| ITSM 06.11.2015 03:25 |
Made in Heaven - released 20 years ago today. It was the first Queen album I bought on day 1, remember I sat a world record on my bike home from the record store. Still hoping for a Made in Heaven 2. |
| tcc 06.11.2015 03:32 |
20 years is nothing. All celebrations must be for 40th anniversaries. :-) |
| stevelondon20 06.11.2015 06:17 |
Still my favourite album. Love it!! |
| malicedoom 06.11.2015 08:02 |
20 years ago... Damn. |
| dave76 06.11.2015 09:06 |
I live in the Netherlands near the German border and i remember getting on my bike and driving through the freezing cold to a German store because over there it was available on the 3rd instead of the 6th over here. |
| Bike It 80 06.11.2015 09:41 |
And the Beatles' Anthology 1 was released two weeks later, it was quite an exciting time for me : my two favourite bands releasing "new" material after all these years! |
| Holly2003 06.11.2015 10:09 |
Too saccharine for me. AC/DC's Back in Black set the standard for posthumous tribute albums, and Made in Heaven falls far short of that. Good songwriters often discuss real life events by analogy, metaphor and allegory, but instead we have two songs with Heaven in the title, and with the album named after one. And Too Much Love Will Kill You is one of the worst songs in the Queen catalogue. One big yawn from start to finish. While Made in Heaven is clearly a Queen album, I regard Innuendo as their "real" final album. |
| kosimodo 06.11.2015 13:24 |
I remember being at a "i heard it first" party... Buying the cd, went home, got drunk, woke up during track 13, pretty far away... Took me years to really listen to it. Made in heaven and i was born to love i still skip. Too much love will kill you is despite being boring very nicely sung by Him. |
| andres_clip 06.11.2015 13:34 |
It felt like a couple of years ago when I was looking at The album thinking 1995 wasnt too long ago,that was 2005 damn....Great album, good artists, what a ride.. |
| maths15 06.11.2015 13:53 |
I was working at Hammersmith O for the play back. Too embarrassed to admit I liked Queen it's hardly classic, is it? The songs are in the same league as keep passing the open window and Pain is so close to pleasure. |
| Kacio 06.11.2015 15:02 |
My video Made In Heaven for 20th anniversary the album Enjoy |
| Marknow 06.11.2015 17:14 |
Can't believe it's 20 years. I remember buying it on release and taking it to a friends house, his parents were away. I sat down with 12 cans of Heineken and listened to it maybe 3-4 times in a row much to the annoyance of my friends who were not into Queen. They all own Queen albums now :) Remember it as though it was yesterday, it was very emotional for me knowing that Fred was so ill recording it at the time and knowing that it would be the last proper Queen Album. It's not a masterpiece but by god it is a very fine piece of work. I remember being so moved by Mother Love & A Winters Tale, still am to be honest. Brian, John and Roger finished the album beautifully without Fred. Late on in the night we all got stoned on hash and listened to track 13 repeatedly until the sun came up, happy daze. |
| MercurialFreddie 06.11.2015 17:27 |
I remember this day very clearly. My dad bought it on a cassette (I still have it), brought it home and played it. I was amazed by the tracks, even now it's hard to tell that it was worked on by only three members of the band. The very same day, as I went to bed I listened to it agin on my walkman and I was moved to tears by Mother Love. In 1995, the pain caused by Freddie's passing was still there, in many hearts, not only felt by Queen fans and I always thought that this particular album was a way to say "goodbye" by Freddie to us. It's very emotional album and I think that when we're listening to it we're automatically reflecting on Freddie's illness, pain and whole atmosphere in the Queen family during their studio work in 1991. |
| Marknow 06.11.2015 17:37 |
maths15 wrote: I was working at Hammersmith O for the play back. Too embarrassed to admit I liked Queen it's hardly classic, is it? The songs are in the same league as keep passing the open window and Pain is so close to pleasure. It wasn't classic Queen but at the time of release it did get an awful lot of play, the video for TCBHFE got shed loads of airtime on UK T.V. YDFM was a hit in the the clubs around Europe and got loads of airtime here in Ireland and elsewhere on the radio, still gets played sometimes. ML is a brilliantly poignant song and AWT has a lot of hope and love in it while at the same time painting a beautiful picture lyrically. I know it's easy to trash MIH and it's not everyone's cup of tea but in context it has some very fine songs and lyrics in it. Just my opinion though. |
| una999 06.11.2015 17:48 |
I Holly2003 wrote: Too saccharine for me. AC/DC's Back in Black set the standard for posthumous tribute albums, and Made in Heaven falls far short of that. Good songwriters often discuss real life events by analogy, metaphor and allegory, but instead we have two songs with Heaven in the title, and with the album named after one. And Too Much Love Will Kill You is one of the worst songs in the Queen catalogue. One big yawn from start to finish. While Made in Heaven is clearly a Queen album, I regard Innuendo as their "real" final album.Well I don't think I its meant to be a 100pc posthumous album. It touches on being a tribute but it's left over songs to form an album the songs could have been about anything whereas later ones like a winters tale are more true to 1991 than i was born to love you. class album and I don't see anything wrong with the songwriting compared to other queen albums. |
