BCB 130 - queen

[naughty boy]

It would have happened if my postman had got up on stage.

It has nothing to do with 'charisma' and everything to do with a bunch of happy people in a crowd on a summer's day doing daft shit together.

[Limpin' Jez McKenzie]

It would have happened if my postman had got up on stage.

It has nothing to do with 'charisma' and everything to do with a bunch of happy people in a crowd on a summer's day doing daft shit together.

Maybe!! He's probably pretty talented though.

[Goat Boy]

Live Aid has become a bit of a myth I think.
No one would deny Mercury was a good frontman and they were the hit of the day, but this idea that their Live Aid performance is some truly iconic performance I don't get at all. Is getting the crowd to sing a few "eeeh-ooohs" really such an impressive achievement?

It's one of those things which is trotted out EVERY SINGLE TIME this lot are discussed. Even among people in pubs who aren't even into music that much.

Whatever.

Fuck you.

It's the greatest performance ever.

[naughty boy]

[The Modernist]

Of course the Live Aid audience in the stadium was not a bunch of Queen fans. Yet EVERYONE claps to Radio Gaga and sings the day-oh bit.

They were the type of people who would like Queen. You could hear the cheers of anticipation as he hit the stage, so he didn't exactly have to work hard to win them over.
It seems a narrative has been constructed over the years -and we're seeing it on this thread - of this band who had fallen on hard times and into semi-obscurity playing to this crowd who didn't really know who they were and getting them to fall in love with them through the sheer incredible magnetism of the performance. It makes for a nice story, but it's almost completely bollocks. Freddie Mercury was a star back then, people knew what he'd deliver, they knew his schtick and they were eager for it.

[kath]

maybe i'll just start my replying at the end and work backwards.

it never fails to tickle my cochlea when i hear people who don't like a band... who have never liked a band... turn around and 'review' a live performance of that band.

it would be like me, a perpetual hater of BTO, reviewing a BTO concert by saying, "oh pleeeeeez. anyone with an ounce of cool and a cell of brain knows they sucked!!"

next up: a few vegans review emeril's barbecued turducken recipe.

p.s. happy birthday to reap. ya know what he did with part of his amazon gift card from chi chi? live at the rainbow is on the way, bitches. this is what *i* call a ton of cool.

[Goat Boy]

:lol:

I don't see what's funny at all about the greatest performance ever.

[Goat Boy]

Of course the Live Aid audience in the stadium was not a bunch of Queen fans. Yet EVERYONE claps to Radio Gaga and sings the day-oh bit.

They were the type of people who would like Queen. You could hear the cheers of anticipation as he hit the stage, so he didn't exactly have to work hard to win them over.
It seems a narrative has been constructed over the years -and we're seeing it on this thread - of this band who had fallen on hard times and into semi-obscurity playing to this crowd who didn't really know who they were and getting them to fall in love with them through the sheer incredible magnetism of the performance. It makes for a nice story, but it's almost completely bollocks. Freddie Mercury was a star back then, people knew what he'd deliver, they knew his schtick and they were eager for it.

U2 were better anyway.

[bhoywonder]

Of course the Live Aid audience in the stadium was not a bunch of Queen fans. Yet EVERYONE claps to Radio Gaga and sings the day-oh bit.

They were the type of people who would like Queen. You could hear the cheers of anticipation as he hit the stage, so he didn't exactly have to work hard to win them over.
It seems a narrative has been constructed over the years -and we're seeing it on this thread - of this band who had fallen on hard times and into semi-obscurity playing to this crowd who didn't really know who they were and getting them to fall in love with them through the sheer incredible magnetism of the performance. It makes for a nice story, but it's almost completely bollocks. Freddie Mercury was a star back then, people knew what he'd deliver, they knew his schtick and they were eager for it.

I think the truth probably lies somewhere between what you're saying happened and what you're saying didn't happen

[The Modernist]

maybe i'll just start my replying at the end and work backwards.

it never fails to tickle my cochlea when i hear people who don't like a band... who have never liked a band... turn around and 'review' a live performance of that band.

it would be like me, a perpetual hater of BTO, reviewing a BTO concert by saying, "oh pleeeeeez. anyone with an ounce of cool and a cell of brain knows they sucked!!"

next up: a few vegans review emeril's barbecued turducken recipe.

p.s. happy birthday to reap. ya know what he did with part of his amazon gift card from chi chi? live at the rainbow is on the way, bitches. this is what *i* call a ton of cool.

