{"id":1505,"date":"2019-03-09T23:11:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T23:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1505"},"modified":"2019-04-29T00:32:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T00:32:43","slug":"ftv-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=1505","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Looking back over the past fifty years of rock music, a lot of great bands have come and gone. \u00a0A few of them became gigantically successful and, amazingly, some are still out there rocking. Back when The Who sang, \u201c<\/span>I hope I die before I get old\u201d, \u00a0<\/span><\/i>odds are that none of the bands populating the Billboard Record Charts dreamed they might make The Who\u2019s lyric sound more than a little short sighted. \u00a0It is almost laughable (now) that there was a time when bands like KISS and Queen weren\u2019t expected to make it through their decade of formation, let alone survive four or five decades into the future. \u00a0\u00a0The reason I am picking on KISS and Queen? There are two simple reasons: First, they were two bands who struggled mightily for success early on, and secondly, I can trace back the exact moment in time that I heard both bands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The location was in a Dodge Charger Super Bee owned by a work buddy of my good friend Mitch. \u00a0Jon not only had the hottest, coolest car I ever had the pleasure to ride in, but he also had a killer sound system, albeit it was an 8-track based tape machine. \u00a0We were motoring around town circa 1973 looking for a party we were invited to and Jon had a KISS album blasting on the tape deck. When he passed it to the back seat, I took one look at the band photo on the top of the tape and said, \u201cReally? \u00a0This is what they look like?\u201d Jon was the first person (but certainly not the last) who said, \u201cYeah, and this is like their third or fourth album. The first ones were terrible, but they put on such a good live show that the kids bought their albums anyway.\u201d \u00a0It took some time for me to understand KISS, but by the time they had made their first seminal live album (recorded in Detroit), it was beginning to look like they might make a go of it. Cut from 1978 to 2019 and we find them out on their forty fifth anniversary tour which they claim will be their last. \u00a0Didn\u2019t we hear this once before from KISS?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The second album Jon pumped through the tape deck was Queen\u2019s eponymous first album. \u00a0The music rocked, but there was something different about this band. As with KISS, it took a few albums for me to begin to get Queen, but what I didn\u2019t know at the time was how perilous their rise to fame would be. \u00a0With the Freddie Mercury biopic <\/span>Bohemian Rhapsody<\/span><\/i> having had a pretty good run at the box office last fall, it seems that there has been another resurgence of interest in Queen even though their stellar front man passed on in 1991. \u00a0Some were disappointed that the picture ended with the band\u2019s triumphant Live Aid show at Wembley Stadium in July of 1985, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the movie pulled any punches about Freddie Mercury\u2019s flamboyant lifestyle. \u00a0Others felt the movie used the actors playing the other members of Queen like cardboard cutouts in the background, but as guitarist Brian May pointed out, \u201cIt\u2019s a film which portrays the truth, in a fairly gritty and honest but also entertaining way. \u00a0It\u2019s all about Freddie. Yes, we are in there, but the story is about Freddie.\u201d May told <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine\u2019s<\/span><\/i> Mick Wall; \u201cThere is no such thing as a perfect film, and Queen fans will understand when they see it that certain things have been moved around for the story to make sense. \u00a0You can\u2019t collapse forty years of a person\u2019s life into two and a half hours without cutting out a lot of stuff.\u201d There has always been speculation about what Queen would be like today had Mercury not died, but their collaborations with the likes of singer Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Co.) and current frontman Adam Lambert are, at the least, keeping the Queen legacy alive. \u00a0For all their supposed faults, Queen was another band that paved the way to their future by being a killer live band (and by all accounts, they still are).