An Interesting Angle On A Classic Queen Track

This is a rather interesting theory, or angle on Bohemian Rhapsody.
Copied from a post by Balearic Burger (an open Facebook group), posted by someone on a Queen related Facebook group I am also a part of, but do not manage. Yup, I am stealing this because it is a good take on this classic Queen song.

Why is the song called ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’? Why does it last exactly 5 minutes and 55 seconds?What is this song really about? Why did the Queen movie premiere on October 31 2018?

Let’s start with the movie and it had premiered on October 31 2018 because the single was first heard on October 31, 1975. It’s titled that way because a ‘Rhapsody’ is a free-form musical piece composed of different parts and themes that seem unrelated to each other. The word ‘rhapsody’ comes from Greek and means ‘assembled parts of a song.’ The word ‘bohemian’ refers to a region in the Czech Republic called Bohemia, where Faust, the protagonist of Goethe’s work of the same name, was born. In Goethe’s work, Faust was an elderly and intelligent man who knew everything except the mystery of life. Unable to comprehend it, he decides to poison himself.

At that moment, church bells ring, and he goes outside. When he returns to his room, he finds a dog that transforms into a kind of man. It’s the devil, Mephistopheles. He promises Faust a full life without misery in exchange for his soul. Faust agrees, rejuvenates, and becomes arrogant. He meets Gretchen and has a child. His wife and child die. Faust travels through time and space and feels powerful. When he becomes old again, he feels miserable once more. Since he didn’t break the pact with the devil, angels contend for his soul.

This work is essential to understanding ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’

The song is about Freddie Mercury himself. Being a rhapsody, it has 7 different parts:
1st and 2nd acts – A Capella
3rd act – Ballad
4th act – Guitar solo
5th act – Opera
6th act – Rock
7th act – ‘Coda’ or final act

The song talks about a poor boy questioning if this life is real or if his distorted imagination is living another reality. He says that even if he stops living, the wind will keep blowing without his existence. So, he makes a deal with the devil and sells his soul.

Upon making this decision, he rushes to tell his mother and says…

“Mama, I just killed a man, put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger, now he’s dead. Threw my life away. If I’m not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters…”

The man he kills is himself, Freddie Mercury.

If he doesn’t fulfill the pact with the devil, he will die immediately.

He says goodbye to his loved ones, and his mother breaks into tears, tears and desperate crying that comes from Brian May’s guitar notes. Freddie, terrified, cries out, “Mama, I don’t want to die,” and the operatic part begins. Freddie finds himself in an astral plane where he sees himself: “I see a little silhouetto of a man”… “Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?”

Scaramouche is an “escaramuza,” a skirmish between armies with horseback riders (4 horsemen of the Apocalypse of evil fighting against the forces of good for Freddie’s soul), and he continues, saying, “Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me.”

This phrase appears in the Bible, specifically in Job 37 when it says, “the thunder and lightning frighten me: my heart pounds in my chest.” Seeing his son so scared by the decision he has made, Freddie’s mother begs to save him from the pact with Mephistopheles. “He’s just a poor boy…” “Spare him his life from this monstrosity.” “Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?” Her pleas are heard, and angels descend to battle the forces of evil. “Bismillah” (an Arabic word meaning “In the name of God”) is the first word in the holy book of Muslims, the Quran. So, God Himself appears and shouts, “We will not let you go.”

In the face of such a confrontation between good and evil, Freddie fears for his mother’s life and says, “Mama mia, mama mia, let me go.” They shout again from the sky that they won’t abandon him, and Freddie cries, “No, no, no, no, no,” and says, “Beelzebub (the Lord of Darkness) has a devil put aside for me.” Freddie pays homage here to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach when he sings… “Figaro, Magnifico,” referring to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” considered the greatest opera of all time, and to Bach’s “Magnificat.”

The operatic part ends, and the rockier part bursts in. The devil, angry and betrayed by Freddie not keeping the pact, says, “So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to die?”

It’s chilling how the Lord of Evil feels powerless against a human being, against repentance and love.

Having lost the battle, the devil departs, and we reach the final act or ‘coda’ where Freddie is free, and that feeling comforts him. The gong that closes the song sounds. The gong is an instrument used in China and East Asian cultures to heal people under the influence of evil spirits.

It lasts for 5:55 minutes. Freddie liked astrology, and in numerology, 555 is associated with death, not physical but spiritual, the end of something where angels will safeguard you. 555 is related to God and the divine, an ending that will lead to a new beginning.

And the song plays on Halloween eve for the first time. A holiday called ‘Samhain’ by the Celts to celebrate the transition and opening to the other world.

The Celts believed that the world of the living and the dead were closely connected, and on the Day of the Dead, both worlds would unite, allowing spirits to cross over.

Nothing in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is coincidental.

Everything is carefully crafted and has a meaning that goes beyond being just a song.

It has been voted worldwide as the greatest song of all time.

Queen Alarm Clock

Hi folks. I have a personal question to ask everyone who is reading this post. As a Queen fan, do you or did you use a song, or songs by Freddie and the guys to wake you up in the morning with your phone, as an alarm clock? Since 2014 I had done that with either my iPhone, or an iPod touch I would use and would store all my Queen albums on. I think I had started getting away from ringtones and using music as an alarm with iOS 8. Back then when you made songs from your music collection as an alarm, the entire song would play once with no repeats and I like that.

From the fall of 2014 when I had purchased Made In Heaven on iTunes I had used the untitled 13th track as my first alarm to wake me up. It is gentle and back when the entire song would play, you get to hear the final crescendo Freddie spouting “FAB” as the last word. I would use other Queen songs such as It’s A Beautiful Day Reprise from the Deep Cuts Vol. 3 compilation and the B-side version of the same song, at the end of the hour. As you now know, I would try to have an hour’s worth of music to wake me up. Sometimes I would have the untitled track repeat twice and that was during the year of iOS 9, when complete songs would play as an alarm.

Sadly, with iOS 10 to present, only 15 minutes worth of music will play before the alarm shuts off and moves on to either the next alarm, or nothing until I take care of the phone and bring it back to normal operations.

From 2018 to 2021 I had a bunch of songs I would play for either an hour, or 2 hours to wake me up slowly and gently, obviously starting off with the untitled track from Made In Heaven and I would include Black Star by David Bowie, a track from a Brian Eno album, consisting of ambient music, a track from a Tool album from August 2019 onward and of course, ending off with It’s A Beautiful Day (Reprise) and the B-side versions. I had to time everything just right so nothing would repeat as little as possible. From 19 to 2021, I would even start off with a sound of a Greyhound Bus going by, repeating for an hour, by my own choice. Sometimes I would have dreams of going places and hearing that sound made me anticipate what was to come, but I would remember that it was a part of bringing me back to reality. Why a bus? I like buses and have been a fan of them since I was a kid. Put me on a bus and I would be happy, but not necessarily a transit Bus. I like public transit buses, but I do not like riding sideways. So, put me on a school bus or a highway coach and I would be happy as a pig in shit, riding facing forward.

I hope that some day we can create an alarm where we can hear a complete song, no matter the length and no repeats like we had with iOS 8. Then again, I may refrain from doing this because the music playing for as long as it has done, heats up the phone and with it being most likely plugged into the charger, it can get hot to the point of maybe overheating and could damage the battery and shorten the life of it. So, I have stopped with my alarms on my phone for the time being and allowing other devices in my apartment to wake me up, like a weather alert radio, which also functions as a clock Radio. No, Queen music does not play, but that is kinda the point of the radio. It beeps for about a minute and shuts off after 60 seconds of beeping at various speeds, with a more rapid succession of beeps at the end.

What brought this up was a video on Youtube, about why the default ringtone for alarms on iPhones is so annoying. Well, I’m afraid that it is up to us to change that and if you don’t like Radar, we have the power to change it to something we would prefer. So, use your music wisely so that your favourite song doesn’t become your least favourite. To date, none of the Queen songs I have used have become hated and the same with everything else I’ve used over the years to wake me up. That was the point of the video stating a theory that if you use your favourite song to wake you up you will start to hate it. That’s bullshit and the video also left out the fact that we have the choice to create our own alarms with songs we like and if done right, we can wake ourselves up without ruining our favourite songs, including any Queen songs I have used over the years.

The Show Must Go On, Rage Against The Machine

Hi folks. In honour of the 3rd disbandment of Rage Against The Machine, here is a post about the band and I will do my best, to put a Queen spin on the band. RATM had formed in 1991 with drummer Brad Wilk, basest Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and vocalist Zack de la Rocha. They had all been in other bands and apparently Zack and Tim were also big fans of Canadian rock band Rush. As far as Queen goes, I think that it is probably Tom who is probably the main member who can say that he is a fan, despite him and Brian having different guitar styles. Tom doesn’t do guitar harmonies and Brian doesn’t make strange noises with his guitar, other than the spacey sounds during Get Down Make Love, or even Another One Bites The Dust. However, RATM are listed among the many bands who were influenced by Queen on Wikipedia and this had come about, after 2015 and there is no citation needed, which means that it is probably correct.

