3.24.14 Adam doesn't know Glam's dead! 5 new QAL concerts!

Adam on hitting the best note in American Idol history – the one in “Feeling Good”. That was followed by the most entertaining judges comments in American Idol history. This is not just my opinion. It is a fact.




Are these clues?
Source: Adam Lambert 3.23.14 via Instagram




Adam Lambert ✔ @adamlambert
Go for Baroque. instagram.com/p/l41-C4uNId/




Adam Lambert ✔ @adamlambert
Just posted a photo instagram.com/p/l42igzONJl/




Adam Lambert ✔ @adamlambert
Stockholm Syndrome instagram.com/p/l42wSOuNKA/




Adam Lambert ✔ @adamlambert
Iced Water Does A Body Good #hydrate instagram.com/p/l45JuoONOm/


Adam Lambert ✔ @adamlambert
happy bday ! @jaredeng



***

The first photo is accompanied by a play on words -- "Go for Baroque" = Go for Broke.which means to take risk, to try as hard as possible, to wager everything. I am going with #2 -- "to try as hard as possible."

The second photo features Psalm 23 - A psalm of David. "1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing."
two carved men -- I believe this is David repeated for symmetry,
and the No. 20. ?? 

Photo number 3 -- "Stockholm Syndrome" This is another play on words. I think he is just saying he is in Stockholm. Stockholm syndrome, or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with them. It makes no real sense to take this literally.

Finally, Adam provided a video from a recording studio with some background music I do not recognize. And he appears to be drinking water with a lemon in it. Any idea?

And it is Jared Eng's birthday. I am sure about that one!!





Celebrating Glam Rock and Adam
3.24.14 by Q3

Adam is a fan of glam rock. This is not news. But Adam’s interpretation of Glam Rock is not about androgyny which was part of the 1970’s era Glam Rock identity.

Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter. The flamboyant costumes and visual styles of glam performers were often camp or androgynous, and have been connected with new views of gender roles.

Glam rock artists include T. Rex, David Bowie, Sweet, Roxy Music and Gary Glitter in the UK and New York Dolls, Lou Reed and Jobriath in the US. It declined after 1976, but had a major influence on genres including punk, glam metal, New Romantics and gothic rock and has sporadically revived since the 1990s.


Before Idol, Adam knew how to wear glitter and Lurex. Here is the burning hot performance of “Crawl Thru Fire” from September 9, 2009. This is the long version from The Zodiac Show documentary with the ‘head on fire” discussion.

The Zodiac Show - Crawl Thru Fire - Adam Lambert




Glam Rock is supposed to be dead. Someone forget to tell Mr. Lambert. FYE is filled with tracks that are descended from Glam Rock. Here is a daytime TV performance of “Strut” that is fully “glamorized”.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Adam Lambert - "Strut" (January 26th, 2010)




He even brought a bit of glam realness to GLEE….

"I Believe In A Thing Called Love"
Originally by The Darkness (Oh someone forgot to tell them glam is dead!)






87 days to go…to QAL!!
3.24.14 by Q3

There are 87 days until Chicago…and they question I have been thinking about is what will Adam sing on this tour?

Assuming they change out a few songs during the tour, and do 22 – 24 unique songs a night (excluding the guitar and drum solos), there could be around 30 songs performed in these concerts. And hopefully, I get a lot of them in my countdown. But that won’t be easy -- the Queen catalog is so big, the potential cover list is almost a universe, and there is a chance that they could also decide to perform an Adam song.

I also started to think about what will he wear? 


#87: Larry Lurex “Goin’ Back” (1973)
Larry recorded cover songs, he had not time to write music. He was too busy being glamorous.

Nine years before Adam was born, Larry Lurex appeared in a recording studio in London. Larry Lurex was so glam that even his name was fully glamorized.

You might have noticed that I dedicated the 80’s in this countdown to 2014 QAL NA to really unusual Queen songs. These two tracks have little or no chance of being performed during 2014 QAL NA. I guarantee that there will be nothing on the countdown less likely to be played than the Larry Lurex songs. This is, however, the first single by most of Queen to chart in the US -- two cover songs recorded by Freddie, Brian and Roger at Trident Studios in 1973.

I also think that “Goin’ Back” would be an interesting song to play a back of during this concert. (More about that below).

Larry Lurex was an artist name used by Freddie Mercury for a musical project by Trident Studios’ house engineer Robin Geoffrey Cable, in 1972. The name is a pun on the stage name of glam rock star Gary Glitter and the metallic yarn Lurex.

I can Hear Music & Goin’ back.These songs were recorded during Summer 73 by Freddie, Roger and Brian to kill time when they were waiting for any available studio to work at their debut album. They had access to free studio time from 3:00AM to 7:00AM and whenever the studios were not booked by paying artists.

