 30 March 2003 04:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

CLASSIC - when I was four I used to stare at my mother's copy of News of the World. Veeeeeeerrrryy disappointed to see Miccio's disbelief in the greatness of Bicycle Race/Fat Bottomed Girls.

― James Blount (James Blount), Sunday, 30 March 2003 05:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Pretty much the worst group of all time.

― Andrew L (Andrew L), Sunday, 30 March 2003 06:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

v annoying.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 30 March 2003 09:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Tie Your Mother Down" = classik!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 30 March 2003 10:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

andrew L OTM. d.

don't wish to dignify them further.

― kieron, Sunday, 30 March 2003 18:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

QUEEN ROXX U R ALL ... um.

― Wintermute (Wintermute), Sunday, 30 March 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

...extreme faggots?

― schne;;schne;;, Monday, 31 March 2003 13:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Oh no! COCK FRENZY Oh no!

― Arthur (Arthur), Monday, 31 March 2003 13:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

three weeks pass...

a band of rare magnificence. bombastic and pompous, willing to delve into the absurd wihtout irony.
whenever i go home for christmas dinner, we always listen to queen. we can't agree on anything else, so every year it's greatest hits.

― matthew james (matthew james), Thursday, 24 April 2003 21:46 (twenty years ago) link

The fact that this thread bore the phrase "Meat Loaf was so better than Queen!" made it worth my time to reread. God, the good old contrarian days when me and Otis hated everything.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 24 April 2003 22:42 (twenty years ago) link

So, you've come to your senses?

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Thursday, 24 April 2003 22:48 (twenty years ago) link

Well, no, I still think Queen are ridiculous in a so-ridiculous-it's-good type of way, so I guess I need to be slathered with bad milk.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 24 April 2003 22:58 (twenty years ago) link

They seem pretty classic going by the hits and decade-old memories of Night At the Opera. Meat Loaf was awesome too.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 24 April 2003 23:36 (twenty years ago) link

Bombast is a positive thing, mainly. And Queen does bombast particularly well. Classic, without any doubt at all.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 24 April 2003 23:41 (twenty years ago) link

One of the things about "'39" I always wondered: when I first listened to it, and wasn't paying attention to the lyrics too much, I assumed it was a song about WWII, one of those "letter from the front lines" kind of songs. Anybody else have that experience?

Also, the second "In the year of '39" is a nice, subtle touch...I had always assumed it meant the same year from the perspective of the travellers, but actually I think it means 100 years later from the perspective of the people on the planet (hence the "'" before 39)...

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 25 April 2003 00:45 (twenty years ago) link

My brother recently managed to persuade me after we'd been out drinking that Brian May was some sort of guitar genius. By singing several of his best guitar lines while we were walking down the road. He does have a hugely individual guitar voice, and he'd probably get more recognition for it if he didn't have such crap hair (Brian May, not my brother).

― James Ball (James Ball), Friday, 25 April 2003 01:19 (twenty years ago) link

six months pass...

Well, no, I still think Queen are ridiculous in a so-ridiculous-it's-good type of way, so I guess I need to be slathered with bad milk.

so, queen is to music what scarface is to film?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 3 November 2003 11:22 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

I revive to note that Kelly Freas, creator of that utterly great News of the World cover, has passed on.

http://www.dailyvault.com/queen_news.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Well, I was having a conversation with a Queen fan last Friday and well he wasnt a moron but he never once spoke about their music. He just went on a bout the fact that they had the biggest concert ever. '250,000 in Rio de Janeiro!!'....Yeah, big deal...
-- Michael Bourke (carrotbourk...), March 14th, 2001.

Doesn't Paul mcartney hold the record for a Concert ?
this was also in Rio

― freddo, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 05:13 (nineteen years ago) link

The opening guitar riff in "Ogre Battle" is great. I wore out a tape of Queen II listening to that opening part over and over.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 05:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Wasn't Queen the model for Spinal Tap?

There's a hell of a lot of Status Quo in there too. Especially the earlier years.

― everything, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 06:48 (nineteen years ago) link

so, so, so very Classic, as far as the singles go.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 09:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Queen are so fucking great that it boggles the mind how someone could possibly not be moved by their brilliance.

Actually, supposedly it's the fabled "Troggs tape" (capturing an especially dimwitted argument between band members in the studio) that was the real inspiration for Spinal Tap. Visually, though, it's all Saxon and Quo (with a dash of Motorhead in the form of Derek "Luke Warm Water" Smalls).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 13:25 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

i cannot decide if "body language" is the best or worst thing i have ever heard. you have ALL GOT to see the video for it, you will laugh and pee and laugh and pee.

― di, Tuesday, 26 April 2005 07:26 (eighteen years ago) link

Get down make love
Get down make love
Get down make love
Get down make love
You take my body
I give you heat
You say you're hungry
I give you meat
I suck your mind
You blow my head
Make love
Inside your bed - everybody
Get down make love
Get down make love
Get down make love
Get down make love

Ev'rytime I get hot
You wanna cool down
Ev'rytime I get high
You say you wanna come down
You say it's enough
In fact it's too much
Ev'rytime I get a
Get down get down get down
Make love

(Get down) I can squeeze - (make love) you can shake me
(Get down) I can feel - (make love) you can break me
(Get down) Come on so heavy (make love)
(Get down) When you take me (make love)
You make love you make love you make love you make
love
You can make ev'rybody get down make love
Get down make love

Ev'rytime I get high
You wanna come down
Ev'rytime I get hot
You say you wanna cool down
You say it's enough
In fact it's too much
Ev'rytime I wanna get down get down get down

Get down make love
Get down make love
Get down make love
Get down make love

Ev'rytime I get hot
You wanna cool down
Ev'rytime I get high
You say you wanna come down
You say it's enough
In fact it's too much
Ev'rytime I wanna
Get down get down
Get down make love

― di, Tuesday, 26 April 2005 07:27 (eighteen years ago) link

sheer heart attack is a fucking kickass album. i love it when roger squeals. news of the world is pretty good to, if you skip the first two songs. day at the races is saved only by "good old fashioned lover boy", really. and the game! the game!

