Remembering Iron Mike Bensson

Hi folks. This is a post about a sad event which had happened 10 years ago today. Like when Freddie died, I remember exactly where I was when I had heard the news I am about to talk about below.

10 years ago today, rock radio in Southern Ontario got a little less fun. At about noon on that day, I had heard the tragic news that a rock radio icon in Southern Ontario had unfortunately passed on too soon. If the name Iron Mike Bensson rings a bell, that’s who I’m talking about and every year, I think about him and everything he did on the air, to make us listeners and the people whom he worked with laugh. Mike (whose real name was Mike Miller) encouraged you to call him a funny name and he had a few names of his own, in his box of tricks. If you have ever heard him on 103.3 The Fox in Bufalo, he was the same back then too, before moving his act to St Catharines in 1995 at 97.7 HTZFM, where he worked until his last broadcast in July 2013. By the way, he got the name Mike Bensson from his father named Ben, as Mike was Ben’s son.
I met him a few times when picking up a prise, or just going to the station to be a part of the fun of the morning show, when he would sometimes broadcast outside the studio. He had worked in both the afternoons and the mornings and during both shifts he did a segment called The Teaser. The idea was to guess how 3 songs connected and some days it was really easy. For example: once I won when the connection was that all 3 songs appeared on the bands respective debut albums. Once he played 3 songs from bands from Seattle and someone had figgured it out 2 songs in. Sometimes, he would make it hard and it would take as long as half an hour, before someone would get the correct answer.

Also, on September 11th 2001, he wasn’t able to get across the border, as he lived in Western New York and this also shows his dedication to the listenership. He drove to and from work and he only missed shifts if he was either sick or on vacation. September 11th was the exception to this and it was totally understandable.

He was always nice to me, as everyone at 97.7 HTZFM has been so far. I remember when I went to the station in September 2004, just to give him a welcome card, as he had just been moved to doing mornings. I would send him a birthday card every year, including 2013 and I don’t know if he ever got it. By the way, his birthday was October 17th and he was 60 when he died.

In the fall of 2012, it was announced that Mike had cancer and yes, it was oesophageal cancer and a year or so earlier, he had moved back to doing the afternoon drive after 7 years in the morning. I had actually forgotten about the announcement until it was more than a week after Mike’s last shift during the summer of 2013. By that time, it was all about The Simpsons for me and if I remember correctly, Mike did use a Homer clip during The Teaser, before he signed off for the last time. However, the last time his voice was heard on air was on his 60th birthday and he sounded as healthy as he always did and in less than a month, Mike was gone.

I remember the day I found out that Mike had passed, when an announcement that something major had happened would be made at noon on 97.7 HTZFM. It was then, that both my friends Kristy Knite and Paul Morris announced Mike’s passing, of oesophageal cancer. He had gone at around 7:00 AM that morning and to say it was sad, was an understatement. When I was more active on Twitter (now X) it exploded, with comments from all sorts of listeners, including myself, expressing our grief over what had been told to us. It went on for most of the day, meaning the broadcast and the tweets and I couldn’t focus on anything else but this for the rest of the day.

About 8 days later, 97.7 HTZFM did an on-air memorial tribute to Mike, with all of his past co-workers at HTZ past and present, along with his friends who worked at other radio stations with him. For example: if you live in Detroit and you listen to WRIF, you know that the voice you hear in the afternoons on week days is Meltdown, with whom Mike had also worked with at 103.3 The Fox in buffalo. By the way, Meltdown has a podcast called Talkin’ Rock With Meltdown Podcast, where he simply interviews our favourite rock stars, from past and present. Anyway, the tribute to Mike was quite moving and I had told that to my friend Paul Morris and unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the party for Mike, which was held soon after it.

For some reason one of the songs being played in rotation around this time was Say Hello To Heaven by Temple Of The Dog. I don’t know if playing the Temple Of The Dog track was a premonition or not, but it had certainly seemed odd. Then again, it could have also been a coincidence, but I believe that a shoe was about to drop and it wasn’t going to be good either. Obviously, on November 7 2013, we learned what it was and now, 10 years later I and others still miss Mike and I assume, we all think about him every day.

Unfortunately, not much stands out about Mike when it came to Queen, except during his early days in the 90s, after playing Fat Bottomed Girls (the album version) and he was actually honest, and saying that he had played it from the 1992 Greatest Hits album and not from the Jazz CD. The only new music from Queen he ever played was Too Much Love Will Kill You and that was only on a program called Music Notes, also with Kristy Knite. Needless to say, it didn’t go over well with listeners and despite how much of a Queen fan I am, I didn’t feel angry about how underwhelming the response was. After all, HTZ were in the habit of playing up-beat songs and hardly any ballads. When it came to Queen, the only song like that which was played for a long time was Boh Rhap and it’s obvious why that is. Anyway, Mike did say that listening to Made In Heaven did make him sad.Sadly, that is the only Queen moment which stands out with Mike.

I should talk about 97.7 HTZFM for a moment, in that they have a habit of not playing the album versions of songs, rather single edits despite the fact that they were a rock station, playing rock bands and not top 40 music. They even do sweeps into the next song like a top 40 station and that has always annoyed me, until I realized that they wanna play as much music as they can throughout the hour so they can play around and entertain. Fair enough, but this brings up the fact that they used to play the single version of Fat Bottomed Girls for the longest time, until the 1992 Greatest Hits album came out and right now, they play the radio edit of Somebody To Love, with the album version ending.

