bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 12:51:06 GMT
Post by bellbottoms on Oct 11, 2019 12:51:06 GMT
I have Freddie's Lover of Life, Singer of Songs collection and some of it I don't mind. Living On My Own is a good song. I'm not a fan of Mr. Bad Guy. I definitely wouldn't say I like his solo stuff enough to get the new box set.
Roger's solo stuff is different from what I expected. I kind of expected him to sound a lot more Queen-like, and there are hints of it here and there, but in general he's a lot lighter and poppier than I thought he'd be.
His first two albums are very strong in my opinion - they do have very 80s sound on them, but it suits the material. His first album, Fun in Space is a good name for it, and I think it's a good listen all the way through. A solid pop-rock album. I love that he pretty much made the whole thing himself - writing, drumming, singing, and guitaring, with some help on keyboards. The follow up, Strange Frontier, leans more heavily into the pop-dance realm. I like it just a little bit less than Fun in Space. But it has one track on it that I think is probably my favourite Roger solo song - Killing Time. I can't get into the third one, Happiness?. It's very 90s, very bland, and cheesy in spots. The two he made since, Electric Fire and Fun on Earth, I found CDs of those two but I haven't listened to them yet. Happiness? kind of stopped me in my tracks, but I'll listen to them eventually.
I've heard almost nothing of Brian's solo work.
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 12:53:41 GMT
Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 12:53:41 GMT
I think that period, if not the precise peak, was definitely the early part of the peak. Freddie's voice in particular was never as good as in those few years in the mid-70s: live, he was phenomenal in that era. It's funny, because most people know him from the Wembley and Live Aid shows, but by then his voice was significantly deteriorated from its mid-70s pinnacle. In recent years, especially since the Bohemian Rhapsody movie (which I feel included an unnecessarily long Live Aid sequence), Queen's Live Aid performance has been called the "greatest live performance in history." I don't even think it's Queen's best. There is evidence from the Rainbow show, and also Queen's 1975 Christmas Eve show at the Hammersmith Odeon (which also recently got an official release). There's also a show that's been on the bootleg market forever from Earls Court in June 1977 that's absolutely amazing. Not to mention the Queen at the BBC, which has been issued many times over the years with different titles, shows a great early example of Queen live.
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 12:56:01 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Oct 11, 2019 12:56:01 GMT
Brian's solo debut, Back to the Light, isn't bad. It's just not especially good, either. It sounds very much like what it is to me: a full solo album of someone who belongs as a key contributor in a band. Several of those songs would have been good Queen songs, but instead are mediocre solo songs. And then there are the worse ones, which just shouldn't have seen light of day...
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 12:56:45 GMT
Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 12:56:45 GMT
I have Freddie's Lover of Life, Singer of Songs collection and some of it I don't mind. Living On My Own is a good song. I'm not a fan of Mr. Bad Guy. I definitely wouldn't say I like his solo stuff enough to get the new box set. Roger's solo stuff is different from what I expected. I kind of expected him to sound a lot more Queen-like, and there are hints of it here and there, but in general he's a lot lighter and poppier than I thought he'd be. His first two albums are very strong in my opinion - they do have very 80s sound on them, but it suits the material. His first album, Fun in Space is a good name for it, and I think it's a good listen all the way through. A solid pop-rock album. I love that he pretty much made the whole thing himself - writing, drumming, singing, and guitaring, with some help on keyboards. The follow up, Strange Frontier, leans more heavily into the pop-dance realm. I like it just a little bit less than Fun in Space. But it has one track on it that I think is probably my favourite Roger solo song - Killing Time. I can't get into the third one, Happiness?. It's very 90s, very bland, and cheesy in spots. The two he made since, Electric Fire and Fun on Earth, I found CDs of those two but I haven't listened to them yet. Happiness? kind of stopped me in my tracks, but I'll listen to them eventually. I've heard almost nothing of Brian's solo work. Brian has released two proper solo albums - Back to the Light (1993) and Another World (1998). I think if you put the best song from those two albums together, you'd have a pretty good single disc. Brian's stuff is a little more Queen like, but I think he'd have really benefitted from hiring a lead singer.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 13:06:20 GMT
Post by bellbottoms on Oct 11, 2019 13:06:20 GMT
I'm mentioning this because Queen at the Rainbow might be my favorite concert film of all time. And I also think late 1974 marked the peak for Queen. Of course, they would go on to do many great things through the untimely ending of their career in 1991. But, for my money, the band were never better than they were at this time. I agree about The Rainbow '74 because it is incredible. Freddie's vocals were outstanding at that time. But I also have a real fondness for the Montreal 1981 and Milton Keynes 1982 concert films. Maybe because the there was so much more in the set list by then, but they also still sounded amazing, and Freddie's iconic crowd interactions had become a feature. Plus with the 1982 concert, we get to hear different interpretations of the Hot Space songs. I'm not sure I can choose a favourite between those three, they're all so good. Sorry to go off the topic of Sheer Heart Attack again. To bring it back a little bit... from all the concert films I've seen, it looks like Now I'm Here is probably their most often played song - it stayed in the live set list for the duration of their career.
