| kozlorf 15.02.2011 03:57 |
It's quite common that people point out their favourite or most hated albums, but I think that choosing the best / worst LP side is somehow different. Actually, when most of the Queen albums came out, people used to listen and play separate LP sides rather than whole LPs - and it might have been, that they played one side many many times while never listening to the other. My picks are (even if I don't consider these two albums as the best / the worst (Queen II and A King Of Magic are the respective ones)): The best: Side B of Sheer Heart Attack - all the songs are different, but work well together, the opening and closing track have a common theme, so there's a feeling of a beginning and end of a whole; it somehow reminds me of Side B of Abbey Road; and no Roger Taylor song ;) The worst: Side B of The Game: even if I consider Save Me and Sail Away as one of my personal favourites, the remaining songs are for me the biggest set of junk Queen ever produced; two of them are Roger Taylor songs ;) |
| eggy 15.02.2011 07:03 |
The best side of music Queen produced is side B of Queen II. The worst excluding Flash / Cosmos Rocks would be side B of The Game for me too, besides Save Me there isn't really anything that grabs me. |
| The Real Wizard 15.02.2011 10:09 |
Give another listen to Sail Away Sweet Sister. It's one of the best tracks Brian ever wrote. But I can see how the rest of side B didn't turn your crank. Myself, I'd just have to pick side B of A Kind Of Magic, because of the filler in there. |
| Russian Headlong 15.02.2011 11:43 |
Side two of Queen 2 is the best, worst definitely side 1 of Hot Space, Utter Crap. Las Palabras, Put Out the Fire and Under Pressure are the only tracks worth listening to on Hot Space. |
| brENsKi 15.02.2011 16:24 |
queen II - side black akom - side shitter |
| ITSM 15.02.2011 16:35 |
Best: Side A on Queen (I) and Side B (black) on Queen II Worst: Side A on A Kind of Magic and Side B on The Game |
| PrimeJiveUSA 15.02.2011 19:28 |
Best: Side Black Queen II Worst: Side 1 "The Works"(although I love Radio Ga Ga). |
| Holly2003 16.02.2011 03:57 |
Good question, and difficult to answer. First thought for worst was The Game, side 2. But I couldn't pick a side which has the exellent Rock It, Sail Away Sweet Sister and Save Me. Next was side 2 of The Works. Again though, I really like Machines and Hammer so that's out. So probably A Kind of Magic side 2, but even that's hard as it has two of the best Queen tracks (WWtoLF and Princes) and two of the worst (Gimme the Prize and Don't Lose Your Head -- although the former is, at least, heavy, which is always good). I'm not going to jump on the Hot Space bandwagon as Staying Power and Backchat are good on side one, and Side 2 has Under Pressure, Life is Real and Las Palabras. Best single side is probably Side Black from Queen 2, Side one from Heart Attack, either side of A Night at the Opera (both great), Side 2 of Races or Side 2 of News. I'll go with the last one since it has a run of tracks which shows Queen's diversity and showcases fantastic playing and songwriting (I'll ignore Get Down Make Love and pretend it never happened :) "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" "Who Needs You" "It's Late" "My Melancholy Blues" |
| mike hunt 16.02.2011 07:15 |
Get down make love never happened?....wow, that's a shame since it did have an influence on artists such as NIN and the foo fighter's. Queen2 side black and side B from A night at The Opera is pretty much tied for first. Side A from sheer Heart attack is right there as well. The worst is maybe side A from The miracle. The first two tracks arn't so great, and Invisible man never been a favorite of mine. |
| Shaving Foamasi 16.02.2011 08:21 |
Toughie Best: Much as I love Side Black of Queen II, for me it comes down to either Side One of Sheer Heart Attack or Side Two of News of the World but I'll go for Sheer Heart Attack... Worst: Side Two of The Game is poor but A Kind of Magic has so much filler that either side may qualify - but I'll opt for Side Two... |
| Holly2003 16.02.2011 09:05 |
mike hunt wrote: Get down make love never happened?....wow, that's a shame since it did have an influence on artists such as NIN and the foo fighter's. In the case of the former, no big loss if NIN never existed. They should;ve been called Nine Inch Noise. Although they're big Queen fans, I don't see any evidence of any particular GDML influence in Foo Fighter songs. |
| MERQRY 16.02.2011 10:10 |
Holly2003 wrote: Good question, and difficult to answer. First thought for worst was The Game, side 2. But I couldn't pick a side which has the exellent Rock It, Sail Away Sweet Sister and Save Me. Next was side 2 of The Works. Again though, I really like Machines and Hammer so that's out. So probably A Kind of Magic side 2, but even that's hard as it has two of the best Queen tracks (WWtoLF and Princes) and two of the worst (Gimme the Prize and Don't Lose Your Head -- although the former is, at least, heavy, which is always good). I'm not going to jump on the Hot Space bandwagon as Staying Power and Backchat are good on side one, and Side 2 has Under Pressure, Life is Real and Las Palabras. Best single side is probably Side Black from Queen 2, Side one from Heart Attack, either side of A Night at the Opera (both great), Side 2 of Races or Side 2 of News. I'll go with the last one since it has a run of tracks which shows Queen's diversity and showcases fantastic playing and songwriting (I'll ignore Get Down Make Love and pretend it never happened :) "Sleeping on the Sidewalk" "Who Needs You" "It's Late" "My Melancholy Blues" ---------------------------------- Well in the 1977 argentinian "News Of The World" lp Get Down Make Love doesn't exists ha ha anyway for me the song is not bad at all.... |