― di, Tuesday, 26 April 2005 07:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Classic from their debut through to A Day At The Races, with Side 2 of Queen II a particular high point. Jumped the shark with the first two tracks on News Of The World. Some decent moments after that of course - but something got lost at that point, as their exquisitely perfectionist rococo artistry thing became dumbed down for the first time.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 09:33 (eighteen years ago) link

Being a perverse bastard, I thought Hot Space was far and away the best Queen album, being the least typical.

I have things to say about Queen in tandem with the Sweet, coming up in the rolling 1974 blogpost circa November 2010...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 09:35 (eighteen years ago) link

I would say they did continue delivering great albums also after that, even though 1973-76 remains their artistic heyday.

Had a dark period from "New Of The World" through to "Hot Space" though, where none of their output was quite up with their best. However, "The Works" was a great return to form, and they also went on to create other great albums such as "A Kind Of Magic" and "Innuendo" before Freddie died.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 10:42 (eighteen years ago) link

That was a very dark period for Queen. We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Don't Stop Me Now, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Another One Bites The Dust, Under Pressure...all those below par flops...

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 10:47 (eighteen years ago) link

Hmm. Forgot about "Jazz" actually being a great album. However, those other songs you mention don't sound like typically Queen. They lack the bombast, the prog influence and the harmonies, the three crucial elements that have always been the main reason why Queen were great.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 10:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Innuendo is a wicked album.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 11:45 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't gather that they did anything else at all like "Bijou", "Inneundo" or "I'm Going Slightly Mad"... something of a new gravitas enters their sound with such as these.

― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 23:38 (eighteen years ago) link

They certainly never used synths as darkly as on this late album. The reflective "Bijou" sounds almost like Elton John's "Song for Guy", I'd say...

― Tom May (Tom May), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 23:46 (eighteen years ago) link

a kind of magic is choice. freddy's falsetto on "pain is so close to pleasure" is perfect, and "one year of love" is very sweet. but, i think, it cannot be fully appreciated without seeing the highlander dvd - you gotta see the video for "princes of the universe" tagged on at the end, you can almost smell christopher lambert's mansweat.

― di, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 06:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Classic. All the motherfucking way. Even the Highlander garbage is classic!

― Star Hustler, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 14:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Nobody has yet pointed out that "Long Away" from Day at the Races is one of the great straight power-pop tunes of our time or any other.

― southern lights, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 23:10 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 202 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I'd prefer Another One Bites the Dust if it was actually played by Chic, rather than Roger "Not Funky" Taylor trying to sound like them.

― a down-on-his-luck gastromancer enters (Matt #2), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 15:21 (two years ago) link

You're My Best Friend is endlessly charming.

Dragon Attack features a brief but monstrously thrilling drum spotlight.

― thing that i used to think was cool but now i just don't have time for (stevie), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 15:25 (two years ago) link

You're My Best Friend my go-to song when I want to demonstrate to someone how a Wurlitzer electric piano sounds different than a Fender Rhodes

― Lee626, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 15:53 (two years ago) link

Is YMBF Wurlitzer or Fender Rhodes?

― thing that i used to think was cool but now i just don't have time for (stevie), Tuesday, 28 September 2021 16:02 (two years ago) link

Wurlitzer

― Vast Halo, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 16:17 (two years ago) link

the Wurlitzer has a gritter "bark" or "growl" (at least when played loud), whereas the Fender Rhodes is more mellow and chiming.

― Lee626, Tuesday, 28 September 2021 17:31 (two years ago) link

eight months pass...

good lord A Day At The Races is great and I don't think I've ever heard any of these songs before? was there a hit?

― thinkmanship (sleeve), Sunday, 26 June 2022 04:10 (one year ago) link

Somebody To Love was the big single, #2 in the UK (and a totally sublime bit of faux gospel). Tie Yr Mother Down went #31, and Good Old Fashioned Loverboy - which I never liked as a kid but is now the excelsis of Queen's joyous whimsy to these ears - hit #17. It's my favourite LP of theirs after Sheer Heart Attack, and a lot less bitty and uneven than A Night At The Opera. You Take My Breath Away and Long Away are both crazy beautiful, and White Man is like a heavier and more focused Prophet's Song, and Teo Torriate is just wonderful, a big, blousy, over-the-top emotional anthem.

― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Sunday, 26 June 2022 14:34 (one year ago) link

thanks!

― thinkmanship (sleeve), Sunday, 26 June 2022 15:02 (one year ago) link

i think nowadays Good Old Fashioned Loverboy is maybe my fave queen single

― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Sunday, 26 June 2022 15:07 (one year ago) link

"Drowse" might be Roger Taylor's best song, more considered than his earlier contributions.

― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 26 June 2022 22:17 (one year ago) link

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