Queen: Classic Or Dud

That's it.

>>they later symbolised all the most contemptibly macho elements of 80s >>corporate / stadium rock

This is so stupidly mean-spirited it's almost amusing. Yeah, as a campy gay guy Freddy sure was one hell of a macho dude in the Eighties. Ronnie van Zant and Ted Nugent, stand aside for Fred!

I'd think a lot can't get over the ubiquitous football cheerization of "We Will Rock You" -- which is not exactly Queen's fault.

I'm so glad to see all the Highlander love here. As ridiculously melodramatic as it is, "Who Wants to Live Forever" totally jerks a tear from me every time.

Queen ruled in the 70s. But they're still nowhere as consistent as Judas Priest.

I think it's important to note that the two greatest male rock voices ever are from dudes that took it up the ass.

anybody who says "dud" admits to being attracted to Dabney Coleman.

Definite classic. and not for their singles. not saying they're bad, but they don't represent their best work.

"Night at the Opera" and "Queen II" are their best works. Pompous yes. Fun? Hell yes.

They started going downhill around Jazz--News of the World is the best of their more "2 minute pop song" era.

Hear, Hear! Altho' I wouldn't assume that either were/are bottoms…Hot Space obviously is where Fred made the kind of music played in the joints he frequented…it's as sleazy as any Patrick Hernandez song evah…

just about every record—barring the Miracle, the only album I don't much like— has astoundingly great hidden gems. You wanna talk "tear to the eye?" Try "Made in Heaven," Fred's "I'm going down swinging" tune: May's clarion harmonized guitar parts are agonizing, and it's much much better than "The Show Must Go On."

well I was trying to say News of the World was better than Jazz but I effed it up with the "--". :) Jazz had some great songs too, but a bit of filler.

Queen rox, u r all Freddie Mercury.

"Prophet's Song".....\m/

Oh, and Matt, I'm pretty sure Geir has said that "Bohemian Rhapsody" is his favorite song ever.

Thanks Veronica. I haven't heard Made In Heaven since it came out... but I recall that parts of it gave me chills in a very grandiose way.

Wasn't trying to say that Freddie and Rob are bottoms. I'm sure they've been on top, sideways, diagonal, backwards, and inverted too.

Oh, and Matt, I'm pretty sure Geir has said that "Bohemian Rhapsody" is his favorite song ever.

-- The Reverend, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 12:13 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

good! otherwise i thought i found a glitch in the matrix...

bicycle race is great! somebody to love is great! get down make love is great!

there's something about some queen songs that so amazing, because yr all like "goddang this is SO over the top" and then they go ever MORE over the top and it's like yr not even in the same room anymore.

like "March of the Black Queen" or "The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke" with the hilarious use of a slide whistle at the beginning.

also Somebody to Love is one of the greatest pop tunes e ver....

"Bicycle Race" is as great as they come. All bands without bicycle bell solos can STFU.

Didn't like Queen for the longest time. I've since come to realize the error of my ways. Oddly enough, I got into them after hearing Blind Guardian's cover of "Spread Your Wings". Go figure.

Can't say I'm too taken with most of their 80's material, though.

>>"goddang this is SO over the top" and

You should definitely find a Sensational Alex Harvey Band record, too.

i had to check that i hadn't already commented, because my perspective on this band has changed radically in the last year

really REALLY liking the first three records these days, and am amazed i overlooked them for so many years

The worst, most plodding and groove-free rhythm section EVER. And I don't know whether Roger or John was worse, I just know that the two of them together kept Queen from being a real contender.

"groove-free"??? you're crazy! listen to the drums during the outro of "loser at the end", shit is ridiculously uh, groovy.

as for hidden gems on later albums, i've killed a couple of parties with "cool cat" from hot space recently. a beautiful, beautiful song.

"The worst, most plodding and groove-free rhythm section EVER"

you, sir, are nuts. Deacon and Taylor are singular for a proggy heavy riddim section that played the fuck outta funk and disco grooves from '77 on…

If by "played the fuck outta" you mean "played really, really badly", we agree. Compare "Another One Bites the Dust" to "Good Times", the song John Deacon was trying to play but couldn't remember properly. (Really, I'm not making that up.) If you still think Deacon and Taylor were funky, clean your ears and get thee to a proctologist.

"Loser at the End" is possibly the only time Taylor played with anything resembling a backbeat, rather then simply being late on the 2, 3, AND 4. And occasionally the one.

Well it's settled then. Queen wasn't Parliament, so they sucked.

>>"goddang this is SO over the top" and

You should definitely find a Sensational Alex Harvey Band record, too.

-- Gorge, Tuesday, 27 November 2007 07:08 (9 hours ago) Link

yeah i have one -- tomorrow belongs to me -- i should get more, alex harvey is something else too...but maybe doesn't have the tunes that queen does in the end?

Oh it has the tunes all right.

The worst, most plodding and groove-free rhythm section EVER. And I don't know whether Roger or John was worse, I just know that the two of them together kept Queen from being a real contender.