Trident producer, Robin Cable, was working on a Beach boy song and thought Freddie’s voice was perfect for the cover. Cable was experimenting with re-creating the "Wall of Sound" style developed by Phil Spector in the early 1960’s and still in use occasionally today. Cable enlisted singer Freddie Mercury from the band Queen to perform lead vocals on these tracks. (Queen were recording their debut album in Trident Studios at the time.) Mercury in turn suggested bringing his band-mates Roger Taylor and Brian May to add percussion, guitar and backing vocals to the recordings.

The two Larry Lurex songs were:
:
• "I Can Hear Music" (1973) written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector, which had been a hit for The Ronettes and The Beach Boys

• "Goin' Back" written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, which had been a hit for Dusty Springfield and The Byrds 

The tracks were released as a 7" vinyl single on EMI in 1973 (catalogue number EMI 2030); it did not chart in the UK, but it did manage to hit #115 on the US Bubbling Under The Hot 100 chart. This pre-dated the release of the first Queen album. The tracks have subsequently been included on the 1995 Italian bootleg Queen In Nuce and the Freddie Mercury solo compilation albums The Solo Collection and Lover of Life, Singer of Songs. Part of the song, "Goin' Back" was used on the track Mother Love on the last Queen album to feature Freddie Mercury, Made In Heaven

There are many bootlegs of this single – some passed off are real collectables. The promo discs, the real picture sleeve version and the early white-label test pressing are highly collectable. Even the most common promo release – the US 7” vinyl promo copy without a sleeve will set you back $250 - $300.

Larry Lurex “I Can Hear Music” (1973 recording)

IMO this cover is pretty much a weak imitation of the Beach Boys hit and the original Phil Spector production. If you listen closely, underneath the somewhat fuzzy attempt to replicate Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, you can hear some really great guitar work by Brian and a more aggressive take on the percussion by Roger. It would be interesting to see what they could do with this song live. That said, this is one cover that is NOT on my QAL dream list.



Just for comparison, this is the original Beach Boys “I Can Hear Music” from 1969.
Note: I did not take the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson seriously when I was younger. I was not into "surfer" music. What a snobby fool I once was!! If you has not ever listened to their music, I mean really listened to it, I recommend you go find a copy of Pet Sounds (1966), get comfortable and listen to this album on the best stereo system you can find.




Larry Lurex “Goin’ Back” (1973 recording, 2010 fan video)

This is a fan-made Freddie tribute video. Watching it make me think that using this song at some point in concert at the start of the expected Freddie tribute would be interesting. Of course, that would require making the Freddie tribute upbeat and glamorous vs. the expected acoustic “Love of My Life” performance. But seriously, would Freddie prefer to be remembered at the man who performed “The Great Pretender” and “Let Me Entertain You”?

This is a song that I would love to hear QAL cover for a brief 30 second nod to the beginning of Queen and as a soft recognition that it has been 23 years, and perhaps it is now time to celebrate Freddie’s music and stop with all the sad tributes.






Freddie Mercury “The Great Pretender” (1987) Can it get more glam?

The was Freddie Mercury's seventh solo single released in the UK on 23 February 1987.

I add this track here, because it will not make the countdown since it is not a Queen song, and the people in the audience who know it will either associate it with the Platters 1955 hit (even before my time!) or very much with Freddie. But this song and accompanying music video expresses Freddie’s attitude of stage presentation and drama in a way that very little else can. Also, it gives me a chance to post Adam’s 2009 homage to this video and Freddie – something that happened before he met and performed with Brian and Roger.

This cover reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart. The music video for the song became one of the most well-known of Freddie’s career. It featured Mercury in many of his Queen guises through video medium over the years, including visual re-takes of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "It's a Hard Life", "I Want to Break Free" and "Bohemian Rhapsody". The memorable official video, directed by Queen’s go to video master, David Mallet includes a mega stair that I would love to see Adam descend from!


I have often thought Freddie chose this single partly as a bit of explanation.

Oh yes, I'm the great pretender
Pretending I'm doing well
My need is such, I pretend too much
I'm lonely but no one can tell



“The Great Pretender” was the first track on “The Freddie Mercury Album” which was released nearly a year to the day after Freddie's death. “The Freddie Mercury Album” was a specially commissioned compilation by Queen Productions that collected a handful of remixes of Freddie's songs, done by various producers (much like the remixes on the 1991 Hollywood Records reissues). Fans were mostly cool to the album; but because Mr. Bad Guy had been out of print for years, this was the only way that fans were going to be able to hear that material. The album reached #4 in the UK, while a resulting single, the No More Brothers remix of Living On My Own, became Freddie's first (and, to date, only) #1 single.

