QueenZone discussion #699908
Hot Space (again...so shoot me)
| ~-:Moet et Chandon:-~ 14.01.2006 17:03 |
Sorry there have been a thousand topics on this but I want some new perspective, certainly I've never had much of an opinion on this album. Anyway, now I do lol. I was thinking, I really don't like the Hot Space album. With the exception of a few songs, Las Palabras de Amor, Life is Real, I don't really like the alubm stuff. And anyway, I've a live version (Chicago something) of Life is Real that sounds infinitely better than any studio version. More emotion in it. But on the other hand, after having got my hands on more live Queen material of late...I must say, their Hot Space stuff is awe-inspiring live. Damn those audiences who didn't like it! Staying Power is the most fabulous live number...Back Chat is cool...and Calling All Girls, makes me feel like getting up and dancing. Now that I think about it, the alubm vesrion I also like, but live I prefer. Firstly, why on earth did Queen record the stuff on the album the way they did, and not with the energy the live versions had? I'd like to believe that had a Staying Power (or many other tracks) been released on an album that sounded more like live (e.g MK '82!), that same energy, that it'd have been a much bigger hit. Secondly, I hope people will rediscover this stuff in years to come and view it in a new light. On countless sites I visit they talk about Hot Space as substandard material, the stuff that killed Queen's popularity here and there, et al. But viewed in the bigger picture of things I think it's anything but substandard. Maybe it didn't suit contemporary tastes? I don't think it quite suits today's musical trends/mood either, but some time in the future I'd like to think people would be able to give this album more credit than it has received! |
| sandssavvy 14.01.2006 18:17 |
I think Hot Space was good, but not one of my favorite Queen albums. I thought it was amazing live. |
| DavidRFuller 14.01.2006 18:29 |
I love Hot Space!! |
| jcrawford79 14.01.2006 18:48 |
One of their best, in my opinion. |
| Farlander 14.01.2006 19:13 |
I love Hot Space, and I vastly prefer the album versions of the songs to the live versions. The live versions are almost nothing but standard rock. OK, but nothing special. The album versions have character! |
| not that bad 14.01.2006 20:08 |
back chat live, incredible, powerful |
| it was electric7 14.01.2006 20:20 |
back chat is one of my all time favorites!!! and I love staying power!! |
| Forever88 14.01.2006 20:25 |
I love hot space. |
| Zander05 14.01.2006 23:27 |
Hot Space is cool, but there's no contest between the album and live versions. Action This Day and Back Chat are AWESOME live (case in point: Milton Keynes)! |
| Suigi 15.01.2006 00:53 |
Action This Day is the ultimate live HS tune, IMO. |
| All I Hear Is Radio Gaga 15.01.2006 03:38 |
Suigi wrote: Action This Day is the ultimate live HS tune, IMO.I agree |
| ~-:Moet et Chandon:-~ 15.01.2006 03:39 |
Yeah, I think most people so far have suggested that they prefer live to album for HS. And no it's not standard rock live (isn't it more funk in the case of most numbers like Staying Power, Backchat, etc..."Funk/Black" as Freddie said haha...and some just sound like plain pop e.g. Calling All Girls). So I still don't understand why Queen never recorded the album stuff with the same verve and energy they had in the live stuff. It's not applicable to all albums...if I take SHA for example, classic live stuff like NIH was perhaps a little better live, more er lively lol, but there wasn't much between the two versions. Or whatabout the live staple CLTCL, it sure was different live, but not neccesarily better than the album recording. In the case of HS though they just seem miles ahead live. |
| Munchsack 15.01.2006 05:23 |
I have a sort of weird opinion of this album going on here. On the one hand, I love it. On the other hand, I hate it. Weird. |
| deleted user 15.01.2006 05:41 |
Hot Space is a fabulous album! I think it should have been recorded different, but the songs are just great. |
| icefire 15.01.2006 07:21 |
staying power live got me crazy after i heard it..such a heavy number!!!! |
| Jazz 78 15.01.2006 07:54 |