Unlike Queen, Rage are obviously quite political and despite my own misgivings about politics on either side, I like the band and their music. It’s not because of the funk, but the anger and rebellion. My favourite song is Killing In The Name and despite Wikipedia, the classic line “fuck you I won’t do what you tell me” was spoken 16 times at the end. The best thing about the band is guitarist Tom Morello and those weird sounds he makes with his guitar. I’m a guitarist and so, I happen to enjoy hearing those unworldly noises, which Tom gets out of the guitar through the use of affects pedals and doing things wrong. Like Tool, most Rage songs are in drop D tuning and I had gone into how some of Brian’s songs are also in the same tuning.

Rage had put out 4 albums: Rage Against The Machine in 1992, Evil Empire in 1996, The Battle of Los Angeles in 1999 and Renegades in 2000, which is a covers album and the music was written by the band. A notable example of a cover which became famous before the album was even released is by Bruce Springsteen and his 1995 song The Ghost of Tom Joad. We also find out that Zack can sing a bit, with covers of Kick Out the Jams and a classic Stones single Street Fighting Man. Renigades had come out after singer Zack de la Rocha left to start a solo career. In the meantime, the other three members formed a new band, in the shape of Audioslave with former SoundGarden frontman Chris Cornell and released three albums, the self-titled debut album Audioslave, out Of Exile and Revelations. Then in 2007, Rage got back together and have worked with each other in various forms ever since. In 2016 we got the supergroup Profits of Rage, with the 3 remaining members of Rage Against The Machine and wrappers Chuck D of Public Enemy and B-Real from Cypress Hill, along with DJ Lord. They have released music and were formed because of the political climate in America, with the pending election of Donald Trump. Also, Chris Cornell died on May 18 of 2017, so no chance of an Audioslave reunion.

With Audioslave, at least, Tom decided to focus more on regular guitar solos as he is actually quite good when he wants to whale. They all are good musicians and it isn’t any wonder, why Brad was chosen to play on the final Black Sabbath album in place of Bill Ward.

Both Queen and Rage are now inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Queen in 2000 and Rage being inducted in 2023, with Tom being the only member to show up. Maybe this should have been a sign that something was not right in the RATM camp, which lead to a recent announcement that Rage have stopped all touring and any dates which had been cancelled will not be rescheduled. Could this be an official disbandment of the band, or have they decided to go on a hiatus for a long while what they have done for a number of years?

I had done posts on the Rage Against The Machine album in my other blogs, but I can’t do one here. The reason is that this blog was started on the 30th anniversary of the release of the debut album and there were other things to get out of the way, which relate to Queen and recent releases over a number of years. I am not going to do a post on the album in this blog yet, but I may give it a try one day.

When it comes to interpersonal band friction, Queen may be different in a lot of ways, but with Rage it is all down to politics. Apparently, they broke up for a few months in 1994 over issues and thankfully, they got back together to record the second album. Can you imagine having fist fights over not just music, but over political arguments? It seems that with Audioslave decisions were made in much the same way, in that music had to come out at a certain time and in a certain political climate. Chris Cornell also mentioned something called the punk rock guilt in that despite the band being on a major label, they had to behave like they were on an independent label and that meant nothing but stern looks, no smiling and just acting angry and not looking at, or blowing kisses at the audience.

Then there are things where the band did things as a form of protest, like when they had hung inverted American flags over their amplifiers during their May 1996 guest spot on Saturday Night Live, with republican presidential hopeful Steve Forbes as guest host. Apparently somebody wanted some confrontation during the comedy show so, they got it with the band being on one side of the spectrum and the host on the other.

Something else which had happened was during the MTV Video Awards in 2000, Tim decided to climb the scaffolding after they had lost to Limp Bizkit and the song Break Stuff. The idea of the stunt was to disrupt the speech that Fred Durst was making. Could you imagine Freddie trying to pull something like that if Queen had lost? Probably not, but it is fun to think about.

Sadly, it seems that Rage Against The Machine are over. I don’t know for how long, but it seems that any and all plans for the future are for not. Thank you to all 4 musicians for putting out 4 great albums and making such great music, that I believe any Queen fans who like their rock hard and the funk of Hot Space, can swallow.

Wikkipedia: Fact Or Fiction?

Hi folks. So, how was New Year’s? Are we all ready for a new year of Queen? Are we all healthy? Unfortunately, I have a cold and on the upside, I’m over the worst of it now.

To start 2024 off I have something to talk about, which had been on my mind for a while. I believe I may have been thinking about it as far back as the summer of 2023 so, here goes.

You know that I believe that queen are a hard rock band at the core, much like Eddie Trunk does. I also follow Loudwire on Facebook and I subscribe to the magazine on YouTube. Loudwire focuses mainly on hard rock and heavy metal and Queen certainly have both sub genres as a part of the ingredients which make up what they do. Sure, we have the ballads and lush vocal harmony and guitar harmonies, but Queen have as much crunch and sludge as Black Sabbath and any other hard rock and heavy metal band you care to name.

Anyway, ever since I had been using the Youtube app, I had subscribed to not just this music magazine, but bands and other individual channels. Obviously, Queen is also one of them too, but that’s not the point of the post. I’ve been thinking about a web series on Loudwire’s YouTube channel called Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? I wonder why Brian or Roger haven’t been asked to play that game, on behalf of Queen or themselves. The interview videos are done mainly by Loudwire writer Graham Hartmann and both him and Brian have vegetarianism in common and Graham is also a cancer surviver. I had found that out when he had interviewed fellow Queen head Rob Halford for his 2022 book Biblical and just before Judas Priest were about to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I find these videos entertaining, but we also get great stories from the artists involved, when clearing up fact, or fiction as it is on Wikipedia. What happens is, Graham looks at the artist’s Wikipedia page, aband member’s individual page and if there are contradictions, they are addressed in the videos. One thing that usually starts off the videos is the person’s full name, where they were born and sometimes, the subject’s date of birth. Sometimes the full name is correct, but the spelling may be wrong. One example is Devin Townsend, born Devin Garrett Townsend had a mistake in the spelling of his middle name, with 1 T at the end before the video clearing up his fact or fiction came along. There is at least one subject where they got everything right and there was no fiction to debunk.

Queen are what is known in the music industry as a Heritage artist, because of their status as a veteran act. Sure, they have been inactive for a number of years, but as far as I am concerned, Queen are a going concern even with Adam Lambert these days. Loudwire has done similar artists such as: Rob Halford, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons of Kiss, Paul Cook of Sex Pistols and even bands who are not metal like Nickelback, Creed or Theory Of A Deadman, so why not a venerable band like Queen? It doesn’t matter whether they are metal or not and we have gone over that with the bands I’ve just mentioned so, let’s get Brian or Roger to do a video. After all, Queen have influenced many hard rock and metal bands and there has been the occasional article on Queen on the website so, why are we as Queen fans not yelling and screaming for a Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? video? I would love it if at some point either Roger, or Brian did the honors, in clearing up any contradictions in Wikipedia. For anybody who reads Loudwire in the Facebook group and who subscribes to this blog and reads these posts, what say you?

As far as I know, the only way to convince Loudwire to do this for us is for us all, to possibly comment on a video of one of the subjects of this web series and maybe, Graham and those who are above him may consider reaching out to Jim Beach and asking Brian or Roger to participate in something which is fun and entertaining. Graham will not do a hatchet job on them and his job is only to debunk fiction, when found. So, we can’t ask Brian or Roger directly and it’s up to us, to get Loudwire to do it as this is their web series. If Queen says yes, all systems go and if Queen says no, that is their decision, but I can’t see Brian saying no to this at all. After all, both him and Roger are certainly aware of the influence they have on many bands and many genres, especially hard rock and heavy metal.

I hope that we will eventually get a video with either Brian, Roger, or maybe even Jim Beach if he is up to it. Besides, we are bound to hear many great stories regardless of whether they are clearing up fact or fiction, or if everything is correct. Here is an example of a Queen contemporary playing the game and Alice Cooper handled himself well. If you want to get Queen to play the game, leave a comment in the link to the Youtube video and hopefully, if enough of us respond we may find Brian or Roger as a part o the web series. I certainly have responded and I hope that anybody else reading this does too. https://youtu.be/4PebLq32PvQ?si=uemxizwhVTlw1gAl

2023 In Review

Hi folks. We have reached the end of 2023 and it is time for the annual year in review post. This being the first full year of the blog, I thought I should do this and so, here goes.

I had said that this would be a year of anniversaries and it certainly was, like 2024 will also be. We had the 50th anniversary of the debut album and the 40th of Brian’s Star Fleet Project, which waas fixed and rereleased on July 14th. I didn’t do a post on the latter album, because there was so much promotion for it on all manner of social media from Brian, such as posts on Youtube and instagram. Besides, there really wasn’t much to say about it because it is a mini album and I figured I would leave Brian to do the promotional heavy lifting.

