Queen blog

When I was at school a bunch of us discovered Queen through our older brother's and uncle's record collections.  We went absolutely crazy about them and dug out all those old vinyl albums - we listened to no other band and eventually we all learnt musical instruments and became a band ourselves - just so we could be like Queen.


At that time we were of course ridiculed for liking an old shit band like Queen - by all the 'cool' kids.  If you can imagine - liking this band was actually a rather eccentric choice... we were pariahs.


Since Freddie Mercury's death Queen have gone on to become without question the most popular band in this country.  I really can't believe what has happened - they even eclipse The Beatles.  There's a certain amount of backlash with The Beatles, with some people making the (clearly untenable) argument that they were not as good as everyone makes out...


With Queen there seems to be complete consensus - everyone loves them.


And everyone doesn't just love them... apparently they always did!  Hmm... that's not the way I remember it from school.. ?   All you new Queen fans who crawled out of the woodwork - did you ever slag them off when you were trying to prove your cool credentials?  Because let me tell you - I never have.


Until now maybe.


No, I wouldn't really slag Queen off but I don't agree with the current prevalent attitude that they were unquestionably wonderful.   I'm sorry but they were around too long to never make any mistakes or make any shit albums.  
The Beatles split up before they fucked up - as a band anyway.  Queen didn't - and unfortunately the 'Queen' that most people think they know are the band when they were beginning to decline.


The facts are these - as I see them.  The first five Queen albums are pretty much perfect.  I don't think any other band has ever had a run of such astonishing albums - such high quality, so ahead of its time.  So that's : 


Queen
Queen 2
Sheer Heart Attack
A Night at the Opera
A Day at the Races


If you aren't vaguely familiar with the songs on these albums (apart from the obvious hits) for gawd's sake don't sit there and blabber on about how much you love Queen - it's horseshit. You just don't know the half of it.  But if you like the Queen you've heard then go out and buy these five albums and you will love them - I promise.


Anyway, 'News of the World' which came next was their first patchy album - but still pretty bloody great.  Same goes for 'Jazz' which came next.


Then we get into the 80s - which is the Queen period most people are familiar with, I think.  When you say Queen they think of this : 

I just think it would be better if they automatically thought of this : 

And I'm sorry but most of those 80s albums like 'The Works' and 'Hot Space' veer towards downright bad.  'A Kind of Magic', the best known Queen album, is also a bit poor - but even then it still had some great songs on it.   Queen never did an album without something good on it.


And please remember, this is poor but their own high standard.  Queen on half power were still better than most other bands, and always interesting.


The 90s albums (Innuendo and the posthumous, for Freddie, Made in Heaven) well, I'm not that interested but, well, I'm not that interested in what David Bowie does now but that doesn't mean I don't love him as an artist.  And STILL there were some great songs there - made even more poignant by Freddie carrying on through his terrible illness.


Since his death I think he's been beatified in much the same way as Princess Diana - although maybe even more than her in the long run.  He was an amazing frontman - although I think he became a parody of himself during the 80s, he was playing the part of Freddie Mercury.   He was, in my opinion, not the most amazing live rock singer - he got too out of breath and couldn't hit those notes.  Quite honestly a lot of the time Roger Taylor is doing some of that work... and playing the drums as well.


And these words of criticism come from me... who named my own child Freddie !??


You know, it wasn't really his music that made me want to name my son after him as his astonishing bravery in the face of his illness and death.  I think that put all his musical accomplishments in the shade.  He was, basically, an incredible person - a true triumph of will.


I do get a bit annoyed, as you can tell, by people harping on about wonderful Queen - maybe it's my proclivity for disagreeing with the majority!  Queen are now mainstream - and I have to deal with that strange fact.


Whatever anyone else says - there will always be a place in my heart for them.  Maybe they could have been more emotional and a bit less clever, maybe that's the line of criticism to take.  Maybe 'These are the days of our lives' reveal a passion and heart they could never quite express before they had to - maybe they were too clever for their own good.


Whatever.  They were so very, very clever - that bunch of graduate smart arses...


But really, when all is said and done, what a fucking good band they were.  That's all the legacy Freddie would want.  He wasn't a saint - he was a singer.