A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

The I was completely aware of the Queen rise to the top of the pops with this album--which was all the rage throughout the U.S. of A.--I was a hard sell; I just didn't like most of their music. Though I loved "Killer Queen" and "White Queen" and a few others from Queen II, the famous pop concept album was very hard for me to get into. Too much of their music was "over the top". I even went to see them in concert on their "Day at the Races" tour in 1977 and hated it: as impressive as Freddie Mercury was (despite having a head cold), the rest of the band SUCKED! Their warmup band, Thin Lizzy, was FAR more exciting and engaging.

I've never heard or felt any connection to anything Brian May played (I find his preferred guitar sound grating to my ears). Were it not for the sheer and unarguable genius of Freddie, this band would never have found its way into my record collection. Yes, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of the pinnacles of experimental music--and it astounds me to this day that it ever reached such heights of popularity much less achieved radio play and success--but the rest is eminently disposable, in my opinion. The band's better albums were in the past (II) and in the future.