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Brolloks View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2011 at 12:45

Queen's debut album was not progressive as such, though it contains progressive material - such as Liar, with My Fairy King hinting at what was to come. It is more of a straightforward rock album with a hard edge. But let me make it clear - Queen's debut album is better than any album Led Zeppelin ever made. Queen II is without doubt a prog album, and the most progressive album Queen ever produced. It is quasi-conceptual, and contains brilliant progressive songs - Father to Son, Ogre Battle and the epic March of the Black Queen. One cannot speak of "fillers" in this album. The Fairy Feller's Masterstroke segues into Black Queen through Nevermore - a short but magnificent song beautiful on its own or as part of the three mentioned songs. It is a world away from songs such as Do You Think It's Alright or Miracle Cure from Tommy; or Stop and Bring The Boys Back Home from The Wall.


Sheer Heart Attack was far more accessible than the previous two albums, but even without epic songs or themes there are still progressive elements to be found - massive harmony vocals throughout, use of delay in guitar solos, etc. A Night at the Opera brings everything together. The hard edge of Queen is polished, Queen II's extravagance is refined, whilst keeping it as accessible (not commercial) as Sheer Heart Attack. It is a varied album with a wide influence, but The Prophet's Song and Bohemian Rhapsody stands out. Brian May pioneered the use of delay to create Bell, cannon and counterpoint effects in a live take in the former. Much has been said about Bohemian Rhapsody. All I need to add is that Queen achieved in 6 minutes with this song that it took Pink Floyd 23 to do with Echoes. Could they have made it 3-4 times longer? Yes. Was it necessary? No.

The follow-up, A Day at The Races, is pretty much a companion album to its predecessor. How do you follow up a great album without massive disappointment? This way. The rest of the band's catalog is pretty much straightforward rock, until the (supposed to be) last album - Innuendo. Very much like A Night at the Opera in its varied content, it also contains massive songs such as the title-track, The Show Must Go On, and the psychedelic I'm Going Slightly Mad. But unlike the first albums, the band makes use of synthesizers, giving the music a much deeper range. I've always believed that had the likes of Led Zeppelin released Innuendo (song) 20 years earlier, it would be regarded as the greatest song of all time. 


Queen will never be considered a progressive band such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson or Yes, but they pushed boundaries back a great deal, and were without doubt musical pioneers. Queen were the masters of vocal harmonies and arrangements. Other band's didn't do the same simply because the couldn't. The same goes for May's guitar arrangements - Procession, Good Company, etc. Furthermore, didn't other progressive bands also abandon their earlier progressive sounds? Owner of a Lonely Heart? Another Brick in the Wall Part 2


Progressive at first? Definitely. Progressive at the end? Yes. Progressive as such? Not enough. Brilliant, though.



Edited by Brolloks - September 26 2011 at 12:50
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2011 at 20:51
Originally posted by lucas lucas wrote:

I really don't care how you label them, they were an astonishing band, one of the best ever. 

Agree with that.


Originally posted by lucas lucas wrote:

They were sort of an operatic rock band evolving with their time. And if some people tell they lost their "bite" after the game, they should listen to songs like "innuendo", "is this the world we created", "tear it up", "gimme the prize", "who wants to live forever", "was it all worth it", "scandal", "I can't live with you", "don't try so hard", "the hitman", "the show must go on". They all showcase some tremendous musicianship and exceptional vocals, of course.




But after "Jazz" they lost their touch, untill "Innuendo" at least, those songs you named are great, but nothing compared to their seventies stuff like Boh Rhap, March Of The Black Queen, Master Stroke, Millonaire Waltz, etc.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 19 2011 at 18:41
Originally posted by Manuel Manuel wrote:

I liked and found Queen to be a very progressive band, up until "A Day At The Races". After that, some magic was lost, at least for me, and I lost interest in their music. I think they are all fantastic musicians and composers, but they took a more commercial approach after a great, promising beginning.
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 19 2011 at 17:19
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

^ They could conceivably come up with a genre description for every rock song ever written but it wouldn't make Queen any more Progressive Rock than eclectic.

BTW I love Queen but don't feel the need to qualify their credentials of excellence as being 'Prog' to legitimise their worth
 
Yeah ... and I'm sure they wouldn't need Prog Archives to tell them what their music was about, either!
 