-- Nubbelverbrennung, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 3:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

woah that's retarded! another one bites the dust! under pressure! probably a bunch of other songs i haven't heard!

anyway the liner notes for the greatest hits i bought says that "another one bites the dust" won some kind of award from billboard for charting on the black, dance, and rock charts.

they also say that freddie wrote "crazy little thing called loved" while "languishing in a bubble bath" at some fancy hotel in germany. i thought that was a pretty great way of saying it.

Never said Queen sucked, just that the rhythm section did. They were the first band I ever loved, actually; I bought everything they had up to and including News of The World, which was when they lost me most dramatically (I was a very unforgiving kid). Anyway, with the rhythm section sucking as they did, they were at their best when being deliberately the opposite of funky (the Freddy pseudo-cabaret prog stuff) or when Brian May, a very funky player, went chunka-chunka funkily. It's probably no coincidence that I fell out of love with them when I did.

Mr. Norse/nonsense-sounding word…

Taylor & Deacon are the worst, most plodding, groove free ever? EVER?

Worse than the entire San Francisco milieu '67-72? Worse than Carl Palmer/Greg Lake? Worse than any bog-standard American hardcore band '81-82?

How 'bout "worst, most plodding, groove free rhythm section that ever aspired to grooving and sold millions of records anyway"? I'll stand behind that.

"Worse than the entire San Francisco milieu '67-72?"

You can say a lot of things about the Dead, but you can't say they were plodding and groove free. All about the groove, man.

And Queen=classic.

Also more bands should groove like the Airplane grooved.

And if you listen to "Under Pressure" closely, you realize that it's Freddie's AWESOME staccato piano part that moves it forward, and since there's a convenient electronic drum track, you can here just how late and inconsistent Roger is on the bass drum 1s & 3s in the rocky bits.

Lastly if you don't hear the drum machine on "Another One Bites the Dust", you are clinically deaf and should sell you iPod.

Oh it has the tunes all right.

-- Ned Raggett, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 4:40 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

for some reason this seems very threatening to me...i've angered powers i can't imagine...i shouldn't have spoken so freely abt alex harvey....

Dud. Just a buncha half-baked ideas, clumsily (and not charmingly) put across. May had an interesting moment here and there, but the rhythm section was, yes, plodding and groove-free. As a vocalist, Mercury was the Billy Corgan of his day; comically inconsistent, completely unaware that he is not the singer he thinks he is. Queen is the Rolls-Royce aesthetic without the Rolls-Royce.

You can say a lot of things about the Dead, but you can't say they were plodding and groove free. All about the groove, man.

???????

I thought being plodding and groove-free was the point of the Dead. And I don't even mean that as a criticism.

xpost - OK, who's the Rolls Royce?

"you can't say (the Dead) were plodding and groove free"

oh yes I can!

Norse-gobbeldy-gook named dude: its astounding to me you can say that a band powered by the listless Spencer Dryden is one that should aspired to…

"I thought being plodding and groove-free was the point of the Dead."

It's not true at all. I know ILM is (unreasonably) anti-Dead, but once they settled into a nice groove the Dead were off and running. And their rythm section was far from plodding, Phil Lesh was a master of his instrument.

"its astounding to me you can say that a band powered by the listless Spencer Dryden is one that should aspired to…"

I never said that. I was talking about the Airplane, which rhythm section was powered by the amazingly energetic and brilliant Jack Casady.

well, you are being a bit obtuse on that last post, aren't you?

Dud. Just a buncha half-baked ideas, clumsily (and not charmingly) put across. May had an interesting moment here and there, but the rhythm section was, yes, plodding and groove-free. As a vocalist, Mercury was the Billy Corgan of his day; comically inconsistent, completely unaware that he is not the singer he thinks he is. Queen is the Rolls-Royce aesthetic without the Rolls-Royce.

RONG

uhm oh yea and Mercury was one of the best rock vocalists evar.

Seriously though, Queen deserved fellatio from their crowds.

<i>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 (2 years ago) Link</i>

OTM. I had forgotten about this song until it popped up on my iTunes a couple of weeks ago. I thought that it was the Raspberries or something.

After learning "Body Language" and "Under Pressure" were from the same album, I suddenly am interested in hearing the rest of Hot Space.

Classic.Doin' Alright from the first one and It's Late from News of the World are two faves.

I wish I could hear exactly how 'Another One Bites The Dust' is so bad - it just sounds immense to me.

For an outrageous, theatrical band though, they do have some of the most boring well-loved hits ever - 'A Kind of Magic', 'I Want to Break Free', 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' are all terrible

Listening to the Greatest Hits box again, feeling like I am in love with the world and all that is Queen and Freddie...gearing up to try to say something smart and cool abt Queen and I read back on this thread and I find this so I can not say a thing and leave such things to the pros:

(LOL, btw)

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, March 28, 2003 3:15 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

HONOUR THE BICYCLE!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, March 29, 2003 7:36 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't know if Queen were ever really cool, what I like about them is their image and chops. I listened to that "Flash" thing, which was the album everyone laughed at when I was a kid.

I still marvel at something like Bohemian Rhapsody. Sure it's a punchline to a 90's joke but before that, I mean the first time I heard it as a teenager in English class of all things, it knocked me out. Stringing together all of the parts of that song together so seamlessly, it still kind of blows me away.