NOTWMEDDLE 10.08.2012 02:05 |
Let's see, my interest in Queen began early on but my mother (may she Rest In Peace) detested Freddie Mercury and assumed all of Queen were gay because of Freddie (which we know was not true). Then when my parents divorced I went to live with my father who uplifted the ban on Queen. Seeing their albums were out of print in the States when I started becoming a Queen fan (as in the original FOUR, not the Queen + fiascos) in 1990, my first illegitimate Queen album was a dub of the Elektra Records version of Greatest Hits (a great overview in my view) and was a fan of "Headlong" and "Innuendo" from rock radio playing the Hell out of those two tracks (which I kindly added to the dub of Greatest Hits I had). Then once I started buying CDs permanently in August of 1991, I was upgrading my Pink Floyd and Rush collections. Then in March of 1992 (at the height of "Bohemian Rhapsody's" resurgence) I finally acquired my first legitimate Queen CD and I went with A Night At The Opera thanks to my father at the local Strawberries Records and Tapes in Brockton, MA (five minutes from my Whitman, MA home). I played the album start to finish and said "Queen KICK F*CKIN' ASS, SORRY MOM (wherever you are) BUT QUEEN KICKED ASS". Then I went on a Queen binge recording copies of albums my oldest sister's ex had. The albums in order of when I nabbed first copy of each (not counting re-buys, newest remasters) and stores I acquired from : A Night At the Opera (16 March, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) News Of The World (3 April, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) Jazz (18 April, 1992) at NRM Music, Kingston, MA (I paid for with money mother gave me for Easter) A Day At the Races and Hot Space (both cassettes as CD player was in the shop being repaired) (2 May, 1992) at Wall to Wall Sound and Video, Taunton, MA (again with money my mom gave me) Live Killers (16 May, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) Sheer Heart Attack (30 May, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) The Game (4 June, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (my mom bought for me as she felt bad for bailing out of a visit due to a wedding she went with her third and final husband) Live At Wembley (5 June, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (I paid for it) A Day At the Races (6 July, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) The Miracle (14 July, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) Flash Gordon Soundtrack (31 July, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) Classic Queen (29 August, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) Maroon Greatest Hits (30 September, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (pops (my dad) paid for it) Hot Space (3 October, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (my dad and I split the cost) A Kind of Magic (18 October, 1992) at Strawberries, East Brockton, MA (my dad paid for it) Queen II (3 November, 1992) at Spinners (an indy store), East Bridgewater, MA (i got $14 in credit and they had a new copy of Queen II for $13 so I even swapped) Innuendo (Christmas 1992) at Check It Out (an old indy store), West Brockton, MA (my oldest sister bought for me as a Christmas present) self titled and The Works (26 December, 1992) at Strawberries, West Brockton, MA (I paid for with cash and gift certificates) Queen at the BBC (22 March, 1992) Spec's Music in Ocala, FL during Spring Break Made in Heaven (6 November, 1995) at Strawberries, Brockton, MA (I paid for it) Greatest Hits I and II (Gold Box) (17 November, 1995) at same Strawberries as other aforementioned Queen Rocks (4 November, 1997) at Sound Chaser (indy record store) in Hanover, MA with credit I got from turning in some loose end CDs. The Platinum Collection (24 September, 2002) at Quincy Records (where I worked at at the time), Quincy, MA Live at Wembley Stadium (20 August, 2003) at Sound Chaser Queen On Fire Live at the Bowl (9 November, 2004) at Best Buy in Charleston, South Cackalacka Queen Rock Montreal (30 October, 2007) at Sounds Good Music, Port Saint Lucie, FL (where I worked at the time) I didn't add Greatest Hits III, Queen Collection nor Crown Jewels nor A Night at the Opera CD/DVD the 2011/2012 remasters. I |
Dubroc 10.08.2012 05:58 |
NOTWMEDDLE wrote: Let's see, my interest in Queen began early on but my mother (may she Rest In Peace)DETESTED Freddie Mercury and assumed all of Queen were gay because of Freddie (which we know was not true).Detested? Really? Your mom was anti gay? |
The Real Wizard 10.08.2012 10:43 |
Yup. I'd say it was the norm 20 years ago. In fact, in much of the US it still is. |
Sebastian 10.08.2012 15:37 |
In much of the world, unfortunately. |