We have also had the 40th anniversary of the album Pyromania by Def Leppard and the reason I bring this up, is because on the deluxe version, there is a bonus live album of the band in Los Angeles. Bryan showed up at the end of the show, to play some guitar with the guys from Sheffield. Why not? My mind was blown too back in 2013, when I had bought the deluxe version of this album on CD and the lady at HMV had told me that Brian was on the album, with Brian and the guys covering Travellin’ Band by Creedence Clearwater Revival done in a higher key. I did a post on this classic album in June during a time when I had got back into listening to full albums and unfortunately, I had become distracted from this practice other than a new album coming out. I hope I get back into it again!

Queen and Adam Lambert also went on tour in the US and Canada and from what I heard, it went down well. After all, there was that surprise single release of Machines (or ‘Back To Humans’) a few weeks ago. Could this be a hint of something else coming? Could we get that 40th anniversary of The Works with everything we have always wanted over the years, which had never been on CD or digital and streaming platforms legally? Hopefully we get the instrumental version of this song, along with the 12 inch version of Thank God It’s Christmas and other goodies.

We also had bands who were influenced by Queen (in varying degrees) coming out with new albums this year, with Metallica’s 72 Seasons in April, SIX by Extreme in June and a rerecorded version of the first two Sepultura releases by the Cavalera brothers who had formed the band and who had left 10 years apart. By the way, Sepultura are about to embark on their farewell tour in 2024, but without the two founding members: Max and Igor Cavalera. Both Sepultura and Cavalera Conspiracy, Extreme and Metallica were given posts as a part of the series entitled “The Show Must Go On” and even a band like Slipknot got in and will be revisited in May. I guarantee, there will be more coming up next year. Judas Priest will be one of the first in March and you can be sure that there will be others, when new albums by bands who are a part of my version of The Queen Family, come out. I have some other bands whom I have yet to take on and they include The Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails, along with Marilyn Manson. By the way, I did manage to squeak out a post on Tool on December 19th. This progressive metal band are not an obvious bunch of musicians to name, when you mention them in the same breath as Queen. However, I like both and if you haven’t checked out my post on Tool, this is a band like no other, including Queen. They have a crazy sense of humour and this extends to giving out misinformation, pranking fans and creating a ruse. They also care about everything, down to packaging, song structures including melodic lines and notations, how the albums are sequenced and all the little fiddly bits that go into everything, including stereoscopic lenses on one CD package. Also, a member did a cover of a signature Queen song, which had charted a number of times throughout the world and had a Christmas UK number 1 hit twice in 1975 and 1991.

On the other side of the coin, I also started the series “Guides And Inspirations” about people who had influenced Queen. Again, I went with both obvious and not so obvious names you would think of when you converse with someone about Queen. I did The Kingston Trio because someone had mentioned to me on Facebook, that Brian loves them. It’s not surprising and it’s obvious, when you listen to 39. I did The Beatles because of the new song they had released this year with John Lennon on lead vocals and why not? I love The Beatles and I will be coming back to them in the future, along with Led Zeppelin. Again, why not? I also have other irons in the fire, when it comes to the influencers, who inspired Freddie and the guys and especially people whom I also love.

I also did my first Canadian Connections post on July 1st, as I am also Canadian born and raised. I will certainly come back to this topic in the future, considering that Paul Rodgers has been a Canadian citizen, since 2011 and has recorded a new album last year, produced by the same guy who produced Metallica albums in the 90s.

Of course, I went on about Queen and things which came into my head. For example: a few weeks ago I confessed that I had actually forgotten lyrics to a Queen song, which would be embarrassing if I was doing karaoke. Fortunately, I was by myself and so, I was lucky that nobody heard me sing, with EarPods on my ears. I may do a post on Queen infiltrating my dreams, which doesn’t happen all that often. I will probably talk about how I used to use Queen as an alarm to wake me up in the morning, along with other songs in my music library, on my iPhone and you will notice there’s a method to my madness. I even have a planned post on how we as Queen fans believe that this classic band can appeal to anybody and everyone, no matter your musical tastes. Spoiler alert: I do not believe that to be completely true and I will explain why and it has to do with age and how time has gone on, since Freddie had passed in 1991 and other things. I don’t know when I will finally finish off this post, but I imagine that it will get some positive and negative comments alike.

I did a 3 part post on how I became the Queen fan I am now, from 4 years old to today. I am happy to tell you, that Queen had never left me even when I listened to other bands more than Queen and in the back of my mind, I always wonder, what would so and so sound like, fronting Queen if they ever got back together for a show. Looking back, I wish I had what I have now and if streaming was around back then, I would probably kill at school. I would be imposing Queen on people, as if I was a school bully and I wouldn’t even think twice. However, knowing whom I was imposing Freddie, Brian, John and Roger on, I knew to choose the more hard rock tracks and leave the ballads and other kinds of music for others. For example: those who enjoyed 80s pop music and my music teachers, who did not get imposed upon, but I associated various aspects of queens more classical, baroque, operatic, jazz, Music Hall and symphonic leanings with what I was hearing in Music Appreciation class. I am glad I went through what I had to go through back then, as it was all a part of growing older and wiser. I don’t say growing up, because I am still a kid at heart at my age of 50.

I am proud of my post on Classic Queen, as it may not have been my favourite hits collection, but it was the first Queen compilation I had purchased on CD. I had read it a number of times, in order to waste time and having those memories of back then flood back, as well as the first part of my post on being a Queen fan wasn’t overwhelming, but reminded me of when times were simpler.

I had done posts on all of Freddie’s studio albums and Back To The Light from Brian, with the Freddie album posts in July. I had since corrected a mistake I had made in the post on Barcelona, which concerned when Bob and myself watched the Flintstones. I had said it was on the Friday, but it was actually on the Thursday. I wish we could have watched either Reel Trouble, or Bachelor Daze. By the way, why is “Daze” spelled as such, instead of “Days” in the episode title? I will probably start on Roger and his solo work in 2024, because it will be the 40th anniversary of Strange Frontier, as Man On Fire was the first song I had heard by Roger as a solo artist and the only one, for many years.

2023 was the year when I had layed out The Queen Family, as I envision it and it includes a great many bands who were either influenced by, or who influence Queen and which explains why both series of posts were started on both sides of the table. I love Queen and I have my big 4 other bands, but I also love other people too and I had also layed out a long list of bands, who had kept me holding onto Queen throughout the years. Again, most may not be obvious, but I don’t care. Besides, I wanted to go way beyond Tim Staffel, or even Paul Rodgers and anyone who had played, or sang with Queen on April 20th 1992. Now that I think of it, if Queen were around today, couldn’t they have considered something like what Sharon Osborne had done, so they could take out bands with them who are similarly like-minded? Given how diverse Queen is, the possibilities will be endless and I will even extend this possible idea to Queen and Adam, or Queen and Paul Rodgers if they had gone on a little longer. It would have been great to see whom Queen could invite as a part of something called either The Royal Family, or The Queen Family. I guess the closest we had come is the tribute to Freddie, in how such a summer festival type tour could have gone and the type of bands Queen could have taken out. Of course, they would have to be equally as popular all over the world and right now, they certainly are. Unfortunately, this fantasy idea of mine of a tour hasn’t happened.

Speaking of fantasy, I even did a post on a fantasy Queen Setlist and it wasn’t my idea. Someone else had done a post on Facebook and I liked it so much that I had decided to make it a blog post. Why not?

2023 was also the year, when Brian became Sir Brian May and my guess is that he will probably be the only living and active member of Queen, who excepts this high honor. I can’t picture Roger saying yes to this and I believe that Brian was given and had accepted the title because of his other achievements, activism and activities outside of Queen, as well as his contribution to music through Queen and through playing with other people. However, Bryan is so humble that it is hard to fathom the Queen axman as not just Dr. Bryan May, but also sir Bryan May too. then again, he did play on the roof of Buckingham Palace in 2002 and King Charles does have some friends who are musicians and comedians. For example: Eric Idle of Monty Python fame was invited to dine at the palace a few years ago, with the great Billy Connolly, who is also knighted. The other give-away that this would be a possibility is that in a chapter of Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford’s book Confess, he talks about going to Buckingham Palace to meet Queen Elizabeth in 2006. Two other members of the Queen family were there, namely Roger Daltrey and Bryan, along with Cilla Black, of whom Rob was a huge fan. They hit it off and I won’t give too much away, but she had given Rob a poke in the ribs when he tried to shake the queen’s hand. I would’ve done so too if I was him, but because I am actually quite shy, I would’ve probably not have thought about it unless she had said that I could. I wonder if either of the surviving members of The Who will ever be knighted.

A more recent post I had done was on a long running radio documentary show called Ongoing History of New Music. Despite that this one hour weekly show looks at things from the alt-rock universe, I believe that Queen are in there somewhere. They may not be an alternative rock band, but anyone who pays attention, certainly knows that Roger and Bryan have played with and have connections with such fans as The Darkness and The Struts, who are only 2 examples of more recent bands falling under this umbrella. Let’s not forget Foo Fighters and the late Taylor Hawkins as a Queen fan and even Brian played on a song or two, along with Roger and Brian both playing with Taylor on one of his side projects. Did I mention that Roger’s son Tiger plays drums in The Darkness?

