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

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.

my favourite May-sung Queen song is probably Sail Away Sweet Sister.

heard this Axl tribute of sorts a long time before I knew it was a Queen song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntrZa3n0L_0

I don't 'mind 'Drowse', especially the change into the 'Out here on the street' section (I was going to call it a middle eight, but not sure whether it technically is?)

Never particularly been a fan of 'Teo Torriate'. It's grown on me a little over the years, but I still think it's a bit of a half-baked sing-song finale.

Not really a huge fan of '39' or 'Spread Your Wings' either. Both so-so in my book.

'Father to Son' though--now we're talking! Will definitely figure in my votes.

Am also trying to find a spot for 'Backchat', 'Keep Yourself Alive', 'Jesus', and 'Great King Rat', but as I said upthread, this top 20 thing is a tough undertaking! One thing that's surprised me a bit is how many tracks from the debut I'm considering voting for. Sure, the songs don't quite have the production values of later work, but they're generally packed with ideas, and still retain some magic after decades of listening.

And finally, a track that I don't think anyone's mentioned, which will definitely be right up there in my ballot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e4Odk-v3oU

I voted for the Seven Seas from Queen II, actually!

hell yeah, Great King Rat. could have easily voted for that one, but my appreciation & fondness for it is a little too recently cultivated and therefore susceptible to possible flux. agree that Queen I is killer.

Rhye is a stone cold classic. wonder whether I should make some kind of concession in the vote tabulation for the two different versions, or is it reasonable to assume most people are opting for the version on II?

lol I made sure to specify in mine for that reason.

I figure more people would vote for the one from II than I but dunno that one should assume that when tabulating!

I'm all about some Ogre Battle too....

Just to clarify, the video I linked to above is 'Seven Seas of Rhye' from Queen II. But I had been discussing the debut immediately before I linked to the video, so that was kinda confusing now that I think about it!

But yeah, I think it's probably safe to assume people would be voting for the Queen II version? I do love how the version on the debut rounds things off after 'Jesus' though--a nice bit of sequencing.

I have to confess that I dream of the alternate reality where Roger Taylor took the Genesis gig offer, Phil Collins joined queen as the singing drummer, and Genesis became the Prog band that couldn't play and Queen would have gone supernova.

wow that's an interesting idea

man Sheer Heart Attack is such a strange-sounding song. so muffled and strangled sounding in a way that must have been deliberate. the similarities between this song and Sister by Prince have been well documented, right?

All Dead, All Dead, is about May's cat he got as a young teenager, which I just learned and find heartbreaking.

Lobbying for this May tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5xBeuB01jc

Anybody like "In the Lap of the Gods"?

I loved the arena reprise too

Any "39" fans?

The world needs more skiffle songs with lyrics about time dilation.

Anyone like their novelty pastiche numbers? Bring Back That Leroy Brown, Seaside Rendezvous etc. Did they pretty much drop them after A Day At The Races (Crazy Little Thing Called Love excepted I guess)?

I looove Seaside and Lazing on a Sunday afternoon

yeah 39 is great. May has a wee moan that it wasn't a single in the Classic Albums show about A Night At The Opera

and THIS was surely a big surprise at the Freddie tribute show. he clearly loved it and the audience reaction when it starts up is killer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvpZuFX681o