QUEEN Discography- MONTREAL '81 in theaters near you

[TAC]

The other thing I wanted to add to that was that with ANATO, Freddie seems like he really distances himself from the band...on a performance level. In that, he stands out so much.

Usually singers with so much talent and personality grow apart from their bandmates as the spotlight shines on them and their talents.

Not to get ahead, but was there ever a time where the balance got too out of whack? In other words, did the band ever become a vehicle for Freddie, with the band basically relegated as support, similar to the last 20 years of Aerosmith.

From afar, what I respect most about Queen is how tight they appeared in the face of this. Freddie is the elephant in the room, but they seemed to have great chemistry and closeness.

[The Curious Orange]

Not to get ahead, but was there ever a time where the balance got too out of whack? In other words, did the band ever become a vehicle for Freddie, with the band basically relegated as support, similar to the last 20 years of Aerosmith.

No, they never did, in fact the opposite, especially when they decided that all songs should be credited to the band, regardless of who actually wrote them. There were frictions around the Hot Space album, and around Freddie's solo album, but the band were always a band of equals.

[KevShmev]

I think most would argue that Hot Space was a Freddie thing that the band mostly went along with at the time, but we can cross that bridge when we get to that album in August.

[Stadler]

Well, if you watch the "Bohemian Rhapsody" movie, they were all but broken up until the epic performance at Live Aid brought them back together like the brothers they are!   

(I was going to put that in green, but it's not sarcastic; that's what the movie tried to portray; couldn't be further from the truth as I understand it.)

I can't claim I know that they were all best bosom buddies, but they certainly knew they were better as a unit than as individuals, and I think Freddie as much as anyone showed that right up until he passed, singing anything the band put in front of him so that they could continue to make music after he passed.

[Stadler]

I think most would argue that Hot Space was a Freddie thing that the band mostly went along with at the time, but we can cross that bridge when we get to that album in August.

I just noticed that.... 

[KevShmev]

I think most would argue that Hot Space was a Freddie thing that the band mostly went along with at the time, but we can cross that bridge when we get to that album in August.

I just noticed that.... 

 

[DragonAttack]

Family issues. Health issues. Too many expected and unexpected meetings. Travel.

And damn Rush countdowns😉

EDIT:  After eight years as either the VP or Treasurer of my community, my last annual meeting as VP was last night.  Only one more 15 page newsletter as lead editor after six years before I hand over some of those reins.

Something I enjoyed doing except for when.....you have to spend 7 1/2 hours fixing something you created, that would have only taken 2 1/2 hours over three months if someone had kept at it.  I know, because I used to do that 'something'.  And, of course, they waited until Sunday to bring it up. 

Exhale, Joe.  Exhale!

[DragonAttack]

Tim, thanks for those amazing Spotify numbers!  And thanks to those who commented correctly as to the band’s relationship in later years.

My brief comments on the individual songs.  One could think of the first three tracks as a medley.  Once again, a memorable album opening, and then nasty guitars to match Freddie’s second nasty slam against their management.  ‘They feel good!’ immediately into the ‘la dee da, life is going to go on better without you’ short ‘Lazing’ romp (and Brian’s wonderful guitar), followed instantly by the fun hard driving Roger track (I always keep these two together on my early Queen ‘best of’).  It’s one of the few Taylor penned songs that fully uses the band’s full ‘choir’ effect. Then their intriquite pop song and then back to back Brian numbers.  The time travelling ‘’39’ and Roger’s dog whistle BVs, the nice stereo finish, the nice stereo beginning of ‘Sweet Lady’ (the best lyrics?  No, but it rocks!) and then Side One finishes with a song that only they could get away with.

Side Two:  I do remember making a tape without the choir part of ‘The Prophet’s Song’  Either way works, but I was often baked, and preferred them included 😉 There’s grit in his voice before during the line ‘let all your treasures make you.’  The lyrics are some of their best.  And there’s a point during the instrumental where it seems like there’s ten Red Specials sweeping you away.  Where it ends, and where the next begins, is up to the listener. ‘Love Of My Life’…either Freddie’s note to Mary Austin, or written as from her perspective.

‘Good Company’: odd to think that now I’m the old man speaking at the end.  The Dixieland instrumental finishes with the music that started the song.  From that point and with the piccolo finish, I can’t help but get some Pavlovian goosebumps for what comes next.