I will mention one more thing about Mike that made him such an enduring part of my life and those of us who knew or listened to him on the radio. As I said earlier, he encouraged you to call him a silly name and it was all in fun and not for trash talk. Some of the names bordered on scatological humour and some names were just playing fun. Also, I will leave you with his memorable line he would always say at the end of his broadcasts. “Stay off the pipe and don’t forget to wipe… AMF.” He was certainly someone you couldn’t get mad at, even if you tried. I never did and never was. Thanks Mike and we miss you, every damn day.

All Gord’s People Turns 1

Happy birthday to the blog! Yes, All Gord’s People turned one yesterday and I forgot to do a post on it. Sorry about that, but I was very busy with iPhone issues which affected everything I do with the blog and basically everything in my life currently. Here is hoping that everything is straightened out and I can get on with my life and at some point down the road, upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhones.

So, how did this Queen blog come about? It was a joke on FB and this joke turned into this bouncing baby blog, a few minutes later. I have explained how I had become a Queen fan and that I obviously love the band, but I also have other favourites too. This includes The Queen Family, or my own version of it besides associated Members from Queen’s past, before Deacy joined and even Tim from Smile, or even Montserrat Caballé. I had gone through my travails at school, trying to get nonbelievers into the band with success only when Queen became “cool” in 1992.

Something else I had done a post on was The Queen Podcast and not the Youtube one, but a Queen podcast by fans, but approved by the band and management. Sadly, it is no longer a concern, but the Facebook group lives on.

You also learned who I am and that I am blind from birth, so the world is different for me. If I may, the unfortunate thing is that society looks upon me and others like myself as vulnerable, because we use a Kane to get around. Some of us have dogs, but others like myself do not. I’ve given my reasons and if animals could talk, maybe I would consider getting a dog. Until there is a dog translator, I will use my cane, not a stick. I know it looks like one, but I wouldn’t reccommend a dog going after it, because it has metal and graphite and rubber, tape and other things which could be very damaging to a canine or any being who decides to try and eat a white cane. Unfortunately, those who make decisions on how we live, do not take into consideration that we have needs to and they’re not just with braille, or audio. I like tactile and I like to hear things talk to me, but there are other aspects of how we get around which had been relatively good, but have been changed for worse since late summer of 2022. If you want to learn more, look for one of my other blogs and do a search for Blind Gordie, which may lead you to X, or maybe even my personal blog.

Anyway, this blog will continue to stay the course and I will continue to do the occasional posts on the influenced and influencers. For example: I have one coming up on the Beatles because of their new song which came out on Thursday. I will probably have it out on Friday, as two new compilations will be out by then, with one of them including the new song by The Beatles. Wow! I can’t believe I just wrote that, but it’s true. Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying the blog and will stick with me, for the next 12 months, or how ever long this blog will continue to be an ongoing concern. I am the only one posting in it (naturally) so if something happens to me, then the blog could be made dormant or permanently stopped. I hope it doesn’t happen for a long time, but you never know what life will throw at you.

iOS 17.1 Trouble

Hi folks. I have iOS 17.1 and I like it. However, one thing troubles me and this has been an issue with iOS 12 and its early incarnations and it involves the Music app and unfortunately, my Queen collection is affected..

If you have a collection of albums by an artist and possibly their entire discography, you know that any album should appear as one collection of songs, making up an entire piece of work. Some albums had been broken up for some odd reason with iOS 17.1 and the same thing had occurred with iOS 12 and the later half of iOS 11. I don’t know why, but it just happened. The splits are seemingly random and uneven. The worst of the worst of this is Live Magic which had been broken into 3 albums, with some songs, others on another piece and what is left of the album, on the third chunk.I had discovered this with my queen collection and other artists too. I had noticed that a bunch of albums had appeared more than once. Some albums had most of the songs, while the rest of a particular album made up what was left of a particular piece of work, such as Live Magic and many others.

Fortunately, iTunes is not broken and every album shows up normally, except for maybe a few I had purchased a song off of an alternate, or newly found version with the normal album years ago. This includes the deluxe versions of every Queen album and The Best Of Freddie, with two different titles. I had initially thought that iTunes was broken, forgetting that I had purchased an album in 2016 and only 1 song from the newly released version. I don’t know if this is strictly a software issue or bug, but if so, I hope that there will be some sort of update, or patch to fix this issue. I tested this with an older iPhone which is still relevant to iOS 17 and the result is the same, as I had briefly checked iTunes and the same albums are not split into pieces and when downloading them again from the test device, everything is like it was before iOS 17.1. I tested this with Queen (of course and every album showed up once as it should. So, fortunately, this did not affect iTunes and only the Music app. The only way to fix this problem was to erase the iPhone, use the iCloud backup to install everything on the iPhone as it was and all better now.

I had been on an album kick for a few days back in June and July and obviously, listening to an album without key songs on it, breaks up the flow and then finding the rest as a part of the same album (elsewhere) is certainly troubling. Sadly, not many people will report this to Apple because of our obsession with singles and streaming. I hope that somebody sees this post and reports the issue to Apple for me, because I can’t do it. I can’t be brief and I have to be descriptive, or else people will ask questions and it will take longer for the problem to be fixed.

This simply must be rectified and I hope that it is, by either iOS 17.2, or if possible sooner than that. Restarting the iPhone is not going to do it so, it will take a major software update to fix this issue. I will certainly report this to any Youtuber who asks how we are enjoying iOS 17.1, because they should know about it too and besides, it’s a mess that needs to be cleaned up fast.

That’s Wrong!

Has this ever happened to you? When you are singing along with Queen and you know the songs like the back of your hand, for some reason you inexplicably forget some of the words? That happened to me a couple days ago while singing along with Was It All Worth It and trying the “Backing Track” version, from The Miracle (Collector’s Edition.). The first line had left my brain and I have never forgotten the words to any Queen song in my life, even with muscle memory. How could I forget when Freddie sings “What is there left for me, to do in this life?” I hope it is not an age thing, as I am now 50.