There is more obvious and not so obvious proof that Queen do have a foot in alternative music, without actually being of alternative music. Don’t forget, we have David Bowie (an alternative icon in his own right) and Brian has played with Soundgarden in 1993. Roger and Brian are both fans of Muse and why not?

Anyway, the radio show currently explores alternative rock, from punk to present and even to hip hop, which was originally an alternative music sub genre when it started. No, I didn’t know that either until Allen had told us, either on his website, or during an episode, or on a Youtube video of one of his speaking engagements, or an interview with him about music, for a specific purpose. Anyway, the show does just about everything, from artist profiles to various thematic explorations. This is Canada’s most well known music documentary hosted by Alan Cross. Like it says in the podcast show notes, “whatever the episode, you’re definitely going to learn something that you might not find anywhere else. Trust us on this”. I found that out quickly and was hooked in 1994, despite no Queen anywhere. Altho, in 1995 Alan did a two part episode on Pearl Jam, when going over the background before 1990, he did mention that singer Andrew Wood was a huge fan of Freddie and Queen. Sadly, he died in 1990 and the pre-Pearl Jam band MOTHER LOVE BONE were no more and it had resulted in the project Temple of the Dog, headed by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell, who was also apparently a huge Queen fan and even better, drummer Matt Cameron and guitarist Kim Thayil even has more than a soft spot for Queen too. So, Alan can probably do a show on the band as an influencer and he told me, that Queen are right up there. He did tell me that he is working on something in the future.

The show had just aired it’s 1000th episode and it was done in front of an audience and it even include some Q&A, with two podcast episodes included because of plenty of good questions from the audience that couldn’t be fit in the first episode, which came out on December 20. The first part was meant not just for the podcast, but also for radio stations who cary the show and I know that the people who have questions, always have good ones, which make Alan tell you stuff you probably never even knew about, much like the show. For example: if you are a fan of The Smiths and you have listened to the song How Soon Is Now? you probably know all of the words like the back of your hand. You also know the words as Morrissey sings “I am the son and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar”. In 2004 during an interview Alan did with Morrissey himself to help promote his You Are the Quarry album, Morrissey had revealed a secret about the songs lyrics. The last part of the line was originally “of a shyness that is cripplingly vulgar “, but for some reason he kept singing “criminally vulgar” when recording the song. I guess that everyone liked the mistake so it became the official lyrics for the song.

Also as a part of the podcast episode, Alan shared a story about Leonard Cohen, being relaunched as an alternative music artist and unfortunately for Alan, the Leonard Cohen interview went really bad and it was Alan’s fault. He tells the story in the podcast about interviewing Leonard live and admitting that he had no clue about who Leonard Cohen was, as did I. I may have heard the name, but it didn’t really register with me. Anyway, Leonard was all dressed in black and he was smoking French cigarettes which apparently stunk really bad. Alan did the usual launch into the interview and he noticed that Leonard was, or seemed rather stiff and Allen made the mistake of asking “can I call you Lenny?” With that, Leonard blue smoke into Allen’s face and in a rather stentorian voice said “don’t”.

Needless to say, that the interview with the great Canadian songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen did not go well and it got me thinking, why couldn’t Queen relaunch themselves as an alternative act, or at least try to get a song like Radio Ga Ga on alternative radio? I can tell you that CFNY played a lot of extended versions of songs and it would’ve given Queen a chance, or a reason to tour North America and The Works probably would’ve sold a lot better in Canada and the US because of this techno sounding song being added to alternative radio. I have heard Radio Ga Ga on classic rock radio, but it sounds out of place because of its techno leanings. If Ga Ga was added to a station like CFNY and others like it around the world, Queen would have become kinda cool again, to those who are punks. After all, what Queen were doing on the song was associated with punk music in that back in the 70s and early 80s, drum machines, synthesizers and vocoders were a slap in the face to the musicians union. Just ask Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark, who had a drummer but he wasn’t allowed to play drums conventionally. Also, if Freddie liked taking risks, why not go and try to prove his point about punk rockers wanting to be as successful as he was with Queen? He didn’t, so he dropped the ball and this is one of the rare criticisms I will have for Freddie. Anyway, I digress.

Another argument for Queen dipping its toes into alternative rock and getting played on alternative radio sometimes is that they have toured with bands who have been labelled alternative rock. For example: The Magic Tour had 2 or 3 opening bands including: Status Quo, The Alarm and INXS. The later two bands were not only cool for rock radio, but also legitimate alternative rock artists. Let us not forget about David Bowie and he too, is an alternative rock icon. Yet, he worked for rock radio listeners too, including me. So, if Freddie enjoyed taking risks, why not try and get on alternative rock radio? It would have given The Works a better chance of becoming a hit and they would maintain credibility with the mainstream rock radio audience to, with a song like Hammer To Fall possibly doing even better in North America because of such a daring move. Not every single would be an alternative Radio hit, but Radio Ga Ga should have been.

Alan has played bits of songs by Queen, but so far no complete songs in an episode. However, he did tell me there will be an influencer episode on Queen one day. How he will put it together and what he will say, remains to be seen. I could ask him about it, but I don’t want to be a bother and I trust him to give us a good episode, regardless of how he may feel about the earlier ones. Even the great Alan Cross can make a mistake and he has done repeat episodes on some topics and artist profiles, in order to correct any errors he had made in the past.

One more thing about Alan. He is a rock guy and he had no idea about alternative music and this was new territory for him. Unfortunately, he couldn’t boast about that because back then, it was very tribal in that you were either on one side or the other and there is no meeting in the middle. Thankfully we have broken down that barrier thanks to some bands on both sides of the spectrum.

As for the blog, in 2024, I will of course be doing a post on The Works and Queen II, along with other topics which come up either on Facebook, or while thinking alone about Queen and other related bands. There will also be a new IMAX screening of Queen Rock Montreal, starting on January 18th, which also happens to be the 53rd birthday of Korn singer Jonathan Davis. Yes, this is a spoiler alert in that I intend to do a post on Korn in October 2024, for the 30th anniversary of the debut album by the first true nü metal band.

This reminds me, I had done a couple of posts about the Queen Podcast and sadly, the cast is no longer a concern, but the Facebook group is alive and well, with myself and others contributing to Wandering Wednesday and at other times during the week. In my case, I don’t post photos and it’s usually commentary. Some of it may lead to a post in the blog and others just might be meant for the group. Speaking of which, here are some highlights from this past year from members of the Facebook group on what has happened with Queen and the various members of the immediate family.
Louise Cormack

Biggest highlight for me was the sotheby exhibition and getting to touch something freddie worn, be in the presence of his amazing collection and breath in everything about him and then sitting in a fab wee cafe surrounded by pics of freddie

Monica Bauman

For me, going to 3 US Queen +AL concerts in 3 different cities and virtually attending the Sotheby’s auction.

Jamie William commented: absolutely has to be the Sothebys exhibition. but also Bri did something cool with an asteroid ! , , 37 minutes ago , 1 reaction , , double tap to interact with this comment

Betsy Donegan. My 2023 Queen highlights included. attending Breakthru (North American. Queen Convention), my first visits to Garden Lodge, Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own at Sotheby’s London, the Queenpod gathering in London, and three Queen+AL concerts across the US (all VIP)! I met so many wonderful Queen friends this year. There’s nothing like having three tickets to Queen concerts in your Apple Wallet for six months… priceless. anticipation!

Nancy Richards. Biggest highlights for me were attending the Freddie Birthday Celebration in Montreux. Went to the party, attended a Peter Freestone Q&A session at the studio. and of course the wonderful statue, etc. Before my reservations were finalized the. Sotheby’s event in London was announced so l added that to my trip. I made two visits to the Sotheby’s exhibit and a visit to Brian May’s exhibit. I had never been to Europe before and did. the whole trip by myself and had the best time. Met lots of great Queen/Freddie fans.

Kezza Sue Hebberley I think the best Queen-related thing for me this year was creating my BoRhap diamond painting. It’s still not framed but that can wait. 😊
Heide Savidge, My Queen highlights are being invited to the WWRY Gala in London. I live in Dallas Texas so I jumped on a plane to get across the big pond. I invited my Queen friend from Rotterdam and she bounced across the English Channel to meet me. We dressed to the nines, met up with other QueenPod friends. We observed the comings of VIPs from the edge of the red carpet. As American and Dutch fans, we didn’t know many of the celebrities but our Brit friends happily shared with us.

Then came Sir Brian with his ready smile for the crowd. I can’t remember if he signed any autographs because I was in awe. Then the other end of the crowd started chewing and Roger emerged from a narrow alley flanked by his gorgeous wife. Roger locked eyes on my handbag…he got Serena’s attention and we had a “chat” about my handbag…made from an album cover of The Game. I asked Rog to signed and being true to Roger he signed across Freddie and John’s faces (it goes back to some early Queen pranks). I was on cloud 9.