(I lost my ‘sister’ of a female friend a month after high school in an automobile crash.  YMBF and LOML took on a whole different meaning after that tragedy, and I think of her every time I hear those songs)

Some fairly short videos for the 30th anniversary release, as Brian and Roger look back
part 1  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MizPUYNrAyI
part 2  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3xnkTTdE8w

part 3  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v15oIktGJOo&t=645s  A half hour, as Brian sits at the mixing board and breaks down each segment.  It's quite interesting, even if you aren't crazy about the song and aren't a techno geek.  And Brian almost breaks down at one point. 

[DragonAttack]

QUEEN A NIGHT AT THE OPERA TOUR '75

21 tour dates in the UK which started on November 14th.  It began two weeks after the release of 'Bohemian Rhapsody', and one week before 'A Night At The Opera' was released.  With the way that BoRhap was broken up into three parts, and the album still not on the shelves for the early shows, it would have been more than a bit confusing to be in these audiences.

Typical setlist: Bohemian Rhapsody (tape & rock part) / Ogre Battle / Sweet Lady / White Queen / Flick Of The Wrist / Bohemian Rhapsody (verses) / Killer Queen / The March Of The Black Queen / Bohemian Rhapsody (reprise) / Bring Back That Leroy Brown / The Prophet's Song / Stone Cold Crazy / Doing All Right / Son And Daughter / Keep Yourself Alive / Liar / In The Lap Of The Gods...Revisited.  Encores: Now I'm Here / Big Spender / Jailhouse Rock / God Save The Queen

"Before their first show in Liverpool, the famous video for Bohemian Rhapsody is shot in just four hours at Elstree Studios just outside of London, costing a mere £4500. It was filmed only because the band would not be able to perform on Top Of The Pops themselves since they would be on tour (Sunday was always the famed TV show's scheduled broadcast day, which would have been November 16; filming something a week in advance was not the norm in the 70s). So the video's success was actually quite a fortunate accident for the band."  edited from queenlive.ca

For humor and such, Freddie would be wearing a kimono and often do a strip tease down to red and white colored shorts during ‘Big Spender’
******************
Empire Theater, Liverpool, November 14th, Attendance 2300 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mmFoHbz1_A  Grade: B
Second night  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJMzST02YO4  Grade: B-
Modern Times Rock n Roll is added, encores are missing

Coventry Theater, November 16th, Attendance 2000 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXi0kBYLAqo  Grade B-
‘Modern Times’ is replaced with ‘Seven Seas Of Rhye’

Manchester, November 26th, Attendance 2500 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1kKnfKlDLk&t=173s  Grade A-   
The first of two shows that day.  The first available concert after ‘A Night at the Opera’ was released.  The first time ‘Brighton Rock’ is played.  Since the ending is used for the end of ‘Flick of the Wrist’, the ending of ‘Son And Daughter’ is used in its place. 

And the little bonuses for me:  when the queenlive.ca website was worked on, this concert bootleg is listed at sixty minutes.  What is available here was uploaded just two years ago, and is complete. 

By this time, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ has climbed from #47 to #17 to #9.  Three days later, it would reach #1 and remain there for another eight weeks.

Four concerts soon followed at London’s Hammersmith Odeon.  A fifth was added.  Their upcoming Christmas Eve concert was announced here:


Dundee, Scotland, December 13th, Attendance 2300    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YREiBRpxgAw&t=1149s  Grade: B

next up:  their most bootlegged concert…. their nationally televised Hammersmith Odeon Christmas Eve show

[Kwyjibo]

Out of curiosity, did they ever play Bohemian Rhapsody completely live, including the operatic part, maybe on a special occasion with additional singers? Or was it always a tape for the middle part?

[DragonAttack]

They never completely played the song. 

The 'is this the real life' beginning part was always skipped.  Indeed, a 'one off' performance with a choir would have been great, but the operatic middle part was always a tape. 

They would not perform it as 'one piece' until January 1977 in Milwaukee.  A few nights later, I would get to experience the 'common' version for the first time

[Stadler]

I DIDN'T KNOW DAVE LAWSON QUIT GREENSLADE?  Why am I just finding out about this NOW? 

[TAC]

I'll check those links tonight and over the weekend and report back.

Love the old clippings.

