5.11.14 Will QAL be "deliberately theatrical and majestic"?
May 11, 2014 0:23:21 GMT -5
Post by Q3 on May 11, 2014 0:23:21 GMT -5
"deliberately theatrical and often majestic"
5.11.14 by Q3
Yesterday, I listened to Glam Nation Live for the first time in a very long time. I have a long drive, at an un-godly hour of the morning for a Saturday (7:00AM!!) and was along in my car with a most excellent stereo. It was wonderful! I could feel the energy flow between Adam and the audience.
I honestly do not think I have listened to the whole album, uninterrupted for a year. Maybe longer.
It is a great album – perhaps Adam’s best recording. After it was over, there was only one word that came to my mind, “theatrical”.
****
Later in the day, I happened upon the second half of Queen Rock Montreal the live concert video recorded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Montreal Forum on November 24 and November 25, 1981, ten years to the date before lead singer Freddie Mercury died. Allmusic described Queen's performance as "deliberately theatrical and often majestic".
The words seemed perfect for this concert. And that is what I want from a Queen concert, something "deliberately theatrical and often majestic".
Every Queen concert with Freddie was “theatrical” but they were not always “majestic”. The great Queen concerts were “majestic” and proved that the band was truly “rock royalty”.
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Adam has performed with Queen on 9 occasions – 2009 American Idol Finale, 2010 EMA’s, 2012 6 concert mini-tour, and 2013 iHeartRadio Music Awards. All of these performances were “theatrical”.
This summer Roger, Brian, Adam and the other members of the Queen touring band will embark on a North American Tour and then will go to Asia to headline 3 high-profile festival dates. There is no doubt that the concerts will be “theatrical”. With Adam singing and the Queen catalog and Freddie via video on the video wall, there is other possibility.
I believe there is a chance these concerts may tap into that energy that made Queen in concert something more that the performers on stage, that these concerts may actually be “majestic”. Not because of the set, pryo, smoke or mirrors. I believe it will be because this tour seems right. Adam seems more confident and in better voice than ever. Brian seems to be having fun with this. Roger is Roger – always up for a great show. And Adam, Brian and Roger seem much more comfortable working together.
*****
Most importantly, I think Adam understands what these concerts mean to Queen fans.
“I’m honored to be able to pay my respects to Freddie’s memory; he’s a personal hero of mine, and I am deeply grateful for the chance to sing such powerful music for fans of this legendary band.”
Adam Lambert, March 6, 2014
*****
The 2014 "Part-of-the-World" Queen + Adam Lambert Tour Countdown!
5.11.14 by Q3
The countdown moves on and the start of this epic tour gets closer. Only 39 days to go!
#39 “Play The Game” (1980)
Written by Freddie Mercury.
Released as a single on May 30, 1980 and on album The Game June 30, 1980.
“Play The Game” is the third UK single from The Game, and the first single by the band ever to be released with a synthesizer. The song begins with a dramatic series of overlapping rushing noises on an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer which exploded the band’s once explicitly "no synths" position
The single was a hit in the UK reaching #14 in the charts. In the US, however, it only reached #42. It was also promoted in Japan but failed to chart.
The B-side of "Play The Game" single is "A Human Body" which was one of Queen's rarest compositions for many years - only available on the original vinyl releases until 2011 when it was finally included on the Singles Collection Volume 2 and on the bonus disc to the CD re-issue of The Game.
The song features a soft vocal by Mercury including a strong G4 rising in pitch all the way to C5 in chest voice, contrary to the other C5s being hit in falsetto. He also played piano on the track.
The cover of the single was the first time Mercury displayed his soon-to-be-famous mustache, which would become a huge part of his look for many years - although at the time hardcore Queen fans didn't like the change of image, even going as far as to send him disposable razors to shave it off. Freddie was amused by the “gifts” but refused to shave off his mustache.
BBC Radio One : Guitar Greats - Brian May, 1983
Alexis Korner: OK now here's another track from ‘News of the World’ and this time one more in the Queen mold ‘It’s Late’.
Brian May: Yes there was a kind of ‘Queen’ Sound in there somewhere. I don’t know if it’s there so much but I suppose in something like ‘Play the Game’ it’s still there really. The thing is, it’s so easy for us to do, it’s something, which we slip into almost without thinking, on stage or on record. Once Freddie starts playing in E þ and A þ, which he very often does, it has that particular sound and of course it’s very difficult for a guitarist to play in Eþ and Aþ. They’re just the keys you don’t want to be playing in, naturally, so the fact that those songs are played in those keys brings something different out of me. There are certain kinds of shapes, which I can use, that don’t use any open strings and are sometimes a bit painful to get together. But as soon as that’s happening that sort of formula is there and we can do it all night and all day. It’s that sort of Queen ‘Sound’ yeah!
Alexis Korner: OK now here's another track from ‘News of the World’ and this time one more in the Queen mold ‘It’s Late’.
