Have you guys noticed the declining hairline of Roger? Wonder how he will look like in ten years, when they will yet again make and release another documentary on "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Aside from this observation, I would like to read your thoughts about "word painting" in Queen's album "The Miracle". "Word painting" can be defined as a musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of the song.
It strikes me, whenever I listen to Queen, that this particular technique is much more abundant on "The Miracle" than on any other record that Queen has ever made (aside from, perhaps, Innuendo).
For example, the very festive atmosphere of a party that is being emulated through the very large range of guitar notes, the crunching guitar riff and tempo changes on "Khashoggi's Ship"; the Caribbean backbeat in "Rain Must Fall" (the Caribbean notoriously known for its very heavy rainfalls); the very very nice piano line in the backing giving a nice structure to the steady rhythm that balding Roger lays down in "Was It All Worth It", emphasizing and highligthing that it IS worth it; the fast rock section in "I Want It All", reflecting someone who wants too much and who consequently lives on the fast lane; and so on and so forth.
It seems to me that the band opted to convey or emphasize messages through the musical atmosphere on the tracks, much more on this than on any other record that Queen had released previously.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Gregoryvincke wrote:
Have you guys noticed the declining hairline of Roger? Wonder how he will look like in ten years, when they will yet again make and release another documentary on "Bohemian Rhapsody".
Aside from this observation, I would like to read your thoughts about "word painting" in Queen's album "The Miracle". "Word painting" can be defined as a musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of the song.
It strikes me, whenever I listen to Queen, that this particular technique is much more abundant on "The Miracle" than on any other record that Queen has ever made (aside from, perhaps, Innuendo).
For example, the very festive atmosphere of a party that is being emulated through the very large range of guitar notes, the crunching guitar riff and tempo changes on "Khashoggi's Ship"; the Caribbean backbeat in "Rain Must Fall" (the Caribbean notoriously known for its very heavy rainfalls); the very very nice piano line in the backing giving a nice structure to the steady rhythm that balding Roger lays down in "Was It All Worth It", emphasizing and highligthing that it IS worth it; the fast rock section in "I Want It All", reflecting someone who wants too much and who consequently lives on the fast lane; and so on and so forth.
It seems to me that the band opted to convey or emphasize messages through the musical atmosphere on the tracks, much more on this than on any other record that Queen had released previously.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
LoL...slightly better than the Knebworth 86' press release you've announced :)
What was the official name again ? Ah yes I remember... "Stabbed at Knebworth86' "
Gregoryvincke wrote:
It seems to me that the band opted to convey or emphasize messages through the musical atmosphere on the tracks, much more on this than on any other record that Queen had released previously.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
I'd say you're actually pretty bang on with most of this. Queen always put this kind of care into their music - at least, when they were at their best. And this was a good and fruitful period for them. I've long been an apologist for The Miracle - poppy it may be, it's an excellent album. Better than the previous three for sure.
Whether or not the word painting things were intentional is another thing. Perhaps not as intentional as Ev'ry Valley from Handel's Messiah (literally every line of that piece is word painting at its finest - particularly "hill made low" and "crooked straight"), but it's definitely there in places.
Good post.