| Daniel Nester 01.07.2008 16:02 |
Endless rhapsody How Queen trumped the punks By JAMES PARKER | August 7, 2007 Source: link If Queen had not existed, it would by no means have been necessary to invent them. Sweaty old 1973, the year of their debut album (the campily Tolkien-rocking Queen) was also the year of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure, Led Zep’s Houses of the Holy, King Crimson’s Lark’s Tongues in Aspic, and Bowie’s Aladdin Sane. The teen delirium known as T.Rextasy had just peaked, and Black Sabbath were chewing up stadia worldwide. Gender bending was part of the pop vernacular; vaudeville was in the air; the riff had already been turned inside out. There was no pressing need, in other words, for a new hard-strutting art-prog outfit with folk/pastoral pretensions and an estrogen-laced frontman in a silver catsuit. Yet here they were, garishly inessential and climbing like tarts toward superstardom. Listen to 1973’s “My Fairy King,” to Freddie Mercury’s tittering falsetto: “Dragons fly like sparrows through the air/And baby lambs where Samson dares . . . ” Now listen to it as if were a Ween song. Twice as good, right? The flourishes of minstrelly doo-wop, the wry formal mastery, the preposterous superfluity of invention . . . That was always the thing about Queen — they were a luxury. Music Video Distributors has just released a two-DVD set containing Queen: Under Review 1973-80 and Queen:Magic Moments. The magic moments — a collection of reminiscences from rather raddled ex-members of the Mercury entourage — you can forget about. Under Review, on the other hand, is quite educational. Did you know, for example, that long-fingered guitar boffin Brian May always used an old English sixpence for a pick? Or that Freddie himself once called Sid Vicious “Simon Ferocious” and then lispingly challenged him to a fight? (Now that’s a contest I would have paid good money to see.) As in the rest of MVD’s now-extensive Under Review series, a collection of rock experts — roxperts, if you will — opine with varying degrees of acuity on the music, between random bits of footage (some live performances, some interviews) and the somber pronouncings of a voiceover. It’s not a format that pushes the boundaries of documentary making, but if you love Queen, you’ll be lapping it up. Under discussion here is the fiery arc of Queenhood from ’73’s Queen to 1980’s The Game: the glory years. The initial ascent was steep. There were some very fancy moves on ’74’s Sheer Heart Attack — notably “Killer Queen” and the slow-pistoned rush of Brian May’s “She Makes Me,” as narcotically pretty as a Brian Jonestown Massacre song — but it was with A Night at the Opera (1975) that Queen really Queened out. This was their Kid A: an explosive broadening of range from which the band, though much success awaited them, never really recovered. What an album! Mercury, a daredevil of kitsch, tumbles through the styles (show tune, gonad rock, saucy seaside sing-along) while the mad Queen choir shrieks around him and May’s guitar impinges ironically in little stabs and flutters and the occasional dinosaur riff. The DVD leaves unexplored the relationship between these two men, which is a shame, because Freddie and Brian were a whole new twist on the sexual dyad of the hard-rock singer/guitarist. When Jimmy Page solo’d, Robert Plant would arc his back and whoop like Maid Marian having her bottom pinched; Pete Townshend could force a sort of orgasmic bluster from Roger Daltrey; Bowie fellated Mick Ronson’s fretboard; even AC/DC’s Bon Scott, the hardest of them all, would gurgle like a randy old woman over Angus’s chop-chop riffing. May and Mercury, by contrast, were not do-er and do-ee but some kind of Venusian perv conspiracy, otherworldly and mutually titillating, an erotic in-joke. Night at the Opera’s most prominent feature, of course, was the masterpiece “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Freddie’s suici |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 01.07.2008 16:24 |
If I print it out, I can make all kinds of things. Kindling for a fire, I can shred it to make bird cage liner, a somewhat effective sunshade if taped to the windows, if I was good at Oregami, WHOA! The possibilities there would be endless... |
| Daniel Nester 01.07.2008 18:18 |
OP = 0 Assorted Assholes = 1 |
| iron eagle 01.07.2008 21:20 |
Daniel i could use it as my bath mat cause i make it out to be dribble... had to slip in a gay mention too.... so typical |
| Daniel Nester 02.07.2008 11:12 |
I think there's some smart bits, and then some tropes used by every rock critic when writing about Queen. It's one of the more intelligent appraisals of Queen I've come across. |
| Daniel Nester 02.07.2008 11:13 |
Either way, Mr. Eagle, it would make for a small bath mat, don't you think? :) |
| PieterMC 02.07.2008 11:24 |
Daniel Nester wrote: Either way, Mr. Eagle, it would make for a small bath mat, don't you think? :)Not if you used a large font. |
| Micrówave 02.07.2008 11:34 |
We've learned about the Venusian perv conspiracy, so that's something. I think Freddie preferred Uranus. |
| Haystacks Calhoun II 02.07.2008 11:46 |
You'd definately want to use a large font, then, tape the assorted papers together. That would easily cover the immediate area in front of the bath or shower stall. |
| Donna13 02.07.2008 12:16 |
This line cracks me up: "The DVD leaves unexplored the relationship between these two men, which is a shame, because Freddie and Brian were a whole new twist on the sexual dyad of the hard-rock singer/guitarist." Well, I have always been curious about "what were they thinking" because I didn't see a lot of eye contact between them during a performance. (Whereas, if you observe Paul and Brian - it is different.) So, sometimes I imagined a power struggle or maybe a slight resentment (who was the leader type of thing) between Freddie and Brian. Maybe a "body language" expert should look at the performances. Ha. But I think most of those stage moves are posturing - copying what has been done already (though, in the case of Freddie, he had some pretty original moves). My mother has a theory that Freddie was just trying to take the attention away from Brian during guitar solos. Obviously he was unable to distract either Brian or Roger during performances, although I think there was an effort to make it appear like he was interacting with them in some way (other than musically) - except there was that lack of eye contact. From what Brian said, they were so good together that they could anticipate and/or instantly react to situations (musically) as they were happening. But as for this type of writing style, I don't see it as sincere. |
| Saif 02.07.2008 14:13 |
Brian and Roger hated Freddie! How can you people not realize that? XD They're both awesome though. |
| Daniel Nester 02.07.2008 15:02 |
I think it's certainly worth bringing up how Brian and Freddie interacted as being different or similar to other lead vocalists and guitarists. The writer is probably one of the first to bring the comparison up. |
| Saif 03.07.2008 02:58 |
Brian was always jealous of Freddie's majestic teeth and moustache. He didn't look at Freddie during live shows because he didn't want Freddie to realize he was secretly plotting to rip his moustache away and glue it to his own face. |
| YourValentine 03.07.2008 04:37 |
Totalitarian marching song, gay übermensch - where is the Nürnberg rallye? Do they even listen to the songs or do they just copy what was written elsewhere? There was interaction between Brian and Freddie on stage!! For example in Montreal 81 Freddie bit into Brian's leg during Sheer Heart Attack. Brian did not look exactly amused:) |
| gnomo 03.07.2008 05:14 |
Donna13 wrote: "The DVD leaves unexplored the relationship between these two men, which is a shame, because Freddie and Brian were a whole new twist on the sexual dyad of the hard-rock singer/guitarist." Well, I have always been curious about "what were they thinking" because I didn't see a lot of eye contact between them during a performance.I believe they were so "in tune" with each other that they did not need eye contact - particularly because they both had quite expressive body language and used physical contact a lot. I remember Freddie looking at chords over Brian's shoulder during CLTCL, biting the RS in "On Fire", diving between Brian's legs somewhere on the Magic Tour, and so on... link link FWLIW |
