| agneepath! 11994 10.07.2004 07:44 |
This topic is really for long time Queen fans... when did you feel Queen reached their peak / or had made it to the big time? i can't answer this myself (being in my late twenties) and most Queenzoners weren't around from the start. Of course younger fans can voice their opinions on this but i really wanted older fans to remember the good ol' days... ta. |
| Whatinthewhatthe? 10.07.2004 10:28 |
Ooh, this is a good one!! I think they never "peaked". Queen kept everyone guessing with the release of every album. You never knew which direction they were heading, they kept surprising everyone, which was nice! It always had me looking forward to the next album after I played the newest one to death. Freddie's solo album (Mr Bad Guy) REALLY surprised me, especially when he appeared on a different label (Columbia). I took that as "I'm on my own for a while!" and really loved his effort. I loved the credits on the inner sleeve (very straightforward!) and that NICE picture too. Queen were changelings -- no-one knew what to expect next. I applaud them for being brave to experiment with so many new sounds. You can certainly say they were never boring! :-) |
| agneepath! 11994 10.07.2004 10:54 |
Of course "long time Queen fans" is a polite way of saying "older queenzoners" Off the top of my head i knew Lisa and Rien were fans from the start - but who else on Queenzone is? |
| GonnaUseMyPrisoners 10.07.2004 12:01 |
Me, for another. But this question... difficult to answer. From a US perspective: In the early days (74-75) they were really well-respected among "serious" hard rockers. Album rockers. Then they broke with the slightly more commercial success of Killer Queen & Bohemian Rhapsody & You're My Best Friend & I think that's when they solidified their fan base. But to paraphrase Brian's own words, they pretty much owned America around the time of The Game. Again in the US, it was them & REO Speedwagon battling for the biggest concert arenas. I have to agree. |
| jericho05 10.07.2004 12:10 |
I tend to agree. While initially they seemed a Zepplin-esque hard rock band they quickly surpassed what any of our expectations could have been. I have been a fan since the mid seventies and history will show the peak of the band in North America was The Game. Unfortunately it was this time that they also stumbled in many eyes and Hot Space had them almost totally off the radio here. Unfortunately a lot of North Americans were not as open minded as our friends across the pond. Almost everywhere else (and in my opinion as well) Queen remained at the top of their game until the very end. |
| Gunpowder Gelatine 10.07.2004 16:05 |
I think they really made it to the big time around the time of Bohemian Rhapsody. And they reached their peak in the US around '81 or so, but in the rest of the world, they stayed strong until the end. |
| SallyJ. 10.07.2004 16:35 |
Agneepath! wrote: Of course "long time Queen fans" is a polite way of saying "older queenzoners" Off the top of my head i knew Lisa and Rien were fans from the start - but who else on Queenzone is?Me, I suppose :) I agree with what Lisa said, they never really 'peaked', they were always different, following their own path, keeping their own sound . Even when they changed styles so to say, like Hot Space was a very new sound (I did not like it much!) but still very recognizable as Queen. Especially here in the Netherlands they were always popular (still are very often on the radio etc.), I don't really know how the situation was or is in other countries. But, I must add, when I was in school in the 80's when I was a teen, Queen was not really 'done'...many people liked Duran Duran and Wham! and Michael Jackson and so on. Not that it made a difference to me, I was a punk, very much into that scene, but still a Queenfan, I managed to confuse everyone (including myself) ;) I guess Queen always had their own audience and a loyal fanbase, and in the Netherlands that is still the same, I think it's safe to say that. |
| Rien 10.07.2004 17:03 |
Well... Queen of course were properly noticed with Killer Queen (yes that early) and of course claimed their fame with Bohemian Rhapsody. Being played by Kenny Everett every hour over the weekend and spending 6 weeks at no. 1 in England was a peak that (I guess) no-one had ever achieved before. With ADATR Queen surprised again (Somebody to Love is in my top 3 - along with Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody) but Queen was clever enough to change directions with every album. Every album was a surprise and whenever a new first single came out, it was something that blew you away and was something that was always surprising. It's said many times that in the early 80's Queen were going downwards. I was out of school already in those days so I do not know how the youth responded then. (I experienced Queen mostly on my own). What I do know is that Another One Bites The Dust was a huge hit in the USA and Brian May once said that when ABTD was number 1 in the USA they realised that for that second in time Queen was the number one band in the world. Every album after that had hitsingles and their 1986 tour was absolutely great. So... their last tour was one of the greatest. (Still talking about the 80's). When Greatest Hits 2 was to be released the record shops were advised to make extra room for Queen cd's later in the year (1991). On November 24th the reason became clear. Huge huge sales of Queen cd's followed. The Freddie Mercury Tribute was the biggest send-off in history. And now... living in 2004, over 30 years after Queen's debut, Queen is still played and still discovered by old and new fans. That money-make-machine called Queen is still paying off. If you got the name of Queen on your playlist then success is guaranteed... 46664 concert, Pavarotti, the unbelievable succes in Japan - in the early years and even now!, Queen in Amsterdam (got to mention that because a lot of us in The Netherlands went crazy when we found out Queen would come and play!), the WWRY musical is in it's third year and spreading around the world. (if you like it or not!) Queen music will be played in Benidorm. Recently Bohemian Rhapsody is chosen as the best single ever. And for 27 years We Are The Champions is played when whatever team has won. To me every Queen album has it's related memories melted in them, but without a doubt the ones of my youth are the most precious because that's when I discovered Queen and those were the years when I grew up. And believe me, I would never have guessed that after 30 years I would still be this busy with Queen-matters and be able to listen to their songs as if they were just released. Oh... and if someone had told me in 1974 how much money Queen would gonna cost me in all those coming years I would think that person would be slightly mad! |
