The Modernist wrote:There was a kid in my class, dyed hair, a bit alternative looking and he was ranting, as kids do, about the manufactured music of today to his disinterested mates. He then talked of the proper music, what he called the "classic" music of the past and he gave as his example...Queen.
Funnily enough I wasn't surprised as he's not the first kid I've heard talk about Queen in those terms. They seem to think they're on a level with The Beatles. I think we've got all sorts of nasty surprises in store like that in the future.
People of...well...
prior generations to your ranting alterna-student talk about
far lesser acts than Queen as if they are/were/will someday
ever be worth a fuck, and I just accept it - as part of some basic interpersonal "live and let live" encroaching middle-aged form of tolerance/harmony. Good for me, right? I mean, there's people who think the drummer from Blondie was even
half as good as Keith Moon (I'm inflating the figure, I hope). There are people who rate Blondie! I can't arm wrestle them
all.
But, listen -
any kid who lived through
"Country House" vs. "Roll With It" (you know I love you, Betty and Goat Boy) has
every right to see Queen as a totem of a sadly bygone era. Not everyone can see "Bohemian Rapsody" or 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" as the missing link between "Good Vibrations"/"Strawberry Fields" and
Loveless, and...I guess I don't
need them to. But, yeah - records that fundamentally "give a fuck" are not a thing to be belittled, in my eyes.
I went through this shit during my own incarceration in the great "Quiet is the new loud" era of UK indie rock - all of the tastemaking publicists, journos, producers and indie label folks convinced that some band like fucking Wheat or Modest Mouse or Lambchop were worth trying to stay awake for, and just...if you dared mention something like Rush around them, it was as if you'd farted with the strength of an overcrowded boys school assembly. Meanwhile, Flaming Lips are spoon-feeding them "Queen for/by dummies" in some new form of quadrophonic sound to a rapturous response, and Starsailor (and any sort of Radiohead/Travis-lite band, if you can still remember such a thing) are getting crazy money for making Gilbert O Sullivan look like the Germs. With a big enough stick up my ass, I'd have fit right in!
I have two young sons. The 8 year old has VERY prominent ADHD (spend a minute around him and
then tell me whether or not this is a real thing), and my 4 year old is..well, he's 4, I guess. THEY hear Queen songs on the radio and they go absolutely fucking NUTS! "Another One Bites The Dust", "We Will Rock You", "Bo Rhap", etc. - it fucking gets their attention and wakes them up. Freddie Mercury has a certain "I'm actually here to fucking sing these songs, people!" presence that...well, some people view it as a
virtue, I guess (how quaint or "naff" it must seem to, say, the Bluetones). This student of yours is right to view these very creative and lovingly created records as superior to...I dunno,
whatever he may have been comparing them to. They are
considerably closer to the Beatles than they are to Adele or Daft Punk or Robin Thicke. They are ultimately sticky taped together as a labor of love...so much so that you don't even
realize that Roger Taylor is in
way over his head as a drummer (a pre-punk Buckler/Joyce!).
What should I be telling my kids? "No, man - Queen are the ENEMY, like! You ever hear 'Rip It Up'? 'My Ever Changing Moods'?!??! 'Losing My Religion'? FUCKING 'GENO'?!?!?!?!?!?!"*
I'm not sure they'd wear it.
*(I'm only now realizing how many indirect "Their reputation will die with their audience" references are contained within this post! Nasty!)