The Royal QUEEN Discussion and Adoration Thread!

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Fred loved everyone too much to let any arguments and fights escalate to the point of breaking up the band, though tensions were high around the time of Hot Space.

 

I would imagine there was more pressure than usual in the studio having to follow up The Game, and the commercial success of "Another One Bites The Dust". The logical supposition would be (by the label anyway) "Yeah, do more of THAT!"

 

Which, in a fashion they did. It was no secret that Freddie liked dance music, so he may have seized the opportunity and Hot Space happened. Contrary to some people's opinion's though, it's not all a dance album, sort of like how any Queen album is all ever rock.

 

I actually liked Hot Space from the first listen. I think the dance stuff was actually pretty well done, and along w/Fred's vox and Brian's unique tone and brilliant choices, made for some good listening. Again, another part of my perspective is that I wasn't too precious with the classic Queen stuff because I was still a relatively new listener at the time. Open ears with no expectations probably buoyed this album for me more than for more experienced fans.

 

"Staying Power" - That crazy bass drum captivates right from the start, and....horns? Huh...ah, there's Brian! The bass synth stuff was interesting to me as well. Also the song has some nice builds in it. Lyrics didn't matter much, but the song had a good energy.

 

"Dancer"- Really didn't care for the lyric much...but again I did like the music and production here. Mack and his love of cymbal crash sounds that can penetrate your skull, wow. LOL

 

"Back Chat"- Here we go....some really good drum fills/arrangement on this one, especially coming out of a break just before Brian's lead that sounds amazing. And there's bass guitar here!

 

"Body Language"--wow, to this day, just earth shaking bass on the synth bassline. The songs just does a serpentine winding through your mind with it's consistent rhythm and sinewy bass line.

 

"Action This Day" -- Ahh! Snappy little Taylor tune to start moving us into another phase of the album. I really kinda liked the synth break leading to the sax solo too. Brian's chunky-yet-plucky rhythm playing on this tune was a great fit. Musicians that understand a song's needs.

 

"Put Out the Fire"--Rock time! Nice production here to get the point across. While I disagree with the politics of the song (though I like the "A gun never killed nobody...." line, so he could see both sides), I totally dig it anyway and respect Fred's view. Wooo....great solo here too, blistering! The outro was a great idea as well. As someone who has written their own songs, I can attest that a good ending for a song is often the most difficult thing to come up with.

 

"Life Is Real"--Lovely tribute, even the reverb here sounds like that which Lennon liked to use. The vocal harmony build just before the solo is classic Queen power. Why didn't Freddie give himself a bit more credit as a pianist??

 

"Calling All Girls"--Kind of an odd one, but was kind of mesmerizing with Brian's guitar lurking on those lower tones during the verses. Not a favorite from the album but I never skipped in on a listen either.

 

"Las Palabras De Amor"--I always loved this song, what a great progression it has and nice form. The build and going 'Full Queen' at the last part of the song is a hair-raising moment, and Roger does one of his top fills there (best on the record) and it fits SO perfectly within the music. Beautiful tune with a surprising power.

 

"Cool Cat"--John! I actually liked the style of this one, and Freddie displaying one of the best falsettos in rock. Jesus, what a singer.

 

"Under Pressure"-- Amazing tune we all know and love (forget Vanilla Ice). Amazing lyrics, and how the f**k did Freddie hit that top end note on the big 'Why" moment???? I thought only Roger could go there??? Simply incredible song. IMO, Bowie was fortunate to be part of this, not vice versa.

 

Yeah, maybe HS isn't a masterwork, but I definitely still like it after all this time and still listen to it. Considering the albums they had behind them, and just coming off a Grammy nominated song of the year with AOBTD, I think they did alright here :)

 

I agree with you on pretty much everything here. I personally find Hot Space a lot more interesting to listen to than The Game, but the Game has a number of higher highs, so it just edges this out in my rankings. Nevertheless, Hot Space is still way underrated. Staying Power is especially one of my favorites here, as well as Life Is Real. Of course, the first time I listened Cool Cat was my fave just for its weirdo uniqueness and perfect falsetto. I've also never understood the hatred for Back Chat. It's a solid dance tune, which is all AOBTD was two years earlier. Even if the lyrics are basically about nothing, it's got great musicality.

