GEORGE MICHAEL AND QUEEN WITH LISA STANSFIELD: FIVE LIVE

I happened to be at a friend's house a couple weeks back and noticed this CD. Having bashed the inclusion of THIS in the forum, I decided I should at least listen to it. AND... it's not that bad- at least not as bad as I thought it would be(or perhaps hoped it would be). I won't rehash what I said in my posts. Certainly, Queen was only marginally prog in their early years, much less so in their later years, and with George Michael and Lisa Stansfield... well we won't get into that.

The Good: George Michael does an admirable job on "Killer" and "Somebody to Love." I kind of liked the studio version of "Dear Friends."

The Bad: Lisa Stansfield on a Queen album ? Say it isn't so.

The Ugly: "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" did nothing for me and I wonder why it was included here. I'd have much rather have had another Queen cover by Mr. Michael. Of course, he could have dug into the Wham! catalogue and had Queen back him up on "Wake me Up before You Go Go."

Not a bad effort... still can't see myself giving this a three, but if you are a big Queen (or George Michael) fan, go out and buy it !

Let me say what I think about George Michael. I think he is disgusting, awful, obnoxious. And I think that 99% of people here on PA think the same, it doesn't matter if they're fans of symphonic prog or prog metal or RIO or any other prog sub-genre. But, maybe I'm wrong and anyway, that's just a matter of taste. I'm not being fair to old George Michael. He's just a professional doing his job, and he's doing it properly.

I was quite astonished with his vocal performance in "Somebody To Love", actually. Nice job. "These are the days of our lives" is not very good, but not very bad neither. "Calling You" is a nice tune. And I think addition of "Dear Friends" is making sense here and it fits nicely.

Well, I don't like "Killer" and "Papa Was A Rolling Stone". I am the fan of 80's pop music, but I just can't digest George's solo work. Not even WHAM!. I would prefer much more to here something else here - perhaps with the same level of performance as in "Somebody to Love".

I would rate this EP with 3 stars-if this would be a QUEEN fan site. But since this is the site about progressive rock, -and nothing of interest here, really- I would rate it 2/5. It doesn't deserve 1/5, it's not that bad. If nothing else this will add even more diversity of styles under the wide umbrella of QUEEN's catalogue. Catalogue of the band that used to be progressive long time ago.

I remember seeing the complete TV Broadcasting of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. Despite I think that it was a noble gesture, I have to say that most of the lead singers in that concert never were close to Freddie Mercury`s style and voice. There was one exception, and maybe the still alive members of Queen noted it: George Michael. I`m not a fan of most of the 80s-90 Pop Rock music, but I always recognized that George Michael has a very good voice, and he showed in that Tribute Concert that he was the best lead singer who sang with Queen in that concert. There were also some rumours in 1992-93 that Queen was going to do a Tour with him as lead singer, but it never happened then, but still it could be a very good idea to do it. His best performance with Queen in that concert was Somebody to Love, singing with energy and feeling, and showing that he really liked the song. But, in the case of These Are The Days Of Our Lives , the duet vocal with Lisa Stansfield , it wasn`t a very interesting performance. I can`t remember anything from the rest of the songs performed by Michael in that concert, so I can`t comment about them now. But his performance of Somebody to Love showed that he really could have been a very good guest singer for a tour with Queen, without being a full time replacement of Mercury because his style of music as soloist and as a member of the band Wham! is very diferent from Queen`s style.

An interesting live EP recorded during the tribute concert honoring Freddy Mercury. I am not a fan of George Michael, but he does seem to be a vocalist most qualified to perform a tribute to Freddy Mercury. They have done a fine version of the Queen songs here. Lisa Stanfield has a beautiful voice and her addition in the duets adds a very nice touch to the songs. The inclusion of Papa Was A Rollin' Stone is kind of odd, as it isn't a Queen song, so it seems quite out of place. That being said, I have always been a big fan of this song, and I do enjoy the version that they provide here. This is a good release that I enjoy listening to from time to time, but honestly it really has limited appeal to any prog fans and really is more of a curiosity for fans of Queen. A nice little tribute, but really only worthy of a 2-star rating here.