Queen

Cornfed Hick said:
I think Side 2 is better than you think. "Rock It" is a straightforward rocker with a wicked (but short) Brian May guitar solo and a very cool introductory passage. "Suicide" is my least favorite track on the album, because I don't love rockabilly, but they pull it off well and give it the kind of weird twist that made Queen so unique. "Sail Away Sweet Sister" is great, as you note, and I happen to think "Coming Soon" is solid: another rocker with a soaring chorus that tests Freddie's range. And "Save Me" is the best song on the album, and in my view, the third-best song Queen ever recorded, behind only "It's Late" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" -- it is a gorgeous, perfectly constructed track that rocks, with a truly great guitar solo. As they often did, they recognized a new trend in music -- the power ballad -- gave it a go, and in so doing damn near topped them all.
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I like Save Me, but I guess I haven't heard it enough to love it yet. Rock It and Coming Soon just sound like complete filler to me, especially the former. The lyrics are ridiculous and stock. Suicide is a terrible track.

Perun said:
Much of The Game is something like a compendium of rock history from the 1950s through the 1970s. Since a lot of it explores the early history of rock in tracks like Crazy Little Thing (rock 'n' roll), Suicide (rockabilly) and Need Your Loving Tonight (60's rock) that mostly happened in America, it's no surprise to me that it is by far their most successful album there. Personally, I think it's their most diverse album musically, for better or worse. But I think it displays many of the daring artistic steps that made them stay relevant in the eighties, even if to some people, it meant selling out.
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I definitely agree that it feels adventurous. The range of styles is impressive. Unfortunately, I don't think the songs are all that good. The great songs are great, the rest is pretty poor. I appreciate that they went out on a limb, and The Game is a pretty good album, but some of those diverse experiments did not work out.
 
I think Dragon Attack might be my favourite Queen song.
The band is so tight.
 
My Queen-fu isn't as strong as some, but I do have some Queen songs I love, absolutely and completely. If you put a gun to my head to make me rank them, it'd look something like this:

1. The Show Must Go On
2. The March of the Black Queen
3. Bohemian Rhapsody
4. Tenement Funster
5. Ogre Battle
6. I Want It All
7. Don't Stop Me Now
8. Princes of the Universe (so cheese)
9. Another One Bites the Dust
10. Killer Queen
 
Listened to The Game last night. It is much more diverse as an album that I had recalled, hearing all the tracks back to back.
 
This page includes details of the six sessions which Queen recorded for the BBC between 1973 and 1977. They recorded a total of 25 tracks in two different studios, with 'Keep Yourself Alive', 'Liar', 'Modern Times Rock 'n' Roll', and 'Son And Daughter' all recorded twice. Many of the tracks recorded are very interesting, some featuring extensive changes compared to the normal album versions.
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http://www.ultimatequeen.co.uk/queen/songs/bbc-sessions.htm
 
Those BBC sessions are very well worth hearing. I bought a complete bootleg of them over ten years ago, and back then, many of them were still very rare and impossible to find outside of the set. I don't know what the situation is like now, though.
 
mckindog said:
I think Dragon Attack might be my favourite Queen song.
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Really? I just heard it and find it quite dull. Very repetitive. A weaker version of Metal Gods (that rhythm reminds me of it, even though it is different) is what comes to mind. Still, less variation, less captivating.

Back to these BBC sessions. I heard a few on YouTube. Very nice.
 
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Forostar said:
Back to these BBC sessions. I heard a few on YouTube. Very nice.
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Strongly recommend Queen at the Beeb, which compiles two of the sessions. It sounds great. It's out of print, but you can find used copies fairly easily at a reasonable price.

Perun, does your complete bootleg have the live version of "March of the Black Queen"? The website that Foro quoted speculates that the BBC broadcast the album version and that the tape of the live performance may have been destroyed.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Perun, does your complete bootleg have the live version of "March of the Black Queen"? The website that Foro quoted speculates that the BBC broadcast the album version and that the tape of the live performance may have been destroyed.
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No, unfortunately not. There are only two recordings from the 3.4.1974 session on that bootleg, and those are also in very poor quality. So it really does seem like the recordings of March of the Black Queen and Nevermore from that session are lost forever... unless a preserved radio recording pops up somewhere. Which is unlikely, to say the least.
 
From the album Jazz. NSFW:
11043432_10205132635134211_5255606301376501564_o.jpg
Fun Fact (I just read): The bicycles were rented especially for the shoot. When the renting company found out what these bikes were used for, they've allegedly demanded that all sadles had to be replaced, and the band had to pay this.
 
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Actually, the way I remember, there was actually a bicycle race with all the girls in that picture to promote the album (yes, naked). The picture above was supposed to be included in the regular album artwork in some way (inner sleeve or some such thing), but that generated so much controversy that it was included as a hidden poster in one of the sleeve pockets, but only at a limited distribution and not in the US. I happen to own a copy.
 
So, I just opened that at work, and there are tits on my screen. Luckily my boss is not standing over my shoulder. I've spoilered it. Please don't make me do that again.
 
Ogre Battle is a fantastic song. The simple riff that is the same forwards as backwards simply cooks, as simple as that!
 
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