JAZZ

It was now 1978 and Queen took yet another turn, challenging their fans to accept something so different at each offering of new 12" plastic. Admittedly, this was one of the last Queen albums I purchased just based on the rather dull and boring front cover! The original gatefold vinyl did have a nice interior shot of Queen's studio and a wonderful fold-out poster containing the now famous nude bicycle race!!

The album itself is terribly underrated by most casual fans of the band, and even most die-hards don't list this one high in their rankings!!! This album is stellar, much better in my opinion than 1977's "News Of The World." There are some really strong songs here apart from the wildly popular Double A-side "Fat Bottomed Girls / Bicycle Race."

Songs like "Mustapha" and "Dead On Time" show how heavy Queen could be when they wanted to be...not to mention the great rock tracks "Let Me Entertain You", "Don't Stop Me Now", and a great John Deacon contribution "If You Can't Beat Them." While "Jealousy" and "Leaving Home Ain't Easy" are possibly two of Queen's greatest mellow tunes, songs like "Dreamer's Ball", "Fun It", and "More Of That Jazz" are easily forgotten and for good reasons.

This is a strong album...perhaps Queen's hardest rocking album until their comeback in the 1980's. Although I haven't mentioned this before, all of Queen's remastered back catalog from Hollywood Records (1991) contained bonus tracks. The only bonus tracks up to this point worth having are those found on "Queen" and "Queen II." These contained unreleased material while everything after contained only terrible rap remixes, and slight mixing tweeks to a few tracks that are basically pointless in the eyes of the true Queen collector!!

RIGHT NOW THE QUEEN ANTHOLOGY BOX IS SCHEDULED FOR 2009!! DETAILS ARE SKETCHY, BUT DOZENS AND DOZENS OF RARE QUEEN DEMOS, UNRELEASED TRACKS, BBC MATERIAL, ETC. ARE FINALLY GOING TO FIND A HOME AND INTO THE HOMES OF QUEEN FANS AS WELL!!!! LONG LIVE QUEEN!!!!!