Just look at those titles. The first thing that comes to mind, for me, is, hmmm, I think these guys have run out of ideas and are just sitting in the studio, tossing out random phrases and writing songs about them.Hey, what about a song about being jealous?You know, if Continue Reading
Queen
Queen for a Day – Bicycle Race
Dumbest song in the catalog or the most fun?I particularly love the bike bell battle followed by the descending quarter solo guitar battle.And the song lends itself perfectly to mashup with eminem 30 years later.It’s goofy, it’s piffle and it’s a blast.Credit Freddie and the ensuing all female naked bike Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Jealousy
Freddie at his most androgynously treacly. He was always cheeky this qy, hedging his bets and keeping American audiences from running away from him and his co-horts. Jealousy sounds like an old song from Queen II but it quickly turns into a super ballad that has a toe in Day Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Fat Bottomed Girls
Drop D tuning, baby. When I ask my band to learn this song (we never ended up covering it) the guitarists so loved the tuning that they went a wrote the music for a song that would become one our biggest fan favorites, Age of Consent.Probably the last time Brian Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Mustapha
I bought Jazz one summer in Maine and made my father come in and listen to this track with me. First off, I loved sharing music with my dad. One of my best memories of him is him sitting in my room, listening to the Doors’ Greatest Hits with me Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Melancholy Blues
Freddie Mercury on piano. A dash of Roger gently swishing his drums. Deacon on a jazzy sounding bass. Imagine a late night bar or strip joint.In another era, this could have been a standard. If Freddie wasn’t so flamboyant chances are Sinatra might have recorded it. Or Tom Waits!Why it Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – It’s Late
And then this comes on and all is right with the world.It’s Late is Brian’s attempt to write a three act play. It works on so many levels. It’s a killer 70s rock track, complete with heavy, grinding riffage and guttural vocalizing by Freddie.Brian employs the finger tapping technique that Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Who Needs You
Man, I’m behind. Sorry about that. John Deacon is back, this time with a Spanish flair. The lyrics are trite, the song matter is banal. Brian’s playing is perfect, however. It’s about here that Queen fans might have to wonder: do these guys even care anymore? Grade: C – Posted Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Sleeping on the Sidewalk
Brian’s blues entry for News is a cautionary tale about a trumpet player who becomes a star in the music world told in first person, with his guitar sitting in for the trumpet.The character goes from obscurity to fame and…well, you get the story. He eventually falls on hard times Continue Reading
Queen for a Day – Get Down, Make Love
And now it’s Freddie’s turn. Listening to parts of NotW I cannot begin to understand the “surprise” of Hot Space. The faux soul of this song predates Another One Bites the Dust even.Its right here. A salacious bit of hedonism-rock, the song is basically an unholy amalgam of Body Language Continue Reading