Queen Discussion Thread

Three compilations!

Classic Queen


A little background:

Hollywood Records took over Queen's North American distribution deal. When Greatest Hits II was released, Hollywood declined at first to release it since frankly there was only a few tracks that were actually hits in the US from that era. The band went into a heavy decline in America where really only Under Pressure, Radio Ga Ga, and maybe I Want It All were hits at that point. Bohemian Rhapsody though had just made it's revival so Hollywood wondered what to do. They didn't have Greatest Hits I out on their label yet either so instead what they decided was they would create their own special American compilation that would feature some of GH2 tracks, take some off, and insert some other American specific tracks which could be pulled from what was at this time a non-existent Greatest Hits album (on Hollywood anyways). They ended up creating a few specific edits and it was a wonderful success. It hit #3 in the US and sold a TON.

Track Listing:

01. A Kind Of Magic (Taylor)
02. Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury)
03. Under Pressure (Mercury/May/Taylor/Deacon/Bowie)
04. Hammer To Fall (May)
05. Stone Cold Crazy (Mercury/May/Taylor/Deacon)
06. One Year Of Love (Deacon)
07. Radio Ga Ga (Taylor)
08. I'm Going Slightly Mad (Mercury)
09. I Want It All (May)
10. Tie Your Mother Down (May)
11. The Miracle (Mercury)
12. These Are The Days Of Our Lives (Taylor)
13. One Vision (Mercury/May/Taylor/Deacon)
14. Keep Yourself Alive (May)
15. Headlong (May)
16. Who Wants To Live Forever (May)
17. The Show Must Go On (Mercury/May/Taylor/Deacon)

PERSONAL NOTES:

It was an interesting tactic. I agree business wise that GH2 wouldn't have made much sense or much of an impact on the latent US audience at the time and with Bo Rhap being huge again, it would be a great time to push some of the GH2 tracks to a new audience and hope they decide to check out the other albums. BUT some of the choices made sense while others really didn't! A Kind of Magic, Under Pressure, Hammer To Fall, Radio Ga Ga, Slightly Mad, I Want It All, The Miracle, One Vision, Headlong, Forever, and Show Must Go On are all GH 2 tracks they wanted to push and as mentioned earlier Pressure/Ga Ga/I Want It All (and Headlong) were all at least radio hits to a degree so it made sense to have them on a compilation. Show Must Go On was a B-Side of the Bo Rhap re-release.

Then it gets a bit weird. First off kilter choice is Stone Cold Crazy. Not a hit in any form BUT it's easy to see why it was on there. It had garnered attention the previous year when Metallica covered it so it was in American consciousness.

One Year Of Love? NO idea where this one fit in. Highlander had some following but Princes of the Universe would have made MUCH more sense. Princes had at least been a single and with the Highlander TV show coming out, where Princes was going to be the theme? Shrug. Random choice.

Tie Your Mother Down. Well it's one of Brian's favorite tracks but again just a bit of a strange inclusion. Not as strange as One Year but still strange.

Days Of Our Lives? It was a US single. It wasn't on GH 2 since it was a single afterwards. And given it's connection to Freddie's last days it makes sense.

Keep Yourself Alive? No clue. First Queen single so give it a place? Not sure - Could be stranger I guess though!

BUT it was the first Queen album I ever had so it holds a special place in my heart!

SECOND COMPILATION

Greatest Hits (Hollywood 1992)


A little background:

So Hollywood was in a bit of a conundrum. They released Classic Queen. They didn't have Greatest Hits on their catalogue and most of the tracks were actual hits in America so what to do? They rightfully wanted to avoid overlap with Classic Queen but they needed to fill out the tracks. Since they were making their own they decided to rightfully concentrate somewhat on North American hits/singles. BUT there are again some strange choices. It was a success though as well hitting #11 on the charts.

Track listing:

01. We Will Rock You (May)
02. We Are The Champions (Mercury)
03. Another One Bites The Dust (Deacon)
04. Killer Queen (Mercury)
05. Somebody To Love (Mercury)
06. Fat Bottomed Girls (May)
07. Bicycle Race (Mercury)
08. You're My Best Friend (Deacon)
09. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury)
10. Now I'm Here (May)
11. Play The Game (Mercury)
12. Seven Seas Of Rhye (Mercury)
13. Body Language (Mercury)
14. Save Me (May)
15. Don't Stop Me Now (Mercury)
16. Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy (Mercury)
17. I Want To Break Free (Deacon)

PERSONAL NOTES:

It was a decent track listing for what they had BUT if they were going to commit to a North American release then they could have made some different choices. For example, Now I'm Here, Save Me, and Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy were never singles in America. I Want To Break Free wasn't a big hit either. Meanwhile there were a few US releases that maybe weren't quite hits but were at least American singles: Liar, Long Away, It's Late, or Calling All Girls.

