If you're reading this, expecting me to slag off this show, then you're very much mistaken. This was a finely crafted tribute to Queen, featuring respected performers bringing new interpretations to some of Queen's classic and best-loved tunes, allowing us to fondly remember this giant of a rock group.
...is not a paragraph that could be used of this show. OK, I'm probably biased being a) a huge Queen fan (no, really?) and b) not beinga huge ITV fan, to say the least. I didn't expect very much of this at all and it truly delivered.
Where to start? At the beginning, I guess. After pulling off a fairly convincing Freddie pose, Zoe Ball, our host for the evening, told us we were going to "turn the amps up" and later that we'd need our "headbanging" gear.
In fact, only one of the songs chosen could be described as heavy rock, One Vision, the first track sung competenly, but not outstandingly, by Sporty Spice (sorry, Mel. C.).
This was followed, after a short video compilation about how great Queen were, with... a commercial break. Less than ten minutes, and only one song, in. After the break, we were promised "Lesley Garret and G4 singing together for the first time". Which they duly did. Singing Barcelona, which isn't even a Queen song, for crying out loud.
After that, I guess the track list was a little better. Four of the blokes from Coronation Street did a take-off of the video for I want to Break Free (which itself was a take-off of Corrie - you see what they did there?), which at least had comedy value, although it would've been even funnier to see them attempt the ballet bit. Though for an item that was hugely hyped before and during the show, to see this happen so soon was a bit of an anti-climax.
Heather Small's interpretation of Somebody to Love was underwhelming, to say the least. Considering how big her voice is, and the fact she was supported by a fairly healthy number of backing singers, this was bland in extreme - lacking any of the energy and drive of that song. And the least said about Toyah's rendition of Don't Stop me Now, complete with blatantly-miming backing musicians, the better.
Quality control went up a bit with the inclusion of a rendition of Too much love will kill you by Mylene Klass, of Hear'say fame. This was very good, to be honest; I sort of knew she could play the piano, but she was clearly the talented one in that group. This was a rendition of what is probably one of Queen's lesser-known songs and she pulled it off very well. OK, it was edited; but so were all the others and this suffered less than the others.
Unfortunately, Russell Watson's version of Who wants to live forever was not edited. His singing wasn't bad (although he does have a strange diction at times), but the whole thing, again, was so bland and undramatic. Perhaps it was me; I'd wanted thi, if I was honest, to be bad. But all the power and emotion of one Brian's best ballads completely drained away. And they got the chords wrong during the verse.
After the third (or fourth) commercial break, we were left with what should have been the climax: We Will Rock You and We are the Champions, anyone? No. You're my Best Friend, sung by man of the moment Tony Christie, and G4's awful version of Bohemian Rhapsody, actually. To be fair, Christie's reading of Best Friend as smooth-jazz/lounge music song was little short of genius and worked really well, one of only two songs here to interest and provide something different. I've not heard G4's single version of Bo Rap, but if this was it, then it is truly bad, sucking all the charm out of the work and, scandolously, cutting it down, something even Queen (even Rolf Harris, for Pete's sake) never contemplated. And they should not be attempting the heavy rock bit at all. Mylene Klass and Mel C might have ben a better combination, but then they haven't got a single of the song to promote.
So, that's the running order demolished. What else? The video interludes shed no light on Queen at all, telling you nothing you didn't know, except Freddie was a good singer and they could do a good concert - especially Freddie. In fact, the whole thing equated Queen with Freddie which, whilst understandable, was lazy in the extreme and meant not one mention of Roger, Brian or John - scandalous. Ball's script was over-the-top and inaccurate, stating Queen rose to the top almost immediately (in fact, it took them three years before they even released a single; 4 before they got a top 10 hit).
So, I'm sorry, but I didn't enjoy this. To be honest, I'd rather listen to the real thing than some poor cover versions of the songs. Only Klass and Christie stood out as gems amongst the trash; couldn't they release singles instead of G4? That would be good.
Next week, it's "Madonna Mania". I'm no Madonna fan, but I hope she gets better treatment than this.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Tie Your Mother Down (May)
If Queen ever did "rough and ready", then this was surely the best example of it. A 4-minute blast of pure rock that, for once, doesn't seem too bothered about making sure everything's perfectly mixed, that eschews 3-million overdubs for a simple blast of Brian's guitar.