[custom55]

I had a NYE dinner last night with friends and friends of friends and one of the guys at the table worked at the Capitol Theater in the 70's. He did it all there... sold t-shirts, worked the concession stands and security on / back stage. I asked him what his favorite surprise band that blew him away. Without thinking he said Queen. They we loud, tight and they completely blew him away. Remember this guy saw many many up and bands at the Capitol theater and Queen stood out.

 

Here's the setlist from Feb 1975.

1. 
   Procession
   
   
2. 
   Now I'm Here
   
   
3. 
   Ogre Battle
   Play Video
   
4. 
   Father to Son
   
   
5. 
   White Queen (As It Began)
   
   
6. 
   Flick of the Wrist
   
   
7. 
   In the Lap of the Gods
   
   
8. 
   Killer Queen
   
   
9. 
   The March of the Black Queen
   
   
10. 
    Bring Back That Leroy Brown
    
    
11. 
    Son and Daughter
    
    
12. 
    Guitar Solo
    
    
13. 
    Keep Yourself Alive
    
    
14. 
    Drum Solo
    
    
15. 
    Seven Seas of Rhye
    
    
16. 
    Stone Cold Crazy
    
    
17. 
    Liar
    
    
18. 
    In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited
    

1. 
   Jailhouse Rock
   

[The Cat 3]

[The Cat 3]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HmkGuzzGL._SY300_.jpg Dedicating the first marathon of the new year (Queen) to The Cupcake Warrior! Edited January 2, 2016 by ReGorLaTroy

[The Cat 3]

[The Cat 3]

Let's just take a second to discuss Queen's least impressive output. In my humble opinion..."Coming Soon" sucks. It's totally unremarkable in every way, the very definition of filler. It's much of the reason why The Game us my second least favorite Queen album.

i have to humbly disagree with you on this one.

 

One of my favourite Roger Meadows Taylor's songs.

 

We played this song in pretty much every band I was in throughout the 1980s.

 

Great hook and nonstop rhythm and Roger's unique vocals to compliment.

Edited January 3, 2016 by ReGorLaTroy

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Let's just take a second to discuss Queen's least impressive output. In my humble opinion..."Coming Soon" sucks. It's totally unremarkable in every way, the very definition of filler. It's much of the reason why The Game us my second least favorite Queen album.

i have to humbly disagree with you on this one.

 

One of my favourite Roger Meadows Taylor's songs.

 

We played this song in pretty much every band I was in throughout the 1980s.

 

Great hook and nonstop rhythm and Roger's unique vocals to compliment.

 

The more I think about it, I may have been a bit harsh with that statement, but such was the power of my initial impression of that track that I haven't let up after nearly two years of knowing it. I just wish it were more than it is really. I think a lot of the band fell in love with this idea of following the new wave movement but didn't have a (let me put my opinion bluntly) more interesting or unique way of doing so than Coming Soon or Rock It (Prime Jive) (unlike Rush). Maybe that first impression will wear off someday and I'll appreciate it better for what it is, but when you've spent so much of your exploration in music studying and collecting Queen chronologically while always hearing about how great The Game was said to be and seeing the sheer number of hits it produced (every one of which being a top tier Queen song), tracks such as those I mentioned as well as Need Your Loving Tonight and Don't Try Suicide couldn't help but pale in comparison to my vast expectations and experiences with Queen. So we will have to disagree for now. But no hard Feelings, Feelings! :)

 

Speaking of Don't Try Suicide, in my humble opinion it sounds hilariously better when played at 45 rpm. Don't believe me, DO try Don't Try Suicide at 45 and tell me what you think. :)

[The Cat 3]

http://paintboxtalks.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/queen-made-in-heaven-full-album1.jpg

[RUSHHEAD666]

Queen! The only band I love more than Rush.

 

Let's discuss!

 

Thanks to you I had to go back to Berkeley today and pick up a rare used double cd of "QUEEN ROCK GREATEST HITS." It's not your standard cd release. At first I thought it was a Japanese pressing but it seems to be Taiwan.

Still the tracks on this double disc treasure kick ASS!!

 

So on that note I must give you a heads up buddy.

Now I am not a big covers albums cd guy but while I was there surfing through the Queen section I found a new Queen Covers album called "KEEP CALUM AND SALUTE QUEEN."

 

I bought it because of the talent playing on the record:

 

LEMMY

TED NUGENT

GEOFF TATE

ROBBY KRIEGER

GLENN HUGHES

JAKE E LEE

JAMES LABRIE

GREAT WHITE

LA GUNS

JOHN WETTON

TOMMY SHAW

DOUG ALDRICH

 

and more!!!

