Queen

     I was channel surfing tonight and Palladia was showing an old Queen concert, so I stopped and watched for awhile. They were a few lines into "Bohemian Rhapsody" which is still my favorite Queen song. I was ten years old when it came out and it was the first song that opened my mind to what music could be. It was EPIC. To a kid, it seemed like a ten minute song with all those different parts and dynamics. It grabs you right away with the lyrics; Is this the real life / is this just fantasy/ caught in a landslide / no escape from reality. And Freddie Mercury's piano underneath is beautiful. Then my favorite line, I don't wanna die / sometimes wish I'd never been born at all, leads into the crazy Galileo mid-section. Then there's the part where they rock out and then Freddie gets behind the piano again to slow it back down. And then the gong. It really is a brilliant song. I still have my 45 record that I played the crap out of.
     After that they played "Tie Your Mother Down", which is a straight up rocker that soon had me playing air guitar. Then I started to think of all the great songs they recorded. Killer Queen. You're My Best Friend (I still have that 45 as well). Somebody To Love. We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions. Hammer To Fall. Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Fat Bottom Girls. They also had Under Pressure, the amazing collaboration with Bowie. And then there were the great soundtrack songs; "One Vision" from Iron Eagle, "Flash" from Flash Gordon and "Princes of the Universe" from The Highlander. Besides those 45's, I own the Greatest Hits I & II and News of the World. I recommend all of these to my kids.
     Not to be that guy that tells other people what to do with their lives, but... Queen died when Freddie Mercury died. I don't want Queen with journeyman Paul Rodgers or glorified talent show freak Adam Lambert. Sorry. Freddie Mercury was arguably the greatest singer in rock history and irreplacable. You can probably tell from my disdain of TV talent show singers and the bands I blog about that I don't prize trained singers. In fact I'm drawn to the Neil Young, Wayne Coyne, Will Johnson, Mark Linkous type. However, there are a few singers whose voices I enjoy listening to and they are:

* Freddie Mercury
* Jackson Browne
* Joe Jackson
* David Gilmour
* Ian Hunter
* Sade
* Donald Fagen
* Boz Scaggs

     Sorry about the rant, but don't continue to call yourself Queen. Peace.