Meeting Roger was the opening of the circle. I planned to go to Montreux for Freddie’s birthday and extended my trip to take in the Sotheby’s exhibition of Freddie’s life inside Garden Lodge. Several friends attended the last evening performance of WWRY in hopes of Brian and Roger making an appearance. They were not appearing but our Opera Box attendant told us there could be a surprise at the matinee and final show the next day. My friends were off doing there thing and I was walking back to my hotel after Sotheby’s when I realized that the matinee should be ending. Hmmmmm…just maybe. I went to the stage door to find nearly 200 people with the same idea. Not doing that! I walked down the narrow alley which Roger had used and found some other theatre doors. I stood there with a man and his daughter.

Later, someone recognized me in Montreux photos that someone had tagged me in and said they were in London and had a bunch of photos with Brian and I. They were sent to me!!! My year was complete!

Now it is the author’s turn to give his highlight and I have 2 of them. I got my first Queen t-shirt which I wear from May to mid September and turning 50, like the debut album. However, Queen was released on July 13th 1973 and I was born on June 2nd 1973, at a rather low birthweight of 2 pounds and 6 ounces. Apparently, I could’ve been squashed by my own hand if I had been unlucky at that size. I wasn’t and I’m glad that I’ve grown taller and have remained slender throughout my life. I have had my share of illness including getting bronchial pneumonia when I was seven and having to spend a couple days in an oxygen tent, which was noisy and I could not fall asleep to the sound of the oxygen pumping in, to keep me alive and help to make me well again. So, I completely understand what Freddie went through, without any of the extra crap he went through, during the last months of his life, or even when he had contracted pneumonia.

I am looking forward to what this year will bring us and let’s hope it will not be in any way… … boring. Let’s all have a great New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day and hopefully 2024 turns out well for all of us. Just a heads up, I will be doing a quick post on Tuesday and if you are a subscriber to Loudwire’s Youtube channel, you can probably guess what I’m going to include in it. I hope that as a Queen fans, you agree with me.

The Show Must Go On, Tool

Hi folks. On August 30th 2019 the subject of today’s Queen influenced band had released their 5th album in 13 years. The idea of today’s post is to try to connect the dots between Queen and the progressive metal band Tool. I have always loved Tool ever since 1993, but I wasn’t as into them, as much as Queen, until 2001. I have all of the proper studio albums but not their 2000 compilation album/ boxed set called Salival. It is available as a playlist on Youtube, but that’s not the same thing as purchasing it on iTunes. It is currently not available on streaming or Digital services as yet, unlike the Opiate EP and the 5 studio albums: Undertow, Ænima, Lateralus, 10,000 Days and Fear Inoculum. If you want to get into Tool, I strongly suggest using Wikipedia or do a search on iTunes and any other digital platforms, for not just their music but any audiobooks on the band. I will have more on how Tool kept me holding on to Queen so, are you ready and have your seatbelts on?

Tool formed in Los Angeles California some time in 1990 with the lineup being singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Paul D’Amour and drummer Danny Carey. Paul would leave Tool in 1995 and be replaced by British born bassist Justin Chancellor, who played in a band called Peach before joining Tool. Anyway, Maynard, Adam, Paul and Danny would release the Opiate EP in 1992 and the debut album Undertow in 1993, with the first single being Sober, which apparently has one of the most arresting videos you could ever watch. After,all, Adam did have some work experience in the movie industry and they include an American TV series called Monsters. He also had a hand in creating a prop which was used in Ghostbusters II, among others. He would also have his fingerprints in the special affects design in Predator II. He did work on make up and set design for such well known films as: Jurassic Park, Batman Returns, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Dances with Wolves and as mentioned earlier, Ghostbusters II. He was responsible for Freddy Krueger in the womb” makeup for A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. He also did commercials for salad dressing (which had never aired) and even a product like Duracell batteries. I sware by them to this day and not just because of the tag line.

With Danny, he is a beast of a drummer and to think that he had once played on an album by singer songwriter Carole King, who wrote the song Goin’ Back with her husband Jerry Goffin and which was recorded in 1972, by Freddie as Larry Lurex. Maynard has his own history in that he was in Westpoint and his first band was called CAD or Children of the Anachronistic Dynasty and I encourage you to do a YouTube search on them, especially a song called Bleeding on You and when you hear it, you will know why I am saying this. I want to put this in the blog, but I don’t wanna scare anybody.

When Paul left and Justin Chancellor joined, he had his band Peach and he is also from Kent England. With his bass playing, it changed the sound of the band as Tool was more heavy and showed less of their progressive metal leanings. One song you will know if you are a Led Zeppelin fan is their cover of No Quarter, which was probably recorded during the sessions for the album Ænima, which came out in 1996 on October 2nd. It was produced by a Canadian named David Bottrill, whose work you may know from albums by Peter Gabriel and he would later work with Dream Theater and Muse, among others. The album also had a really cool looking and feeling CD Jewel case is rather bumpily, both outside and inside the CD tray, where you open the case, with a smooth spine and the underside is also smooth, like normal. Even a light sits there in the centre of the tray and of course, this is mainly for the visual aspect but, those of us who can’t see get something out of it too, as it is something interesting to hold and touch.
Another example of a well constructed package for a CD is 10000 Days, which keeps the CD quite safe, as everything is put together like a book, but with stereoscopic lenses. Again, this is more for the visual aspect but blind fans have something interesting to hold in their hand as well. I can’t imagine all of the thought that goes into every detail, from the words and music, right down to the CD and the CD case itself. We think that Queen are detailed and they are, but Tool has taken it to another level because of when they had come on the scene. In the 90s most bands were experimenting with packaging, to make CDs more interesting to buy and not just have them in the same old jewel cases. Some CDs were in gatefold sleeves, while others had a book type of packaging. The We Will Rock You EP in 1991 had experimented with something like that, which Nine Inch Nails would use again, but that is for another post.

Tool kept me holding on to Queen, for many reasons and they all have to do with their musical chops and like I said, drummer Danny Carey, he is obviously a monster of a skinsman and I would love to hear both him and Roger play together one day. The closest they came was both showing up at the second tribute to Taylor Hawkins, but they never played drums together. I hope they both had a chance to meet each other, as I hear that Danny is a nice guy, according to another drummer, namely the great Carl Palmer. There is another man I would love to hear playing along with Roger some day.

Guitarist Adam Jones isn’t bad, but I didn’t really get it until the 2019 album Fear Inoculum and the solos he had played throughout the longest songs and I can hear how great an axman he is. Wouldn’t it be cool if Brian and Adam had met and talked stereoscopy? With Justin’s bass playing, he has an interesting sound and technique. For example: the track Schism is based around a bass riff and if you listen to the song, along with any Youtube videos of Maynard singing the song without instruments, you can hear how he closes the vowels and has a more rhythmic style, by starting some words using a consonant. I could go into how some singers end off words which end in D using the A sound, but that is for another post I may do in the future.

With album sequencing, for Queen and Tool, both bands go back and forth between either genres, or real songs and soundscapes. After the Undertow album, you will notice this more often than not and no, it doesn’t swing from one song to the next all of the time, with the first two songs on every Tool album being actual songs. Some albums have 4 or 5 songs before a short track and or a track, made up of a sound collage or a spoken word peace. Usually, if the song has a rather weird title, that is a clue that it is not a real song and check out the length of the track. For example: Message to Harry Manback is basically a piano track with a man talking alternately, between Italian and English. Die Eier von Satan is basically a recipe for hash cookies, spoken in a stern German voice and the track Viginti Tres is basically five minutes of weird synthesizer noise and a slowed down voice saying something which is basically frozen in the middle of a word near the end of the track. I had used this track as an alarm in the morning years ago, in order to wake me up, along with some Queen, David Bowie and Brian Eno, among others. I may get into that in a later post, but I’m not sure if I will at this point.

Tool and Queen also have their own senses of humour and this is obviously through the music, but in the case of Tool at least one member is involved with comedy directly. The American TV show called Mr. Show featured Maynard in an episode with a fake band called Puscifer, who would become a real project for Maynard. They have released a number of albums and EPs over the years. They even released a faithful cover of Boh Rhap and it is actually quite good. Maynard even takes the liberty of changing the melody slightly, when singing “mama, just killed a man” with the words “killed a man” going down instead of staying with the normal melody we know and love. This probably would have impressed Freddie, or it would have made him jealous if he hadn’t thought of that before. You can find this cover on the EP Donkey Punch the Night, under the title Bohemian Rhapsody (O.G. Mix) as track 1.