 

Looks good!

Hope it sounds better!

[RUSHHEAD666]

http://paintboxtalks.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/queen-made-in-heaven-full-album1.jpg

 

AWESOME!

 

FREDDIE WAS THE MAN!!!!!

 

Rob Halford

Freddie Mercury

 

The best!

 

I used to think Geoff Tate was up there too but he went off the deep end. I am excited to hear the Queen song he sings on. He sings on "Somebody To Love."

[RUSHHEAD666]

http://paintboxtalks.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/queen-made-in-heaven-full-album1.jpg

 

Troy!

 

I love your avatar and your nickname! A Modern Day Alice Cooper! I love him too!!!!

[The Cat 3]

http://paintboxtalks.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/queen-made-in-heaven-full-album1.jpg

 

Troy!

 

I love your avatar and your nickname! A Modern Day Alice Cooper! I love him too!!!!

I've been a fan of Alice ever since I bought the "School's Out" album with my own money in 1972 when I was a lad of just 9 years old. Edited January 4, 2016 by ReGorLaTroy

[RUSHHEAD666]

http://paintboxtalks.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/queen-made-in-heaven-full-album1.jpg

 

Troy!

 

I love your avatar and your nickname! A Modern Day Alice Cooper! I love him too!!!!

I've been a fan of Alice ever since I bought the "School's Out" album with my own money in 1972 when I was a lad of just 9 years old.

 

 

I love that buddy! You are a real fan!! YOU F'N RULE!!!!!!!!!

 

ALICE RULES!!!

 

 

ALICE FOR PRESIDENT!!!!

 

"ELECTED!"

[RUSHHEAD666]

I saw Alice open for Heaven And Hell. I had front row.

He blew H&H away!!!!!

 

The greatest thing about H&H though was when Ronnie came over to my wife and he gave her the devil horns sign!!!!

 

It sucks buddy! I had a very cool wife. She was hot too! I called her my "Pick Magnet." LOL! Lifeson thew a pick at her in the first row at Marysville but the pick bounced off her shoulder and some other Rush fan snagged it.

 

Alex lipped to me while playing "Did she get that pick??" I could barely understand him but I figured it out so I shook my head no!

So when the lights went down before "The Way The Wind Blows" Alex ran up to the front of the stage and handed her a pick.

 

I was at a Dream Theater Ryche show once. Front row. John Petrucci came over and threw 10 guitar picks at her. It was raining Petrucci picks man.

 

One other time at STYX James Young came over and threw like 8 picks her way.

 

I could go on and on! Crazy fun times!

 

I will miss my wife but hey shit happens.

 

She grew up I did not.

 

I will rock until I die. Until the last drop!!!!

 

Sorry if I am annoying.

 

People have the right to put me on ignore.

 

Cheers!

[The Cat 3]

EARL FOR PRESIDENT...

 

...THE WILD PARTY!!!

[RUSHHEAD666]

EARL FOR PRESIDENT...

 

...THE WILD PARTY!!!

 

HAHAHAHA! You are fukking hilarious!!!! PEACE AND PARTY TO ALL GOOD MEN AND WOMEN! I WILL BEAT OUT TRUMP AND ALICE COOPER WILL BE MY VICE PRESIDENT!

[RUSHHEAD666]

Wetton is covering "Bohemian Rhapsody." Carmen Appice on drums. I must say it's damn good. Edited January 4, 2016 by RUSHHEAD666

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

The kids asked me to put on Bicycle Race for the trip to school. I duly obliged. I'd forgotten what a mad, jumbled-up, f***ed in the head oddity Jazz is. Some real gems in there, Jealousy one of Fred's best ballads, If You Can't Beat Them & Dead On Time are top rock songs. And Roger's to babies are nuts. I bought it on cassette in Dec 1986, along with a dark overcoat, all moody teens needed a dark overcoat back then. And fingerless gloves.

[ReRushed]

The kids asked me to put on Bicycle Race for the trip to school. I duly obliged. I'd forgotten what a mad, jumbled-up, f***ed in the head oddity Jazz is. Some real gems in there, Jealousy one of Fred's best ballads, If You Can't Beat Them & Dead On Time are top rock songs. And Roger's to babies are nuts. I bought it on cassette in Dec 1986, along with a dark overcoat, all moody teens needed a dark overcoat back then. And fingerless gloves.

