Moms Music- Queen

One of my mom’s favorite bands is Queen. I acquired three of Mom’s records, a fact that I mainly bring up because prior I only had one Queen album on vinyl and that was Hot Space (everything else on CD) It’s always interesting to me how tastes change. Classic bands like Queen, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, the Who and so on seem to ebb and flow with cultural tides Clearly the Freddie Mercury biopic put Queen back on the map. More recently, Brian May was named the best Guitarist of all time in a March poll. This was a big controversial conversation starter on social media. But seriously, May was incredibly humble and any ranking of art is going to be subjective I don’t have anything I can say about Queen that hasn’t already been said. They aren’t necessarily at the top of the list of my favorite bands but I do like and enjoy them and listen to them still quite a bit. They have transcended generations and my sons listen to them. I am not sure I even have a favorite album - Queen 2 and Night at the Opera are generally regarded in conversations of the best. But I do love plenty of their songs. The Three Albums from #momsrecords were A Day At the Races, Live Killers and Greatest Hits I think I actually place “A Day..” with the two more popular platters mentioned above. I don’t find any of them perfect but they are all great listens with a mix of memorable songs and some filler. Live Killers similarly is slated as “less than”, but I find it a wonderfully sounding document of the Queen live show. The general consensus is that one of the problems is that Freddie’s voice isn’t as strong here as say, contemporaries like Robert Plant or Roger Daltrey. Yet, for me, the energy really does it- capturing at least a bit of what made Queen great. On the singalong of “Now I’m Here”, you get a glimpse of Freddie the showman, vocal criticism is secondary. Some don’t like the Medley format that gets used like Killer Queen with Bicycle Race, though I think it helps bring out the uniqueness of the band in concert I am not sure if they ended up releasing a better live album (in that, this is the only one I have spent time with). I know there are several other choices now from various points in their career- Wiki lists 10 proper live Queen albums - but I believe this was the only live Queen reord released in the US until the early 90s 1981s Greatest Hits is like ChangesBowie, an essential compilation that came out while the artist was still vital. In the CD and cassette age- it got the 1992 makeover. This was important timing to coordinate with the success of “Bohemian Rhapsody” re-entering the charts. The newer version removed Under Pressure, Flash and Keep Yourself Alive and added Body Language, Seven Seas of Rhye, Now I’m Here, Save and, Don’t Stop Me Now, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy and I Want to Break Free Though I think mainly that was to move those to a second disc, add everything from the 80s and release an album in the States called Classic Queen that added all the 80s hits that had yet to be recorded before the original greatest hits and added some important omissions like Stone Cold Crazy and Tie Your Mother Down. The label also moved Bohemian Rhapsody to this disc to make both albums necessary purchases to complete an essential collection. (At least in the US, where both discs were a success and made a completed pair. The UK had a Greatest Hits 2 instead)