I’ve been reading a Freddie Mercury biography this week, Mercury. It’s pretty good. The author can actually put together a few interesting sentences in a row, which I can’t say for too many biographers. The author and the people interviewed for the book all think Queen was great, a really important band. I still don’t like them beyond 3 or 4 songs. I tried listening to a bunch of their stuff last night, and each song reminded me of how much I thought they were stupid when I was a kid—and how stupid I thought all the kids were who were trying to convince me they were great. I will give them credit for being perhaps the most talented band that adds up to very little for me. Mercury, in particular, was an outstanding lead man. He was like Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern in Wild at Heart. Remember that turd? Nic and Laura acted their asses off to keep David Lynch’s latent effort at wearing a leather jacket halfway amusing.
Anyhow, the Mercury bio dedicates an entire chapter to the promotional film that launched “Bohemian Rhapsody,” one of many Queen songs that make me want to stick a fork in my mid-teens. Someone in the book even compared the video’s impact to the Kennedy assassination footage. I’m almost tempted to call that thing up on YouTube and watch it for the first time in years.
Instead I watched this fun video made by my favorite radio personality, WFMU’s Tom Scharpling. I sense the impact it will have on society will be somewhere between the Zapruder film and an airing of When Things Were Rotten. The song, by Nude Beach, fucking rocks. Scharpling and his partner in crime, Jonny Wurster, bring many belly laughs to my life. I’m always happy to do my part to spread their world. Enjoy.
When I listen to Queen I’m always reminded of when I went back to school, and I went to Community College during the day, with the kids because I worked nights. Most of them didn’t write on their folders, but this one guy had written Queen logo’s all over his folders and I thought, “What a lame fucking band to be a fanboy of.” Then one year the Rock Hall had a huge record show, and I convinced a bunch of Stones fans to come to town (10 of us actually showed up, from as far away as Finland) and we had a great weekend at the record show and hanging out as a pretty drunken, rowdy group for a few days. We saw a group of like size being interviewed by TV at the Rock Hall, and they were some “official” Queen fan club. They weren’t drunk at all, and they were all in their 40’s, too.
We walked by and made funny faces, but I think they cut our part. Stones fans are much more Rock N’ Roll than Queen fans.
Oh! I liked that song, too. I’ll have to check those guys out. Thanks!
Whenever I think of Queen, I think about a woman that I had attempted to have a relationship with in college who was a fan of theirs. Despite that, I think that at least some of their hits were OK w/me
me too. That was deece.
Queen is probably number three in my personal hierarchy of post-60s, pre-punk, popular rock bands from the late 1970s.
Aerosmith is number one — I still get off on Rocks and Toys in the Attic. I think they pretty much suck now, but you can’t take those albums away from me Tyler!
Boston is my number two — I really dug their first two albums, — although I don’t listen to them now.
Queen comes in three — I owned Jazz and Live Killers — my buddies had the others, so I never felt the need to purchase them.
I kind of want to like Queen more than I do — but I just go so sick of The Game it spoiled my appetite for the whole thing.
You know, I’m pretty sure I bought the one Queen album I have because I love the Marx Brothers. I think that was one of the albums I used to help me learn the bass, because you can hear it pretty well on there. If I remember right, one of the boarders my mom had that summer said they liked the band – though I’m sure I inadvertently ruined those songs for her by fumbling around figuring them out.
I’ve long considered Boston to be Number Two as well.
I had never put together those Marx Brothers movies with the Queen album titles until reading this book. It’s funny: these are two examples, for me, of art that I can tell is spectacularly crafted but I just don’t like that much. It’s like fine Scotch or caviar, which I trust is a thrill for the palette…if you like that shit.
Boston, on the other hand, was like a boutique root beer. A lot of craft and love when into their music, but it was still soda.
“I had never put together those Marx Brothers movies with the Queen album titles until reading this book.” Wtf? “And who knew that incredibly annoying song by shrill warbler Kate Bush was also a novel by Emily Bronte?”
Sorry I didn’t spend my Saturday mornings watching Marx Brothers movies and Saturday nights listening to Queen. That stuff simply doesn’t grab me. I’ve taken shit from the likes of mockcarr for years over my inability to dig Marx Brothers movies. They are GREAT; I can tell that much. I just don’t like them.
If only it were that easy, I used to have to get up at 3 in the morning to watch those flicks in the 70s.
Consider Mod’s goat gotten and move on.
I just gave you a high five, but it was meant for mockcarr for giving you the shit you richly deserve in this case.
I don’t know about Philly but the Marx Bros. are not generally Saturday morning fare. Perhaps the problem is that you are confusing them with the Three Stooges or the Bowery Boys.