"Freddie Mercury's performance at Live Aid has recently been voted by various artists, journalists and music industry executives as the greatest live performance of all time in rock music "
Gee, I wonder who else was on the ballot. That's a little much, isn't it?
Considering the size of the t.v. audience watching, the cause involved and the quality of the performance, Queen was great that day. But it was only a 17 minute set, so i think it should not be compared to full length concert performances. Perhaps it should be called the greatest short rock set of all time.
Queen being "top live performance ever" probably refers to the "20 Greatest gigs of all time" voting in connection with the UK Hall Of Fame 2005. Music journalists and performers voted. Other gigs in the top 20 list were
Nirvana 1992
John Lennon at Elton John's concert in MSG 1974
Brian Wilson presenting "Smile" in 2004
Johnny Cash in St Quentin's 1969
The Who at the Isle of Wight festival 1970
Radiohead at Glastonbury 97 (mud festival)
Stones in Hyde Park 1969
Sex Pistols in Manchester 1976
Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock 1969.
Such votings are always debatable but I think that Queen rightfully won the title in this case.
¼Microwave wrote: "Freddie Mercury's performance at Live Aid has recently been voted by various artists, journalists and music industry executives as the greatest live performance of all time in rock music "
Gee, I wonder who else was on the ballot. That's a little much, isn't it?
It's not even their best live work. But still, it's great that they were voted for it. And why is it given such praise? Not so much because it's their best, but because their Live Aid set left a virtually unanimous opinion that on that day in which more famous and respected musicians of the time, joined together for the biggest concert in history, and Queen left a wide gap between their performance and the performance of the 2nd best act that day.
Most of us would expect nothing less form Freddie, Brian, John and Roger, but the majority of viewers had no idea how great Queen could be.