Stone POLLd Crazy: The ILM Queen Poll Voting Thread (#68? in a series)

'Dead On Time' rules]! I've always felt that Jazz was one of the most underrated Queen albums of the '70s, and there's so many songs on there that I could vote for, 'Dead On Time' definitely being one of them. Love the thunderclap at the end and Freddie shouting "YOU'RE DEAD!"

'Spread Your Wings' easily one of my highlights of News Of The World, an album which I know that a lot of people like but is on the lower-half of the table for me.

In fact, I was just thinking... it'll be great to see which writer gets has the most songs place on the poll, I suspect either May or Mercury since they wrote the bulk of the Queen material, but I reckon there'll be a huge number of Deacon songs too.

i'm really coming round to News Of The World, i think. Fight From The Inside is another minor classic - an infectious Taylor rocker with an unremitting pulse. i also have a bit of a soft spot for All Dead, All Dead, which frankly a very weird song.

we're a few ballots deep already. keep them coming!

"Mustapha" is a song I've always loved from a so-so album.

Whoever votes for "We Will Rock You" will get reported to the FCC.

"we will rock you" is awesome as fuck and perfect as hell. i was thinking that it's a little odd to have it split from "we are the champions" but whatever.

yeah but I hate sports

Also "We Are the Champions" sounds like a nerd's lament, not a triumphalist anthem

shit's so triumphalist it's practically wagner

man when may's solo cuts in in 'we will rock you', fucking lightning bolt from the gods, maybe the most efficient solo ever in terms of effort vs force

WHOMP-WHOMP-BAP
WHOMP-WHOMP-BAP

seriously add a mosquito hum, a calliope, and some trenchant social commentary and you've got 'let's go all the way'

you mean "an Elvis Costello Spike tune"

ONE LUMP OR TWOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/447768206_640.jpg

i do understand the argument that Rock You and Champions could be seen as the one entity, but i think it's radio sequencing as much as anything that feeds the idea that they're codependent. they are very different songs when taken apart, each with a rounded beginning, middle and end.

i do personally like Rock You, particularly its spareness and restraint. you know they could've laid it on thicker had they chosen. even though it's been tirelessly overplayed, i always enjoy hearing it because it's so taut and brief.

It's telling that 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions' were sequenced back-to-back not just on the News Of The World album, but on the Greatest Hits album too. I can understand why folks have a hard time separating the two from each other.

I won't be voting for 'We Will Rock You', though.

i have never heard a rock station play just "Rock You" or just "Champions," it's always one and then the other. it's a great one-two punch, really.

xpost I didn't vote for it either, not because it isn't a great song, but because I based the ballot on what 20 Queen songs at this given juncture that I'd actually want to hear the most at this given time, and those have run their course with me. Had it been a 30 song ballot, though, they might have made it.

"Keep Yourself Alive" was one of my tops, as while I"m not a fan of the debut that much, it's such an energetic burst onto the scene to begin that album.

also threw in a vote for "Fairyfeller's Master Stroke" because the song is such silly, goofy fun. "Prophet's Song" is my current fav - that a capella "now I know" section always drives me gaga, I love it.

Night at the Opera is one of those albums which, despite it being my 2nd fav Queen album, it is moreso for the work as a whole than individual tracks, though there's no denying it has those too ("Death on Two Legs" is so great).

also love me some "Teo Torriatte" - such a beautiful ballad. still have strong memories of that as it's associated with the summer before I went to college for the first time, which is when I first heard DAy at the Races (kind of an undercooked album).

i actually enforced them being counted as one song on the classic rock poll (along with some other songs paired by airplay with "Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid" and "Brain Damage/Eclipse"), but none of that stuff got enough votes to place. xp

waht

i'm not sure i'll vote for either but "you've brought me fame and fortune and everythingthat goes withit --- i thank you all" would be pretty high on my fave queen moments. doing "another one bites the dust" at karaoke and realizing he's barking out "mighty dusty!" would be on there also.

I hate to admit the fucking Mighty Ducks was the first time I heard "WATC". "We Will Rock You" I first heard at minor league soccer games (they piped in music over the loudspeakers -ew). never together until hearing the TMD soundtrack.

Eh, I can't say that I'm a huge fan of 'Teo Torriatte', really... I think there's a lot of great stuff on A Day At The Races, though, and I can't fault the production on it. I always thought placing 'You Take My Breath Away' as the second track on the album was a bit of a momentum-killer, though, and seemed quite an odd sequencing choice to me, especially after Sheer Heart Attack and A Night At The Opera were so impeccably put together in terms of track order.

outside of "Tie Your Mother Down", "You Take My Breath Away", and "Teo", I don't care for much of the rest, other than the okay-ish "White Man". Just seemed like such a step down from what preceded it.