What you've got to understand Kath is that it isn't simply some 'ive performance of a band that we're discussing here. Instead it's become this cultural behemoth, up there with Wacko Jacko's moonwalk and Elvis shaking his pelvis.Mercury and Queen are far more culturally ubiquitous than they ever were during their existence (certainly in the UK where they've become this 'Queen Mother' type institution) and at the peak of this ubiquity is the bloody Live Aid performance, dragged out perpetually as evidence of some god-like genius, alongside the attendant narrative that EVERYONE LOVED IT. Well no actually, not everyone did and furthermore those that didn't are fed up of it being constantly shoved down their throat. None of which is to deny that Mercury was great at what he did.

[GoogaMooga]

i sat through all 16 hours of live aid, interrupted only by meal and toilet breaks, and queen never clicked, just something i had to endure to get to the good bits - the beach boys and santana. of course, they cut away from santana to show phil collins flying to the usa in a flippin concorde!

i never liked queen, except for you're my best friend, and on a good day, maybe under pressure. i think their rock was heavy handed in an arrogant way. we are the champions, indeed! rock and roll part 2 is the REAL sports anthem.

and yes, i heard my fair share of queen in the 70s and 80s, there was no escaping them.

[Limpin' Jez McKenzie]

I hadn't watched the Live Aid performance until about a month ago, when I got the Queen Rocks Montreal DVD, so if they stole the show that day or whether it is a historical performance was of no consideration to me. What got me as I watched was the immense fun that you can see them having, and especially Freddie, who's having a blast; his energy and enthusiasm on that show is contagious, and his fun became my fun. I guess that's what's great about Queen at Live Aid. I mean, besides the songs, heh.

I have both the Rocks Montreal live CD and the Live on fire (Milton Keynes 82) live CD, (as well as Live Killers and Live at Wembley 86)and they are both very good.

[kath]

No, this attempt at burying 80s Queen won't stand. Yes, their 70s work was fine fine fine, but if you're trying to convince me that their 80s albums are a string of turds you're all gonna have to work bloody hard. I've listened to them plenty, I know them well. Even my least favourite, Hot Space, has a handful of great tracks that I do enjoy.

In fact, Hot Space is a great example of what most people insist on missing about Queen, they were all about the fun of it. Sometimes we just get too precious about our bands and won't accept anything that doesn't fit the mold in our heads about the stuff they're supposed to be writing/playing, molds that Queen kept breaking and making with pretty much every new album. The basic sound of their instruments/voices was the common thread, while everything else was liable to change and change it all did. I won't be caught dead belittling their talents and imagination, but the fun factor has always been at the forefront in my perception of them and I can't ignore it. From Keep Yourself Alive to I'm Going Slightly Mad, with every Mustapha and Body Language in between, it wasn't just their chops and unbridled creativity, it was also the sheer fun of actually getting to do all that stuff. These guys had a blast.

80s Queen still delivered the goods, and their albums, while I wouldn't call any of them "perfect", featured fistfuls of fine songwriting with just as much variety as ever. I Want It All, Gimme The Prize, Put Out The Fire, Innuendo, Was It All Worth It, Hammer To Fall, One Vision, Save Me, All God's People, The Miracle, Man On The Prowl, Under Pressure, Princes Of The Universe, Breakthru, It's A Hard Life... Queen through and through. It's A Hard Life is actually one their best ever tracks, as layered and passionate as Queen ever were, a huge favourite for me.

And so what if we're tired of the hits? That's not the songs' fault, and just because we've heard them a million times doesn't make them lesser examples. Someone earlier said Friends Will Be Friends is awful, but I don't hear it, I hear great pop songwriting. If we took that verse and had McCartney singing them at the piano on the White Album people would swear by it.

