Queen: Classic Or Dud

Haven't seen the film yet but I just know the coverage of that pre-Live Aid period is going to extremely irritating

BE

day-oh

The movie does have some good things about it - the actors playing Brian May and John Deacon are really dead-on, and I was blown away by how they recreated the Live Aid gig at insane levels of forensic detail... that must have taken some serious fucking rehearsing.

However, the script/dialogue is woeful in places, and a lot of the fucking about with the timeline and historical facts is really irritating to me. I'm really supposed to believe that they performed 'Fat Bottomed Girls' on an American tour in 1974? (This is just one example of... well, far too many)

Yeah, I understand that it was supposed to be relatively "family friendly", and that there's so much that would have impossible to explore with any degree of depth over 90 minutes, but this would have been easier to live with if they hadn't fucked about with the facts too much.

My favorite Queen songs not written by Freddie.

Listening to the Flash Gordon soundtrack this morning...wow is that a wacky record. Parts of it would not sound out of place on some of Trans Am's later records with the synth parts.

My favourite Queen songs not written by Freddie:
Keep Yourself Alive (Brian)
Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll (Roger)
White Queen (Brian)
Brighton Rock (Brian)
Tenement Funster (Roger)
Now I'm Here (Brian)
I'm in Love with My Car (Roger)
'39 (Brian)
The Prophet's Song (Brian)
Long Away (Brian)
Sheer Heart Attack (Roger)
Plus various bits of the Flash soundtrack not written by Fred

Not much John there I guess, sorry John.

No love for "Another one Bites the Dust"? That's an all time groove all genres.

He also wrote You're My Best Friend.

Here's ten of fifteen:

[1. “Back Chat” (John Deacon)
2. “A Kind of Magic” (Roger Taylor)
3. “Under Pressure” (Queen/David Bowie)
4. “The Invisible Man” (Roger Taylor)
5. “Hammer to Fall” (Brian May)
6. “Dragon Attack” (Brian May)
7. “You’re My Best Friend” (John Deacon)
8. “Calling All Girls” (Roger Taylor)
9. “39” (Brian May)
10. “I Want to Break Free” (John Deacon)

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.

You're My Best Friend is endlessly charming.

Dragon Attack features a brief but monstrously thrilling drum spotlight.

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

Is YMBF Wurlitzer or Fender Rhodes?

Wurlitzer

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

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?

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.

thanks!

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

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