[Orbert]

Greenslade were pretty cool.  I have some of their albums, mostly because the cover art was by Roger Dean, famous for doing many of Yes' album covers.

[DragonAttack]

I DIDN'T KNOW DAVE LAWSON QUIT GREENSLADE?  Why am I just finding out about this NOW? 

That bit might have been edited out of the States' version I just had to dig a little, and found that their then drummer Andrew McCulloch had earlier been with Manfred Mann, and then with King Crimson for their third album 'Lizard'.  I'm just surprised there's no Uriah Heep references in the article.

Greenslade were pretty cool.  I have some of their albums, mostly because the cover art was by Roger Dean, famous for doing many of Yes' album covers.

I just looked those up.  One can absolutely see the Roger Dean footprint (hand print?) in the first two releases.

[DragonAttack]

At the 'Stormtroopers in Stilettoes' exhibition, 2011.  Videos of them together in 2001 and 2021 are in another thread.

RIP, Taylor Hawkins

[TAC]

Is that you, second from left, Joe? 

[DragonAttack]

Don't I wish! I also wish I was that tall.

contents moved to the 'Queen' thread 

This post under construction 

[DragonAttack]

A NIGHT AT THE ODEON
Released 2015. UK, Virgin EMI:  USA, Hollywood Records
Charts:  UK #40; USA #46; Netherlands #28; Switzerland #31; Spain #41; Belgium #42; Italy #55, Austria #57

(yet another 'let's pick the worst entry' for the album cover)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_at_the_Odeon_%E2%80%93_Hammersmith_1975

Now I'm Here (May)   4:43
Ogre Battle (Mercury)    5:19
White Queen (As It Began)   (May)  5:31
Medley: Bohemian Rhapsody (Mercury)  2:28
            Killer Queen (Mercury)  2:08
            The March of the Black Queen   (Mercury)  1:30
            Bohemian Rhapsody (Reprise)   (Mercury)   1:02
Bring Back That Leroy Brown (Mercury)  1:32
Brighton Rock (May)  2:24 / Guitar solo (May) 6:37 /
Son and Daughter (May)  1:44
Keep Yourself Alive (May)  4:33
Liar (Mercury)  8:45
In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited (Mercury)  5:24

First encore:
Big Spender   (Coleman/Fields)   1:24
Jailhouse Rock / Stupid Cupid / Be-Bop-A-Lula / Jailhouse Rock (Reprise)  9:21

Second encore: (not on the DVD)
Seven Seas of Rhye   (Mercury)   3:11
See What a Fool I've Been   (May)   4:22
God Save the Queen (Trad. arr. May)   1:23
***********************
This is the original broadcast, with introductions.  The camera crew called it quits for the night after ‘Jailhouse Rock’.  At the 59:40 mark is where the original video ends, followed by Brian announcing  ‘this is where we start, I think?’ The audio for ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ (its only time as an encore), ‘See What A Fool I’ve Been’, and ‘God Save The Queen’ follow. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3GW3eRR2rc&list=RDH3GW3eRR2rc&start_radio=1
*********
This is the original TV broadcast (minus the second encore of course) with overdubs.  GSTQ follows ‘Jailhouse Rock’, showing the credits  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuMJ_uDSIXc

Divided up track by track
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-sj4xR8SOmN1-XknEFRakX1JO0TBi_uO


("Brian, is that what I think it is stuck to my shoe?" )

Elton John did it the year before.  It was now Queen’s turn.  A live performance broadcast nationwide on television and radio.  They had to trim their show down from one hundred minutes to sixty, and make it somewhat familiar’.  Thus, ‘Now I’m Here’ opens the show.  ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ would only be included at the beginning and ending of the medley.  ‘Brighton Rock’ is superb, with Freddie singing the low end and Roger the high end to mimic the studio version.  It also includes ‘Three Blind Mice’ in Brian's solo.  A shame it wasn’t a few minutes shorter, as the absence of ‘Stone Cold Crazy’ is perhaps my only criticism of this show. 

(Oh dear!  Roger flubs a lead in, causing Freddie to mess up and repeat lines in ‘Liar’.  Considering that both Brian and Roger were sick with the flu, I’ll give them a pass.  How dare bands act human ). 