About time too.
Brian apparently had the idea for the song in Tanzania on top of a mountain, watching the sun either rise or set. He wasn't sure about whether the title phrase could be used, but apparently Mercury (probably the member of the Queen with the most acute sense of what would be a hit) assured him he could.
Of course he could. And it works wonderfully, a song full of playful anger, a veritable two fingers up at, not only whoever's mother it was May wanted to tie down, but also at everyone who forgets how good Queen are at this type of song.
Because, when they put their mind to it, Queen rock (sorry to use that tiresome phrase) like no other band and, even though compared to modern heavy rock this sounds remarkably time, it's still a thrilling experience: full of energy, life, almost bursting at the seems to contain it all.
The lyrics are one essential part of this, the other is the guitar (sorry Roger and John, but the drums and bass, crucial as they are, don't merit a mention here). May would later state that the riff was one of his favourites, one he could pull out during a gig when things weren't going so well to win the audience back. And it's a great riff, starting off quietly then exploding into life with Roger's drums (maybe they do merit a mention) and Freddie's vocal. But whereas live the riff was simply huge (especially at Wembley), the original version has really edge, as well as incredible forwards-momentum - you're simply picked up and carried along.
Freddie, who at times had the sweetest, softest voice in pop, snarls and, occasionally spits out the words. It's a performance that, whilst it doesn't particularly stretch him, is entirely and perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the song and shows him as one of the best rock singers around.
All in all, this is a fantastic blast of a song. It's not clever-clever, it's not trying to make a statement or show off Queen's techinical know-how, it just comes along and blows you away. Easily Brian's best single so far.
There's only one question left: why the hell wasn't it included on Greatest Hits?..... 8
Video: One of those weird, "Queen pretending to be on stage" videos where Queen, er, pretend to be on stage. Without an audience. Which doesn't really work as well as the videos shot with a crowd, as there's no one for Freddie and the band to interact with, always one of their strong points. Top comedy moment, however: when the drums etc. enter at the start, huge fireworks are set off. These were so powerful, they knocked Roger off his stool!
About time too.
Brian apparently had the idea for the song in Tanzania on top of a mountain, watching the sun either rise or set. He wasn't sure about whether the title phrase could be used, but apparently Mercury (probably the member of the Queen with the most acute sense of what would be a hit) assured him he could.
Of course he could. And it works wonderfully, a song full of playful anger, a veritable two fingers up at, not only whoever's mother it was May wanted to tie down, but also at everyone who forgets how good Queen are at this type of song.
Because, when they put their mind to it, Queen rock (sorry to use that tiresome phrase) like no other band and, even though compared to modern heavy rock this sounds remarkably time, it's still a thrilling experience: full of energy, life, almost bursting at the seems to contain it all.
The lyrics are one essential part of this, the other is the guitar (sorry Roger and John, but the drums and bass, crucial as they are, don't merit a mention here). May would later state that the riff was one of his favourites, one he could pull out during a gig when things weren't going so well to win the audience back. And it's a great riff, starting off quietly then exploding into life with Roger's drums (maybe they do merit a mention) and Freddie's vocal. But whereas live the riff was simply huge (especially at Wembley), the original version has really edge, as well as incredible forwards-momentum - you're simply picked up and carried along.
Freddie, who at times had the sweetest, softest voice in pop, snarls and, occasionally spits out the words. It's a performance that, whilst it doesn't particularly stretch him, is entirely and perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the song and shows him as one of the best rock singers around.
All in all, this is a fantastic blast of a song. It's not clever-clever, it's not trying to make a statement or show off Queen's techinical know-how, it just comes along and blows you away. Easily Brian's best single so far.
There's only one question left: why the hell wasn't it included on Greatest Hits?..... 8
Video: One of those weird, "Queen pretending to be on stage" videos where Queen, er, pretend to be on stage. Without an audience. Which doesn't really work as well as the videos shot with a crowd, as there's no one for Freddie and the band to interact with, always one of their strong points. Top comedy moment, however: when the drums etc. enter at the start, huge fireworks are set off. These were so powerful, they knocked Roger off his stool!
