Queen, no hear me out.
I like a lot of their songs. I like all of the Night at the Opera album (though The Prophet Song goes on a bit), but they're still shit in comparison to how highly some people laud them up, nay, worship them.

"Ooh, Freddie was a great showman" they chant, a fuck awful cliche that grates on my mind. He wasn't a great showman, he was a great musician, get it fucking right. Jean-Michel Jarre is a great showman. He turned the centre of Paris into one big stage and didn't charge the 2 million people who showed up to watch. He didn't mince about on stage in a leotard.

They were/are a great band, but in line with this weeks topic, they are the worst band ever relative to some people's bizarre inflated opinion of them.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 14:59, 18 replies)

I'll grant you that for evey good song they did
there were about 3 shit ones that most people forget, but you can't deny the guy had charisma. He could hold an audience just by being there, without lasers and explosions and whatnot. He was a great frontman. Showman is probably the wrong word...
( PMGT -Bacon., Thu 30 Dec 2010, 15:08, closed)

yes I agree
Frontman is a better term. But when you get to a level of evangelism that people pour over him, it becomes more and more difficult to live up to those expectations. The same happened with Elvis, except hardly anybody knows where Zanzibar is.
jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/sacred_heart_of_elvis.jpeg
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 15:36, closed)

I reckon it's a question of balance
No amount of mincing about would ever persuade me to watch / listen to / buy a band.

But the mincing probably got them some attention, then when people heard what they were doing, they realised how good they were.

I don't find Queen particularly watchable, but some of the stuff they wrote (and unless I'm mistaken, Freddie Mercury was very prominent as a writer) is astonishing. Bohemian Rhapsody is pretty old and a bit annoying now, but fuck me, it's a masterpiece muscially.
( Not Pineapple anymore, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 15:23, closed)

Maybe it's the "Great Showman" line that irritates me most
If they were that big of a fan, the musician skills of the guy should take absolute prominence manyfold, otherwise you're just a fan of a guy mincing about in a leotard more than the music. And if I had been him, and was constantly hearing the showman line with hardly any mention of my musical talent, I'd be bloody furious.

Also, by not acknowledging the writing of May, Deacon and Taylor, they're disregarding the rest of the band and reducing them to mere session musicians.

Listen to Good Company written by Brian May. He plays Ukulele over what sounds like a 1920s style jazz band. However, those horns, clarinets and oboes you hear are actually about a dozen guitar tracks mixed down into one.

And John Deacon's "You're My Best Friend" can bring a lump to my throat.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 15:53, closed)

Leave Joey Deacon alone!

( mofaha ┐( ˘_˘)┌ ʅ(́◡◝)ʃ, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 18:16, closed)

"Jean-Michel Jarre is a great showman. He turned the centre of Paris into one big stage and didn't charge the 2 million people who showed up to watch." Yes, of course, he did it for free.
Or may be the city/region/state paid for it, and even those who didn't want to/couldn't attain the concert were charged.
( Matth knows what yellow snow tastes like, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 15:35, closed)

Jean-Michel Jarre is a dull programmer of computerised audio equipment.
He stands on stage and presses buttons. He's a shit performer and a shit musician.
These are facts, not opinions. I asked my mate and he confirmed it.
( mofaha ┐( ˘_˘)┌ ʅ(́◡◝)ʃ, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 15:50, closed)

mm mm mm
I have also checked these facts with my dad and can confirm the facts as facts and add the additional, he's a whopping big cunt.
I mean jean michel jarre is a whopping big cunt not my dad, my dad's quite short.
( spingers, Sat 1 Jan 2011, 18:28, closed)

Prophet's Song?
Best bit of the album.
( His Popiness the Hole Invaded Poland on, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 16:33, closed)

I bet you like
Rick Wakeman too.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 17:16, closed)

what you've down here is describe some pop culture as over rated
which to my mind makes you worse than Joanna Yeates' landlord.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Thu 30 Dec 2010, 17:08, closed)

I should be on those list shows
the sort that attract David Quantick and Fearne Cotton.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 17:15, closed)

Goddamit
that's twice I've clicked "I like this!" in this thread instead of "Reply". I really am a fucking spazz.
( mofaha ┐( ˘_˘)┌ ʅ(́◡◝)ʃ, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 18:16, closed)

I wrote on another Queen discussion
but the same applies here. Queen fandom is a muddied affair now in so far as The tragedy of Freddie has eclipsed all sane examination of their work and all anyone of that generation of musicans seems to be interested in is mutually wanking each other off in talking head programs until Freddie, Bob Geldof, Bono, George Michael and Elton John have been successfully canonised each other as saints of popular culture.
(7 hours left to save Earth, Thu 30 Dec 2010, 20:09, closed)

It's well known that...
Queen were the only band to break the artistic embargo on ANC South Africa and therefore are not only overrated cunts, but racist cunts.

And Brian May (nee Moore) playing on top of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Jubilee makes them overrated, racist, establishment cunts.

Much like their fucking namesake.
(Monchberter Can't go wrong with Doom, Fri 31 Dec 2010, 13:06, closed)

Brian Moore?
That would have been amazing, had he not been dead by then.

"It's up for grabs nooooooooow!"
( milkybarnick is calming down Boris on, Fri 31 Dec 2010, 16:12, closed)

Status Quo also ignored the embargo
I recall the NME headlines...

"Down down, deeper and down".
( Flowerpot No longer has the vapours thanks to DTH, Sat 1 Jan 2011, 12:02, closed)

Listen to the 1st album "Queen". It's got a unique vibe and brilliantly written songs. Didn't sell well though.
(Styubud, Fri 31 Dec 2010, 17:49, closed)