I have certainly sang the wrong words to songs over the years, including some Queen tracks, but I can not remember them off the top of my head. Usually, I can hear every word which is being sung clearly, because Freddie’s voice was so clear that you can understand exactly what he is singing. Altho, in a track like Seven Seas of Rhye, some of the words go by so fast that it is hard to keep up, without having to find the lyrics on the Internet and read them. In the case of Was It All Worth It, there was no problem with any of the lyrics, but is freddie singing “Yes we were hungry, yes we were thrill”, or “Yes we were hungry, yes we were brill”, as in brilliant? Either way, either word works for me and if it is thrill, that makes sense anyway given Queen’s propensity for outrageousness when it comes to their stage act.

I have even played some songs wrong on guitar and Dragon Attack is an example of how I and my friend Bob had mistaken that mistake in the song, as a note and not guitar harmonics. I originally thought it was a note, but I later realized from listening to it over and over again that it was a harmonic that wasn’t supposed to be heard. After all, if you know the origin of the song, you know that it had come from a jam session in the studio and what we hear is a beat being looped, similar to what we would hear in the 90s with various forms of hip-hop and electronic music. So, it’s not just singing the wrong words which can give us grief, but playing a song wrong on another musical instrument, other than the human voice. With guitar, it is all about fingering and voicings and most of us read by guitar tablature. I learned songs by ear and I’ve never actually read the lyrics, or learned to read guitar music other than braille. I have forgotten my braille guitar music so, don’t ask me how to read it and I wasn’t very good at it anyway.

So, if you forget the words to any Queen songs, singing the wrong lyrics, or you finally figure out that you may be playing it wrong on guitar, bass or drums, you are not alone. Even the most obsessive fans blank out and it may be an age thing, but I really do hope not. I don’t drink or do drugs so I have to take care of my gray matter and ears, or else I am up the creek, when it comes to remembering Queen songs and hearing them properly. This also goes for the key and the melody and so, I am a bit worried about if this happens again. Then again, I did have a busy and trying day on Thursday, so that may have factored into it and I had forgotten to eat breakfast, which is also something I never have done. Anyway, here’s hoping that I don’t do any of those things again for a long time.

We Are The Best In The World

Hi folks. A post on a Facebook group almost 2 days ago got me to thinking about the topic of this particular entry you are about to read. It’s interesting how every band believes that their fans are the best in the world and as fans, we may also drink the same Kool-Aid.

The post in question said “FACT: Queen fans are some of the nicest fans around.” I am not going to dispute that for a minute and why should I? I am a Queen fanatic too, but I wonder why do we think this? To me, it is simply because we all have that common bond between us in that Queen are among our favourite bands and may be even our lone favourite band, if we are not into everything else out there. You know where I stand with Queen if you have read many, or all of the posts in this blog!

As Queen fans, we believe that Brian and Roger are nice people and I believe that to be true. Even a veteran musician like Richie Blackmore has said that Bryan is one of the nicest people in the business and I believe it, from not just tone of voice, but how he answers questions. Unlike politicians, he actually answers the questions that he is being asked and so does Roger and so did John and Freddie. Politicians answer the question that they wish they had been asked, unlike members of Queen and other bands.

So, why do we believe this “fact”? It is because we love Queen and it is as simple as that. This also ties into how not just Queen, but all bands believe that their fans are the best in the world. First of all, they are supposed to say that because the music business is competitive and it’s all about one upmanship, in more ways than one. New bands who may be opening for a more established act, will say that we are going to blow the headliners off the stage and once again, they are supposed to say that and unfortunately, some members of the headlining band may take that personally. Also, there may be restrictions on the opening acts by certain artists who have massive egos like David Lee Roth and Steven Tyler. I will get more into that initial statement and the personal consequences of which, when I do a post on Judas Priest… who are a member of the Queen family. I will also do a post on Van Halen later on, talking about the connection to Queen and other things which are not quite so obvious.

About 20 years ago, it had been brought to my attention that the heavier the band, the nicer the people are who are in that band. Does this diminish Queen? No, but it does bring up that despite that there are bands who are playing music which is heavier and angrier, at the end of the day the people who may be: yelling behind the microphone, holding guitars and bass guitars, as well as sitting on a stool and hitting things with sticks, are just ordinary normal people like you and me who happen to play heavy music that makes us want to either dance, or even mosh. As a little guy, I can’t go into the pit and so, I have to be with the rest of the fanatics, who are enjoying the show like me.

Anyway, if you are a fan of live albums and you listen to stage patter from frontmen who talk to the audience, most of the time you will no doubt have heard a similar phrase that we the fans are the best fans in the world. If you’ve heard any live albums from Ozzy Osbourne, you know how he likes to keep the crowd going and pushes them hard throughout the show. The same thing with Freddie. During the commentary for the Queen Rock Montreal DVD and on Youtube, Brian and Roger even said that Fred gets annoyed if the audience is not singing loud enough, when it came to the two November 1980 shows. Fair enough and because we are Canadians, we are also considered to be among the nicest people in the world. We are certainly polite, but we do have our moments when we can be a bit thorny when it comes to issues. However, we can let loose when it comes to our favourite bands, whether it is Queen or whomever. We know why we are at the concert venue and we certainly play our parts in making the evening a joyous affair.

