Side tracking for you
As noted, I watched the 2 hr vid last night on QUeen. It was very interesting
so here goes
1. I found it intresting that ALL 4 'wrote' or contributed to the music. I didn't know that Roger was so prolific. I loved how they 'fed' off of each other. Tossing out ideas.
Yeah he wasn't quite at first. At first Rog and John were both a little low key but Rog took off after that and that's why he was the first to branch out to do a solo album because he didn't get as much room on the Queen albums! Hell for the QPR album, he was the most prolific!
Roger actually has the highest voice in the group surprisingly as he was the high falsetto in Bohemian Rhapsody (amongst other lesser known tracks like In The Lap Of The Gods)!
Brian took some piano lessons as well but mostly they played by ear. They just had good ears
But yeah Queen played MANY genres yet still retained their specific sound.
That's always been their calling card. Live events, not just gigs. It's also why Queen's music translates so well to a musical
No one knows for sure really. But we have educated guesses. Timeline as follows.
1. John's dad died at a young age, something he struggled with. Reportedly he took Freddie's illness and death even harder than Brian and Roger did. Freddie really was John's advocate and he felt a little lost without him.
2. He had been growing distant from the music business as it were anyways - he hated that side of it.
3. There are some rumors of slight discord between John and Brian, so it kind of made retiring even easier which is why he really wanted to have a simple life at home with his family and he has VERY rarely been seen since 1997.
4. He still keeps his share of the Queen business stake and approves/disapproves things but for the most part he's happy at home with his best friend (his wife
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Last part first - Chris Cornell is the lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave. He has never performed with Queen although there are *SOME* connections. Brian performed a song with Soundgarden on a Greenpeace compilation and Brian recorded a Chris Cornell written song with another singer for the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. Chris has an amazing rock voice. Really powerful but he's never really been mentioned as a singer with them (I do personally believe it would be a very interesting pairing).
As far as other stand ins. Mostly the stand ins were one offs for special events but I'll list the major things:
- 1992 The Freddie Tribute concert where a whole slew of artists stood in for Freddie (Joe Elliot from Def Leppard, Roger Daltrey from the Who, Gary Cherone from Extreme/Van Halen, Zucchero, Paul Young, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin, James Hetfield from Metallica, Seal, Lisa Stansfield, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Elton John, Axl Rose, Liza Minelli AND George Michael) At this event George brought the house down for Somebody To Love. That led to rumors for a long time that Queen + GM would tour together but it never happened.
- 1998-2002 - There were rumors at this point that Queen might tour with Robbie Williams and they did have some internal discussions. They recorded a new version of We Are The Champions for a soundtrack. Robbie was a big Queen fan and performed WWRY (and sometimes WATC) on tour. It never did materialize though and later Roger stated he wasn't sure Robbie was dependable enough to commit to a tour with.
- 2004-2009 - Paul Rodgers is and has been the major stand in. Paul Rodgers from Free/Bad Company and Brian often jammed together - they came from the same era though Paul was from the more macho blue collar side of blues rock. And that made it inviting to B&R. Something different. They made an appearance as they both were inducted to the UK Music HOF in 2004 with B&R backing Paul for "All Right Now" and then Paul singing "WWRY"/"WATC" The band toured in 2005 in Europe and 2 dates in America and a small Japanese tour, then in 2006 in North America, and then in 2008 again in Europe and South America after recording an album together. It was never meant to be a forever collaboration since Paul has a HIGHLY successful career with his own history/legacy. There were some rumors of discord between Paul and Brian as Paul wanted to be more adventurous in the setlist while Brian wanted to rely on the old standbys. They split but are still good friends with both sides saying they would be open to a few one offs here and there as time dictated.
2010 - Tom Chaplin from Keane fronted them for one song during the Prince's Trust. Many Queen fans wanted to see more of that. His voice is phenomenal as well.
A few more documentary type pieces:
CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLDFrom 1995 after Freddie's death - this is part 1 - it goes on for about an hour.
MAGIC YEARSAgain part I - it is from 1986 with Queen at their peak
UNOFFICIAL - BRIAN MAY DOCUMENTARY)
- Made by Queen Fan Club in Romania - NOT official but nicely done
FREDDIE MERCURY - THE GREAT PRETENDER
- Freddie solo documentary
FREDDIE TRIBUTE DOCUMENTARY
Short documentary
But yeah Queen played MANY genres yet still retained their specific sound.
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