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the beginning, however, Queen was a band on the fast track to nowhere. \u00a0They had a vision and a plan, but they didn\u2019t have a management team that had their best interests at heart. \u00a0As drummer Roger Taylor recalled to <\/span>CRM<\/span><\/i>, the band returned from two shows headlining the famed Budokan arena in Tokyo in 1975. \u00a0After filling the 15,000 seat venue, they returned to the reality that, \u201cwe were still on sixty quid a week.\u201d \u00a0They lived in a band house and drove a beat up van to gigs while on salary, yet their management team of Norman and Barry Sheffield were driving around in Rolls Royces. \u00a0The contract the band had signed with the Sheffield boys basically gave the management team control of everything the band created, but the band was too cowed by them to do anything about it. \u00a0This sad set of circumstances changed abruptly due to the intercession of noted musical heavy, Don Arden. Arden himself had no interest in the band, but when his daughter Sharon (who would become Mrs Ozzy Osbourne sometime later and knew the band) \u00a0asked her father to give them a helping hand, he was only happy to throw his weight around. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We have discussed Don Arden\u2019s business practices previously (FTV: \u00a0Yard Zeppelin 8-1-18), but here is the condensed version of how he handled Queen\u2019s business problems in his own words: \u00a0\u201cI [said] my advice would be to get their coats on [and go], but they wouldn\u2019t do that because they were terrified of the Sheffield boys – they had the group believing they ruled the streets of Soho. \u00a0Well, we would see about that. As a result [of the contract Queen had signed with EMI], the brothers not only owned their management contract, they owned their recording contract, and their song publishing, too. \u00a0The Queen boys had a roof over their heads and an old van they travelled in when they were on tour. I couldn\u2019t believe it. It was like they\u2019d never sold a record.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With a letter in hand confirming Queen\u2019s intention to sign with Arden, he drove over to sort things out with the Sheffield boys. \u00a0Arden continues the tale: \u201cI didn\u2019t actually bother making an appointment, I just turned up. I knew they were fakes. Sure enough, when I walked into their office and announced myself, it scared the hell out of them. \u00a0[When we were done with the niceties, I said] \u2018I\u2019m here to inform you that you no longer represent Queen. It\u2019s over, Okay? Finito\u2019. They looked at each other. They couldn\u2019t even look me in the eyes. They were worried about what was coming next. \u00a0But I wasn\u2019t evil to them, I didn\u2019t have to be. I just told them how stupid I thought they were [and gave them a bit of a lecture, saying] \u2018If you\u2019d at least bought them all a car and put a few quid in their pockets it would probably never come to this. \u00a0Well, you\u2019ve blown it now. They\u2019re gone\u2019. They hung their heads in shame. I told them if they walk away now, they would get a cheque for a hundred thousand pounds for their trouble and would never have to see me again. If not, the group would still be gone but they wouldn\u2019t get any money at all, <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>they\u2019d have me to deal with. \u00a0They sensibly took the money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Through no action of their own, Queen was now free from their terrible management group, but ironically, they repaid Arden by signing on with Elton John\u2019s manager, John Reid. \u00a0Arden took it in stride with his only reward being another opportunity to throw his weight around: \u201cWhen I got back to the office that day and told [Queen] what I\u2019d done, they literally wept for joy. \u00a0They were hugging me and kissing me. Then as soon as they got their hands on the money, I never heard from them again.\u201d Fear of alienating Arden was outweighed by Freddie\u2019s comfort level working with Reid. \u00a0The move paid instant dividends when Reid informed the record label in no uncertain terms that the group\u2019s next single would be a little semi-operetic ditty called <\/span>Bohemian Rhapsody. