Mixing and clashing an outrageously eclectic set of influences—the close harmonies of the Beatles, the guitar pyrotechnics of Jimi Hendrix, the heavy sound of Led Zeppelin, and the glamour of David Bowie—Queen found a winning formula by channeling this strange cocktail through its charismatic frontman, Freddie Mercury. More than a decade after Mercury's death, Queen's fan base continues to grow. This meticulous, session-by-session, album-by-album, tour-by-tour chronicle of the band is the book that Queen fans have been waiting for.
Yes, for the most part that's the real information that people wanted. Stuff about songs, albums, concerts, releases, demos, etc, etc, etc.
It appears that Mr. Purvis wasn't privy to Freddie's bathroom routine, if that's what you're looking for.
I don't want to know about his bathroom routine. I just thought that if it listed songs and stuff, it was basically useless. Is there anything interesting about the songs or does he just list them and that's it?
Adam Baboolal wrote: Just a shame it's over £11. How big is this book?
424 pages.
Speaking as the author of the book, I'm going to remain fairly unbiased in that it was written by a fan for the fans. Quotes were used by band members throughout the years to explain the writing and recording processes of the songs and albums, but, as with any book, new information that has been reported is already old news by the time it hits the shelves. (For example: the book was submitted to the publishers by the end of September 2006 and came out in February 2007, so anything that happened between then -- for instance, Lover Of Life Singer Of Songs and the QPR recording sessions -- was regrettably not discussed.)
Die-hard fans will look for omissions. I do it all the time with other books of bands that I'm a fan of -- I'll read a certain passage and think, "Bah, that's wrong! That's not how it happened!" and so forth. It's only inevitable. As for Richy Mercury... well, you can't win 'em all. Those are biographies, whereas my book is a discussion of the music (and where the music can be found) first, and a biography second. Songs, albums, and live dates are listed, with information about each, with some ranging from a few sentences to a few pages. The book from which I drew my inspiration is The Complete David Bowie by Nicholas Pegg, which I can't recommend enough.
Thanks everyone else for the kind words, your checks are in the mail!
Ummm.... exactly which ONE book on that page contains the same info as Complete Works? Nevermind the fact that many of those books are either out of print or tabloid trash.
Ummm.... exactly which ONE book on that page contains the same info as Complete Works? Nevermind the fact that many of those books are either out of print or tabloid trash.
Ummm.... exactly which ONE book on that page contains the same info as Complete Works? Nevermind the fact that many of those books are either out of print or tabloid trash.