AlexRocks 10.08.2012 19:46 |
I ought to write up something like that... |
MadTheSwine73 10.08.2012 20:18 |
It is very sad that people are still anti-gay. |
Wiley 10.08.2012 20:53 |
I became a fan 20 years ago also. Actually, it's kinda funny you bought ADATR and Hot Space on the same day. Those were the first two Queen CD's I ever owned. Can you think of two other Queen albums more diametrally different? I remember thinking how diverse they were and found it cool that they had a song in Japanese and one (partially) in Spanish. What did you think listening to these two back to back? |
Dubroc 12.08.2012 03:32 |
I detest all conservatives.... |
dysan 12.08.2012 03:44 |
1992 was quite a year for you! I love tales like this. I could probably remember all mine in order, but not the dates! It started with GH1 sometime in 1983 or 4 listening to Flash Gordon repeatedly (I was very little) and finally exploring the rest of the record, my interest being started by the madness of Seven Seas Of Rhye. Which, by a masterstroke of tracklisting, has a similar dynamic to Flash. Without that song being programmed after FG I doubt I would've got into them. Lets face it, to a 7 year old, AOBTD just doesn't do it. |
ParisNair 12.08.2012 10:33 |
This thread reminded me of an ancient thread, and I quote myself from there...link
We had just 1 (maybe 2) TV channel out here in India back in 1991, and my entire family used to sit and watch "The World This Week" - a weekly round up of news from around the world. They showed footage of King Mercury from the Magic Tour (probably Wembley) and they said he had died of AIDS. I was 10 years old, understood very little English and had zero knowledge of western/rock music. But I remembered the name because they said this guy was of "Indian origin", and this was also the first time I had heard of the disease. In 1993 my uncle came visiting from abroad and gifted me his collection - Boney M, ABBA, Michael Jackson. I still did not know anything about Queen but got some exposure of western music, eventhough what I was hearing was alreday outdated (did not know that at the time). I started tuning in to FM radio stations and one of the those had a daily 1-hour western music show. I liked what I heard, and they also played Queen numbers like Ga Ga and Magic. They never forgot to mention Fred's name and his India connection :)and I really liked the numbers. The late 90s saw the introduction of cable TV, and I had at my disposal an entire TV channel that played western music 24/7 - MTV. What MTV did was that it opened me up to a lot of contemporary western music, and I developd a liking for the harder stuff. They hardly played any classic videos, but I do remember being shocked once watching 4 men dressed in women's clothes and incredibly it was Queen again. I felt the need to hear more from this band but was not a fan or anything, not yet. Come 2000, I got my first PC and guy who set it up for me also put a lot of mp3s, and that included WWRY, WATC(I had heard these before, but did not know that they were Queen numbers), IWTBF, TMLWKY. I realiased that I had liked every song of this band that I heard, and that was a first. I started working soon, so purchased some CDs (very difficult to get their material over here in Mumbai) and soon I was a hard-core fan. There are very few Queen numbers that I find boring, and I like their lesser known numbers more than the popular ones. I prefer hard rock today, which causes me to drift to GnR, Led Zepp, but for me its still Queen on one side and all others on the other. |
ParisNair 12.08.2012 10:40 |
I have gotten bored of GnR and never truly got into Led Zep, eventhough I appreciate them. I find myself listening a lot to Don Henly solo and Martika (!). I am also surprised that I started liking Rolling Stones lately, and I could not stand them earlier! |
AlexRocks 12.08.2012 11:11 |
"Toys Soldiers" Martika?! Yeah! I've always LOVED that song since I was ten years old or something...now I'm 35. Lol. Amazing song...I think it is written by Prince under a psuedonym or what have you...I think. |
NOTWMEDDLE 12.08.2012 16:31 |
dysan wrote: 1992 was quite a year for you! I love tales like this. I could probably remember all mine in order, but not the dates! It started with GH1 sometime in 1983 or 4 listening to Flash Gordon repeatedly (I was very little) and finally exploring the rest of the record, my interest being started by the madness of Seven Seas Of Rhye. Which, by a masterstroke of tracklisting, has a similar dynamic to Flash. Without that song being programmed after FG I doubt I would've got into them. Lets face it, to a 7 year old, AOBTD just doesn't do it.I created this thread because I was re-organizing my Queen CD collection and buying the current remasters and remember where I was when I first heard each album. If I hadn't had the illegal dub of Queen's Greatest Hits (the original US Elektra/Asylum edition) who knows if I would have become a Queen fan. |