| Benn 16.02.2011 10:47 |
For me - BOTH sides of The Works qualify as the very worst material I have on my shelves. The only saving graces are Keep Passing The Open Windows and Hammer To Fall, although these too suffer from the over reliance on synths and processors. Have to agree wholeheartedly with Holly - NOTW side 2 just pips Queen 2 side 2 as the best. |
| mike hunt 17.02.2011 06:51 |
Holly2003 wrote: mike hunt wrote: Get down make love never happened?....wow, that's a shame since it did have an influence on artists such as NIN and the foo fighter's. In the case of the former, no big loss if NIN never existed. They should;ve been called Nine Inch Noise. Although they're big Queen fans, I don't see any evidence of any particular GDML influence in Foo Fighter songs. no offense, GDML has never been an all time favorite of mine, but the way you made it sound as if it's one of queen's worst, it's a cool song as far as i'm concerned..... It was a part of queens set list for years, and is played on the radio to this day more often than most non hit songs. The foo fighter's have mentioned it. when brian played on one of their songs (could be solo) I believe either hawkins or Dave said they wanted some GDML styled licks from him. Just Recently I heard it on the radio (Eddie trunk). not bad for a horrible song. still played on the radio 30+ years after it's release. I'm not a NIN fan, but plenty of people are. |
| spaceboy1972 17.02.2011 08:45 |
At a push, would say side 1 of Hot Space, but then some of versions they played at Milton Keynes sound awesome! |
| Holly2003 17.02.2011 14:19 |
mike hunt wrote: no offense, GDML has never been an all time favorite of mine, but the way you made it sound as if it's one of queen's worst, it's a cool song as far as i'm concerned..... It was a part of queens set list for years, and is played on the radio to this day more often than most non hit songs. The foo fighter's have mentioned it. when brian played on one of their songs (could be solo) I believe either hawkins or Dave said they wanted some GDML styled licks from him. Just Recently I heard it on the radio (Eddie trunk). not bad for a horrible song. still played on the radio 30+ years after it's release. I'm not a NIN fan, but plenty of people are. No offence taken. It just doesn't float my boat. The guitar noise in the middle is a Zeppelin rip off and the suggestive lyrics are unoriginal. The only time it rises above average is the line "you make love, you make love etc" with Brian playing along with the vocal. Aside from that, it doesn;t match up to the great quality of the rest of the album. IMO of course. |
| GratefulFan 17.02.2011 17:54 |
I like some of the musical elements of GDML well enough, some quite well really, but sections of the lyrics are frank to the point of being distracting. It's hard not to be pretty keenly aware you're in the middle of a sonic version of gay male sex, and that does somehow get in the way a bit. Nine Inch Nails' cover and video tried to repurpose it as a sexy hetero grind, but it didn't really work. The tone of the lyrics is just subtly off for that. |
| mike hunt 18.02.2011 07:22 |
o please with that gay bullshit........Those lryics could have been written by a straight man. "I give you meat" "you blow my Head" i don't hear how the lryics are gay at all, it's just the homophobia in straight people that makes them think about such things. what are you afraid of?.....that you might like it?......Again, if a straight man wrote those same lryics you wouldn't think nothing about it. Freddie was writing these kind of sexual lryics way before Madonna was even thought of. |
| tcc 18.02.2011 08:39 |
I can't resist posting this: Everybody get down make peace :-) |
| GratefulFan 18.02.2011 14:30 |
mike hunt wrote: o please with that gay bullshit........Those lryics could have been written by a straight man. "I give you meat" "you blow my Head" i don't hear how the lryics are gay at all, it's just the homophobia in straight people that makes them think about such things. what are you afraid of?.....that you might like it?......Again, if a straight man wrote those same lryics you wouldn't think nothing about it. Freddie was writing these kind of sexual lryics way before Madonna was even thought of. ======================== Ohforgodsake. It's got nothing to do with homophobia in any way. My point is, though the differences are subtle, a straight man in unlikely to have written precisely those lyrics. Does the word "meat" rank highly in the seduction toolkit of your average heterosexual male? I would hazard to say no. Typically straight men do not structure innuendo around the phrases "I suck" and "You blow". They don't generally say things like "when you take me". I didn't say it made me uncomfortable, I said it gets in the way of me connecting lyrically with the song because I'm pretty much 100% sure he's not talking to me. Freddie's love songs though certainly almost exclusively inspired by romantic longing for other men pose no such problem because love is love is love. They're wonderful and universal. |
| maxpower 18.02.2011 15:16 |
