Brian definitely had a richer vocabulary: the chords, the modulations, the structures of the songs (he's very intelligent in the way he writes intros taking parts of other sections of the song, like 'Teo Torriate' or 'Prophet's Song'). Roger is way simpler although that doesn't mean he's worse.
As for tastes, usually my favourite and my most hated song of each Queen album is Brian's. But I prefer Brian's solo career over Queen. And I prefer Roger's over Brian's. So it's kind of a tie
Brian was absolutely the best writer in Queen. Although there was no doubt that Freddie wrote the best songs from the period of 'Queen I' to 'Jazz', Brian always remained a great song writer through their whole career.
Freddie seemed to have a down fall in the 80s when it came to song writing, I wonder why.
"Freddie seemed to have a down fall in the 80s when it came to song writing, I wonder why."
Probably had something to do with the whole gay-clubculture in Munich/NYC where he was living at that point ;)
Oh, my...
It's a toss-up. Brian and Roger wrote about a lot of similar subjects and had a lot of introspective themes. I still think Brian's best song is Too Much Love Will Kill You, and Roger's best is Drowse. So much wordplay on both, very personal, very inner-feelings-laid-bare. Brian's really cuts to the bone!
Freddie wrote so many songs about friendship and love, and so did John. I wonder if he still writes songs or did his muse leave him when Freddie died?
Such powerful songs came from four friends who formed a lifetime partnership through their love of music. I admire them so much!
As for preferences - yes of course I like Fun In Space, Happiness, Electric Fire and Strange Frontier more than any Queen album, but that's not only for the songwriting, also for the production, the arrangements, the mix, etc
As for Fred getting "bad" in the 80s, I completely disagree: what about Was It All Worth It, Innuendo, The Miracle or Hang On In There? You can not like them, because there's nothing written for taste, but we can't say they're bad songs. In the same way I admit Joe Cocker's version of WALHFMF is good, but I hate it.
deleted user 18.06.2004 07:55
I'm delighted to see that you've a similar penchant for Roger's solo-work as I have.
Is there any chance of you expanding your excellent site to include solo-material ?
It's like comparing apples and oranges. they wrote completely different styles of songs. You cannot compare "Someday One Day" to "Sheer Heart Attack"! God!
I was also going to be Switzerland, but in the end I'm more China on this one.
I know perfectly well my opinion, but I'm damned if I'm letting anyone else know it.
"It's like comparing apples and oranges. they wrote completely different styles of songs. You cannot compare "Someday One Day" to "Sheer Heart Attack"! God!"
No, it's comparing songs to songs. "Someday One Day" is better than "Sheer Heart Attack." There you go. Easy as pie.