| Mr.QueenFan 06.11.2015 19:28 |
My favorite Queen record. Perfect! The most beautiful record ever made by a rock group. As Brian said at the time : "A labour of love." |
| Oscar J 06.11.2015 20:11 |
Why is it easy to trash Made In Heaven? Solid record IMO, with good songs throughout. Not their most exciting album of course, but quality music I'd say. |
| wOvANz 06.11.2015 21:06 |
20 years ago, I'm feeling so old |
| Sheer Brass Neck 06.11.2015 22:19 |
Why trash it? Creatively bare, mawkish, middle of the road, best of Celine Dion and Michael Bolton style of music, no rock and roll, manipulative and dishonest. For my money, worst Queen album by a mile and an embarrassment to the catalogue. And some love it and that's the beauty of opinion! |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 06.11.2015 22:50 |
Emotive record, the last good bye. Is not the best record, but have some very founded songs like Mother Love, You Don't Fool Me or A Winter's Tale. Even the songs from back catalogue, like the jam of It's a beautiful day or the hidden track were emotive. Not a perfect album, but emotive. |
| matt z 07.11.2015 00:31 |
Yeah. The concept could be called saccharine and manipulative, But it was daring enough to release positive vibes with the grim and gloom. I listened to the album first out of sequence (Freddie died in 91 I heard it in 2000) It was deeply saddening. Never mind the hubub of final songs. I didn't WORSHIP Freddie. .. I just knew hewas a fantastically gifted artist. I think it's a clever compassionate compilation. Releasing just the remaining 4 songs would be a disservice to the VENUE (*potential public spotlight on dead artist and musician) It was a late turn of events and did seem to be a labor of love. I think the album is great. As unusual and stoic as the words are from MLHBS it's a very unsung and bold song. I tend to register the album high on my "lists" 2nd or third because the depth of it IS emotive it's purely emotive Now if the surviving members ever sat down for an HONEST discussion of how the album was made you'dfindinteresting and disparate colors of influence for it all. It's beautiful beyond comparison for the two songs AWT and ML at the very least. Those two are damn near transcendent. Though I'd love to find out just exactly how much Freddie left them with the idea, I believe they pulled a gem m.. nay a diamond out of the carbon It's great. Fantastically so (literally - the album is a fantasy that DIDN'T happen |
| Lplix 07.11.2015 00:49 |
yes, I remember..... I bought it on the first day here in Italy in a store that is now gone (as most record stores here in Italy). I bought the white vinyl. I consider this album (although many will disagree) the last true Queen albums as I consider them real Queen |
| maths15 07.11.2015 02:15 |
Marknow wrote:I'd much rather have heard the tracks in the context of a box set as unfinished demos and skecthes. I also find their version of Heaven for everyone terrible. That's the third version of the song, talk about scraping the barrel.maths15 wrote: I was working at Hammersmith O for the play back. Too embarrassed to admit I liked Queen it's hardly classic, is it? The songs are in the same league as keep passing the open window and Pain is so close to pleasure.It wasn't classic Queen but at the time of release it did get an awful lot of play, the video for TCBHFE got shed loads of airtime on UK T.V. YDFM was a hit in the the clubs around Europe and got loads of airtime here in Ireland and elsewhere on the radio, still gets played sometimes. ML is a brilliantly poignant song and AWT has a lot of hope and love in it while at the same time painting a beautiful picture lyrically. I know it's easy to trash MIH and it's not everyone's cup of tea but in context it has some very fine songs and lyrics in it. Just my opinion though. |
| TomP63 07.11.2015 03:00 |
@Maths15, yep the album version of Heaven for Everyone is terrible, it goes on and on, on the other hand the Single version is much better. Tom |
| maths15 07.11.2015 05:23 |
TomP63 wrote: @Maths15, yep the album version of Heaven for Everyone is terrible, it goes on and on, on the other hand the Single version is much better. TomI like the spoken intro in the original. A bit of its time but I have found memories of buying lip when it came out. Not as his as strange frontier but a good solid solo record. Roger was strongest solo imho. |
| Martin Packer 07.11.2015 06:01 |
On HFE I really DO like the MIH version, but I consider the Cross one (with Freddie) significantly better. MIH has highs and lows. Some songs I really like - especifally YDFM (which is NOT to everyone's taste). If it lacks anything as an album it's Freddie's finesse. But I'm really glad they took the trouble, painful as it will have been. And maybe the pain is ultimately what led John to walk away (and Roger and Brian for a while, too). |
| Another Roger (re) 07.11.2015 11:56 |