It includes the best live version of ‘In The Lap of the Gods….revisited’, and the only time ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ would be an encore.  ‘Big Spender’ has Roger in a colored wig, John in a baseball hat, and Freddie initially in a kimono before his striptease.  What more could one ask for!;-)
******************
This was the most bootlegged concert of Queen's career.  It was also the first time that Freddie and Brian's parents met, though they'd lived somewhat nearby for sixteen years. 

Within five weeks, all four of their studio albums would be in the UK charts, three years after being a bar band.  A holiday break would follow, with yet another winter tour of the States to begin at the end of January

(will get to their Hyde Park concert and ADATR by next weekend.  Life is calming down...)

[TAC]

Well, if you watch the "Bohemian Rhapsody" movie, they were all but broken up until the epic performance at Live Aid brought them back together like the brothers they are!   

(I was going to put that in green, but it's not sarcastic; that's what the movie tried to portray; couldn't be further from the truth as I understand it.)

I must've missed this post apparently. I actually was debating about asking Joe about it, or waiting until he gets there...

But, I actually watched the Live Aid performance a couple of weeks ago. I've never sat through it, but I did.  Then a couple of days later, my wife had the Queen movie on in the bedroom, and I walked in just as the Live Aid part was starting, and I couldn't understand WTF was wrong with them. The guy playing Roger, who looks a hell of a lot more like Glen Buxton than he does Roger Taylor, had a puss on his face, as did the dweeb playing John Deacon. Even the guy playing Freddie seemed weird. I didn't remember any of those facial expressions from the actual event.

[DragonAttack]

I was moved by the movie when I saw it in the theater with the wife.  Haven't seen more than a minute of it since.

'Is this the real life?  Is this just fantasy?'...Fantasy applies way too much to the movie. 

[Stadler]

Well, if you watch the "Bohemian Rhapsody" movie, they were all but broken up until the epic performance at Live Aid brought them back together like the brothers they are!   

(I was going to put that in green, but it's not sarcastic; that's what the movie tried to portray; couldn't be further from the truth as I understand it.)

I must've missed this post apparently. I actually was debating about asking Joe about it, or waiting until he gets there...

But, I actually watched the Live Aid performance a couple of weeks ago. I've never sat through it, but I did.  Then a couple of days later, my wife had the Queen movie on in the bedroom, and I walked in just as the Live Aid part was starting, and I couldn't understand WTF was wrong with them. The guy playing Roger, who looks a hell of a lot more like Glen Buxton than he does Roger Taylor, had a puss on his face, as did the dweeb playing John Deacon. Even the guy playing Freddie seemed weird. I didn't remember any of those facial expressions from the actual event.

I didn't like Queen all that much at that point - all I really knew from them was "We Will Rock You" (Ok), "We Are The Champions" (Excellent), and "Another One Bites The Dust" (horrible) - when I saw Live Aid in real time, and I recognized they were the real deal.  I still needed to better understand their music, but it shed new light on them.

In real life, they had not "broken up", in fact, they had just finished a short tour of... I think it was South America, and rather than be a last minute add to "save the band!" they were one of the first to be signed up.  I don't remember all of them, but there were a couple other liberties for the Live Aid portion, though they did do the "mime" pretty well.   I have the original footage from the MTV broadcast, and I have footage included on one of their DVDs (Montreal, I think).   It's really good.

[Orbert]

I swear, I still don't understand how fans of the band or of music in general can watch those fantasy faux-biographies.  With the Elton John one, they at least admitted that it was supposed to be a fantasy and not really what happened or how.  The Queen one presents itself as something like factual, when they just plain made half of it up.

From everything I've read, anyway.  I have no intention of watching either of those recent ones, or anything like them.  Why?  Why would you watch something that purports to tell a true story, but quite clearly is making it up?

[MirrorMask]

The Queen one presents itself as something like factual, when they just plain made half of it up.

Does it? how that's different from any other movie? was it advertised as such? (honest question here)

I mean... it's a movie, it's kinda implicit that not literally everything has gone down the way it is portrayed, the same with many historical movies... I take it for granted that every director takes some liberties for storytelling purpouses, it's a movie, not a documentary.

[Orbert]

"any other movie"?  Most movies are presumed to be stories written with the goal to entertain.  They are works of fiction, not presented as true stories.



Somehow, when the story being told isn't just "a story" but the story, I would presume that it is in fact, factual.  Instead, it's just like any other movie, something fictitious written with the goal to entertain.