Continueing with the sense of humor, Queen has more of a pastiche approach, with songs like Seaside Rendezvous as probably the most obvious example of the guys goofing around in the studio, when recording the middle section. Picture Freddie and Roger drumming on the studio desks with thimbles, two represent tap dancing and in another case, Roger’s voice is sped up to make him sound like a brass instrument. Tool on the other hand, had Maynard and a fellow comedian Bill Hicks as mutual fans of each other’s work. Third Eye is the only example of what they both wanted to do, had Bill not died of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 32 in 1994. Maynard has also worked with a group called Bikini Bandits, with A Perfect Circle and one of their music videos. I don’t know much about them, but I do know that they had a member of the Howard Stern Show with them during some sort of sketch. Yes, comedy is as important to both Queen and Tool, because Jim Beach also manages Monty Python.

Tool are also into playing the occasional prank on their fans and usually on April 1st. One involved a bus crash in 1997 and in 2005, Maynard had left the band because he had found jesus. Bullshit, because I know for a fact that Maynard is not a fan of organized religion. For example: when Tool were scheduled to play at a venue owned by The Church Of Scientology, they played the show but Maynard spent much of it baa-ing like a sheep at the audience.

Another example of Tool’s wicked sense of humour is their habit (if you will) of messing with our minds and putting out disinformation, for the sake of having fun with fans. For example: on one of the formats of the Ænima album, the liner notes list fake album titles like Gay Rodeo and Bethlehem Abortion Clinic. They even did that a few months before the Lateralus album in 2001, with a fake title Systema Encéphale and a fake track listing.
Another example of the bands sense of humour is a creation of a pseudoreligion called Lachrymology, which is the study of crying… or something to do with emotional pain, through therapy. I’m not going to get into it here but I will tell you that it is a ruse created by the band, because Lachrymology doesn’t exist. I could get more into stuff like: sacred geometry, Fibonacci sequence, or the title of the song Forty Six & 2, but you can find all of that out on the internet. Queen have obviously never done that, but what if Freddie had lived beyond 1991? Would they consider having fun with fans? Would they release albums with cool packaging?

Queen and at least one member of tool (namely Maynard) had the opportunity to work with David Bowie, with Queen obviously duetting with the man on Under Pressure, with Maynard singing on a rerecorded version of a song from David’s Reallity album called Bring Me the Disco King under the title Bring Me the Disco King (Loner Mix), from the soundtrack to Underworld in 2003, featuring Maynard a few times with Puscifer and his other band outside of Tool A Perfect Circle, with remixes of 2 of their singles, among other artists including a new ish band at the time called The Dillinger Escape Plan, who are getting back together for a number of shows in 2024.

Both Tool and Queen are also in charge of their own destiny, basically being self-contained and in Tool’s case, they have complete creative control of how and when they put out albums. Tool has their own company called Tool Dissectional, through an agreement with Volcano Entertainment II, who are a part of Sony Music. It took years for them to wrestle complete control over everything, including album Art, what kinds of music will go on a Tool album. Also, like I said earlier, they also have complete control over when they want to release a new Tool album. After all, it took 13 years between albums from 2006’s 10000 Days to 2019’s Fear Inoculum and it was well worth the wait. Oh, I also forgot to mention that Tool only recently allowed their music to be put on all digital and streaming platforms, while Queen have been on iTunes and have allowed their music to be streamed for years. Queen has had control over everything, thanks to Jim Beach and I hope that they do not succumb to the temptation of giving up the rights to their music, by selling it off. Sure, the money is obviously important for life, but what about intellectual property? That is where both Queen and tool are in complete control of their own destiny with managers who care about them and also being self-contained, with guitarist Adam Jones directing their videos. Oh and if you think Queen were always arguing about every last detail, could you imagine the guys in Tool having similar arguments and each of them saying “without me, we wouldn’t be here”? Apparently, that’s what made things take so long between 2006 and 2019, among other things going on between band members and their outside projects, according to Maynard on a 2019 episode of the Joe Rogan Podcast, where Maynard announced the release of all of Tool’s music on iTunes and streaming services in August 2019.

Brian and Maynard almost played together in 2010, with one or the other cancelling at the last minute. I would be interested to hear Maynard fronting Queen for a song, or to hear Brian come up on stage with Tool, or even A Perfect Circle to jam and maybe, play a song or two. Tool writes the majority of their songs in drop D tuning and so has Brian a few times, so I can see something happening in the future. After all, Ted Nugent has gone on stage with the guys in Tool, along with Kirk Hammett of Metallica, so why not someone like Brian? Of course, I would love Roger and Danny to do something together, but what?

Anyway, if you want to know more about Tool, you know how you can find out more information and it is mostly the basics, because they love to spread misinformation about themselves and the focus is on the music and less on the band members lives. I believe that Queen may have inspired a piece of a Tool song from the 10000 Days album called Right In Two, which nearly falls apart like White Man does before Brian and Freddie end it off and Roger slams the door. Just listen to both songs and you will hear what I mean, by listening to White Man first. Anyway, that is about it for todays post, which I had actually been working on since August 30th. I got distracted (much like Tool between 10000 Days and Fear Inoculum) and finally got around to finishing it off today.

Thank God It’s A Winter’s Christmas Tale

Since today is the 28th anniversary release of A Winter’s Tale in the UK, that got me to thinking about both Christmas songs released by Queen. First, there is Thank God It’s Christmas from 1984 and as I had said last year, I first heard it in 1991 and owned it on CD in 1992. I also sang it at school in 1992, with my friend Bob on keyboards and me on lead vocals and guitar, entertaining our school during a noon hour concert in our school auditorium. I learned the song (note for note) in less than a day and I had plenty of time to burn it into my brain, as I was stuck at school for two weeks. There was a winter storm which had brought a bunch of snow, which wouldn’t allow my bus to take me home for the weekend.

I had approached Bob about singing the song during the next concert and he said yes and we had listened to it and learned the cord changes and key modulations separately. we did it and a piece of it ended up on our yearbook, which was on tape first and now on CD and digitally as a bunch of files meant for dropbox. No, I do not have it on my phone and I can not give it to you hear, but I can probably get it if I dig into Facebook and one of my school’s groups which I post in from time to time.

With A Winter’s Tale, I didn’t think of it as a Christmas song and I still don’t. Obviously, it was the last song Freddie ever wrote and I get why that is. During the 1993/ 1994 school year in social studdies class, we watched a video where a man who was living with HIV and the AIDS virus, took us through all the various stages. Because this song was the last song written by Freddie, it has a reflective feel on everything going on outside and especially, during this most wonderful time of the year. I remember hearing much the same sentiments from the man in the educational video, about nature. The song is obviously entitled A Winter’s Tale, but to me it could mean not just Christmas, but winter in general. After all, one of the lines Freddie sings is “gentle rain beating on my face”. How does that compute with what we normally associate with Christmas? During the winter, it can rain and it can snow, but with Christmas we want it white. Actually, those who enjoy ice and snow, wish we could have a white Christmas every year, but not me. I hate winter and I hate the cold and snow, but I loved and I still do enjoy parts of Christmas and the holiday season in general. However, I like both of these “Christmas” songs by Queen, because it is Queen and not anyone else.

I had bought A Winter’s Tale as a CD single in March 1996 and it had Now I’m Here and Somebody To Love on it, as appposed to Thank God It’s Christmas. I didn’t care anyway, because I at least had something else to keep my appetite for Queen wet and continue to be wet, for any future singles. I forget which part it was, but I believe that all of the British singles from Made In Heaven have multiple parts to them, or am I wrong?

Anyway, both songs are available to stream and download digitally, as well as purchase on iTunes, CD and vinyl as a part of an album or two. I wonder if there will be a year, when there will be a release of Thank God It’s Christmas with A Winter’s Tale as a bonus track, digitally. I am glad that the latter was released as a single, because it has a clean fade, without going right into the next song. I prefer that because I like when there is a break between songs on a compilation and on a CD single. Besides, it’s great for playlists and in the old days, creating a mixed tape. With Made In Heaven, I won’t complain because that is how the album was sequenced so, that’s fine. Altho, I wonder where the “Cosy Fireside Mix” of AWT came from.

Single Release Chaos

Hi folks. This is a brief post to clear up any confusion (if any) about the single These Are the Days of Our Lives and where and when it was released as a single and music video in 1991 and 1992. On December 9th 1991 Bohemian Rhapsody was rereleased, after the death of Freddie and the other track on the CD single was These Are the Days of Our Lives, taken from Innuendo, 2 months after Greatest Hits II was released and the song The Show Must Go On was released in the UK as a single. This all happened across the pond from me and The Show Must Go On would be released, backed by bohemian Rhapsody, or is it the other way around? I guess it depends on Radio format and the main focus track, or point track. For rock radio it was Show Must Go On and for top 40 radio it would be Boh Rhap , during March, April and May 1992. This was in the US and Canada, while Classic Queen was doing gangbusters and flying off the shelves on CD and tapes.

