LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!

[Jon Browne]

In article <199803191457.GAA01286 at mailtod-121.bryant.webtv.net>, Dan
Olivadoti <Dano7 at WEBTV.NET> writes
>Way to go, Torgo!!!!! I had to come out of lurk mode for this too! I'm
>always amazed at the narrow minds that say dumb statements like "That
>SUCKS!" If something is not to your taste, you can say you don't like
>it,

"this sucks" = "I don't like it" no more, no less.

I am amazed you give a shit what I think.

When I say something sucks, I am expressing personal dislike. Naturally
it is not a universal. I would not deny how talented they are, I would
however, insist they suck, as indeed they do.

You may feel differently, as of course, is not only your right, but
something I could not or would not want to change.

I choose to use the shorthand "suck" because everything I say is of
course, merely my opinion, and I therefore would consider it
lingistically redundant to say "In my opinion, Queen suck." I would hold
it to self-evident that my opinion is an irrelevancy in your world.
as of course, your opinion is in mine.

> but you can't deny the TALENT!

As for talent,
The Ramones have no talent, but they were infinitly more exciting.
Talent is a blunt instrument and cannot cut butter without an awful lot
of other qualities. Go listen to Vanessa Mae if you want to hear talent.

> And Queen, my friends, is one of the
>most talented bands there ever was. They changed music and nobody's ever
>been able to duplicate their sound, though everyone from Def Leppard to
>Extreme has tried.

Who both suck, no?
>I've noticed that, especially in the case of Queen,
>there comes musical snobbery--"Oh, they sucked after Queen II".
>Bull!!!!!!! I can't stand that attitude-as soon as a band attains
>mainstream acceptance, they're automatic sellouts?

This is a straw man. I've no problem with mainstream bands. Floyd and
Zep, for example, were both mainstream, both great.
>Especially Queen, who continued to make challenging music right til the
>end! I'm so sorry that your poor little Hawkwind never became a
>successful band,
I'm not. As long as they make enough to keep recording, I couldn't give
a monkeys after that.
>but don't you dare tear apart a band out of
>jealousy-and that is exactly what I see here!
Because I think songs like "I want To Break Free" and "Bicycle Race" are
rubbish doesn't mean I'm jealous. Really, I'm not. I just don't like the
band. i.e. I think they suck.
>Now, as far as Rush, I
>don't care for them and never have, but I'll be damned if I say they
>suck and that there's no talent there!

Plenty of talent there. And they suck.
>That's how grade and middle
>school kids describe what they don't like.
And retarded thirty somethings, don't forget us.
> I consider myself a music fan
>with a brain.
Which is why you like Queen, sure, it follows.

I consider myself a music fan with a big nob, a catastrophicly large
record collection and a capacity for drink and enjoyment.

I consider myself a businessman with a brain.

Rock 'n' roll is ultimatly not an intellectual pursuit. The best rock
'n' roll is made by spirited kids, in primitive teenage garages.

I would recommend reading Lester Bangs "Psychotic Reaction and
Carbaretor Dung" for an accurate dissertation on this matter.

>....And no performer EVER has given as much to his audience as Freddie
>Mercury did.

In return they gave him fame and fortune and everything that goes with
it. He did, I understand, thank them all. I think the above is a
overstatement.

> He was still making videos for the "Innuendo" album and
>cutting vocal tracks even though his AIDS was so far along that he could
>only have the strength to put in a few hours of vocals a week, and he
>was suffering from blindness and other severe ailments.

Without putting him down, he went out doing what he wanted to do. He was
doing what he enjoyed primarily, making music. The fact that there was
an audience is secondary. We all have to face our doom in the end. No
one's going to put a statue up to me because I didn't give in to my
diabetes, and still run my shop and still provide for my kids. I'm doing
it because it's what I want to do. I'm not taking anything away from
Freddie to say that many, many people are equally heroic. You included
Dano, when your time comes.
> Although I don't
>care for the Beach Boys, I have to give kudos to Carl Wilson, who
>despite battling advanced cancer, still managed to tour right til his
>last days.

The Beach Boys are a great band! You think they suck?

>
>QUEEN ROCKS! Enough said!
>

Brian May (who went to my school, by the way) co-wrote, co-produced and
co-performed "The Stonk" with Hale and Pace.

'nuff said.
--
Jon