I agree with grateful fan, Freddie knew exactly what he was writing & I've always thought the same, its not homophobic the world is way too politically correct |
| rhyeking 18.02.2011 15:54 |
I always saw "Get Down, Make Love" as primal and animalistic (is that a word?). Rather than being a clean, if naughty, tribute, like some other later songs ("Flesh For Fantasy" for example), it was a down and dirty (and fun) exploration. The "I suck" and "I blow" are cleverly turning the mental process ("I suck your mind, you blow my head") not into a wondrous, dreamy state of bliss, but into a base, carnal experience. "Gay" never crossed my mind at all. Besides, in 1977, wasn't Freddie still closeted and with Mary. I know that doesn't mean he couldn't write about "gay" themes, but the audience of the time would have thought "Hm, a song about sex," not "a song about *gay* sex" per se. It's not until it became widely known later in his career that he was gay that everyone would turn to his lyrics for clues that probably weren't there. |
| GratefulFan 18.02.2011 16:24 |
Freddie and Mary split in 1975. There's a whole lot of "everybodys" in GDML, and I'm sure Freddie was trying to write a sex song that worked universally. But Freddie was a gay man, and sex as apprehended through the mind and senses of a gay man has it's hallmarks. |
| mike hunt 18.02.2011 17:56 |
rhyeking wrote: I always saw "Get Down, Make Love" as primal and animalistic (is that a word?). Rather than being a clean, if naughty, tribute, like some other later songs ("Flesh For Fantasy" for example), it was a down and dirty (and fun) exploration. The "I suck" and "I blow" are cleverly turning the mental process ("I suck your mind, you blow my head") not into a wondrous, dreamy state of bliss, but into a base, carnal experience. "Gay" never crossed my mind at all. Besides, in 1977, wasn't Freddie still closeted and with Mary. I know that doesn't mean he couldn't write about "gay" themes, but the audience of the time would have thought "Hm, a song about sex," not "a song about *gay* sex" per se. It's not until it became widely known later in his career that he was gay that everyone would turn to his lyrics for clues that probably weren't there. Very true, in 1977 most people didn't really think of the gay thing with freddie.....kids were very niave in those days.... GDML was just a song about sex, and for me personally I don't give a rats ass who freddie was writing about in his songs...... when most people listen to songs they think about their own personal experiences. 'love of my life' i would think of someone in my own life that i feel like that about, not about freddie's love for mary..... Get down make love i might put on when i Lust after a woman or when I'm in a fiesty mood.....I'm straight, so naturally I would think of women.... ........how about Don't stop me now?....same theme in that song.....how .about My fairy king?...does it get any more gay than that? but the song rules. Being animalistic is a part of everyone at one time or another....straight or gay. |
| bitesthedust 20.02.2011 05:40 |
kozlorf wrote: It's quite common that people point out their favourite or most hated albums, but I think that choosing the best / worst LP side is somehow different. Actually, when most of the Queen albums came out, people used to listen and play separate LP sides rather than whole LPs - and it might have been, that they played one side many many times while never listening to the other. My picks are (even if I don't consider these two albums as the best / the worst (Queen II and A King Of Magic are the respective ones)): The best: Side B of Sheer Heart Attack - all the songs are different, but work well together, the opening and closing track have a common theme, so there's a feeling of a beginning and end of a whole; it somehow reminds me of Side B of Abbey Road; and no Roger Taylor song ;) The worst: Side B of The Game: even if I consider Save Me and Sail Away as one of my personal favourites, the remaining songs are for me the biggest set of junk Queen ever produced; two of them are Roger Taylor songs ;) Best side - Side B of Queen 2 Worst side - Side B of The Miracle / A Kind Of Magic |
| br5946 25.02.2011 14:14 |
The worst side for me has to be Side B of The Game - despite the fact I have that album on CD, I still can see a 'side-y' aspect to it (if such a word exists). The Game is the real low point for the band anyway (like I said in a previous post, it's their worst album for me), but the second side, i.e. CD tracks 6 to 10, is a ticking time-bomb which explodes on the last track. One impressive song (Don't Try Suicide), three songs that get a 'Meh...' rating (Coming Soon, Sail Away, Rock It) and one unspeakable load of rubbish (Save Me) - all in all, its the worst side on any Queen album. The best side has to be without a doubt, side one of ANATO. Flawless. As far as vinyl sides go, this can take its place alongside side four of Sandinista! and the second side of Purple Rain in the 'ultra-classic sides' department. The genre-hopping on the first side alone is incredible - metal twice (DoTL and Sweet Lady), vaudeville twice (Sunday Afternoon and Seaside Rendezvous), a blast of pop-rock (YMBF), spacey folk-rock ('39) and a shred through down-and-out good ol' fashioned rock with rebel attitude (I'm In Love With My Car). One of my favourite ways to kill time is to clear all the records in my record player, get ANATO out, drop the needle, and get lost in the music. Guilty pleasure? I'm sure its one for many of us on Queenzone. |