Brian May: Yes there was a kind of ‘Queen’ Sound in there somewhere. I don’t know if it’s there so much but I suppose in something like ‘Play the Game’ it’s still there really. The thing is, it’s so easy for us to do, it’s something, which we slip into almost without thinking, on stage or on record. Once Freddie starts playing in E þ and A þ, which he very often does, it has that particular sound and of course it’s very difficult for a guitarist to play in Eþ and Aþ. They’re just the keys you don’t want to be playing in, naturally, so the fact that those songs are played in those keys brings something different out of me. There are certain kinds of shapes, which I can use, that don’t use any open strings and are sometimes a bit painful to get together. But as soon as that’s happening that sort of formula is there and we can do it all night and all day. It’s that sort of Queen ‘Sound’ yeah!
There is an unconfirmed story that the album, The Game, was going to be called Play The Game, but was changed because Roger thought the title would perceived as the band saying they were ‘playing the game’ and that would be taken negatively by critics, the music industry and some fans.
“Play The Game” Album Track (remastered 2011)
youtu.be/qot_djNVy4g
Personnel
Musicians:
Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, piano, synthesizer
Brian May - guitars, backing vocals
John Deacon - bass guitar
Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals
Produced by: Queen and Mack
Releases
Albums:
The Game, 1980
Greatest Hits, 1981
Greatest Hits, 1992 USA
Queen On Fire: Live At The Bowl, 2004
Singles:
Play The Game, 1980
Alternate Versions:
Karaoke Instrumental - Japan Toshiba EMI TOLW - 3249.50
2003 DVD Audio 5.1 Surround Version(s) - EMI 592 7809
Andy Gibb / Freddie Duet - Unreleased
“Play The Game” Music Video
The music video was filmed at Trillion Studios in London, in May 1980. The director, Brian Grant, makes innovative use of backwards film of water, and, not for the first time in a Queen shoot, Vaseline. A topless Freddie emerges from the water smeared in the stuff, only to have a watering can of cold water thrown over him. But did he complain? Apparently yes, but ever the professional he still agreed to several further takes. It is an utterly enthralling four minutes, and among the band’s best loved and certainly most memorable films. This was also the first video in which Freddie sported his newly cropped hair and trademark mustache.
Brian did not use the Red Special for the "Play the Game" video. Instead, he used a cheap Satellite knock-off of a Fender Stratocaster because in the video, Queen singer Freddie Mercury snatched the guitar from Brian and then threw it back to him.
youtu.be/3TMwz6hIypU
“Play The Game” Official Live Releases
“Play The Game” Queen Rock Montreal, 1981
youtu.be/PRzKFQhansI
“Play The Game” Queen On Fire - Live At The Bowl, 1982
youtu.be/LQqHZb1b__w
“Play The Game” Live
Queen played this song in their live shows from 1980-82.
Brian: There's certain things I look forward to really, because they're ah, they're nice to play, I look forward to 'Play The Game' in a way, because that's the signal in the set where you've done your leaping about and you've done your, you've made your statement on your entry and then you can settle down and start really playing something, 'cos there's plenty of time to think, and that's what I like, I like to er, to actually think as you go along, I think your, your head should be in front of your fingers, you know.
Brian May & Roger Taylor Interview, Milton Keynes Bowl, Milton Keynes, England, on 5th June 1982.
Brian May & Roger Taylor Interview, Milton Keynes Bowl, Milton Keynes, England, on 5th June 1982.
“Play The Game” Cologne, November 26, 1980
youtu.be/OO0f12tyA00
“Play The Game” Wembley Arena, December 8, 1980
youtu.be/pdDmRnDMoVk
“Play The Game” Nagoya, October 26, 1982
youtu.be/-gklHxXkN3I
“Play The Game” Lyrics
Freddie Mercury wrote this song for his lover Tony Bastin after they broke up. The topic for the song, with the narrator taking the perspective of someone looking back on past memories of an old relationship/former love, is one Mercury would revisit on "It's A Hard Life" (The Works) and "You Don't Fool Me" (a song made up of sections of lyrics Mercury recorded before his death, and included on the posthumous Made in Heaven album in 1995).
youtu.be/Lr2iDWQSwsI
Play The Game
Open up your mind and let me step inside
Rest your weary head and let your heart decide
It's so easy when you know the rules
It's so easy all you have to do
Is fall in love
Play the game
Everybody play the game of love
When you're feeling down and your resistance is low
Light another cigarette and let yourself go
This is your life
Don't play hard to get
It's a free world
All you have to do is fall in love
Play the game everyone play the game of love
My game of love has just begun
Love runs from my head down to my toes
My love is pumping through my veins (play the game)
Driving me insane
Come come come come play the game play the game play the game play the game
Play the game everybody play the game of love
This is your life - don't play hard to get
It's a free free world all you have to do is fall in love
Play the game yeah play the game of love
Your life - don't play hard to get
It's a free free world all you have to do is fall in love
Play the game - everybody play the game...
*****
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