A proggier bassist? ... wow ... how many Chris Squire clones do we need? ... good Frupcking gracious ... that is more pretentious than a lot of other comments here! ... and they say we're pretentious! No wonder with comments like that!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 19 2011 at 17:16
Originally posted by rogerthat rogerthat wrote:

I see no issue in calling Queen PR if Tori is crossover. Tongue  The problem might simply be that Queen was and is already very well known as one of the top hard rock acts of the 70s and reclassifying them for the sake of this website seems superfluous.  As for being progressive, I think Sparks should get some of the credit that is generally reserved for Queen because they did this whole glam rock with faux-operatic vocals thing, AND anticipated New Wave, AND did it a whole lot more effectively than Queen.  As much as I like Queen, most of their memorable tracks are pastiches.
 
Kimono My House ... and yeah ... both bands are very good! But 10CC would get the vocal credits before both of these!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2011 at 03:01
Originally posted by FunkyHomoSapien FunkyHomoSapien wrote:

Progressive in terms of worst possible taste maybe
Surely you realise that bad taste goes with the territory? Queen are too intelligent not to know that themselves - it's deliberate, Freddie being provocative as usual.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 17 2011 at 00:01
Originally posted by jean-marie jean-marie wrote:

Not always but [insert prog band of choice] has some realy prog pieces, it's a fact, love that band


fixed
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 16 2011 at 06:03
Originally posted by topographicbroadways topographicbroadways wrote:

Originally posted by FunkyHomoSapien FunkyHomoSapien wrote:

Progressive in terms of worst possible taste maybe


Join me again next week on "Lets Make No f**king Sense", where I will be waxing an Owl.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 15 2011 at 18:07
Not always but Queen has some realy prog pieces, it's a fact, love that band
FAIS QUE TON REVE SOIT PLUS LONG QUE LA NUIT HAVE YOUR DREAM LASTING LONGER THAN THE NIGHT
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 17:54
One of my favorite zombie horses is back to eat our brains. So I will get my favorite whacking stick to beat it as I have before...

...With all the nonsense that passes muster in crossover, Queen not passing as at least that, is a bit of a stain to the sites credibility. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 15:05
Originally posted by topographicbroadways topographicbroadways wrote:

Originally posted by FunkyHomoSapien FunkyHomoSapien wrote:

Progressive in terms of worst possible taste maybe


Join me again next week on "Lets Make No f**king Sense", where I will be waxing an Owl.
LOL
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 13:47
Originally posted by FunkyHomoSapien FunkyHomoSapien wrote:

Progressive in terms of worst possible taste maybe


Join me again next week on "Lets Make No f**king Sense", where I will be waxing an Owl.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 13:27
Progressive in terms of worst possible taste maybe
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 11:03
Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:

Originally posted by catfood03 catfood03 wrote:

Sheer Heart Attack
I rarely listen to this one. Just can't get into it. So no comment.
 
Indeed you should give it another try, i find it great. Flick of the Wrist, Lilly Of The Valley and the 2 In The Lap Of The Gods are some of their most non-famous songs and soooo good !


Agree. It's a very strange album, and so it took me a long time to get into it, but now it's among my favorites.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 10:58
Originally posted by catfood03 catfood03 wrote:

Sheer Heart Attack
I rarely listen to this one. Just can't get into it. So no comment.
 
Indeed you should give it another try, i find it great. Flick of the Wrist, Lilly Of The Valley and the 2 In The Lap Of The Gods are some of their most non-famous songs and soooo good !
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 10:54
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:



BTW I love Queen but don't feel the need to qualify their credentials of excellence as being 'Prog' to legitimise their worth


Yes, so true. I hate seeing it everywhere on here. Especially with The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Who needs to be so elitist that they have to qualify everything they like as Prog in some way? grrr
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 10:34
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

^ they have loads of 'outstanding tracks' most of which are not remotely prog (and I love em allWink)
 
Very true. They also have many tracks covering pretty much all abums which are prog. I love Innuendo but it's not the first progressive recording they made since 1976 as many seem to think (imho of course)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 07:25
^ they have loads of 'outstanding tracks' most of which are not remotely prog (and I love em allWink)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 07:16
Queen is as progressive as Deep Purple or Uriah Heep:: they are not prog in general sense, but have some outstanding tracks (which can be called "prog" ) , and also had influence to some prog musicians

p.s Innuendo is prog song, also one seasoned prog musician played "Spanish guitar" interlude in it



Edited by awaken77 - September 14 2011 at 07:19
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 14 2011 at 07:00
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

^ Really surprised you don't like Sheer Heart Attack. For me it's their one 'no flaws perfect  5 star album'


I think I'll give it another try after I am completely worn-out with the other four. Most people have good things to say about it, plus it has "Killer Queen" which means I'll be reaching for the CD again sooner than later.

For some reason it didn't grab me on the first and second spins, maybe it'll be a grower for me.
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