They made a completely different version of the album for the US (no one ever explained why.) “The Great Pretender” is the title and first track of the U.S. version of Freddie Mercury’s posthumous solo project, to observe the first anniversary of his death. There were numerous producers who had permission from Jim Beach to use the original master tapes. Reinhold Mack, who is not credited as being involved, was hired to oversee the project. The album was released by Hollywood Records on 24 November, 1992.




Adam’s 2009 Tribute to “The Great Pretender”

The white suit, black shirt, the white shoes (not boots), the stairs, the strut…all clearly are references to Freddie’s video. This was not a coincidence.

Adam Lambert Feeling Good Performance HQ April 28, 2009

This is just the performance…




This is the performance with the full rehearsal introduction and judges comments. Yes, this is the one with the great Kara and Paula going insane. And the cow mooooing comment.




It is interesting to me that the next day, the reviews focused more on Adam’s use of the MUSE arrangement and there was no real mention of the homage to Freddie.


Let me close this post with this exquisite studio recording of “Feeling Good”.

This is MY FAVORITE ADAM LAMBERT RECORDING FROM AMERICAN IDOL!


https%3A//soundcloud.com/natalinka-yakshuk/adam-lambert-feeling-good









2015 Audi A3 TV Campaign features
Queens "We Are The Champions"
3.24.14 by Q3

The new Audi campaign uses "We Are The Champions". Audi has cast David Chang alongside other industry trailblazers — comedians Ricky Gervais and Kristen Schaal, street artist Cyrcle, and gold-medalist boxer Claressa Shields are here, too — in a new 60-second spot that will run during March Madness. It's called "Dues," and each character does lines from "We Are the Champions" by Queen.

bcove.me/rn36zspl

Adam is not in this commercial. The music is electronic and updated. But the timing is perfect for the run-up to the Queen + Adam Lambert North American Tour. 

The 2013 Final Four averaged 15.702 million viewers with an impressive 9.8 in the demo. This is an ad buy with impact. 

The commercial is already running on TV and is the follow-up to Audi's new campaign launched during the SuperBowl. (Sue me NFL! I used that word!! Just kidding. This is a news report and not an attempt to use the name of the Big Game for any commercial purpose. OK?)






Queen + Adam Lambert Setlist Contest

Predict the setlist and win a fantastic prize package!

Talon has put together a great contest! And so I have added a fabulous prize. So let's have some fun and see who can predict the setlist for the upcoming tour.

Fabulous Prize!!

The winner will receive a Queen + Adam Lambert fantastic prize package...

Queen "Innuendo" [one of Queen's masterpieces] choice of CD, MP3, Vinyl and Casette
Adam Lambert "Sleepwalker" [US Import single]
Adam Lambert ""Trespassing" EP [CD and download MP3]
A special Queen + Adam Lambert tour item [to be selected by Q3 but I promise it will NOT be a t-shirt!]

Plus you will be crowned as Queen + Adam Lambert fan royalty and receive acclaim across the Queenbertasphere!

It's easy to enter!!

Just create a list of 25 songs you think will be played by Queen + Adam Lambert during the upcoming tour.
You will earn points for each song you pick that is performed at any of the 19 Queen + Adam Lambert concerts from June 19, 2014 Chicago United Center concert through the July 20, 2014 concert at Merriweather (Columbia, MD).
Is a concert date is added to the tour between June 19, 2014 and July 31, 2014, performances in those concerts will also earn points.

MORE INFO AND ENTER HERE: adamtopia.com/thread/2243/queen-adam-lambert-setlist-contest

You have time to work on your entry -- entries can be submitted or changed until June 18, 2014 at 11:59PM PST (AKA Adam time).





NOW: Glee Music from "Trio" available on iTunes. Adam songs: "Barracuda" (Rachel and Elliott), "Gloria" (Rachel, Santana, and Elliott), "The Happening" (Kurt, Dani, and Elliott), "Hold On" (Artie, Blaine, Sam, Tina, and Pamela Lansbury)

April 1, 2014 Glee Episode 14: "New New York" - Adam/Starchild/Elliott Gilbert will be in the first all New York episode. Plot details unknown.
Adam song: Elliott (Adam Lambert) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) will duet on A Great Big World’s “Rockstar”. Gleek Out Brazil confirms that this is NOT the Nickelback "Rockstar" but the A Great Big World song.

June, 19, 2014: Queen + Adam Lambert North American Tour kicks off in Chicago, 19 dates!!

Soonish: Adam will release a new album. Expected sometime in 2014.