Yes, we are the best fans in the world and no matter where we are, we should all believe that. Whether we only like Queen, or Queen along with any other rock, pop and metal bands we must keep on believing that we all are the best in the world, or else our favourite band or bands have no way to make a living. We must continue to purchase music in some way, along with merchandise if we go to see our favourite bands in concerts and sport anything wearable loud and proud, as well as playing Queen and any other bands we love equally as much, as loud and proud. If you are not into playing music loud, play it loudly in your heart and let’s keep our favourite bands alive.

The Set List

Hi folks. Now that Queen and Adam Lambert have come to North America to tour and not just to see the sights, have fun. I would go, but unfortunately, ticket prices are higher than the CN Tower, I don’t have any way to protect my hearing, other than the EArPods I ware with my iPhone and to tell the truth, I prefer the classic lineup to anything which has come since 1986. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paul Rodgers and I have much respect for Adam, but it is not the same as it was and it wasn’t meant to be either. Besides, both Paul and Adam were chosen because they are great singers in their own rights and when they sing Queen songs, they do it their own way. After all, even Freddie sang the songs differently to how he did on the albums and that was the point. If we wanted to hear the record we would stay home. However at the same time, I wish that any and all musicians on stage, would show us everything that they can do. This includes Freddie and let us hear if you can sing as high as you do on the albums. You can’t recreate the album anyway, because there is so much in there and the fact that some bands are using backing tracks, is a crime. Queen don’t use them except for the opera section of Boh Rhap and that is completely understandable, because you just can not recreate it as it was on stage, even with 4 voices and make it sound even as massive as it does.

Anyway, someone recently posted on Facebook a set list from the website we all go to, when we wish to find out what the band we are going to see, is playing. Someone commented that they are starting with a bang, but there is something different about this particular bang. The idea has always been to blind and deafen the audience at the start of the show and I personally believe, that this should also go for albums and how they are sequenced. I will have more on that in a future post on The Works! Anyway, here is what I had found from a recent show. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/queen-adam-lambert/2023/cfg-bank-arena-baltimore-md-2ba3383e.html?fbclid=IwAR0HsJliilyhdcMphO33IpF0vqdA-vEZF8TMqyaiWyipsHNyIrgnjaS63aY_aem_AUrzRdnsydXW2C4fHYTt52HHxFWo9Worm8XQEVpuBTz4jI8tk521ZKzhUkciNpIb-YE

If this set stays, there is something rather odd about how it was put together, kinda like a joke with a punchline, to see if you were paying attention. Usually, the set remains the same, but maybe there might be some changes and that will play itself out over the course of the tour. I would like to take a look at past tours and see if there is a stronger emphasis on The Miracle and Innuendo, than this set indicates. With a catalogue like Queen’s, why not experiment with songs which have never been played live from all of the albums and make the real fans happy, as well as those who had come to see Queen and Adam for the first time? I believe that even songs from Made In Heaven should be tried out and why not? Born To Love You has been played, but what about deeper cuts beyond Mother Love and Made In Heaven? Take risks and let’s try new things, as Freddie had always wanted Queen to do and this includes the set list. It’s not in any way a bad one, but it’s pretty obvious how heavily it leans toward a certain bunch of albums and less on 3 others. I know that songs from the last 3 albums were hardly played live, but that is the point. Let’s go crazy and if you have to make the set longer, do it.

Anyway, if you are going to see Queen and Adam Lambert, have a good time and I wish I had been lucky enough to see Queen with Freddie.

31 Years Of Back To The Light

Hi folks. It was 31 years ago today that Brian had released his first solo album Back To The Light in the UK and it would be months before it came out in North America. I had heard 4 songs off of the album in various forms from 1991 to 1992, but I would get to hear the whole thing in February 1993.

I would first hear Driven By You and Last Horizon as live versions done at Guitar Legends, Seville 1991 in Seville Spain and he also played with such guitar wizards as Steve Vai, Joe Walsh and Joe Satriani, who had taught both Steve and Kirk Hammett of Metallica and of course, they are all exemplary players. Brian was even lucky enough to jam with Paul Rodgers on some old Bad Company and Free songs. There’s more, but you can do a Google search on your own.

Anyway, I would hear Too Much Love Will Kill You off of the album, but not the album version first. I actually heard the instrumental guitar version before the album and that obviously wasn’t the only song given the guitar treatment, with Just One Life and Nothin’ But Blue, with Deacy on bass. Of course, Driven By You was used in a car commercial for Ford and I am actually not a Ford guy. I am a GM fella so, sorry Brian. I may not be able to drive, but I do know my car names and I used to be able to tell which make of car it was, by the door lockon the inside. Now, it’s all switches and the locks all feel the same on the inside to me. Anyway, I digress.

During the fall of 1992, I got to hear Love Token on the radio and I had taped it off the radio, so I could hear the song before I got it on CD. Then just after Christmas I would find out that Back To The Light was available as an import where I had bought my CDs in Toronto, at HMV 333 Young Street. I had decided to wait until the album came out in February 1993 and I got the version on Hollywood Records, with the version of Driven By You with Neil Murray and Cozy Powell, who was one of the best and most ferocious drummers out there and sadly, he was taken from us too soon. The album version featured programmed drums and I know this because my friend Bob told me that on his keyboard’s drum machine his keyboard had that exact same sound. I believe him and I actually like both versions of Driven By You in their own rights.

