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whats the deal with Brian May...I don't get it!


samzadgan

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I don't think you have to like Queen to appreciate what's so good about Brian May- he's a skilled songwriter, a capable singer (although not in Freddie's league because {censored}, who is?) and a technically adept, highly melodic guitarist with arguably *the* most recognisable guitar sound out there. He was a pioneer of what could be achieved in recorded rock music and a formative influence on more guitarists than just about anybody else who arrived on the scene between Hendrix and Van Halen.

Not everybody has the same tolerance for camp and bombast and tongue-in-cheek humour so I can understand why you wouldn't like Queen's music, but FWIW I'd rather hear music that somebody thinks is great and somebody else hates than music everybody everywhere thinks is kinda OK, which is what most mainstream bands do these days. I think you have concede with a few objective listens to one or two of Queen's best known tunes and a little context for the band that there is something of merit there. Even if it's not the particular musical skill you particularly admire, you have to concede that it takes a great deal of talent to keep churning out worldwide hit records for 20 years.

A few of my favourite Brian May bits:

Stone Cold Crazy - thrash metal in 1975?

Killer Queen- those orchestrated solos that intertwine and harmonise and bring to mind big band jazz arrangements

'39- proudly the one and only song in the rock canon about relativistic space travel :D

Don't Stop Me Now- Brian doesn't play a note throughout the whole song until the solo (what classic rock lead guitarist does that?), but it's a belter. Utterly uncomplicated but completely expressive of the hedonistic theme of the song.

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I think you have concede with a few objective listens to one or two of Queen's best known tunes and a little context for the band that there is
something
of merit there.

 

 

That was exactly my point, those top hits are the only things i had heard, and based on those songs, I made my assumption.I was looking for others to give me some of his other work that would give me a better idea of his music.

 

so far, some have posted some tracks that i had never heard before...i am starting to dig it...i will check out the ones you posted too.

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Well, she seemed to be be very important to the uk internet community or to whoever organized the closing ceremony.
:lol:



Meh. She's had one album and a couple of successful-ish singles, and was one of the judges on The Voice, which is yet another reality TV singing show. She's the flavour of the month. She can sing alright, but her music is very average.

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You have to be joking.


Nobody - NOBODY - made music like they did.


Complex vocal harmonies, incredible guitar orchestration, downright proto-metal riffs and sappy tongue-in-cheek pop often times in the same song - 'Killer Queen' is a perfect example. The same band that wrote 'Ogre Battle' wrote 'You're My Best Friend' a year later. I can't think of another band outside of The Beatles that had the audacity and chops to pull off what they did - they came out with a fully realized and incredibly unique sound, and they did it consistently for longer than The Beatles did.


And if you ever were lucky enough to see them live (I was) they could pull it all off there too.

 

This. :thu:

 

This is one of my favourite ever heavy guitar sounds, and the original version isn't even particularly heavy. But it's just a homemade guitar with 3 SCs into some AC-30s with a treble booster and phaser. No 'high gain' amps in sight. Freddie also gives a good many subsequent heavy metal vocalists a run for their money, and that's only based on what I can hear from a low-quality recording. :lol:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZp7EToMm8A

 

But Brian is truly ridiculous. Nobody else sounded like that or approached the guitar like that before, and nobody really has since. Even in pure chops terms he's one to be reckoned with. :idk:

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