Before then, let’s go back to September 5th 1991, while the Innuendo album was still being promoted, despite no tour to support it. In the US and Canada: Headlong, I Can’t Live With You and the title track were all released as singles, or promotional singles. In the UK it was: Innuendo, I’m Going Slightly Mad and Headlong which all came out as singles, before GH II and events coming after it. In the US and Canada, These Are the Days of Our Lives would come out on Freddie’s 45th birthday and it was the last video with him contributing to it in any form. Then came GH II, Boh Rhap, Classic Queen and wait… … another music video for These Are the Days of Our Lives? Yup, in order to help promote Classic Queen and no further singles released with the song included on them.

I wanted to post this because I find it intriguing, that this amount of chaos had been inadvertently created around Queen, due to signing with Hollywood records in the US and Canada and the wish to release Greatest Hits II, worldwide and at the same time with the same track listing. However, with every Queen album coming out on CD for the first time, it wouldn’t have been possible and especially in the US and Canada, as The Works wasn’t out yet and even The Miracle would get the 1991 rerelease. I had talked about that during my second post on The Miracle boxed set in November last year so, no need to rehash anything from that.

The thing is, I wonder why These Are The Days Of Our Lives was released as a single in the US and Canada on Freddie’s 45th birthday? This happening while The Show Must Go On would be released a month later in the UK, before the release of GH II. On both sides of the Atlantic, you had a situation where two albums were being worked at the same time, with a recent album and a compilation or Greatest Hits album using songs from the most recent studio album to work them both as a single or music video. This is rather unusual and yet, it was all part of the chaos with Queen changing record labels on one side of the pond and staying with the same label, on the other.

I just find this fascinating to have learned about this and watched some of it going on around me, all the while Queen were dealing with the inevitability of Freddie being ill and dying of bronchial pneumonia in November and the band being inactive for a while as a result. Yet, in North America they had a new start with a new record label so, they were between a rock and a hard place and despite this, everything was swirling around with different songs being released as singles throughout the world from 1991 to 1992, along with new music videos for not just Bohemian Rhapsody, but also Stone Cold Crazy. You see? If you were a Queen fan back in the early 90s and especially in the US in Canada, it was very interesting to watch both MTV and Much Music, along with listening to the radio from January 91, to Christmas 1992. We got to watch Queen get a resurgence again and become cool, but it took chaos for it to happen and this is how it started with the song by Roger reflecting on his kids and it taking on a wider meaning with the initial music video, with Freddie saying goodbye at the end. Well, I will say goodbye for now and I’ll be back with a new post. When? I’m not sure but in case I don’t post before Christmas, have a great Christmas holiday season and I just might do a post talking about the year review.

The Ongoing History of New Music

Hi folks. Today I am going to talk about a radio documentary show which has been on the air for 30 years. It’s the only radio show of its kind, which lasts in the day of music format radio stations playing nothing but music and less talk and context to what is being played, or even issues which relate to listeners. The Ongoing History Of New Music is such a show, which did the first broadcast on February 28th 1993 and to give you more of an idea of how the show came about, take a look at this link to Alan Cross’s website. Alan Cross is the host of this show, by the way! https://www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com/25-years-ago-today-first-ongoing-history-new-music-aired-radio/#google_vignette

I first discovered the show some time in 1994, when I was more into classic rock and less into alternative music, with the exception of bands being played on the radio. I would learn that David Bowie is an alternative rock icon and I would also learn about such sub genres of this music which are too many to name here. However, Nine Inch Nails is part of a sub genre of alt rock called industrial music and if you wish to learn more about that, I will give you details on how you can hear all sorts of episodes over the years (for free) later on. By the way, just because David Bowie did Under Pressure with Queen, it doesn’t mean that the guys are automatically in the alternative rock camp. Queen are still who they are, with the same audience they always had, except for the musicians who have been influenced by them, but more on that later. However, Alan did mention Queen in a chapter in one of his books on the history of alternative rock, during the chapter on David Bowie.

Anyway, when I came on board in the summer of 1994 one of the first episodes I heard was on the hidden tracks. You know? Those hidden songs at the end of CDs and on many digital releases of albums which had them originally? Never Mind by Nirvana has the most famous example of this, but there are other famous albums with hidden and or unlisted tracks, such as London Calling by The Clash, Undertow by Tool, Broken by Nine Inch Nails and for us Queen heads, Made In Heaven and Brian’s second solo album Another World. Alan has done a few episodes on hidden tracks over the years and let’s just say that some artists have a sense of humour that they may not show as much, throughout the rest of the album. For example: Cole Chamber’s debut album has them talking and some stupid studio chatter and shitty playing at times, which is in stark contrast to the band’s music in general.

Alan Cross has also done interviews from time to time, with artists in a series of shows entitled “In Their Own Words” and it is mostly Canadian bands. My personal favourite has to be the one he did with singer Matthew Good, which is probably the most honest interview he’s ever done and if you’ve heard Matthew Good’s music, you know that he is a straight shooter and not a bullshitter. He tells it like it is and he was very candid about having bipolar disorder and he also told some funny stories, like a guy in a panda suit being tackled by the audience. Again, I will tell you where you can hear the episode further down this post.

Their are episodes on all aspects of music and the music industry, such as: the recording studio, writing songs, record producers and their roll in recording an album, going on tour and Road stories, band names, B-sides which have become famous and about a year ago, Alan did an episode entirely on TV themes. There is even an entire episode devoted to James Bond themes, despite that alternative rock doesn’t have all that much of a foot in the door, when it comes to James Bond. Although in more recent years, we have Chris Cornell, Garbage and Billie Eilish, among others who are relevant to the show who have had songs in Bond movies. Alan has mentioned The Simpsons from Time to Time, as well as Monty Python. He has done complete histories of bands and in some cases, divided such episodes up into multiple parts over a period of weeks such as various times he has done a complete history of U2, The Smashing Pumpkins and many others who have had long careers which have either ended, or are continuing today. In some cases, Alan has done episodes on 10 unusual facts about a particular band and years ago, there was a 10 part series on 100 Weirdest Things In Alt Rock. Alan has also done episodes on the history of vinyl, compact discs and streaming and how we got to where we are today with all of those formats. Recently a series on the 2010s and how that particular decade got us here as well, minus the pandemic. With most of these episodes, we got to hear audio from way back before 1900 and I don’t know about you, but I enjoy hearing that from time to time and as a fan of old-time radio, I don’t mind it sounding all dirty. At the same time, I have no problem with it being cleaned up for today’s audio standards when possible. I like to hear what a person really sounds like, as opposed to mentally guessing what they sound like, if you know what I mean.

When it comes to Queen, Alan has made reference to the band and Freddie, Brian and Roger, when it comes to episodes on those who are super smart, who were influenced by Queen and even how We Will Rock You was recorded. During a 1995 episode on music videos, a piece of Boh Rhap was even played for the obvious reason, that it was the first true music video in 1975. Alan had started a series of episodes on influencers, who are musicians who have influenced alternative rock bands over the years, with Bruce Springsteen being the first . Alan did tell me that Queen may be in the cards, but he didn’t and probably couldn’t give me an answer as to whether there will be an episode, devoted to Queen. So far, the closest we get to Queen at this point is when Alan did the episode on the death of Taylor Hawkins. He actually got to interview The Foo Fighters in their studio in 2014, for the album Sonic Highways. When Taylor came in, Alan had pointed out the picture on the wall, of Roger. Taylor told Alan how Queen was his favourite band and during the episode, Alan even played the track Holy Man, as recorded and at the time unfinished by late Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson in 2019. This track also includes: Taylor Hawkins, Brian and Roger. It’s a great and poignant song and I hope that some day, Alan will do an episode on Queen as an influence on alt rock bands and include the fact that Freddie and the guys did Under Pressure with Mr. Bowie, the alternative rock icon. Another person who was influenced by Queen was the late Andrew Wood of MOTHER LOVE BONE, which included future members of Pearl Jam and who was also a buddy of Chris Cornell, who would play with Brian during a rerecorded version of a Soundgarden song in 1993.

Unfortunately, we’ve also had episodes on people that have passed on too soon, who have made an impact on our lives. There have been episodes on David Bowie, Chris Cornell, Taylor Hawkins, Sinéad O’Connor, Michael Hutchins, Chester Bennington, Scott Weiland and Gord Downie, among others. Alan had even done an episode on the life of Neil Peart of Rush, after he had passed in January 2020, at least as a podcast episode. This also speaks to Alan being a drummer and so am I. I am also a guitar player and a singer, as I am better at the latter two instruments.