When I had bought Back To The Light on CD, I would also purchase the second part to the Back To The Light CD single, with the guitar version of Nothin’ But Blue as track 2 and the original mix of Blues Breaker, as it had appeared on the original 1983 version of the Star Fleet Project album. For some reason, I couldn’t find the first part of the CD single to Back to the Light! Of course, I knew which was which by feel and when I gave the album a spin on my CD player, I was obviously enthralled, when Brian came in with these crashing Guitar harmonies on The Dark and admittedly, it was kinda weird to hear him singing lead on everything, including the harder rocking numbers. However, I soaked it in as much as i could and I would learn Let Your Heart Rule Your Head in time, for myself and my friend Bob to play it and another song by The Beatles for people at some gathering in Brantford on a Wednesday evening. We were even given $20.00 each as I believe that the person who gave us the money, really needed to hear music that night. Probably, because I had suggested that we do I’ve Just Seen a Face by The Beatles. I think we played both songs in they key of G and I think we may have rehearsed them once or twice… I’m not sure if we even did more than once. Either way, it was my idea to do both songs which both Bob and myself had learned easily and with the Beatles song, we knew that like the back of our hands.

I had learned how to play Last Horizon on guitar, as I couldn’t figure out where to go on the fretboard, in order to play it properly. I have always liked that song and the rest of the album, including Too much Love Will Kill You. Speaking of which, I actually prefer the Queen version over the original studio version, but you can’t have one without the other as they are all good, including the instrumental guitar version.

As for other favourites, I love Love Token for the riff and the fact that it is in drop D tuning like four Queen songs written by Brian over the years: The Prophet’s Song, White Man, Fat Bottomed Girls and Headlong. Which reminds me, doesn’t Brian go right from Love Token into Headlong on the Live at the Brixton Academy album? I know the answer is yes, but I thought I would ask anyway, for those who don’t know that. According to Brian this song is what he calls a mama and Papa type of song, which makes sense given the argument in the middle of it and the subject matter. I thought the ending was actually kinda nice, with that piano and Brian soloing over it as they both fade out. By the way, I hope that Live at the Brixton Academy will make its world wide debut some time in the next 12 months or so as a digital, CD and vinyl release for those who would rather purchase physical media on physical formats. I had it as an import and had found out about it from a former student at my school, during a career day in 1993. His name is Cliff Larmer and he worked at Q107 in Toronto and he is also blind like me and he had met Brian and he said that Brian was certainly a nice guy. Anyway, I had found it in the fall of 1994 and bought it on CD, even at the import price.

I also love Resurrection for its heavy metal feel and the fact that Brian was allowed to use a beat that Cozy Powell had composed for himself and something he was doing solo, was really big of him to do. It also helped Brian explore the heavier side of his musical personality, beyond what he had done with Queen.

One of the stranger songs on this album is I’m Scared and especially the version which ended up as a B-side of Too Much Love Will Kill You. I wonder why it didn’t appear on the 2021 deluxe version of Back To The Light,. The B-side version has lead vocals which are spoken in a slightly lower voice and the drums sound different, from the album version. The mix also sounds different with a different affect on all the instruments including lead and backing vocals too.

Rollin’ Over is a great album closer and I had no idea that this was a Small Faces cover and both song writers Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott are no longer with us and this is certainly a barn burner. I have yet to hear the original!

I generally like the whole thing, but those are my favourites and admittedly, it was kinda weird to hear Brian singing on the heavy songs, given his singing voice and that he is not the tough guy kind of vocalist. However, he did just fine as all of the songs are of a personal nature to him. I wish I could find Brian’s 1993 Rockline appearance as that was to help promote the album and it is also where I found out that The Cross had split. As for touring, I was admittedly surprised that he was allowed to open for Guns N’ Roses and they had played in Hamilton Ontario on March 12th 1993 when a large winter storm was blowing through most of North America, refered to as The Storm Of The Century. Well, Brian also did some touring on his own and would be in Toronto again in October 1993, which I couldn’t go and see. Needless to say, I was not a happy guy and I really wanted to go, but nothing worked in my favour with getting tickets or a ride from Branford to Toronto, unlike the first time in 1993 when I was lucky to see Extreme.

When Back To The Light came out in 2021 I was pleasantly surprised and I forget exactly how I found out about it, but when I did find out that it was coming out I would look on iTunes and YouTube every other week, for anything new related to it. After all, it was the summer of 2021 and I had been vaccinated twice so, everything seem to be looking up and the rerelease of this album was just another plus for me. Sadly, COVID came back and overwhelmed us again, then Bryan got it in December 2021. Obviously, he has recovered and is still working with Roger and Adam on the Queen tour, among other things.

Since the 2021 relaunch of Back To The Light, there has been a few videos and singles released from it and they are in fact, the same tracks which were originally released as singles in 1991, 1992 and 1993: Driven By You, Too Much Love Will Kill You, Back To The Light and Resurrection. The only things missing are some of the B-sides like the 1992 B-side version of I’m Scared and all three Star Fleet songs, as they were released originally. Thankfully, Brian was able to find the all three guitar versions of the songs which ended up as B-sides. On the videos, the Time Traveler video for Back To The Light is an interesting concept, in that it shows Brian as he was when he was younger, or something like that. By the way, the digital single for Back To The Light lists it as “2021 Time Traveler Version” which kinda overstates it and seems to me to be kinda erroneous. It is the single and there is nothing done to the song so, why is it called as such? To promote the music video? I guess!!!!!! The one thing we didn’t get is the karaoke version of Back To The Light, as far as I know and unfortunately, I can not verify what was on both parts of the CD single, as they are not listed as separate links to the song on Wikipedia.

