Found this show a bit unsatisfying personally. Lots of time taken up by various randoms saying "the album's good" in as many different ways as possible. Lots of time taken up with clips of the anniversary edition videos. Lots of time taken up with the usual tired old Bohemian Rhapsody stuff. After all that, not much time was devoted to going over the individual songs (which I thought was the point of the show). Most of the songs they just talked a bit about what the song was about, as opposed to going into how it was made. Sweet lady was completley skipped over, with a quick live snippet of it shown and the song not actually discussed at all, The Prophet's Song was not mentioned or represented in any way in the entire show (!?), ditto God Save The Queen (save being played over the credits).
The whole show was done in quite a rushed and superficial way, and didn't really begin to scratch the surface or redress much of the balance of people thinking of ANATO as "the one with Bohemian Rhapsody on it".
The show seems to serve more to give an introduction and overview of the album for new listeners than giving existing fans of the album any indepth information or explanations about how it was put together. And if it gets new people into the album fair enough, but frankly with a graveyard shift schedule slot like this I imagine it's only the existing fans who will have watched the show.
I can only wonder if the forthcoming DVD release will feature a longer, uncut version of the show?
Anyway, it was very interesting to hear Brian and Roger discussing John's reclusive lifestyle.(Roger: "He just doesn't like meeting people"
Brian: "You'd have to ask John who You're My Best Friend's about, and I don't think he's in any mood to answer now")
Enough good moments to make it worth watching anyway, it's just that it could have been so much better. They had Brian, Roger and Roy, (though not at the same time it seemed), they had the studio and the master tapes.. they could have really delved into the songs without glossing over or omitting entirely any of them. It's a long album to cover in 50 mins of course, but if they cut out all the rubbish with Nuno Bettencourt going "Blah blah blah, I like Queen" and all that, they could have squeezed The Prophet's Song, Sweet Lady and God Save The Queen in and still fleshed out the examinations of the other songs.
I have to agree Last Cyborg
It would have been far better if they had allowed Brian and Roger to talk more than other people stating how good the album was.
I cannot inderstand why they left out the prohets song as they were talking about the harmonies a lot of the time and this certainly has a few ;)
At least we did have some more recent interviews with Brian and Roger and did get some insight into the album.
Anyway it's definitely more interesting, than anniversary DVD. Acoustic version of IILWMC means more than the 15 times remastered old album and useless videos, IMHO.
This was essentially a TV edit of the DVD which is coming out in March, which I think is about 50 minutes longer.
No doubt Prophet's Song, Sweet Lady and GSTQ will be dissected then, as well as there being a lot more detail overall regarding the other tracks.
I cannot wait, and personally thought the programme last night was awesome. Something that's double the length of that can only be heavenly.
Bring on March.
Did you hear brian singing love of my life while playing the guitar, his voice sounded a bit croaky made me laugh a bit, it was ok i suppose just like any other documentary, why there gonna bother bringing it out on dvd though why not give us another concert, and why was it on so late at night, 12.30 what the heck
Thought it was quite good overall, some nice features about songs (like how the tinny Seaside Rendevous sound was created) and some good acoustic versions of IILWMC and '39.
Also, nice that they mentioned John quite a bit, probably the most we've heard about him for a ges, and when Brian said "I don't think it's the right time to speak to him" (or therabouts) thought it suggested that he's currently going through something, and that after 'this thing' has passed he might come back, ohh well - here's hoping!
MRfMERCURY wrote: why there gonna bother bringing it out on dvd though why not give us another concert, and why was it on so late at night, 12.30 what the heck
The whole show/DVD probably isn't anything to do directly with Queen Productions. This is just the next in a long line of classic albums (funny, that!) to be covered, and as far as I'm aware all of them are released (in a longer format) on DVD.
Ones I've seen previously include Bat Out Of Hell, Who's Next, Dark Side Of The Moon and The Joshua Tree, which I'm sure are all out on DVD (usually at a rather hefty £17, which is quite a bit for just a documentary).
dbruce wrote:
The whole show/DVD probably isn't anything to do directly with Queen Productions.
I'm not sure about that. I.E. I'm sure Brian made sure the people behind Classic albums knew that it was the 30th anniversary this year and that it's a pretty big album from a pretty big UK band. Also, remember last year when Brian mentioned his dismay at the BoRhap docu on BBC3? He said he'd look into doing something better, maybe even on the entire ANATO album..! And so it has happened...funny that, no?
Peace,
Adam.