Friday, April 08, 2005
Somebody to Love (Mercury)
At last! An update! (Said nobody)...
Truth* is, it's taken me ages to work what I think of this song and even longer to work out what to write. It's not that I don't know it or anything, it's just that...
I can't make up my mind what I like about it, or even if I do.
With Bohemian Rhapsody it's easy to be bowled over by the ambition, scale, and grandeur of it all. With Tie Your Mother Down (coming up next, Brian fans), it's easy just to let it take you into rock-out bliss. This one, however...
It has ambition and grandeur. It has noise aplenty. Don't be taken in by the small piano that leads into the first verse, the big crashing vocal of "Take a look at yourself in the mirror" is a bigger clue to where this is going: this is mock-gospel on a huge scale. The drums are huge, Brian throws a whole host of guitars at it and Fredie's lead vocal is simply massive in parts, switching between plaintive falsetto and huge, loud, almost-desperate sounding phrases.
But there's trouble at t'mill.
Take those backing vocals. They're all done by Brian, Freddie and Roger. No choirs were harmed in the making of this song. And, of course, they sound excellent: huge and, at times, overpowering, occasionally colliding with the lead vocal in moments of pure brilliance that take you along with them, by sheer force if nothing else.
But what point do they serve? When they first come in, they seem to be a call to Mercury, almost mocking him. It's the same during the third verse: "You just keep losing and losing". But at other times, they just seem to echo Freddie's vocal, adding nothing new.
And that bit after the third verse, where we have almost a tribal chant of "Find me somebody to love", building up into a massive reprise of the "Can anybody find meeeeeeeee?"; again, is it just there to show off?
This is a hard song to get. It's easy to nod and say, "Yes, this is all fantastic, very good, great musicians, those guys." But it lacks something: soul, you might call it (ironic, really, for a pastiche of a musical style that is all about soul, exuberance and passion). It's technically all there, in spades, but as a song, this does display Queen's occasional tendency to value musicianship and technical excellence over heart and soul; something they wouldn't properly overcome until right at the end..... 7
Video: Queen performing the song in the studio, mixed with footage from their Hyde Park concert in 1975.
* it took me 4 attempts to spell that word correctly.
Truth* is, it's taken me ages to work what I think of this song and even longer to work out what to write. It's not that I don't know it or anything, it's just that...
I can't make up my mind what I like about it, or even if I do.
With Bohemian Rhapsody it's easy to be bowled over by the ambition, scale, and grandeur of it all. With Tie Your Mother Down (coming up next, Brian fans), it's easy just to let it take you into rock-out bliss. This one, however...
It has ambition and grandeur. It has noise aplenty. Don't be taken in by the small piano that leads into the first verse, the big crashing vocal of "Take a look at yourself in the mirror" is a bigger clue to where this is going: this is mock-gospel on a huge scale. The drums are huge, Brian throws a whole host of guitars at it and Fredie's lead vocal is simply massive in parts, switching between plaintive falsetto and huge, loud, almost-desperate sounding phrases.
But there's trouble at t'mill.
Take those backing vocals. They're all done by Brian, Freddie and Roger. No choirs were harmed in the making of this song. And, of course, they sound excellent: huge and, at times, overpowering, occasionally colliding with the lead vocal in moments of pure brilliance that take you along with them, by sheer force if nothing else.
But what point do they serve? When they first come in, they seem to be a call to Mercury, almost mocking him. It's the same during the third verse: "You just keep losing and losing". But at other times, they just seem to echo Freddie's vocal, adding nothing new.
And that bit after the third verse, where we have almost a tribal chant of "Find me somebody to love", building up into a massive reprise of the "Can anybody find meeeeeeeee?"; again, is it just there to show off?
This is a hard song to get. It's easy to nod and say, "Yes, this is all fantastic, very good, great musicians, those guys." But it lacks something: soul, you might call it (ironic, really, for a pastiche of a musical style that is all about soul, exuberance and passion). It's technically all there, in spades, but as a song, this does display Queen's occasional tendency to value musicianship and technical excellence over heart and soul; something they wouldn't properly overcome until right at the end..... 7
Video: Queen performing the song in the studio, mixed with footage from their Hyde Park concert in 1975.
* it took me 4 attempts to spell that word correctly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