"Jealousy" is a ballad that would make McCartney envious.

[Hatchetaxe&saw]

The kids asked me to put on Bicycle Race for the trip to school. I duly obliged. I'd forgotten what a mad, jumbled-up, f***ed in the head oddity Jazz is. Some real gems in there, Jealousy one of Fred's best ballads, If You Can't Beat Them & Dead On Time are top rock songs. And Roger's to babies are nuts. I bought it on cassette in Dec 1986, along with a dark overcoat, all moody teens needed a dark overcoat back then. And fingerless gloves.

"Jealousy" is a ballad that would make McCartney envious.

 

Aye, it's a beauty. So much more to Queen than the hits. HOT SPACE BABY!!!! WOOOOO!

[Entre_Perpetuo]

"Jealousy, you got me somehow

You gave me no warning

Crept up by surprise!"

 

So true, both referring to actual jealousy (at one point in my life), and the song (ever since I first heard it). McCartney would kill for a ballad like that, you're absolutely right. One of my favs off of Jazz, though nothing tops Don't Stop Me Now from that album in my book (certainly not since that Google Doodle for Freddie's 65th birthday back in 2011 and since it was the closer and best part of my freshman marching band halftime show). Both astounding songs! :)

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Okay, so I just watched the Hammersmith Odeon concert on blu-ray and it was absolutely fantastic!!! And I got to thinking, if Queen pulled the Rainbow shows out of the vault in 2014 for their 40th anniversaries, and they pulled Hammersmith Odeon out of the vault last year for its 40th anniversary, then are they beginning some kind of amazing trend of pulling their most famous unreleased live shows out of the vault for anniversary releases? If so, what would they put out this November (both of the last two releases were in November I believe)? I personally think they would struggle to find a better show to release than the free Hyde Park concert of September '76, with somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 people in attendance. That show is the last thing mentioned in the special features on the HO disc, so my guess is they'll be putting that one out this year. Thoughts?

 

EDIT: just realized this was my thousandth post, yay! Superconductor! :)

Edited January 11, 2016 by Entre_Perpetuo

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Let it here be said on this tragic day that David Bowie's contributions to Under Pressure were incalculable in the greatness of that song, and his friendship with Queen will always be valued by the music loving public. RIP, David and Freddie together again.

[Entre_Perpetuo]

Okay Queen are of course nearly always epically amazingly supercalafrajalisticexpiali-awesome, but I just listened to A Kind of Magic on good headphones for the first time ever, and the title track became my new album favorite, One Year Of Love was an incredible emotional experience, Pain Is So Close To Pleasure finally felt like it flowed well with the album, the loudness and dense production issues of Gimme The Prize and Don't Lose Your Head magically disappeared, and I remembered why I like AKOM better than The Works. Headphones are madri-cal, absolutely. :D

 

Also I'm listening backwards through the studio albums (minus Flash) starting from The Miracle today.

 

Queen Reigns!

 

EDIT: OH ALSO! If Fred and MJ had sung One Year Of Love together, my heart would've died and come back to life again. Man I wish they had sung together more often. Perfect complimenting voices in my opinion.

Edited January 25, 2016 by Entre_Perpetuo

[Entre_Perpetuo]

I Go Crazy is almost the best song on The Works, and it's a B-side that tends to come with newer editions of the album as a bonus track. It's easily one of the greatest rockers they ever made. It sounds like the seventies, the absolute best part of the seventies. Like Aerosmith and The Who and The Rolling Stones and Queen themselves, but I would call it a better rocker than . . . I was about to say nearly every other straight-forward rocker in their catalogue, but then I realized Queen has precious few straight-forward rock songs, and of those precious few a majority are some of the greatest songs they ever did (Fat Bottomed Girls, Tie Your Mother Down, Hammer To Fall, etc.). Nevertheless, I would've put I Go Crazy on the record MILES ahead of Tear It Up, which is admittedly good, but also the least appealing song on the record (it's a good record man). I Go Crazy is exactly what rock is supposed to found like, in the same vein as Aerosmith and the Stones, maybe even better. I love it, you already knew that but I just love it. Such a great song.

 

"I ain't gonna go to the Rolling Stones no more! No More!

I don't wanna go see Quueeeeeeeeen no more! No More!" :D