THIRD COMPILATION

12" Collection


A little background

In the UK the band decided to capitalize on the renewed Queen interest by releasing a "rarity" type box set/compilation called Box of Trix. The Box of Trix featured a heavily edited VHS of Queen's 1974 Rainbow concert (which means technically it was released in some format. Hoping for a full hi-def and in print version on blu ray in the future). It also featured a few bits of memorabilia and this CD, a collection of Queen's 12" mixes and bookended (pointlessly) by Bo Rhap and Show Must Go On.

Track listing:

01. Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury)
02. Radio Ga Ga (12" version) (Taylor)
03. Machines (Or 'Back To Humans') (12" version) (May/Taylor)
04. I Want To Break Free (12" version) (Deacon)
05. It's A Hard Life (12" version) (Mercury)
06. Hammer To Fall (12" version) (May)
07. Man On The Prowl (12" version) (Mercury)
08. A Kind Of Magic (12" version)(Taylor)
09. Pain Is So Close To Pleasure (12" version) (Mercury/Deacon)
10. Breakthru (12" version) (Mercury/Taylor)
11. The Invisible Man (12" version) (Taylor)
12. The Show Must Go On (Mercury/May/Taylor/Deacon)

NOTES: Nice to have all in one place honestly. Some 12" mixes were better than the original (or at least very comparable and thus a nice alternative!) The highlights are It's A Hard Life, Breakthru, and The Invisible Man.

NEXT?

Queen releases their first full live album from one setting - Live At Wembley Stadium 1986.

The Cross - Live In Germany

The second and final fan club release. This captures the Cross on their opening act slot in Germany during the 1991 tour opening for Magnum, a group who Roger produced. The band obviously had a much shorter set list and they really pushed the new album only as seven out of ten tracks are from the new disc and there are no Queen tracks at all.

Recorded live in Dusseldorf on Oct 21, 1991.

Track listing:

01. Bad Attitude (Roger Taylor/Clayton Moss/Spike Edney/Peter Noone/Joshua J. Macrae)
02. Millionaire (Clayton Moss/Peter Noone/Joshua J. Macrae/Spike Edney)
03. Ain't Put Nothin' Down (Clayton Moss)
04. New Dark Ages (Roger Taylor)
05. Baby It's Alright (Spike Edney)
06. Dirty Mind (Spike Edney)
07. Man On Fire (Roger Taylor)
08. Power To Love (Clayton Moss/Peter Noone/Joshua J. Macrae)
09. The Also Rans (Roger Taylor)
10. Top Of The World, Ma (Roger Taylor/Clayton Moss/Spike Edney/Peter Noone/Joshua J. Macrae)

Next? MISCELLANEOUS 1992 STUDIO!

Ok took a few days off but I'm back on my regular thurs-mon schedule

The rest of 1992 miscellaneous! If you listen to only 1/4 of these tracks skip to the last one. Please.

We'll start with Roger's one track.

Shakin Stevens - Radio




ACOUSTIC VERSION



- I wish I could actually find the video because Roger is in it. Roger plays drums for Shaky (or Shakin' Stevens)
- It hit #37 in the UK

NOTES: I Love this track! It's a fun old time throwback to the 50s kind of track but it's very infectious. Great groove from RT and it works very well!


Now Brian:
Judie Tzuke - I Can Read Books




- Brian plays guitar

PERSONAL NOTES: Cheesy CHEESY C.H.E.E.S.Y. lyrics. But the music is actually pretty nice. Features some nice guitar work from Brian.

Tony Martin - If There's A Heaven




- Tony Martin who was the third longest tenured vocalist of Black Sabbath (after Ozzy and Ronnie James Dio)
- Brian plays guitar

PERSONAL NOTES:
Pretty generic rock track, but not a bad one. Tony has a decent voice.

EXTREME - LOVE OF MY LIFE





- Extreme first performed it during Hollywood Rock In Rio as a medley with their own "More Than Words". This was repeated for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. THIS was a studio version they did around the same time to use as a B-Side to their single in the UK, "Song For Love" and the outro fades out as Nuno begins "More Than Words" It features Nuno on new backing vocals that add highly to the song, Brian on some very light and subtle electric guitar in the middle and a new bridge vocal (assumed to be written by Gary).

PERSONAL NOTES:
LOVE THIS. This is one of my fav Queen covers. At the FMTC, Gary had a hard time with the monitors and goes a bit flat so it's nice to have this recording. Pure beauty.