Apparently it's just me.  Oddly (to me), I haven't run into anyone else who has a problem with all the liberties taken with the movie.  I've had actual arguments with people regarding the events leading up to Queen's Live Aid performance and them saying "Look, I saw the movie.  I know what happened."  What the fuck?

I guess the problem I have is that people are now accepting as fact a bunch of shit that was literally made up because someone thought it would make a better story.  Years from now, the historical view will not be the truth, but the fiction that was presented in the movie and which people have accepted as fact.  Actually, that's the case right now.

[faizoff]

I don't know about others but I have never taken a biopic or any 'based on real life events' movie on face value. I know they are movies and they may or may not give an outline of some event or person but I don't take it to mean anything other than entertainment. Same with the Queen movie or the social network movie or whatever. I'm sure they take bits of the truth and just showcase it for entertainment. The Queen movie entertained me, even with me knowing a ton of it was wrong or just not plain true.


The Fargo movie has a tag line 'Based on a true story'. In a long winded Coen's jokey kinda way, that tag line is a lie, the movie is not based on any true story but just because it's there, people assumed it to be real.


The Texas Chainsaw remake with Jessica Biel also has some tag line about being based on a true story. It's not.

[Orbert]

My turn for a serious question:  Why would you watch a movie about actual people and events, knowing that a bunch of it was just plain made up?

[faizoff]

My turn for a serious question:  Why would you watch a movie about actual people and events, knowing that a bunch of it was just plain made up?

For me it's entertainment largely.

[Orbert]

Adding the tag "based on a true story" only makes me wonder how much of what's on the screen is fabrication.  It doesn't make me want to watch it any more than pure fiction, probably even less because I'll spend part of my mental energy wondering what was made up and what wasn't.

Similarly (in a way), with stories based on actual people and events, I'll generally find myself thinking "Okay, that would be entertaining, if it actually went down like that."

I guess we all have things we're willing to overlook.

[TAC]

Tom Hanks on playing real people..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuIhpHmFrmg

 

[DragonAttack]

^
I want Tom Hanks to play me, too!

For me it's entertainment largely.

Well, if you want someone 'to entertain you', how about the guy Dave Grohl was talking about for thirty seconds here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnkTh4I_Zis
(as he did on the first and last nights of 'Rock In Rio' in '85....but I'll get to that later)

Instead of fantasy, how about the 'real life'?  Check out the Hammersmith Odeon show.  Queen's '75 Christmas Eve UK televised concert would have been a joy to witness in person or on the tube.  It took forty years for the film and sound to be restored and released.  What a frickin' treasure after only having half the concert available to listen to back in the 90s (and on vinyl to boot).

The consummate frontman and his mates in front of millions.  Enjoy.

As in '85, Queen departs the UK, and after playing the 'Americas'....heads to Japan and Australia for sold out performances.

btw... I'm certainly more than willing to discuss and learn about any Queen topics not related to the current discography here (though I thought Taylor Hawkins' passing was appropriate here:     https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=4119.msg2809070#msg2809070

Tomorrow:  the rest of the ANATO tour (and my lucky break to see one show), two days later Hyde Park, and then second Marx Brothers album on Friday.

[TAC]

^
I want Tom Hanks to play me, too!

He's way too tall. 

[DragonAttack]

"Yerrr right, Scotty!" 

But I'm lord of the darkness, I'm queen of the night.............

[TAC]

Check out the Hammersmith Odeon show.  Queen's '75 Christmas Eve UK televised concert would have been a joy to witness in person or on the tube.  It took forty years for the film and sound to be restored and released.  What a frickin' treasure

I watched this show, the whole show, the other night. Holy shit what footage!! I'm extremely picky when it comes to my proshot videos, but this one is outstanding. Even though ANATO lightens up a bit, this concert still shows the band at their hard rock roots. And with video to prove it. There are some great camera angles, and the venue is small enough. Pro shot videos in arenas can be a bit tough to envision the band on stage properly. In this footage, you get a great idea of the spacing of the band and the dimensions of the stage.

[faizoff]

A NIGHT AT THE ODEON

Thanks for this write-up, I've been meaning to check this album out. This and the Rainbow show are the two live video albums I don't have. Was trying to decide if they're worth the blu-ray purchases.


I'll check out the links you posted.