I love Made In heaven. It makes me feel things no other album can. Its not the most creatve Queen album, but its very solid. I love the "cold winterish" atmosphere the entire album has. It also reminds me of some the best times ever as a Queen fan. |
| Vali 07.11.2015 12:47 |
Wow 20 years..... Fantastic album. A true labour of love. The internet wasn't what it is today, so it had mostly an old fashioned release and promotion. I didn't know anything about the record being in the works, so you can imagine my surprise when all of a sudden I caught HFO on the radio one day. I went like "what??? When??? Why???? How????" |
| Biggus Dickus 07.11.2015 12:53 |
I remember getting MIH for xmas in 1995 as a kid. I still like it quite a bit. Of course at the time I had no idea that it featured solo songs plus other stuff released previously. I think they did great job with MIH and IWBTLY. Those songs always had great vocals, only the instrumentation lacked. |
| Saint Jiub 07.11.2015 16:34 |
I remember going to a fan club premiere in Detroit before it was released. I recall that Track 13 played in the background while everyone yacked, before they played they played the first 12 tracks. |
| Thistle 11.11.2015 19:31 |
Despite some of the criticism here, it is one of my favourite Queen albums. It is the album that got me into Queen...having heard some of their stuff before but not really knowing who they were. I was a few days from being 15 when it came out, so what can I say? Only girls and football mattered....thank feck it was Queen that was my first real experience of music!! |
| Viper 12.11.2015 04:56 |
My 1st and favourite album! |
| k-m 13.11.2015 17:10 |
For me, MIH is behind all their classics (74 - 77 era + Innuendo), but not that far, actually. It's pop, but with a feeling. Obviously lacks a bit of fun and heavy elements, which usually happened to come to the rescue on Queen's not so strong records (e.g. Gimme the Prize on AKOM or Put Out the Fire on HS), but that's the way this album is. I think they tried to introduce this element with Born to Love You and Beautiful Day reprise, but somehow didn't succeed imo. The new songs were actually very good though and I love what they did with HFE, which is one of my highlights along with ML, AWT and YDFM. |
| winterspelt 13.11.2015 22:45 |
20 years? My God! I still remember the day I bought it! Now I feel a lot older! lol |
| Doga 14.11.2015 04:44 |
One of my favourite albums aswell, when i first listened to it i didn't know it was Queen's final album, but i liked it a lot anyway. You can be critic but i really liked the concept behind the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and the Made in Heaven album. In the west we tend to deal with death only with sadness and pain, and nothing else. I think what they wanted to do is deal with death using another approach,like saying: "Is, of course, sad, but let's remember him for how awesome he was and let's celebrate his life instead of grieve and do nothing about it" Make sense? |
| matt z 14.11.2015 18:15 |
Doga wrote: One of my favourite albums aswell, when i first listened to it i didn't know it was Queen's final album, but i liked it a lot anyway. You can be critic but i really liked the concept behind the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and the Made in Heaven album. In the west we tend to deal with death only with sadness and pain, and nothing else. I think what they wanted to do is deal with death using another approach,like saying: "Is, of course, sad, but let's remember him for how awesome he was and let's celebrate his life instead of grieve and do nothing about it" Make sense?yep. Kinda what I was trying to imply. By coupling the few remaining songs they had with existing pieces, they retained a positive flavoring on the album in spite of the bleak nature of some of brian's lyrics (ML)... the playful way they approached IWBTLY makes the album sound like a warm tribute to the man at times, that's really what it is. With the inclusion of My Life Has Been Saved it really makes for some positive thinking on the band's part whether they care to acknowledge it VERBALLY it is expressed that there's some mystery to the great beyond, and for whatever reason they feel that Freddie did his part and will be rewarded (if such a thing occurs) I understand some people's dislike of the blatant reincarnation tones on ML, but it's part of the theme of the song, kinda like a phrase from Son And Daughter "what'll you do for heaven, if it's back from where you came" (the womb -- i'm thinking; and further, the universe) Although they tend to disregard their lyrics (publicly) there IS a lot of depth to the concepts explored in the Queen music catalogue |
| *goodco* 14.11.2015 21:31 |
Had never heard The Cross version of HFE, or the Scandal B-side 'My Life Has Been Saved'. So, when this came out, it followed upon 'Innuendo' for most of us North Americans, it was a very good album. I thought the drum mix was too strong on MIH and IWBTLY, didn't care for YDFM (I skip it on my version, but love the guitar solo, and the Track 13 is good for five minutes). My goodness, it is a superb album. 'Let Me Live' and 'A Winter's Tale' are all time top 20 Queen releases. Listen to Led Zeppelin's 'Coda'. Very lame. And no 'Hey, Hey, What Can I Do' which should have been a no-brainer for inclusion (rectified on their remasters). MIH was a fitting send off, and better than anything from their 80s releases. |