| iwantitnow 27.08.2012 03:16 |
I was watching Queen's performance at live aid, and I wonder why they didn't play another one bites the dust instead of crazy little thing called love. this way they would have played one of john's songs and this was just as if not as popular as CLTCL.. Also, without any sound check, using another guitar was more of a risk with technical difficulties. |
| Bresam 27.08.2012 03:23 |
Not the best of songs to pick for Live Aid, lyrically I mean. Also, AOBTD isn't the best song to dedicate to beautiful people. :p |
| j0ck3 27.08.2012 04:41 |
Because that year Roger was playing that horribly sounding electric mess. When a song is so consistently bad during a whole tour, bar the first night because it was played properly, I am glad they stuck to a shorter than regular CLTCL. It's half a miracle that it ended up being one of the highlights each night during the Magic Tour. |
| Johan 27.08.2012 04:42 |
So you feel that doing a song about "biting the dust", during a special show for people who have nothing to eat and are thus in a way literally eating dust, would be a better idea than playing CLTCL? |
| RalphM 27.08.2012 08:18 |
My own view is that the weak link (all relative, of course) in the set was Hammer To Fall. Playing to a global audience, including many non-Queen fans, the band rightly chose instantly recognisable hits that lend themselves to audience participation. HTF was the exception. Personally, I wish they'd gone for a judiciously shortened Somebody To Love, which ticks all the boxes: well-known, rocky and singalong-able. AOBTD was their biggest American hit, of course, but I just don't think it has/had the necessary 'oomph' on stage. I think they were wise to leave it out. |
| Holly2003 27.08.2012 08:41 |
RalphM wrote: My own view is that the weak link (all relative, of course) in the set was Hammer To Fall. Playing to a global audience, including many non-Queen fans, the band rightly chose instantly recognisable hits that lend themselves to audience participation. HTF was the exception. Personally, I wish they'd gone for a judiciously shortened Somebody To Love, which ticks all the boxes: well-known, rocky and singalong-able. AOBTD was their biggest American hit, of course, but I just don't think it has/had the necessary 'oomph' on stage. I think they were wise to leave it out.How would Brian have coped without one of his songs in the setlist!? |
| RalphM 27.08.2012 09:18 |
We Will Rock You ticks that box, does it not?! |
| Holly2003 27.08.2012 09:30 |
RalphM wrote: We Will Rock You ticks that box, does it not?!lol! Yep, sorry, my mistake. |
| liam 27.08.2012 10:13 |
Yeah, always though HTF is the odd one of in that list. It's the weakest of the lot, not a great song anyway. |
| Over the Field 27.08.2012 10:38 |
Bo Rhap and Champions are ballads, Ga Ga electronic pop rock, Rock You stomp anthem and CLTCL oldies rockabilly, so of course they needed guitar driven rocker like Hammer To Fall! Somebody to Love or AOBTD would have been more recognisable but the set list lacked the hard rock side of Queen. I think Hammer To Fall was an obvious choice being the newest rocker at the time. Now I'm Here or Tie Your Mother Down would have worked well too, I think. |
| pestgrid 27.08.2012 11:29 |
To answer the question.....AOBTD is very hard on the vocals (nodules)....freddie had been warned against even playing by specialists for his throat...my thoughts are that even hammer to fall was a bit harsh...but it worked |
| brENsKi 27.08.2012 11:39 |
he (brian) already had one too many songs in the live aid setlist as it was maybe something huge to replace hammer? but inretrospect it all worked perfectly on the day...so wtf do we know? |
| Wiley 27.08.2012 11:52 |
Wasn't Hammer to Fall their most recent single, excluding Thank God it's Christmas? I always thought that was the reason they had played it. But also the fact that it was their only proper hard rock song in the setlist. They wanted to show the world they had moved on from Hot Space, hehe :). Ok, now what if they had played "Staying Power"?? Without the Apology of course. :) |
| k-m 27.08.2012 15:10 |
I have ambivalent attitude to HTF, maybe because of its bombast production. But I think it worked perfectly well on that day and was one of the songs which actually made the performance so entertaining. Not to mention that it was their most recent (if not the current?) single. Good choice. |
| Micrówave 27.08.2012 15:43 |
Johan wrote: So you feel that doing a song about "biting the dust", during a special show for people who have nothing to eat and are thus in a way literally eating dust, would be a better idea than playing CLTCL? Now that you put it that way, hell yes. Right after Fat Bottomed Girls. |
| brENsKi 27.08.2012 16:13 |
Wiley wrote: They wanted to show the world they had moved on from Hot Space, hehe :). Ok, now what if they had played "Staying Power"?? Without the Apology of course. :)Staying Power live, comes in inclusive of the apology - you can't have one wihtout the other :-) |
| alebazux 27.08.2012 17:19 |