Will we eventually see the Live at the Brixton Academy in the near future? Will it come out throughout the world for the first time? I hope so as it would be the cherry on top of that period of time, where Brian had The Brian May Band and if there are other live albums which could be put together, I hope that is in the cards. Besides, maybe now we will get the full concert if it is possible and I certainly hope that it is. Now the only sample we have is from David Bowie and the track (Segue) – Ramona A. Stone/I Am With Name, which has a sample of Brian yelling. I believe him when he says that it was tiring for him because he would sometimes lose his voice and having to preserve your voice as a singer is obviously, very important.

iOS 17, So Far

Hi folks. It’s September 23rd and today, I am going to talk about iOS 17, on a Queen related blog? Yes and I will explain why further down and this certainly shocked me, when I had discovered something odd about the newest generation of Apple’s iOS software. It had come out on September 18th (10 years to the day) as iOS 7 and they both have parallels to each other. First of all, both updates came with new ringtones and a newly enhanced voice for two of (what were) the English speaking Siri voices. Oh yeah, there were also new voices for French Canada and such too back then! However, iOS 17 is far superior than the predecessor by 10 Years in that there are many other additions over that time and of course, we have many new voices, all be it different versions of them from when they had first appeared on iOS 10. For those who use an app called Weather Gods, there are new lock screen widgets, as we find out in this link. I don’t use any widgets (besides battery), but I know there are others who may so I am putting this here for those who do and enjoy navigating them, stacked or not. Personally, I don’t like them on my phone . https://www.applevis.com/forum/ios-ipados/weather-gods-lock-screen-widgets-configuration

One thing I should mention is that for those of us who use VoiceOver, we tend to use a single voice as a default voice and that is exactly what it is. However, sometimes it gets screwed up and we hear other things which we aren’t supposed to hear, when navigating websites. Sometimes, a foreign language shows up, even if you have “Detect Languages” set to off. So, to remedy this problem, add the same voice using “Add New Language” which matches the country you live in. For example: if you are using a US voice, then you simply add US and add the voice you are using and switch the rotor to languages and go either up or down, to US. Then, the voice will behave as it should, with no strange languages or unintelligible words being spoken. This is one thing that blind people who use the iPhone don’t understand and they figure that something is wrong with their device. In fact, nothing is wrong and that’s just how the default voice works, because the language detection feature works from there, no matter whether you speak English, or any other language throughout the world.

With VoiceOver, I find the new per-voice settings to be kinda fun to play with, depending on the voice. Not every voice is created equally and as such, options are different depending on the voice you want to change either: WPM minimum or maximum, pitch range, sentence pause, or Timbre. With the latter, it either makes the specific voice sound either like a robotic chipmunk, or a demon. With other voices you can set roughness, breathiness and other things, but you can’t go back to a previous version of a voice. Like I said, not all voices were created the same and as such, have their own unique options and idiosyncrasies to them. Just explore and if you don’t like what you had set up, just reset the voice back to default. To further drive the point of my statement at the beginning of this paragraph Home, here’s a link to an episode of a podcast which discusses three of the voices which have all the settings I have touched on. https://www.applevis.com/podcasts/finely-tune-voiceover-speech-best-suit-your-needs-preferences-ios-voice-settings

As for the ringtones, there are plenty of new ones to choose from and the same with text tones. However, with this new generation of iOS we cannot use one for the other, meaning we cannot use a ringtone as a text tone and vice versa. However, if you have set up Ringtones and text tones for either default or for people in your contacts, they will stay the same, unless you change them today. You haven’t lost anything, it’s just that you cannot confuse one with the other so to speak. Basically, Apple is saying this is for this and that is for that. If you’re going to explore both the ring and text tones, I suggest doing so outside of that in the sounds and haptics settings such as: voicemail, mail, new mail, etc. if you do that, you will not run into that problem and a friend of mine had, when she explored the ringtones and the text tones and by doing so, accidentally changed her default tone and has to find a new one, rather than the one she likes. By the way, I noticed that the new text tones are quieter than the ringtones! Huh!!!

With Apple Books, there was an issue with the audiobooks which was fixed with this update in that two of my books which had chapters, didn’t allow me to access them individually and if I wanted to go to a specific chapter, I had to go through the entire book by skipping ahead through each chapter until I found the one I wanted to hear. Like I said, that was fixed and I am happy and I hope this is not broken again in future iOS 17 updates.

With the Music app, I actually like the new Crossfade feature (in and of itself), but I don’t like how it works on streaming services. It does not sound like it does on Radio when songs are mixed into each other from the end to the beginning and in fact, the beginning fades in and that really gets my blood boiling. However, if it is set just right, it sounds closer to how it would if you were listening to a radio station, or a live stream of one. The obvious differences there is no station ID and all the music is from your library, whether you have a mast a collection or collected songs through Apple Music. Either way, I believe that if you wanna listen to an entire album listen to it properly and not use Crossfade. It would ruin the entire experience of hearing an entire album from front to back. If you’re listening to songs in a random order according to genre, that’s a different story and the same with the playlist. I have my Crossfade set to 3 seconds, 1s, 12s 3 seconds (whatever that means). Either way, it sounds the best for me under the circumstances.

Clock has received a welcome upgrade, and that we can now set multiple timers. This is great especially if you’re using more than one washing machine or dryer, when doing laundry. Or, if you are doing many tasks which requires you to set a time for each one of them individually. The best thing is that you can run them at the same time and you can create a new timer when you launch the app, unless you have one or more timers going already. In that case, create a new timer first and then if you have another one which you need at the moment as a recent timer, go ahead and use it at the same time and they will both go off with the alarm you set for them. You can even change your alarm by tapping on a timer and going to where the alarm can be set and you can make the change as if you are setting up a new timer. So, no problem. Right?