YTMBA is a bit of a momentum kill but I love that piano part so much.

lobbying

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YYPNr_FOi4

also worth noting that i must have been sleeping on Spread Your Wings this whole time. what a song!

― charlie h, Thursday, September 10, 2015 12:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yeah love that one, but I first came to it through the Blind Guardian cover version!

Have been waiting with bated breath for this poll.

So damn hard to narrow their barmy eclecticism down to 20 tracks! But I'm having fun trying.

I'm guessing 'Bo Rhap' will win the day, but 'Under Pressure' might come close? (And yes, I'll be voting for both of these tracks.) I'm open to being pleasantly surprised, though.

glad you're having fun working through the tracks, Wordy.

in my mind i always associated A Day At The Races as a fairly immediate companion piece to A Night At The Opera. it was quite a surprise to discover that it was not only stylistically different to its predecessor, but also of significantly lesser quality. there are still some excellent tracks, all things considered.

Father to Son is great. loose & adventurous with a really hazy mythical undercurrent, just how i like my early Queen.

Father to Son is crazy -- it starts off like the coda to some other, even grander prog tune. And the out-of-tune multitracked lead vocals are great.

I'm guessing 'Bo Rhap' will win the day...

I once heard MTV's Mark Goodman come out of a set by saying, "And that was Queen with what I call 'The Bo-Ho Rap,'" and I still haven't recovered to this day.

'Procession' to 'Father To Son' is a great intro to the album, although I'm still in two minds as to whether to vote for 'Father To Son' or not... 'Son & Daughter' on the other hand...

some genius/nutcase Queen fan has put the HD Live Aid footage to the original BBC-broadcast Stereo version of the audio and hoo boy is it amazing. much rawer than the polished version on the DVD/Blu Ray; full of feedback and crowd noise and squeaks and crunches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22oy8dFjqc

does anyone here love "Who needs you," as I do? My fave Deac-y tune.

ahh the hell with it! I don't fuck with these polls you guys get so torqued up about but these are my fave deep kuts…

"machines,"
"Some day Some Way"
"The prophet's Song"
"it's late"
"made in heaven" (not a deep cut, but Brian's one line at a time harmony stacking starting at 1:19 is DEVASTATING);
"princes of the Universe" (also not a deep cut but BERSERK), "Dancer,"
"Battle theme" and "hero" from Flash (FUCK YEAH rendered in song 20 years before Andrew WK)
"Long away"

Yeah, there's some great selections there, one or two which may make it onto my ballot :D

Prophet's Song has one of the best pre-choruses of all time

i almost voted for It's Late. plenty of great work from May there. it just drags on a little, that's all.

Any "39" fans?

I'm guessing 'Bo Rhap' will win the day...

on ILM? i guess it'll slide into the top 5 but i can think of at least 2 or 3 songs that seem like far more likely poll winners around here.

Gonna spend some time revisiting the catalog before working on a ballot, but I have to put in a good word for "Drowse", which is the one Roger song I swear no one ever talks about.

nice slide guitar on Drowse! great vocal melody too. i'm of the opinion that Roger generally has a pretty good strike rate as far as the quality of his songs goes.

hopefully y'all are using your weekends to get a whole lot of listening in!

surely Drowse is about as close to psych as the band got.

listening to Teo Torriatte. kinda reminds me uncomfortably of The Living Years, what with the vainglorious choir and all.

"Drowse" is an inferior, nothing-at-stake version of the Who's "Cut My Hair".

i think it's quietly interesting and definitely a departure from their normal sound. small stakes, yes i'll agree with that.

My favourite version of 'We Will Rock You' (the 'slow/fast version' from the 1977 BBC session):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Eknl6ER6I

Although ... maybe patching the original together with the segue and fast part of this would make for the ultimate?

^^ that does rock pretty hard.

on the topic of '39, yeah i really like it. it does become a bit earnest and Bill Joel-like once the vocals begin, however.

I wonder if his own Dear Friends was one

should be able to get this thing underway in a few hours...

]I wonder if his own Dear Friends was one

― Dominique, Wednesday, September 23, 2015 12:20 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Nah, Brian was definitely involved in the recording of that one from the beginning - he plays piano on it, and aside from the vocals there's very little else!

Let's defend Freddie against the movie's bullshit.

While I'm at it, let me destroy this crap.

I can't find fault with any of your Freddie picks, aside from that 'My Melancholy Blues' does very little for me. 'We Are the Champions' and 'We Will Rock You' are both fucking classic, though!