NOTWMEDDLE 12.08.2012 16:39 |
Dubroc wrote:She was heavy into rock and roll (Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Billy Squier, Journey, Heart, Styx, Bob Seger, Skynyrd, Allman Brothers) but I think didn't like Freddie's flamboyant stage presence nor "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody to Love", "Another One Bites the Dust". I think she was slightly homophobe (referred to Freddie as Freddie Faggot (I just laughed it off (I thank Christ I have Autism/Aspergers to prevent me from getting pissed off))).NOTWMEDDLE wrote: Let's see, my interest in Queen began early on but my mother (may she Rest In Peace)DETESTED Freddie Mercury and assumed all of Queen were gay because of Freddie (which we know was not true).Detested? Really? Your mom was anti gay? My mother used to mock Queen lyrics (why I'll never know). What I do know is she liked David Bowie, Rob Halford and Judas priest and some hair metal bands who wore makeup than your average woman but why her disdain for Queen I'll never know. |
NOTWMEDDLE 12.08.2012 16:46 |
Wiley wrote: I became a fan 20 years ago also. Actually, it's kinda funny you bought ADATR and Hot Space on the same day. Those were the first two Queen CD's I ever owned. Can you think of two other Queen albums more diametrally different? I remember thinking how diverse they were and found it cool that they had a song in Japanese and one (partially) in Spanish. What did you think listening to these two back to back?I put Races on my Walkman in the car while my older brother hogged my mom's car radio listening to rap and by the end of Side 1 I was saying "this may be better than Opera". What spurred me to nabbing it was "Somebody to Love" and "Tie Your Mother Down". Then on the VH1 US airing of Magic Years documentary heard a bit of "Drowse" and part of "Teo Torriate" as that was on the Days of Our Lives Documentary made in 1991. The rest of the album blew me away and managed to wear the cassette out in two months flat. Then after finishing Races, I got home and my CD player was back from the repair shop (my brother used to slam on disc player door like a gorilla and I'd get pissed about it) and I took the stereo downstairs (to my room) and put on Hot Space and I said "this is different but good". Only having known "Body Language" and "Under Pressure" I said "let's go for broke". Then I heard a snippet of "Las Palabras" on the VH1 US airing of The Magic Years and liked and another reason why I nabbed Hot Space. The drum machines and synthesizers were different but I liked nevertheless. |
NOTWMEDDLE 12.08.2012 17:05 |
Dubroc wrote: I detest all conservatives....I detest liberals and neo-cons and politicians in general, they are all the same and all buddy buddy but like to make fools of us all. I'm happy to say that I came from one of Queen's biggest strongholds in the States (being Massachusetts which I moved back to this past March) so becoming a Queen fan was not a problem. When I went to South Carolina (where my older sister lives), Queen were (and still are) frowned upon in that redneck infested hole. Funny story when I bought Queen On Fire Live At the Bowl on CD the day of release, they had new releases out by Toby Keith, Shania Twain and Britney Spears at front display and I was saying "where the Hell is the new live Queen album" and some hick who worked there said "who gives a fuck about Queen" so I just ignored, went to the Queen section and there were about 10 to 20 copies so I nabbed one right there, paid for it, ran to the car and put the disc on in my car and said "what an inbred asshole, how dare he trash Queen, the blasphemer"). A few days later, went back to same Best Buy and bought another (well, my father paid for copy #2)! When I came back from nabbing copy #2 and put on my stereo system (my dad went to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting so I could blast Queen to 11 (I don't smoke nor drink nor drug (I'm allergic to all three and could trigger Autism into bad state)), I called one of my best friends here in Massachusetts, a woman I went to college with named Danielle (who was a dead ringer for Stacy Keibler at the time (but hotter) and I'm still friends with her today) and was about to leave a message when she called me right back from a wedding she was at (which was actually a country hoedown) and the first notes of "The Hero" from On Fire began when I answered and greeted her with a Freddie Mercury type greeting which caused her to laugh. Told her if I was up there, I'd sabotage the country music fans with Queen's bombastic rock and her response of "Terrence, you're too funny" made me laugh. Always a story (all of which are TRUE, no BULLSHITTING FROM ME) when I acquired some of the albums I've owned over the years. |
