askthatguy
No time for losers, because QUEEN were the champions of pomp and circumstance, decades before South Park's Big Gay Al.
Rob Ortenzi on 12/9/05 @ 4:12 PM
SIMILAR-SOUNDING DINOSAURS: Electric Light Orchestra (who at times could be just as fruity); Led Zeppelin (who spurred Queen to find Thee Almighty Riff); and the Sweet (who've been mentioned here two issues in a row). Oh, and all sorts of more contemporary folks-from Smashing Pumpkins to My Chemical Romance-have lifted their fair share from these fops, as well.
THE MUSIC: Queen-singer/leotard fancier Freddie Mercury, guitar innovator Brian May (who built his own axe and got his fat tone in part from strumming with coins instead of picks), bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor-started out straddling the fence between the glam-rock movement and straight-up heavy metal. Fame came calling after producer Roy Thomas Baker started repeatedly overdubbing Mercury's stratospheric vocals and May's guitars, giving Queen's sound more melodic girth than an aerial photograph of Chris from Bowling For Soup. Couple that with Mercury's sense of the grandiose, and soon everyone from high-school football teams to Wayne's World star Mike Meyers was helping Queen's aural cholesterol shoot up the charts. Queen masterfully pulled off everything from hard-rock opera ("Bohemian Rhapsody") to white-boy disco ("Another One Bites The Dust") to proto-thrash ("Sheer Heart Attack") for well over 10 years, before running out of decent ideas. Though the pomp stayed and the circumstances would change throughout the '80s, Queen continued to pack arenas with their bloated, grandiose showbiz anthems.
WHAT THEY SAY: "A bizarre yet highly accessible fusion of the macho and the fey." -All Music Guide To Rock
WHAT I SAY: Queen could bring the rock, but they also put the "aaaaay" in "gay." If I had a buck for every time I heard in the '70s, "That band rocks, but there's something about that lead singer..." I'd be able to fly all of you to a Judas Priest concert of your choosing.
WHY YOUR (GRAND)PARENTS LIKE THEM: Even though "Bohemian Rhapsody," with its 3.4 million vocal overdubs, was as close as Pap-Pap and Mam-Maw ever got to actually spending a night at the opera, Queen were still loved by stoners, future punk rockers and other social misfits, probably because May's riff-tastic talents undercut the band's wussy demeanor. I have fond memories of seeing Queen in the late '70s and running into a bunch of characters from Pittsburgh's fledgling underground scene. Two weeks later, we were throwing rocks at Journey's tour bus.
CURRENT WHEREABOUTS: You'd think Mercury's AIDS-related death in 1991 would've permanently etched Queen's name into the tablets of rock history. Nope. The surviving members have enlisted bloozy crooner Paul Rodgers from Bad Company (the original Pearl Jam blueprint) to smear psychic excrement on Queen's memory for an American tour this month. Ask yourself: Would you pay triple digits to see Scott Stapp replace Davey Havok in AFI? -Jason Pettigrew