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>The suits at EMI blanched at this most un-single like single, but Reid\u2019s stroke of genius opened the floodgates that would unleash Queen on the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Producer Roy Thomas Baker had worked with Queen on their previous albums and years after the fact, he described how <\/span>Bohemian Rhapsody <\/span><\/i>came to life: \u00a0\u201c[Freddie demonstrated on piano] \u2018the idea for a song\u2019 that he had. \u00a0It was going to be a brief interlude of a few Galileos and then we\u2019d get back to the rock part of the song. \u00a0When we started doing the opera section properly, it just got longer and longer. Freddie would come in with another lot of lyrics and say: \u00a0\u2018I\u2019ve added a few more Galileos here, dear\u2019 and it just got bigger and bigger.\u201d The idea for the iconic video that played endlessly on MTV was inspired by the cover image photographed by Mick Rock for the cover of the band\u2019s <\/span>Queen II <\/span><\/i>album. \u00a0To say that <\/span>Bohemian Rhapsody<\/span><\/i> fueled massive album sales for <\/span>A Night at the Opera<\/span><\/i> would be an understatement of enormous proportions. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hit single after hit single ruled the charts throughout the 1970s as Queen proved they could sell records without stylistically repeating themselves . \u00a0Whether it was the rockabilly swing of <\/span>A Crazy Little Thing Called Love<\/span><\/i> or the arena stomp of <\/span>Another One Bites the Dust<\/span><\/i>, Queen could do no wrong. \u00a0By the time they held a completely over-the-top release party for the album <\/span>Jazz<\/span><\/i> (in New Orleans in 1978), their ostentatious ways had the media hanging labels on them like \u201chollow, preposterous, and inalienable.\u201d \u00a0As far as the Queen boys were concerned, they mocked themselves as well because the facts and myths about the band were all great publicity. \u00a0Were they over the top? Of course they were, but so what?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On the road, the band never had any trouble, but by the time they scored their last Number One hit <\/span>Under Pressure<\/span><\/i> from the 1980 album <\/span>The Game<\/span><\/i>, things weren\u2019t so jolly in the studio and the band was all but done. \u00a0According to guitarist Brian May: \u201cYes, we all walked out at various times. \u00a0You get hard times, as in any relationship. We definitely did. Usually in the studio. \u00a0Never on tour. On tour, you have a clear, common aim. But in the studio you\u2019re all pulling in different directions and it can be very frustrating. \u00a0You only get twenty-five percent of your own way at the best of times. So yes, we did have hard times.\u201d Bassist John Deacon adds, \u201cOnce we\u2019d achieved that level and been successful in so many countries in the world, it took away some of the incentive.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Things cooled for the band in the early 1980s and having changed labels to Capitol, they found themselves in the crossfire when a government investigation turned up a ring of bribery that was funnelling money to radio DJs to get records played on air. \u00a0The backlash against all Capitol Records\u2019 bands resulted in Queen having a hard time getting arrested in the states. Their latest single (<\/span>Radio Ga-Ga <\/span><\/i>penned by drummer Roger Taylor) hit Number 30 on the charts one week and disappeared completely they next week. \u00a0They shrugged and toured South America, Japan and Europe. Queen made the mistake of playing Sun City during the musician\u2019s anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa\u2019s premier resort, earning them further scorn from other bands and a hefty fine from the UK Musician\u2019s Union. \u00a0The band wasn\u2019t exactly sure of what kind of reaction they would receive when they took the stage for the Live Aid concert at Wembley in 1985.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you have seen this pivotal scene in the movie <\/span>Bohemian Rhapsody<\/span><\/i> or the YouTube video of the actual event, \u2018Triumphant\u2019 would be the word that comes to mind. \u00a0Seeing the 72,000 in attendance doing the airclaps to <\/span>Radio Ga-Ga<\/span><\/i> is chilling, as is knowing that there was a world- wide audience of 1.9 billion people watching. \u00a0Call them pompous, arrogant, grandiose, vulgar or any of the other descriptions that people hung on Queen throughout their years with Freddie Mercury at the front of the stage, but don\u2019t forget \u2018loved\u2019. \u00a0Queen didn\u2019t go away when Freddie died, but it seemed fitting that the movie ended with one of their biggest career high points.<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – speaking of the Live Aide version of\u00a0Radio Ga Ga\u00a0<\/em>(a song written by drummer Roger Taylor) – okay, so it is the Hollywood version, but what the hey!