Dubroc 13.08.2012 03:36 |
By all conservatives I didn't mean a political side. I meant conservative people who have strange opinions due to religion or other traditional old fashioned uprising. It is still weird to me if you are in the "wrong state" beeing a Queenfan could be a problem. I'm just glad to live in western Europe. Over more than 30 years no-one ever made any negative comment to me about Freddie beeing gay. Some people just had other musical interests and maybe didn't like Queen. Well, I didn't like Micheal Jackson, Depeche Mode, Tears For Fears, Aha, and a lot of other bands... I met a new fan a couple of months ago (14 y.o.) and she's now educating her friends about Queen. I told her she should be proud to be a fan. She may be different to the rest of the kids only because she prefers older music. (I mean REAL music). I considder myself a liberal person in the true meaning of the word liberal; beeing free of mind. I don't know much about American politics, but issues such as gay marriage aren't a problem in my country... |
dysan 13.08.2012 11:50 |
I'm going to attempt to remember the order of my Queen album purchases: GH1 (parents LP collection '83 ish?) Queen 1 (taped by a pal of my brothers for 50p '85) Live Magic (tape - Christmas pressie '86) NOTW (tape - WHSmiths in town) ANATO (LP - WHSmiths in town) Live Killers (tape - Woolworths in Carmarthen) Jazz (tape - can't remember!) Bugger. That takes us to about '88. I might even have NOTW and Live Magic the wrong way around. Add to that the AKOM 7" when it was released and I was aware of Radio Gaga and IWTBF at the time but never got them. I think my mum gave in not buying singles by the time AKOM came out. I'm pretty sure Staying Power was played a lot in the bars in a couple of french resorts around '83, but I only sussed that once I got HS. |
dysan 13.08.2012 12:30 |
Actually, LK and ANATO are the wrong way around too. Thinking about it, I would never have wanted to listen to Flash if it wasn't for a promotion on the back of Weetabix for the film giving away cards with scenes from the film on it. I didn't see the film even until after I listened to the song. Curious. |
Dubroc 13.08.2012 12:41 |
Back to topic: I only can remember my first few records. The Game & News Of The World (for my 10th birthday) Under Pressure - first 7" (Plato local recordstore) ANATO (a relative bought it for me in London) ADATR / Queen / Queen 2/ SHA I bought at Plato's who traded old records. Every record I got hold on I swapped for a Queen album. Hot space (bought for my vacation by the lakes, to play in my Walkman). Every other album I bought when it was released (till present day that is). |
dysan 13.08.2012 15:03 |
Interesting to see NOTW is quite early in people's lists - I guess the cool cover does it's job. |
AlbaNo1 13.08.2012 16:29 |
I remember those Weetabix cards! Oddly enough Flash was my first ever single. Might have been the first film I saw at the cinema. I remember getting my head down listening to the stereo in each speaker. But seeing as I must have been only 5 or so I didnt get into Queen proper until playing my mums Greatest Hits tape to test out a new ghetto blaster a few years later. I was spellbound by the opening of Bohemian Rhapsody.A Kind of Magic was the new record out at that point and would have been my first actual Queen purchase. Then I got everything - no idea of the order now but it would have been totally random. A great musical journey and education. |
AlexRocks 13.08.2012 21:55 |
"News Of The World" surprises you? How could it?! It has "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions". It totally makes sense far over any other release I would say other than some version of "Greatest Hits". |
AdamMethos 14.08.2012 00:48 |
I'm a "greatest hits" fan that is just getting more serious in my appreciation of Queen, so my album list is short. :D I discovered Queen in the 80s when I was in high school. I knew the famous songs, BoRhap, WWRY/WATC, and remember seeing music videos for I Want To Break Free and Radio Ga Ga on MuchMusic here in Canada. I liked the music but didn't find it special enough to buy the albums. (I was really into Duran Duran, Wham!, Culture Club and Michael Jackson at the time.) In 1997 a friend introduced me to the Highlander TV show, which I became a huge fan of. I found the Highlander movie after that and LOVED the soundtrack. So my first album purchase was AKOM. I also bought GH1 and 2 so I could check out more of Queen's music. I spent the next several months wearing out those three CDs. I don't remember how long