To lighten the mood, there is also an annual Christmas episode where we get to hear the strangest Christmas music out there and it gets weirder every year. The episode has ended since 1995, with Henry Rollins reciting the classic Christmas poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas . I wish it was available digitally, but it isn’t and you can only hear it on YouTube right now. So, where can you hear all these episodes and more? Well, you could find various YouTube channels dedicated to the show, put together by fans. Officially, there is a podcast dedicated to the show which has less than half of the episodes which have aired, but you do have a good idea of what the show is about Despite this. The podcast came to fruition in 2017 and thankfully is still highly rated. I rated it five stars and why not? What hooked me was the stories and over the years, I had warmed to a bunch of alternative rock bands that I could never accept as a listener of mainstream rock music. I never would’ve thought I would be into such crazy music as Shooby Taylor, Wesly Willis, Jandek, Captain Beefheart, The Shaggs and many other musicians who seem crazy, or are (or were) legitimately off their rocker. In case you ask, yes I discovered the album Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart, a favourite of Simpsons creator Matt Groening and I wish this albums was available on iTunes and streaming services. I hope that day comes in the future, because I want it, like I managed to find Hamburger Lady by Throbbing Gristle. Yup, I discovered this song and band through the show too and many other weird types of music which is outside the mainstream. I also became fond of more conventional alternative rock band such as: The Smiths, Depeche Mode and The cure among many others which have pop leanings and are palpable for the mainstream rock audiences.

Speaking of audiences, the next new episode will be the 1000th episode and it will be done in front of a live audience. There have been other episodes done this way, but this is special. Sadly, I won’t be there because I had no idea about a contest to show up at this particular event and I would’ve liked to have been there, to meet Alan in person and for him to put a face and a voice, to the guy with an email address, beginning with blindgordie. Yes, I am obviously blind and if you are a long time reader you know that and I had told Alan the same thing, back in my first ever email to him in 2011, when he had taken a hiatus from the show, to another company. I wish I still had it, but I guess it is gone now. However, I will never forget all my kind words for Alan and I meant them. I could have shown up to an event at a radio station I listen too, on December 22nd 2011, but getting there would have been a challenge and I do not drink. Basically, Alan was there to take apart that same classic Christmas poem I had mentioned earlier and I at least, got to hear it on the radio. Then I went to a store, to get a radio scanner and got sick with strep throat over the Christmas holiday.

So, where can you hear any of the episodes I had referenced earlier and most of the great stories from Alan and the bands behind them? The Ongoing History Of New Music podcast on any platform where you can find podcasts, except for Youtube where it has a 1 minute segment and not a complete episode. I know that there are fans of the show, who have created channels with complete, or nearly complete episodes, but the sound quality is not always the best. I love it, but I want to direct you to the podcast and sorry folks, I’m not going to link you to it directly. Just do a search for Ongoing History Of New Music on either Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else where you can get podcasts except YouTube. Even iHeartRadio and TuneIn Radio also have the podcast so, there is no excuse for not being able to find it on your own. It’s not the complete series, but at least you have a great idea of what this wonderful show has offered us since 1993.

You can also hear it on a bunch of radio stations across Canada and at least one or two in the US and hopefully more, throughout Canada, the US and the rest of the world. I believe that the show has also inspired Youtube channels to spring up, which focus on either a music genre, a song, or on an event or band as done by Youtubers. Two examples I can think of our:Professor of Rockand Rock N’ Roll True Stories, among other to also provide updates on bands related to the channel. Another example isMetal Pilgrim, created by a guy in Ukraine. Yes, it is still putting out new videos even with the war going on.

Alan Cross has kindly put some of my posts from my various blogs on his website and that is because I would email him, with a link to the post and when he could, he would put it in a nearly daily Poast called Random Music News. Many thanks to Alan for kindly helping me to get an audience for my blogs and of course, for doing what he was told by his boss back in the day. If he didn’t, we would all be dumber and we would have no incentive to look up information on our favourite bands on our own, using Wikipedia. By the way, Alan once said in an episode of Ongoing History Of New Music that if there is that dreaded “citation needed” phrase in an article, that means that the information may not be completely correct and needs updating. Fortunately, Queen’s Wikipedia pages don’t have all that many citations needed, as it is more-or-less correct.

The event of the 1000th episode will air on the 17th and I’m looking forward to hearing it, both live on the radio and on the podcast the next morning, as I have paid early access to the show. You’re welcome Alan. Finally, thank you Alan for teaching me about how streaming music works in that you should always listen to at least 30 seconds of a song, in order to help artist get paid for writing songs for us.

There is a new podcast put together by Alan Cross, all about true crime in the music industry. If you do a search for UNCHARTED. CRIME AND MAYHEM IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY (anywhere you get your podcasts) you will learn about the darker side of the music business, including the mob getting involved, inside jobs with various heist, killings, plane crashes and all sorts of bad shit going on in the entertainment industry, which we do not see, unless it is in the news. This (I believe) is an offshoot of The Ongoing History Of New Music and to another level. Anyway, check both podcasts out anywhere you can hear them.

Greatest Hits III

Hi folks. Today I’m going to talk about Greatest Hits III, as I have some questions about why it was released in the first place. It’s not that I don’t like it, but this is a rather unusual compilation, including not just Queen music, but solo material from Brian and Freddie and some live and at least one newly remixed track for this compilation.

I discovered it in a used record store in Hamilton Ontario in December 1999, while out and about on a Saturday. I had found out about Greatest Hits III by accident, as someone who worked at the store who knows what I like, had pointed me to it and I had purchased it, along with Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album, with the murder of John Denver on it. I know that it was sad when John Denver passed away in 1997, but this was funny and it shouldn’t have been removed. Instead, it should have been left where it was, with a message reminding the listener that it wasn’t really John Denver being strangled. In other words, break the fourth wall in this case. This goes for more recent versions of this album and I hope that the original track listing will return one day, because it was an original part of the album and with the fourth wall break message. Anyway, I digress.

Greatest Hits III was released on November 8th 1999 while nü metal was on fire and some older bands were making a return to the mainstream, of sorts. For example: Def Leppard releasing their album Euphoria in June of 1999 and a bunch of hair metal bands getting back together, to do Tours starting from 2000 and beyond. Plus, the fall release schedule was packed full, with a bunch of new albums by huge bands and even a live album by Metallica and Marilyn Manson were also a part of the schedule. So, I was surprised when I found out that a new Queen compilation had come out.

I am not surprised as to what is on it, because not all that much had come out since Greatest Hits II besides solo work from Brian and posthumously, from Freddie. What really got my attention was the inclusion of the single version of Thank God It’s Christmas at the end and that was a welcome surprise.

As for the rest of the track listing, I had no idea that Las Palabras de Amor (The Words of Love) was released as a single, as Hot Space didn’t do as well as it probably could have done. The same can be said for Princes of the Universe, as I had no idea that it was even a single at all. Back then, there was no Wikipedia and no way for people like me, to look up the history of a band like Queen.

The inclusion of Another One Bites the Dust (feat. Wyclef Jean & Pras Michel) wasn’t at all surprising, as it may not have been a big hit single, but it was on a movie soundtrack in 1998. Including No One But You (Only the Good Die Young) was cool, as it is the final song with Deacy on bass. I am glad that These Are the Days of Our Lives was also on here, as we in North America should have got Greatest Hits II and the British Greatest Hits from 1981, instead of Classic Queen and what I am going to refer to as, Killer Queen, released in September 1992.

The Show Must Go On with Elton John was an interesting choice, to start off this compilation as the original appeared as the penultimate track on GH II. However, the only song I take any issue with is Under Pressure (Rah Mix). I know some people like it, but I am not fond of it all that much. I would have prefered that the version from Classic Queen be put on here instead, as it brings out Brian’s guitar more than the original. This is silly and makes the song sound goofier, then it actually is. Actually, it’s not at all goofy!

Everything else is not surprising, despite the inclusion of the solo material from Freddie and Bryan, along with 4 Made In Heaven singles and Somebody To Love with George Michael. Unfortunately, it’s the single edit and not the album version with George talking before the song starts. That is on the compilation Ladies And Gentlemen… The Best Of George Michael, Album • George Michael. I understand exactly why every song by Freddie and Brian were included and I have no problem with that, even though this is rather unusual. However, under the circumstances it actually makes this album interesting.

On the other hand, I wonder why this album was released and at that time. Was it because of the possible induction of Queen into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Was it just because and Jim Beach wanted to try and get something out before the end of the 90s? I’m just curious because of the timing of when this compilation was unleashed and what was included. I appreciate this album even more, thanks to The Platinum Collection (Greatest Hits I, II & III) and yet, I didn’t purchase it until November 2014, on iTunes. That was probably the first Queen album with CD quality sound, which I had purchased on iTunes at that time. I was disgusted that I had purchased all of the albums and they all sounded like crap. This collection was a welcome relief and I would obviously, eventually purchase all of the albums again, with much better sound quality with the label “Apple Digital Master” on all of them in 2022. Of course, I would purchase all 3 GH packages separately during the summer. Why not? I wanted everything and I wouldn’t stop until I had everything that I could get, which I didn’t have already. I had all of the live albums, so I went after all of the studio material and this included all 3 GH compilations and now, I am happy.

We will probably never get another GH compilation like this in the future, because there is simply no new Queen music, or not enough to justify such a compilation coming out, unless it is a money grab. That was my other question about GH III, but I didn’t want to go there. At least we have the Deep Cuts Volumes 1, 2 and 3, along with Queen Forever. I am happy with what we have for now and I hope that we get more music in the future, before the world goes completely crazy.