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Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 13:11:08 GMT
I enjoy the 1981 and 1982 show as well, and there are several shows from 1986 available, must notably the Wembley Show. But, I tend to gravitate to the mid 70s shows because the early 80s concerts don't have enough material from the first three Queen albums.
You're probably right about Now I'm Here. I think it's the only song from the first three albums that was never absent from their setlists.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 11, 2019 13:14:10 GMT
Those early 80s shows are definitely great. No argument there. Heck, so are the latter-day shows. My argument certainly wasn't that they weren't great anymore, just that Freddie's voice wasn't at its peak.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 13:24:40 GMT
kds likes this
Post by bellbottoms on Oct 11, 2019 13:24:40 GMT
It's really a shame that there is no official concert film from 1976-1980. From what I've heard, their shows from that period were legendary. I'm glad we have Live Killers, but a companion film is very missed.
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 13:31:04 GMT
Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 13:31:04 GMT
It's really a shame that there is no official concert film from 1976-1980. From what I've heard, their shows from that period were legendary. I'm glad we have Live Killers, but a companion film is very missed. There are pro shot concerts on the market from 1976 and 1977, so I'm hoping they one day get released officially. I don't think there are any full high quality ones from 1978-1980 though. I'm a little surprised their Rock in Rio performance from 1985 has yet to get a DVD / BluRay release.
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 13:32:27 GMT
Post by Kapitan on Oct 11, 2019 13:32:27 GMT
There is footage, though. For example:
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 13:35:07 GMT
Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 13:35:07 GMT
The Houston show is one of the ones I was thinking of. Plus, their legendary concert from Hyde Park in 1976. Footage from that show has been used in various Queen docs, and in the official promo video for Somebody to Love.
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 13:42:08 GMT
Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 13:42:08 GMT
Getting back to Sheer Heart Attack, it's worth mentioning that Roger Taylor had written the title track, but it wasn't finished, so it didn't surface until three years later.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 14:51:04 GMT
Post by bellbottoms on Oct 11, 2019 14:51:04 GMT
If Sheer Heart Attack the song had been ready for SHA the album, where on it do you think it would fit? I’m thinking Side B, since it’s kind of the lighter side, and because Dear Friends is so brief. Not exactly sure where on that side though - I appreciate great sequencing but it’s not one of my talents, unfortunately. Maybe after She Makes Me, preceding In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited? In that way it kind of balances out Brighton Rock at the beginning of Side A.
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 14:54:25 GMT
Post by kds on Oct 11, 2019 14:54:25 GMT
If Sheer Heart Attack the song had been ready for SHA the album, where on it do you think it would fit? I’m thinking Side B, since it’s kind of the lighter side, and because Dear Friends is so brief. Not exactly sure where on that side though - I appreciate great sequencing but it’s not one of my talents, unfortunately. Maybe after She Makes Me, preceding In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited? In that way it kind of balances out Brighton Rock at the beginning of Side A. Probably somewhere on Side B, maybe in between Misfire and Leroy Brown. Frankly, I'm kinda glad it got left off. Getting ahead of myself, but the song Sheer Heart Attack is one of my least favorite Queen songs from the 70s.
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bellbottoms
Pacific Coast Highway
Posts: 727
Likes: 201
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Queen
Oct 11, 2019 15:08:26 GMT
Post by bellbottoms on Oct 11, 2019 15:08:26 GMT
I like Sheer Heart Attack the song, but I'm wondering if one of the reasons it didn't get finished for the SHA album is because it just wasn't really the sound they were going for at that time. I think it fits well on News of the World but yeah, that's a discussion for later.
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