LIVE KILLERS

"Live Killers" is the debut live album of Queen and that was released in 1979. It was recorded live during the European Queen's "Jazz" live world tour, between January and March of 1979 in several locations. It seams that "Don't Stop Me Now", "Spread Your Wings" and "Brighton Rock" were taken from Stadthalle, Bremen on January 20, "Death On Two Legs" was taken from Sporthalle, Cologne on February 1, "39" and "Now I'm Here" were taken from Festhalle, Frankfurt on February 2 and "Love Of My Life" was taken from the DVD release "Greatest Video Hits 1". About the rest of the tracks, it seems to me that apparently, it's impossible to know from which shows the rest of the songs were taken for.

"Live Killers" has twenty two tracks. At the time where "Live Killers" was released, Queen had already seven studio albums, "Queen" which was released in 1973, "Queen II" which was released in 1974, "Sheer Heart Attack" which was released in 1974 too, "A Night At The Opera" which was released in 1975, "A Day At The Races" which was released in 1976, "News Of The World" which was released in 1977 and "Jazz" which was released in 1978. However, not all these albums are presented on "Live Killers". And of those who are present, not all are represented in the same way. So, from "Queen" we have only one track, "Keep Yourself Alive". From "Queen II" we don't have any track here. From "Sheer Heart Attack" we have three tracks, "Killer Queen", "Now I'm Here" and "Brighton Rock". From "A Night At The Opera" we have seven tracks, "Death On Two Legs (Dedicated to?)", "I'm In Love With My Car", "You're My Best Friend", "Love Of My Life", "39", "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "God Save The Queen". From "A Day At The Races" we have only one track, "Tie Your Mother Down". From "News Of The World" we have six tracks, "We Will Rock You", "Get Down, Make Love", "Spread Your Wings", "Sheer Heart Attack", "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions". Finally, from "Jazz" we have four tracks, "Let Me Entertain You", "Bicycle Race", "Dreamer's Ball" and "Don't Stop Me Now".

In 1979, Queen was considered among the rock elite class bands. With a string of hit albums, singles, and sold- out live tours to their credit, the group was about to enter in a new musical phase of their career. And since bootleg copies of their live concerts were fetching exorbitant prices among their fans, the band decided that the better way to close this phase would be the release of their first official live double album, "Live Killers". For unknown reasons, the album was criticized harshly when it was first released. But, listening to it today, I think that we can consider it a good live document of Queen at the height of their 70's arena rock powers, despite its failures. All in all, the album is a solid mix of early hits and forgotten album's tracks, all given new life in the concert setting while the zealous crowd sings along.

"Live Killers" starts with the fast version of "We Will Rock You", which really starts the fire. Next, it was followed in quick succession by some less well known songs like "Let Me Entertain You" and "Death On Two Legs". The medley versions of "Killer Queen", "Bicycle Race" and "I'm In Love With My Car" all flow together perfectly well, and after "Get Down, Make Love" the album picks up again with "You're My Best Friend" and the rollicking "Now I'm Here". The acoustic break of Freddie's "Love Of My Life" and Brian's "'39" is perfect, showcasing the amazing talents of all four members, before the grandiose extravagance of "Keep Yourself Alive", "Don't Stop Me Now" and "Spread Your Wings" show why this band was considered one of the finest live acts ever. The classic "Bohemian Rhapsody" is then followed by the hard rocking completion of the album, with "Tie Your Mother Down" and "Sheer Heart Attack" complemented by "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions", along with "God Save The Queen" as the final conclusion, as usual.

Conclusion: Despite "Live Killers" be a good live album, I was a bit disappointed with it when I heard it for the first time. For a great band like Queen I expected a bit more from the first live album of them. "Live Killers" suffers, in my opinion, from several problems. In the first place, it isn't a very cohesive live album because its songs were taken from several live shows. In the second place, the choice of the repertoire wasn't very well balanced and representative of their entire career, despite being the "Jazz" live world tour. Incomprehensibly, it hasn't any song from "Queen II", which is probably their best studio album and definetely, their most prog album. In the third place, the recording and the mixing of the album aren't really good. So, because of that the final result isn't properly famous. In the fourth place, the live performance of the band sounds distant, in many moments, and the final result sounds without the flame that a live album should have. Thus, the final result isn't a cohesive and a well balanced album. However, the second disc is globally better than the first one. It has some heavy musical moments like "We Will Rock You", "Let Me Entertain You" and "Death On Two Legs", some weak musical moments like "Get Down, Make Love" and even a medley composed by "Killer Queen", "Bicycle Race" and "I'm In Love With My Car". Still, it has also some great live moments like "Now I'm Here" and "Love Of My Life", in disc 1 and "Brighton Rock" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", in disc 2. So, I give to it 3 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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