after, but it wasn't more than a year, I bought my next Queen CD -- Made In Heaven, because it was the only CD where all of the songs were not duplicated on the other CDs I had. I loved MIH but I had no idea it was Queen's last album and no idea there was a hidden track on it. (I finally listened to the hidden track a couple months ago after finding out about it here! Haha.) After that, I found other interests and stopped buying new music and following music in general. I still listened often to the CDs I already had though. Fast forward to Sept. 2011, I saw Marc Martel's QE audition video and was amazed like most people, especially because STL was my favorite Queen song at the time. I started following the contest and chatting on YouTube with some other avid contest followers. One of them was a longtime Queen fan who often included interesting factoids and trivia about Queen in her commentary. So I started hearing more Queen songs in a random way from looking up songs mentioned in YouTube comments then following related links as they interested me. After the QE contest ended, chatter on YouTube died off, so I started lurking here and at QOL to get a Queen fix. May 2012 rolled around, I saw QE in Toronto, heard ITLOTG Revisited for the first time and loooooved it. Soon after that, I got the Sheer Heart Attack album on iTunes. I also got News of the World because, also being a scifi fan, it's the only Queen album cover I recognized and remembered from when I first saw it in the 80s. Haha. Now I'm just about ready to buy my next pair of Queen albums. I'm leaning towards Hot Space (just to see what all the controversy is about haha) and Innuendo. |
GratefulFan 14.08.2012 00:53 |
Gotta get ANATO and ADATR before Hot Space! I mean please! :) |
AdamMethos 14.08.2012 01:14 |
Haha! Maybe ANATO, ADATR and Hot Space then. I'm just dying to hear Hot Space to see what the fuss is about. :P One thing I learned from Sheer Heart Attack is that it's really worth listening to album tracks in order, at least for the first time. I already know a few songs from all of Queen's albums. I don't want to YouTube all the songs I don't know before buying an album because I want to still have some surprise and delight at hearing "new" Queen songs in the way they were intended. |
Dane 14.08.2012 05:20 |
On November 25th 1991 news reached our home Freddie had died. That evening my parents decided to watch their previously recorded Live in Budapest tape. Me and my brother watched with them. Before that day I always assumed Freddie was the bad guy from Schwarzeneggers 'Commando' (mind you I was 10 at the time) I can very much remember how many of the songs sounded familiar and during the next hour or so it dawned on me that this band (and Freddie) had provided a large part of the soundtrack to my life up to that point. The (to me at this age) mystery surrounding Freddies death intrigued me endlessly and my fascination was born. I started to listen to our only album we had; Greatest Hits II, at Christmas followed Greatest Hits I. A friend of my brother had Innuendo and made a copy for me on cassette early 1992. The first album my parents bought me was Queen II which I got on April 27th 1992. (absolutely great way to start!!) Second album was Sheer Heart Attack which I got for having my wisdom teeth pulled. This was 1993. Listened to it front to back with headphones on.. astounding! Friend of mine had gotten Queen I and Barcelona so I made copies on cassette.. also 1993 Jazz, Flash Gordon, The Game I bought in a second hand record store in Middelburg, Holland in 1993. My Queen II CD had extra tracks (Hollywood) so I figured I'd best try to get all albums from Hollywood to get more bang for my bucks. Hence followed A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races in 1994 from Hollywood. By that time we had this huge music catalog at home from which I could order CD's. The first one of which would be News of the World. No Hollywood version though, but the new Digital Master Series in 1994. That same friend now had A Kind Of Magic and The Game, so again I made a cassette copies. Next I wanted to order either The Works or Hot Space from Hollywood. Unfortunately the music store only had Hot Space. This was in 1994. The Works soon followed. Because of the three vinyl albums I owned I liked Jazz the best, I bought this on CD as well (Hollywood) early 1995. Early December 1995 my dad had casually put on an unknown song from Queen to surprise me.. this was to be from Made In Heaven. I knew the album had not been released yet, however my dad had some connections and got a copy before it hit the stores. Late December 1995 my dad went to Indonesia and bought The Miracle for me as a present. ...the rest of the story maybe some other time. |