AOBTD sucked in The Works tour. It improved so much in the Magic Tour. It was Ok to prefer CLTCL over AOBTD, I guess. |
| the dude 1366 27.08.2012 17:40 |
I'm pretty sure they chose not to as they would have been lambasted for singing AOBTD when people were literally starving to death as Live Aid was on. |
| tomchristie22 28.08.2012 02:07 |
I really wish they'd played Body Language rather than that pretentious overproduced HTF crap. And yes, AOBTD would have been completely inappropriate. Supported by the fact that Freddie (most likely) omitted 'build your muscles while your body decays' from HTF for the same reason. Hammer To Fall is a highlight of The Works in my opinion. The lyrics are memorable and slightly thought provoking, and it's one of their uncommon straight rock songs from the 80's. The solo and guitar work are also fantastic. The fact that it was their current single seems to be the most logical reason they played it. Anyone else notice the slight irony here? That is, the criticism for playing a less obvious song, and playing one song that doesn't necessarily appeal to the masses among a bunch that do. There's not a shadow of a doubt that people would be complaining even more if they'd done the opposite and just played a 'greatest hits' setlist. So I think Hammer To Fall's inclusion was a good choice. It's also a highlight on the DVD in that we see a band member other than Freddie (-GASP-)! The filming frustrated me a lot in that sense.. I'd be waiting for it to cut to John or Roger.. and it just never did. Literally all we see of Roger is in wide shots between songs. I derailed that really quickly but yeah. |
| jamster1111 28.08.2012 02:13 |
I don't think it wasn't only because of the meaning of Another One Bites the Dust. I think it was also because Crazy i just an overall better song to play live... especially to please an enormous crowd. |
| Sebastian 28.08.2012 17:37 |
I think 'Dust' was omitted because of a combination of factors: * It'd have been too obvious, as it was their best-selling single. * Freddie, Brian and Roger may have been adamant to include their own songs on the set-list, Deaks probably shouted a bit less than the others, which resulted in the others getting their way. * Having both 'Ga Ga' and 'Dust' (or 'Ga Ga' and 'Break Free' for that matter) would've meant a large percentage of their set would've leaned towards the 'pop' side rather than the 'rock' side, and they probably wanted a different balance. As for 'Hammer to Fall', I also think it was a combination of factors, which were already mentioned by others: * Lyrics that were, indirectly, related to the whole 'contributing to a better world' idea, unlike the other songs which were basically entertainment, or had a different kind of thought-provoking message (e.g. 'Ga Ga'). * A rock song useful to ... well, rock, the crowd. * It was their current single (bar Xmas). * Brian may (no pun intended) have felt offended hadn't they included more songs of his. Last but not least, 'Crazy' was one of their most famous songs and one that worked very well on stage. Plus, Freddie wouldn't mind if a billion people saw him playing two different instruments on an 18-minute set. |
| waunakonor 28.08.2012 19:43 |
tomchristie22 wrote: Supported by the fact that Freddie (most likely) omitted 'build your muscles while your body decays' from HTF for the same reason.I always thought he took the mic away from his face for a second there just because he was distracted by that camera guy who was getting weirdly close to him. You can clearly see that he's still singing and that time, the microphone's just not picking it up. Then again, maybe your right. Maybe he omitted that lyric on purpose, and he just happened to be laughing at the camera guy at the same time. I never thought about that much before. |
| raucousmonster 30.08.2012 03:45 |
If Queen had sung AOBTD the British press would have roasted them for tastelessly singing a song about biting the dust - a phrase widely interpreted as slang for dying - before having a glug of champagne and then being whisked away in their limos. Not the right song for Live Aid and rightly left out. Hammer to Fall is a great stadium song and a nice piece of classic rock to showcase that side of Queen. It was a great setlist, showed everybody what they've done and what they could do. |
| flashalive 30.08.2012 03:46 |
would have picked under pressure as a better choice than HTF...... great song- timely and relevant for the event .... |
| Holly2003 30.08.2012 05:26 |
flashalive wrote: would have picked under pressure as a better choice than HTF...... great song- timely and relevant for the event ....Agreed. HTF is a weak spot in an otherwise excellent performance. Under Pressure was a hit, it rocks, and it's excellent live. Plus Bowie was there! They could've done a duet! |
| tomchristie22 30.08.2012 08:05 |
Bowie & Queen singing Under Pressure was indeed a missed opportunity. Did they have some sort of creative differences or something? I don't know a lot about Bowie's personal life. It always struck me as fairly odd that Queen & Bowie never played it together live, only separately. |