Next up? 1992 LIVE! I think I'll do this a bit different. 1992 is a big live year. Brian starts his first solo tour (the big one is in 1993 but there is a smaller South American warm up tour). We'll cover that first and the smaller miscellaneous appearances. From there I will detail 2 BIG gigs with their own entry. First off we'll go into "A Concert For Live: The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert" and then we'll go into the two Cross Fan Club Christmas Concerts with special guests.

A Concert For Life - A Tribute To Freddie Mercury

April 20, 1992 - Wembley Stadium

After Freddie passed on in November of 1991 the remaining three members came together and decided relatively quickly that they wanted to have some kind of memorial and to have it in the fashion with which Freddie would have been accustomed to.  Wembley Stadium, the site of two iconic moments for the band made the logical sense and tickets were sold out within hours without a single artist having been announced on the bill.

Brian and Roger reached out to friends and colleagues as well as those who had been influenced by Freddie and all volunteered for free to pay homage to this rock god.  Some, like Guns N' Roses and Roger Daltrey (from The Who) didn't even wait to be called - they did the calling immediately thereafter offering their services.

Some schedules unfortunately couldn't work out (Aretha Franklin, Montserrat Caballe, Phil Collins, Eric Clapton, Madonna, among a few).  But what was left was a great slice in moment - some truly iconic artists (David Bowie, Elton John, Robert Plant (from Led Zeppelin), combined with new hard rock acts (Guns N Roses, Extreme, Metallica, Def Leppard) and some UK Pop stars (Seal, Paul Young, George Michael) to create a truly diversified set.  In reality who else could you think of could have a tribute act that opened with Metallica and closed with Liza Minelli and not seem that either end were out of the realm of the one being given tribute?

There were wonderful moments, there were cringe inducing moments, but all in all the buzz and the feel was one of love and good vibes.

After weeks of rehearsals the time finally came.  It was cited that the rock bands would get to open the show before Queen took to the stage with guest vocalists.  It would be broadcast around the world on MTV (as well as getting the highlights treatment in the US on Fox and on the BBC in the UK).   It would be seen by millions. 

At the start, the three remaining members of the band came to the forefront of the stage and welcomed the crowd.



Metallica:

01. Enter Sandman
02. Sad But True
03. Nothing Else Matters

- The band chose to open with songs from their new album. Some were surprised they didn't do Stone Cold Crazy as they had recently done but they would understand later on. The band was well received and it was a nice opener.

Brian then came on and offered that the next band was probably the one that best understood what Freddie and Queen had been about all these years...

Extreme:

01. Queen Medley (Mustapha/Bohemian Rhapsody/Keep Yourself Alive/I Want To Break Free/Fat Bottomed Girls/Bicycle Race/Another One Bites The Dust/We Will Rock You/Stone Cold Crazy/Vocal Improv/Radio Ga Ga/Bohemian Rhapsody)


02. Love Of My Life/More Than Words


- THE set of the night in my opinion. Much like Queen at Live Aid, Extreme took the Wembley crowd and rocked it with a medley of hit after hit and Gary Cherone working the crowd. Not the greatest vocal at times...but a ton of fun. The Love Of My Life/More Than Words bit did take them a bit over schedule freaking out TV execs but it's rock and roll!

Roger came on next to introduce:

Def Leppard:

01. Animal
02. Let's Get Rocked
03. Now I'm Here (w/Brian May)



- Def Leppard's first real gig after the death of their guitarist and it's quite big. New guitarist Vivian Campbell more than holds his own and the crowd get their first site of a Queen member playing as Brian plays along to the Queen classic. Fun portion of the gig.

Next up was:

Bob Geldoff

01. Too Late God

- Bob, the visionary organizer of Live Aid was good friends with the whole band. He offered up this from his latest effort and claimed that he and Freddie co-wrote the Gaelic number while drunk. BUT Bob has a very dry sense of humor and it is believed that was a joke.

Bob then introduced

Spinal Tap

01. The Majesty of Rock

- Not sure where they fit in to be honest or how they got invited but they are always a hilarious bunch. Funny guys. They spoke to the crowd and I paraphrase:

"We in the band we're great fans of Freddie Mercury...unfortunately he was not as big of fan of us as we were of him. So in honor of him...we're going to cut our set short about 35 songs. We believe Freddie would have wanted it this way."

Next up was U2 via satellite. U2 was on tour during this time during their ZOO TV tour and they appeared via satellite connection.

01. Until The End Of The World

- I have a bootleg of the show and Bono talked about Freddie a lot of the show and dedicated a few songs, like their cover of Dancing Queen. He made mention of sending songs to "Fred Aid".