I hadn't watched the Live Aid performance until about a month ago, when I got the Queen Rocks Montreal DVD, so if they stole the show that day or whether it is a historical performance was of no consideration to me. What got me as I watched was the immense fun that you can see them having, and especially Freddie, who's having a blast; his energy and enthusiasm on that show is contagious, and his fun became my fun. I guess that's what's great about Queen at Live Aid. I mean, besides the songs, heh.

exceedingly kickass/arse.

So you all keep arching an eyebrow and puffing on your pipes naysaying for all you're worth, because as soon as I post this I'm gonna crank Breakthru and bust my Freddie moves around the room and have a tasteless blast while the rest of the world looks down their all too cool a nose at me.

Bunch of cynics.

I wink and blow a kiss in your general direction, darlings.

(throws feather boa over his shoulder)

you wingèd harlot, you.

in fact, raise yer right claw and repeat after me:

i, lord whoever number/dex/edna/whothefucqueamianyway/wingèdharlot/other, am a wingèd harlot. feathers optional.

(she cranks hammer to fall.)

[Goat Boy]

Were Queen a great live band? Yes, absolutely. Is Live Aid the best example of this? No, absolutely not.

Is it a great example of a a frontman directing a crowd? Yes. Is that actually hard to do? Harder than you think, I suspect, but in the context Live Aid easier than it normally would be

[Diamond Dog]

Surely the scale of that day it where the 'myth' is generated from - it was, as was coined, the first 'global jukebox'. No previous musical act - Elvis, the Beatles, Woodstock, fucking anyone- ever had such a mass audience as Live Aid.

Whether the boubters like it or not, Queen actually stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the ballpark. There is a very good reason why they are the first act referenced by 99% of the people that actually watched that day unfold - it was simply that they were the one act that grasped what was needed to make the maximum impact (short, sharp songs/medleys - not Bono doing a 15 minute rendition of "Bad" or whatever the fuck it was) and delivered, big time. Other acts were good (Dire Straits, for one - Eric Clapton later on, was another - yes, it's true...) others were horrendous (Style Council and Madonna, particularly) but it doesn't get away from what Queen delivered on that day. Virtually everyone recalls them and they do so because they were - by any stretch of the imagination- the best act on that day by a considerable distance.

[Bent Fabric]

It would have happened if my postman had got up on stage.

It has nothing to do with 'charisma' and everything to do with a bunch of happy people in a crowd on a summer's day doing daft shit together.

Yeah, you keep saying this, but Simple Minds got up on stage (as comparable to "your postman" as we're likely to get) and nothing happened.

I don't care whether Queen is for everybody (how could they be - our last big Queen thread [remember that one?] was a classic of sorts), but...to argue that they didn't stand out significantly amidst a mostly perfunctory assembly seems churlish.

[The Modernist]

It would have happened if my postman had got up on stage.

It has nothing to do with 'charisma' and everything to do with a bunch of happy people in a crowd on a summer's day doing daft shit together.

Yeah, you keep saying this, but Simple Minds got up on stage (as comparable to "your postman" as we're likely to get) and nothing happened.

I don't care whether Queen is for everybody (how could they be - our last big Queen thread [remember that one?] was a classic of sorts), but...to argue that they didn't stand out significantly amidst a mostly perfunctory assembly seems churlish.

Yes, but why put it on this cultural pedestal now. That's what I'm not getting here.

[GoogaMooga]

for all his radiance and magnetism, i don't think freddie made new converts that day, you'd have to like queen to get enraptured.

[Bent Fabric]

It would have happened if my postman had got up on stage.

It has nothing to do with 'charisma' and everything to do with a bunch of happy people in a crowd on a summer's day doing daft shit together.

Yeah, you keep saying this, but Simple Minds got up on stage (as comparable to "your postman" as we're likely to get) and nothing happened.

I don't care whether Queen is for everybody (how could they be - our last big Queen thread [remember that one?] was a classic of sorts), but...to argue that they didn't stand out significantly amidst a mostly perfunctory assembly seems churlish.

Yes, but why put it on this cultural pedestal now. That's what I'm not getting here.

It's part of their story, and I can scarcely think of a better thread for it.

I concede that you may be making a more specific point that I'm failing to grasp.

[The Modernist]

When I say now, I'm talking of its wider place in the great pop firmament rather than this thread.

I think I just get fed up with the reverence attached to that performance.