A Night at the Opera

[ForeverAutumn]

Hubby and I were listening to this in the car yesterday. I am so blown away by this album's brilliance, everytime I hear it.

I was only nine when this album was released, so it wasn't until many years afterwards that I discovered it. As we listened, we were wondering how much of a risk Queen was taking when they released this album. Songs like Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon, '39, and Seaside Rendezvous are certainly not typical rock songs. Was it risky? Could these songs have been rejected by Queen's fans as easily as they were accepted? Were they, in fact accepted right from the beginning? Or were they merely tolerated as part of an album that included such rock classics as Death on Two Legs, You're My Best Friend , and Bohemian Rhapsody?

There is not a note on this album that I dislike. And I would love to hear The Prophet's Song on 5.1 only I'm afraid that the sheer beauty of those harmonies, in the round, on surround sound would just make my brain explode in total awe.

I could continue to gush, but I'll stop here. Was anyone here a Queen fan when this album came out? Did it just totally make you sit back and go "holy sh!t"?

[GMichael]

I was a young teenager when this came out. This poor 8-track got played to death. I think that some of the tracks were just tolerated by pop crowd of the time. But I loved all of it. Many others did as well. Bring on News of the World.

[Hyfi]

Was anyone here a Queen fan when this album came out? Did it just totally make you sit back and go "holy sh!t"?

No, not after being a fan of their first two albums. Queen I and Queen II are still may favs.

Tracks like:
Keep Yourself Alive
Doing All Right
Liar
Son & Daughter
Jesus.........all from the first, and:

Father To Son
Loser In The End
Nevermore
March Of The Black Queen.....from the second.

And of course the rest of both albums.

Opera and Races are still good along with

Killer with these tracks:

In The Lap Of The Gods
Bring Back Leroy Brown
Stone Cold Crazy

I saw the News of the World tour but that was the last album of Queen I got into. I was highly impressed with Brian May. Along with Martin Barre, they may be the two most under rated Rock Guitarists.

The Tube, an all music video tv station I now get has been playing alot of old concert footage of Queen and lots of other greats from the past. Queen was a pretty unique and tight band.

I think you and hubby need to listen to the first two a few times and judge again.

Hyfi

[Dusty Chalk]

It doesn't suck.

[Stone]

Oh, I thought this was going to be about the Marx brothers. Really, there's an album titled A Night At the Opera?

Ok, so I knew this was about the Queen album, but I still need to be a smart ass sometimes. Having said that, I don't think I've ever heard the album in its entirety.

[Slosh]

Ok, so I knew this was about the Queen album, but I still need to be a smart ass sometimes. Having said that, I don't think I've ever heard the album in its entirety.

Consider yourself lucky. Dumbass that I am, I got it on DVD-A. Yeah, great. Hi-rez 5.1 dreck is still dreck.

NP: Slayer - Christ Illusion

[Dusty Chalk]

Pay no attention to him.

[Slosh]

Pay no attention to Him.

No problem, I'm an atheist.

[Stone]

Pay no attention to him.

Either way, it doesn't matter. I have Classic Queen or one of the other greatest hits type compilation CDs and that's all the Queen I think I'll ever want (and probably more than I'll ever want).

[ForeverAutumn]

Pay no attention to him.

To who?

[Dusty Chalk]

[pedant]"To whom?"![/pedant]

To Stone: your loss. IMHO, you haven't lived until you've heard "Death on 2 Legs" and "The Prophet Song". But yeah, I guess seeing how you're not a classic rocker (yet), you probably don't need too much Queen, but if you're going to do any classic rock, you could (and usually will) do far worse.

Things I like about Queen: Freddie could sing; interesting songs with indelible arrangements and perfectionist productions; unique and listenable guitar tones; lots of interesting juxtapositions of hard and soft music.

[Davey]

Yeah, lots of fond memories of that one, and the music leading up to it. A real pinacle, I think. Some of the things they did after getting so huge have detracted a bit from it's original freshness, at least to me, but it was still a landmark album at the time for many of us who were old enough to care about music. I remember giving my brother the 8-track for a present, but I soon stole it back out of his car because I loved it so much. Some of the best concerts I've ever seen as well, especially highlighted by a night at the Forum with Thin Lizzy opening and playing a blistering set that had the audience on their feet and cheering for encores, most probably doubting Queen could possibly upstage their openers on this special night, but then, almost from the first note, realizing how silly that thought was. Queen was always outstanding every time I saw them perform, and back in those nights at the opera and days at the races, they really might've been the best performing rock band in the world, for that short time ... Freddie really was a giant persona on stage. And they rocked as hard as anyone too.

[MasterCylinder]

For Autumn: A bit of trivia...........I listened to an interview years ago with Mr. Mercury.

He said once they got the instrumental tracks all finished on BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, he erased the "scrub" vocal tracks (a common strategy used in the recording studio) and re-wrote and re-recorded the whole vocal bit. (A scrub vocal track is a track utilized as a "reference" to the other members of the band while recording their individual parts.)

Even though all four of the members of the band are singing on that song, he said once he got what he needed from the other three guys, he spent six consecutive 12-hour days in the studio (just he and the engineer) to accomplish what you hear today.

As far as live sound, I don't know -- I never got to hear Queen perform live.
I suspect they either cheated with tape loops or the concerts sounded very differently than the recordings.
Even so, I pay tribute toward the wonderful studio talents displayed within the recordings.

[ForeverAutumn]

For Autumn: A bit of trivia...........I listened to an interview years ago with Mr. Mercury.

He said once they got the instrumental tracks all finished on BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, he erased the "scrub" vocal tracks (a common strategy used in the recording studio) and re-wrote and re-recorded the whole vocal bit. (A scrub vocal track is a track utilized as a "reference" to the other members of the band while recording their individual parts.)

Even though all four of the members of the band are singing on that song, he said once he got what he needed from the other three guys, he spent six consecutive 12-hour days in the studio (just he and the engineer) to accomplish what you hear today.

As far as live sound, I don't know -- I never got to hear Queen perform live.
I suspect they either cheated with tape loops or the concerts sounded very differently than the recordings.
Even so, I pay tribute toward the wonderful studio talents displayed within the recordings.

I saw Queen in 1982. I remember that when they played Bohemian Rhapsody, they weren't on stage for very much of it. There was a video of just their faces singing and the vocals were obviously taped. Also, when they played Under Pressure, they dubbed Bowie's voice in. I thought that was pretty cheesy. Certainly one of them could have sung Bowie's part.

[MasterCylinder]

Yeah, FA..........I can picture that.
That is why we should remember them for their recording abilities.

Having spent many days in the studio, I can just imagine the work Mercury put into all those tunes.......remarkable.

[shokhead]

There's enough of Queen i dont like that the G Hits is just right.