Being an older fan of 28 years we were used to having some really killer albums prior to Hot Space. We were cruising along with the band nice and smooth until that album came out then it was like we hit a brick wall at 100 mph. We didn't know what to expect back then. It was a big disappointment when we were so used to things like "Opera" "Races" etc then this funky thing came out. Some tracks are good but some are... BUT I will say that when they brought those songs to the stage it was a totally different song. Staying Power, Calling All Girls etc. They just exploded in a live setting. Not my favorite album but certainly not dismissed. |
| Daveboy35 15.01.2006 08:37 |
I also love the hot space tracks performed live they seem to have that cutting edge to them live which is ever so slightly lacking on the album. We have freddie to blame for the sound and perhaps john also whereas brian and roger would have stuck with a more familiar and rockier sound. Staying power, back chat and calling all girls are brilliant live as well as Put out the fire is also. One very obvious and totally baffling omission to me is WHY THE FUCK WASN'T DANCER PERFORMED? a great track with a rock edge to it. |
| Lord Blackadder 15.01.2006 10:51 |
On record almost all the Hot Space songs are covered up with bells and synths and goodness knows what else. That all went when played live, and they sounded great. Especially Action This Day and Staying Power. |
| Sebastian 15.01.2006 12:36 |
> Firstly, why on earth did Queen record the stuff on the album the way they did, and not with the energy the live versions had? I've got similar insights about Sheer Heart Attack (with exceptions). > that it'd have been a much bigger hit. It wasn't even a "small hit" in the first place ;) > I love the songs; Under Pressure, Staying Power, Life is Real, Action This Day, Cool Cat etc. but the recording is terrible! The same I say about SHA (of course the recording isn't terrible there, but certainly they could have done it much better). > We have freddie to blame for the sound and perhaps john also whereas brian and roger would have stuck with a more familiar and rockier sound. I don't think Fred and John put a gun in Roger's and Brian's faces and forced them to arrange 'Dancer' and 'Calling All Girls' the way they did. Btw John said several times that he didn't like Hot Space. |
| ~-:Moet et Chandon:-~ 15.01.2006 13:26 |
@Sebastian: SHA the album or the song? I think the SHA album is super. The song though yeah, I think the live versions are far better than the studio recording. Not that I mind the studio recording, it sounds pretty impressive, but live it's a different story altogether. Such amazing energy! As for Calling All Girls...haha yeah not even a small hit soz. :( pity really..Was Staying Power a small hit? I think many people might actually love it had they the opportunity to listen to e.g. a good live rendition of the song |
| eedodededededea 15.01.2006 14:08 |
ummmm.. I hope you wont think that i got no taste if i say that HS is my favourite album and i like that sound very much ( tho it wouldnt be good if all albums sounded the same way) |
| Jay Mantis 15.01.2006 14:22 |
I'll never understand why Queen only played Put Out The Fire only a few times, it sounds incredible live! Also I used to hate such numbers like Cool Cat but since a few years I've really began to like them, they're different. Not the usual Queen sound but still very good. :-) |
| ~-:Moet et Chandon:-~ 15.01.2006 16:13 |
I think it's great that Queen has had such diverse sounds through their musical history. From the (less-popular) funk sounds of Hot Space, the hard rock of the early albums, the operatics of the ANATO era (and of before that even), the emotional balladic tracks interspersed throughout their career, the stadium rock et al... |
| blerp 15.01.2006 16:54 |
I quite like the video for Staying Power, that was a sweet outfit Freddie wore. The video for Back Chat, Friends Will Be Friends, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, and Tie Your Mother Down, is Freddie wearing the same white suit in all of them?? |
| That guy who digs energy domes 16.01.2006 11:30 |
Hot Space was my first non-greatest hit album soleley because of MK82 |