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

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

Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Turn_Off_the_Dark

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."

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

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

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

lol

Lady Gaga could learn a thing or two from him

turn off the dork

(what i say when bono is talking)

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

Also, yes, Queen are/were awesome

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

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...

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

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.

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.

id

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.

haha

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

this is one of my fave things on youtube:

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

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

Spent the afternoon reading this thread, it was fun!

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.

TS: Queen vs Madness

I'm afraid the Queen revival is over. In New Zealand.

(Note: smug man with cellphone = embattled deputy prime minister)

‘Listen up’ – Winston Peters plays Queen’s Radio Ga Ga to journalists during questioning of SFO investigation
- https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/-listen-up-winston-peters-plays-queen-s-radio-ga-journalists-during-questioning-sfo-investigation

Just hope no politician tries to ruin the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy

Dave Marsh otm