Now, we get to the Queen related part to iOS 17, as it relates to me and it is a byproduct of what I’m about to tell you here. There is one flaw with iOS 17 so far which has nothing to do with the ringtones or the alert tones. It has everything to do with the Music and TV apps and how they sync up when you purchase new music, or new TV shows and episodes of TV shows. Before iOS 17, I would purchase either new music, movies or TV shows and I would download a previous episode of The Simpsons. For some odd reason, The Simpsons is my go-to TV show for syncing up my music with TV and everything in both apps and respective libraries. I don’t know why, but that is just how it is. In the past, I would download from the TV app and today, I purchased Freddie’s 2019 compilation Never Boring on iTunes. I tried the usual thing of redownloading a Simpsons episode, but for some reason things did not sync up. What happened? I don’t know, but I had tried deleting an entire season and redownloading it and nothing worked. So, I tried deleting again and this time, I decided to try downloading from the iTunes Store app and it worked from there. Why?

The clincher for me was when I went into my Settings app, general, iPhone storage and then review TV downloads. This includes both TV and movies including anything I may have purchased from the Classic Albums series. I tested this out on the A Night At The Opera Classic Albums documentary and the same thing happened. What was that same thing you may ask? Well, when reviewing TV downloads, those episodes were missing from there when I had re-downloaded them onto my phone from the TV app, but when going into the iTunes app, I found them under TV and movies respectively, then downloaded them again and when I did that, everything showed up as if nothing was wrong and my TV seasons and movies were all there, in the TV app and when reviewing TV and movies in iPhone storage. . Just a note of warning, it will probably say “Play” when you wish to do the download back onto your phone or maybe even your iPad and this may confuse some of us. However, if you tap the “Play” button, it will download everything as is and it will all be back and everything will match, with both the TV app and with iPhone storage. Can you imagine if you have a lot of TV episodes, seasons of shows and a bunch of movies to download onto your iPhone 15, if and when you upgrade to it? For some reason, both books, TV shows and movies do not come back by themselves when doing the upgrade to a newer phone. I do not expect this to change any time soon and now, I hope I will never have to upgrade, because of this flaw.

There seems to be some sort of disconnect between apps in iOS 17 and I hope that Apple learns about this. I will be talking about that on some platforms like Youtube and for various Youtube channels, whose main focus is Apple in the coming days. My guess however, is that this may not be fixed until iOS 17.1 or later. However, I will be mentioning what I have put here, somewhere else on the internet including Youtube, if and when the opportunity presents itself if the YouTuber asks how iOS 17 is going for you.

Everything else I use works just fine and even composing blog posts like this has been no problem. I hope that if you are blind and you have the newer iPhones, you will update to iOS 17 and consider my suggestion about adding on the additional voice, consistent with where you live or the language of the voice you use. I am a seasoned user, but even those who are also seasoned users and teachers may have had problems such as what I had outlined above. Happy downloading and enjoy the new generation of Apple’s iOS software. I promise that the next post will be more related to Queen and in fact, it will be on Thursday.

Killer Queen

Hi folks. Today I am going to talk about the 1992 Greatest Hits compilation, which came out in the US and Canada, in September 1992. I was reading my post on Classic Queen and I had remembered about this package, originally being called Killer Queen. I think that this package should have been called as such, only so it wouldn’t confuse those who are looking for the Greatest Hits album. After all, there is the 1981 hits package and the track listings obviously differ, but because of some oddities with the selection it shouldn’t have been given a Greatest Hits name.

Media outlets were calling this package a rerelease of the Greatest Hits album and clearly, it wasn’t despite having most of the tracks from the first hits album on both sides of the Atlantic.

The other thing is that this package included Body Language and I Want To Break Free, both of which had come out after the original hits album in 1981. Besides, having released this package as it was only confuses things for some and for those new Queen fans who don’t know better, you would think that this was correct in calling this a reissue of the Greatest Hits album.

The tracks included We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Another One Bites The Dust, Killer Queen, Somebody To Love, Fat Bottomed Girls (Album Version), Bicycle Race, You’re My Best Friend, Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Play The Game. All of which had appeared on the original 1981 package, except that it would be the single version of Fat Bottomed Girls on the original. By the way, the 1992 package didn’t even have the single version of Flash.

The tracks which didn’t appear on the original and on the 1992 version are: Save Me, Now I’m Here, Don’t Stop Me Now, Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, Seven Seas of Rhye, Body Language and I Want To Break Free (Single Version). You see how this package kinda messes with time in calling it Greatest Hits instead of Killer Queen? I actually like the other name better as it would have gone together easier and not confused people, namely fans who know the 1981 GH package.

Why did they call it Greatest Hits? Well, to cash in on Queen’s new found popularity in North America and to kinda stitch together some kind of hits album, to replace the 1981 version. Obviously, years later we would get the British version domestically, both individually and in boxed sets. The 2004 release kinda straightened things out when it came to time and I wonder if the 1992 hits package is even available anymore, on CD. I think I found it on Spotify in 2020, but that’s the last time I checked.

I actually thought that including the album version of Fat Bottomed Girls was kinda cool, as I like it better than the single version, even if I think it is wrong. Yes, I know that I am contradictory on this, but that’s how I feel. Besides, it seemed to have encouraged rock radio stations to play the album version of FBG anyway. I prefer that to the single version of Hammer to Fall on a active or mainstream rock stations any time.

The other upside was the booklet, once again with information on each song, when it was released as a single and where it was released as a single. See? The two packages were not all bad in themselves as I would learn more about Queen through the booklet and my mom reading it to me. The trouble is it wasn’t a straightforward history on the band, but knowing where each song came from with album releases I could piece together in my mind part of the history of queen, until years later, with Wikipedia.