Afterwards Roger came on to announce Guns 'N' Roses

01. Paradise City
02. Only Women Bleed/Knockin' On Heaven's Door

- This was the most controversial band on the bill. After their brush up for homophobic lyrics, the band though was HUGE fans of Queen. And their set was very well received despite threats of protest.

Next up was another satellite link up with Mango Groove from South Africa

01. Special Star

-- Not sure where this came from to be honest!

Elizabeth Taylor then came on and spoke out for AIDS Awareness before the Queen portion of the show:

01. Queen + Joe Elliott/Slash – "Tie Your Mother Down"
02. Queen + Roger Daltrey/Tony Iommi – "Heaven and Hell" (intro), "Pinball Wizard" (intro), "I Want It All"
03. Queen + Zucchero – "Las Palabras de Amor"
04. Queen + Gary Cherone/Tony Iommi – "Hammer to Fall"
05. Queen + James Hetfield/Tony Iommi – "Stone Cold Crazy "
06. Queen + Robert Plant – "Innuendo (including parts of "Kashmir"), "Thank You" (intro), "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
07. Brian May with Spike Edney – "Too Much Love Will Kill You"
08. Queen + Paul Young – "Radio Ga Ga"
09. Queen + Seal – "Who Wants to Live Forever"
10. Queen + Lisa Stansfield – "I Want to Break Free"
11. Queen + David Bowie/Annie Lennox – "Under Pressure"
12. Queen + Ian Hunter/David Bowie/Mick Ronson/Joe Elliot/Phil Collen – "All The Young Dudes"
13. Queen + David Bowie/Mick Ronson – "Heroes"
14. David Bowie – "The Lord's Prayer"
15. Queen + George Michael – "'39"
16. Queen + George Michael/Lisa Stansfield – "These Are the Days of Our Lives"
17. Queen + George Michael – "Somebody to Love"
18. Queen + Elton John/Axl Rose – "Bohemian Rhapsody"
19. Queen + Elton John/Tony Iommi – "The Show Must Go On"
20. Queen + Axl Rose – "We Will Rock You"
21. Queen + Liza Minnelli/Cast – "We Are the Champions"



The above is part 1. Follow to YT for the rest...


This is the Full Robert Plant section which was cut.

-- The concert had a great opener in "Tie Your Mother Down" with Brian singing the first verse and then Joe Elliot and Slash coming on midway through. Roger Daltrey ripped through "I Want It All" as if he were in his 20s. Zucchero was passable on "Las Palabras". Gary Cherone gave a great rendition of "Hammer To Fall" really engaging with the band and audience, even getting John Deacon to dance a little! The band lost the tempo a bit during "Stone Cold Crazy" but the audience didn't even notice! Robert Plant's "Innuendo" was forgettable as he had a few too many flubs and lyrical misadventures and he even blocked the release of this part of the gig. His "Crazy" was far more memorable as it brought the house down. Brian's debut of "Too Much Love" was very poignant and emotional. Paul Young, Lisa Stansfield, and Seal were all passable if not very memorable. I did love the arrangement of Seal's "Who Wants To Live Forever" - my personal favorite arrangement. David Bowie was far more memorable performing "Under Pressure" for the first time - he'd go on to perform it in his gigs quite a bit afterwards! Roger and the crowd filled in on a few of the Freddie ad libs that Annie missed. After Annie left it was nice to see David perform with Mick Ronson and Ian Hunter (from Mott The Hoople - who Queen opened for way back when) on "All The Young Dudes" (which David wrote for Mott) and then "Heroes" which Roger's backing vocals made exquisite! George Michael's set is the most remembered. Opening with a quick shortened "'39", he then brought Lisa Stansfield back to debut "These Are The Days Of Our Lives". A nice poignant delivery. George then delivered the most iconic moment from this gig, "Somebody To Love". Just wow. The only way to follow that up? "Bohemian Rhapsody". Sung by Freddie's good friend Elton John with help from Axl it was a chilling moment. There at the end as Elton and Axl dueted there was Freddie at his most glitzy and most dangerous...yet it only took one Freddie. Quick note - Gary Cherone was tabbed to be the back up if Axl had flaked out as he had been known to do. Elton went on to thank Queen for working their asses off before breaking into his personal favorite from Innuendo, "The Show Must Go On". A great version and Elton would go on to perform it on his tour as well as with Queen in 1997 for John Deacon's last show. Axl comes back on for "We Will Rock You" and then Brian introduces, as one who he knew Freddie would be proud to stand in his place, Liza Minelli for "We Are The Champions" with the cast.

The gig ends and it is an emotional and powerful night. All in all the gig has its heart in the right place and it is very successful for what it wants to do.

Some rehearsals and extras:










Next? The Cross' Christmas gigs!