Hi all,
A friend of mine has started a series of classic albums podcasts and I took part in episode one to discuss my favourite Queen album A Night At The Opera.
If anyone is interested and would like to watch have a look at link and let us know your comments :)
Thanks all
Chris
Loved the banter and the chemistry amongst the pundits.
There’s another reason why Norman Sheffield wouldn’t be watching: for the past six years, he’s had an acute case of being dead.
‘Best Friend’ definitely works beautifully as a wedding song. The piano is actually a Wurlitzer EP-200 rather than a Fender Rhodes. I absolutely love the guitars on it, they fit the mood quite well, and the harmonies are magnificent.
‘’39’ is my favourite, it’s just lovely. Roger actually sang a G# but since the track was sped-up it sounds higher. Still, a G# is also quite impressive: even loads of women would struggle with singing it, let alone so powerfully and effortlessly.
I love that you all mentioned the bass work on ‘The Prophet’s Song’. I’d also like to mention the vocals, as they’re quite powerful. Keep in mind that Frederick had just developed nodules so it must have hurt to do it but he gave it all to his art, and then some – also, by the way, the fact he’d recently been diagnosed may have been a reason why Roger took over most of the falsetto parts on this album, as both before and after it was a bit more balanced (e.g. Frederick still did some of the very high bits on songs such as ‘Leroy Brown’ and ‘Great King Rat’, and then later on ‘Somebody to Love’ has flying falsetto singing by both of them).
Unpopular opinion: when it comes to ‘Love of My Life’, I far prefer the studio version: the classical piano runs, the gorgeous vocal harmonies (shout out to the late great Michael Stone, who worked his backside off to balance those multi-tracked bits and make them blend so lovely), the bass, the brief guitar choir which is reminiscent of a string quartet, the higher singing resulting from a different key choice.
‘Good Company’ would be my No 2 choice (probably not just for this album but their entire catalogue). It’s so close to being my favourite… the only problem is that ‘’39’ exists!
I personally do rate ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ over ‘The Prophet’s Song’, not because it’s more famous, but because I love the fanfare section, and because it’s a bit more ‘classical’, so to speak (even though ‘Prophet’s Song’ has that beautiful canon in the middle, which I adore). I do agree the song’s been talked about to death, but there’s plenty of fake news involved so I appreciate it when people come up with a fresh look and discuss it in a way which is informative and entertaining, as the three of you did.
"‘Good Company’ would be my No 2 choice (probably not just for this album but their entire catalogue). It’s so close to being my favourite… the only problem is that ‘’39’ exists!"
Sebastian, you said it so well! I totally agree with you.
Thanks for the comments guys, I'm glad you liked it. Sebastian, I know Mike has been in touch via YouTube. Would be fun to do another one in the future!