| Whatinthewhatthe? 10.07.2004 17:58 |
"And believe me, I would never have guessed that after 30 years I would still be this busy with Queen-matters and be able to listen to their songs as if they were just released. Oh... and if someone had told me in 1974 how much money Queen would gonna cost me in all those coming years I would think that person would be slightly mad!" Lord have mercy, how I agree to that!! I never realised what an obsession Queen were to become. I think fans like us keep Queen up-front and alive and in the chips by buying their music, attending conventions every year and making new friends who have just discovered what a great band Queen are (and I'm not using past tense on purpose!). Freddie may be gone but he left quite a legacy. All those recordings, all those pictures and videos. Freddie will be immortal because of Queen, and I think he wanted that. We miss him yet we still enjoy his voice! |
| Whatinthewhatthe? 10.07.2004 17:59 |
"Of course "long time Queen fans" is a polite way of saying "older queenzoners"" Somebody hand me my cane...:-) |
| agneepath! 11994 10.07.2004 18:45 |
Thanks for your opinions! I always thought i was born in the wrong decade. my two hero 's are Freddie and Muhammad ali. i think you guys were fortunate to grow up alongside the music of queen. |
| goinback 10.07.2004 19:03 |
Here in the US it was probably with the AOBTD single and The Game. CLTCL had just been a hit, then there was a long wait and big anticipation for the new album (Game) and single, and then AOBTD was huge...that was about September 1980. And it was downhill from there :) |
| Brandon 11.07.2004 00:16 |
Why is this only for older QZers??? Can we youngsters not read a book and form an opinion ourselves? |
| Rien 11.07.2004 01:18 |
if you had just answered the question, I wouldn't have known you're a youngster. :-) |
| Daburcor? 11.07.2004 03:08 |
Well, My favorite stuff from them is from Innuendo/Made In Heaven times. So, In my mind, that was their peak. Quite the note to go out on... |
| egret 11.07.2004 07:44 |
Yes, this does place one in a generation, but NOTW was *the* desirable Xmas gift that year. (77?) They would get more famous with AOBTD, but for "rock coolness" that WWRY/WATC single, *before* it was a big sports cliche, that was a big moment. --Egret |
| agneepath! 11994 11.07.2004 10:23 |
"Why is this only for older QZers??? Can we youngsters not read a book and form an opinion ourselves?" thats exactly my point! we were not there at the time... sure we can read books and form our own opinions but i thought it would interesting to hear from Queenzoners who were there listening to Queen's music right from the start. I'm not saying their opinions are more valid than ours - but they might be different and based on personal experience not from reading books and articles - which is something we would have to do. |
| Penetration_Guru 11.07.2004 13:50 |
I arrived on the Queen scene far too late to have an opinion. |
| Daburcor? 11.07.2004 13:53 |
What if you are young, But have been a fan for the vast majority of your life? |
| egret 11.07.2004 14:28 |
The postmodern viewpoint would be that each generation creates the Queen they need, much as they do with Shakespeare. |
| Gunpowder Gelatine 11.07.2004 15:35 |
egret wrote: The postmodern viewpoint would be that each generation creates the Queen they need, much as they do with Shakespeare.Couldn't have said it any better, egret. |
| frejorobri 15.07.2004 05:14 |
I've loved Freddie ever since I was 4,and listened to AWBTD on record. |
| Roger's Beard 15.07.2004 05:42 |
All you young people. I don't know, eh! Yes, us oldies had the privilage of buying the singles and albums on the day of their first release (well, okay, for me it was "One Vision" onwards, but it was great standing outside the record store at 9am for the final few years), but from another perspective, I'm sure that most of us are envious of the NEW fans who are discovering Queen for the first time. I look at all these postings from folks who are asking what they should buy next and I remember spending 1986 and 1987 saving up and buying the albums second hand (That's all I could afford) from a market stall. I started with "Live Killers" and then "SHA" (which I didn't like !!!) so moved onto the later stuff thinking it would be better than the "early 70's rubbish". I finally picked up Q and Q2 last and was completely blown away! Q2 is my favorite album, and the one I played the most until the DVDA of NATO came out and I bought a surround amp purely for that. Ironically, NATO is the album I played the least, and now I love it!!! DVDA is like discovering NEW Queen songs - the buzz of getting something new and unheard is alive again. I've got my system set so I can switch off speakers and just hear certain instruments - fantastic!!!! Finally, like the "newbies", I never got to see Queen. My friend went to Manchester on his own and that prompted my Mum to let me go to Knebworth (I was 15), but on the day we went to buy the tickets from the bus tour company she changed her mind, having heard of some violence at another concert somewhere. "Never mind", she said, "You can go on their next tour when you're older". You can imagine how I elated I felt when "The Miracle" came out, but then of course, the tour dates never materialised in the press and the fan club were quiet..... :(( |