This wasn’t a bad album, but it did have that rushed feel to it taking the 1991 remasters and putting them on here,warts and all. My hope is an always has been, that someday every single queen related album, compilation and hits package that was ever released will be brought back in some form, whether it is a boxed set or something and this includes both packages from 1992. After all, they are now important parts of Queen history and on the upside, this hits package further increase the sales of Greatest Hits throughout the world so, in a way this decision to call it a such made business and marketing sense. At least, that is how I see it. I do hope that everything will somehow come back and new Queen fans will get a chance to experience this album as it was, without someone creating a playlist with the running order.

Questions

Hi folks. today, I have some questions I would like to ask Brian, Roger and maybe even Jim Beach. I don’t know if I will get any answers from them but at least I’m trying. Obviously, these questions have been bubbling around my head ever since I became the obsessive Queen head. You will notice that these are not fanboy questions, because that’s not who I am. I’m a fan, but not the type of person who loses all inhibitions when I’m in the proximity of bands I like, unless I’m at a concert. Hopefully I can get at least some answers to these questions in time. Until then, here are my questions to the band Queen and those on The inside.
First, I’m curious about the releases on CD of the entire back catalogue in 1991, when they signed with Hollywood records. Obviously I am very happy that all the previous albums before The Works were released on CD for the first time. But, there are things that still bother me to this day of why certain things are the way they are on the newly remastered versions at that time.
On the cassette tape Versions of all the albums, why were most of the Hollywood bonus remixes included on them? I must be honest and say that I didn’t buy all of the albums on cassette but on the ones that I did, I did notice that there was a lot of space left on side 1, after the last song on that side. It was about one or two songs deep into side 2, before the tape would run to the end and you could turn it over to side 2. Why? This did not and still doesn’t make sense to me to this day. If the Hollywood bonus remixes and the occasional bonus track were put on CD only, then it would make more sense. Don’t you think? This has resulted in some of the foolish editing of certain songs which were released on CD for the first time and I had mentioned them in this blog before. I am most certainly happy that all of the original albums were restored and brought back as they were meant to be heard, on the 2011 Standard and deluxe releases. This obviously hasn’t affected both the albums Innuendo and Made In heaven because they were released during and after the releases of the bands back catalog respectively.
Also, why were there remixes of songs in the first place? Couldn’t they have included some B-sides and outtakes like they did on the 2011 deluxe releases? I will grant you that the band wanted to hold stuff back for later and obviously, a lot of good stuff was included on future releases. But, I think that would’ve made more sense and this would probably have not resulted in some of the stupid editing that has occurred on certain songs. Hopefully one day we will get everything for everyone all around the world on all formats, including digital downloads. I really hope that we will eventually get the 3 volume Singles boxed set with all of the A and B-sides on it in all formats and released worldwide.
on the subject of live albums, why wasn’t the album Live Magic released along with the rest of the studio and live albums at the time? I was looking for it for almost a year, until I just gave up, when Live Wembley 86 was released in June 1992. Then in 1994 I found out it was available, albeit as an import and went out and bought it. If I had known that it would be released in North America in 1996, I probably would’ve waited a little longer for it. What was the hold up?
I also have some questions on compilation albums and why there aren’t some that are released right now. Will there hopefully be a B sides and remix album released at some point, in lieu of the singles box sets being released worldwide and on all physical and digital platforms? I think that would be pretty cool because for the first time, I would get to own the instrumental remix of Machines, which appeared as the B side to the 7 inch single I Want To Break Free. Apparently it was released on a 12 inches compilation released in 1992, but I didn’t know about it until I read about it on Wikipedia 20 years later.
On iTunes here in North America and specifically Canada, why aren’t all of the Queen albums available? Yes, all of the studio and live albums are available on iTunes for purchase and download in Canada, but not all of the compilations are. For example: there are some compilations which were released specifically in North America which aren’t available on iTunes even in Canada. The Classic Queen compilation released in 1992 is nowhere to be found and neither is the Queen Rocks compilation or Absolute greatest anymore. The latter compilation was only partially available on iTunes for quite a few years and was taken out of circulation in the last couple of years. Why is that? Most of these packages have alternate versions of some of the songs and because they aren’t available you can’t find them on iTunes. For example: on Classic Queen there is that alternate version of Under Pressure, which I have talked about in the post about Classic Queen and elsewhere. Also, the song Tie Your Mother Down appears on both the compilations Queen Rocks and Classic Queen, without the long beginning which appears on A Day At The Races, going right into the guitar riff. If those two compilations were released on iTunes in North America, we would have pretty much everything that has been available on CD, except for Queen For An Hour. Don’t get me started on that interview and how it isn’t available as a digital download for The Miracle boxed set.
I am also wondering, what happened to the Freddie compilation Never Boring here in Canada and possibly the US on iTunes and other digital platforms? Why was it taken out of circulation for Apple Music, Youtube Music and iTunes in North America? Despite that I may not like the sound of the mixes I would like to purchase it and have it on my iPhone. I hope that this can be arranged that the full compilation be brought back and maybe, the original versions of both Mr. Bad Guy and Barcelona make their digital debut in North America and around the world, along with The Freddie Mercury Album and The Great Pretender albums, depending on the record label and territory. I think it would be cool if all of the Freddie studio and compilation albums were released worldwide and once again, on all physical and digital platforms. This includes any other compilations that only those who were lucky to purchase them on CD and own, including a rarities boxed set.

Anyway, those are my questions for Queen and I really hope that some day, I will get as many answers to them as possible. Speaking of original albums, I hope some day that we will get the 1983 version of Star Fleet Project despite any of its technical flaws. For example, at the beginning of Blues Breaker, there seems to be a short where a channel cuts out until the full band kicks in. I know why Brian did what he did, but as someone who had never heard the album before I would like to hear the original as it sounded, even with its imperfections in the mix.

Okay, I will stop now and wait in hope for answers to my questions and comments.