Onholiday(somemightsay)
Well-Known Member
Fucking hell - and with bangers like Millennium Prayer, who can blame them............ :-)
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Are The Beatles and Queen overrated?
- Thread starter roy.or.r
- Start date
OB1
Well-Known Member
I didn't say they couldn't have been, I expressed my opinion that they were no better than session musicians. Indeed, they were probably a lot worse than many 'unsung' session musicians.
Also, objectively, not the case but also rather irrelevant. Lots of session musicians will, by necessity, have technical ability but that is very different to having personality, style or the ability compose highly successful or original music.
Roger Taylor is a very fine rock drummer, one of the the best of the many 100's I've seen live in concert.
Brian May is a great rock guitarist (Total Guitar named him as the greatest in 2020). And whether you like his guitar sound or not, it is unique. Steve Vai, who is probably as technically gifted as a rock guitarist gets and can parrot most other guitarists, has made these comments about May:
“He has real quality, integrity, rock sensibilities – he has a phenomenal ear for the actual music, you know? His inner ear constructed that amazing tone that he has, and it always sounded great. And just the fact that he was able to build that guitar when he was young… that Red Special was hand-built by him, so it has a myriad of tones to it. “But all these tones and everything in his guitar, in his amp, are just one dimension. It all comes from his fingers and his mind.”
“And I’ll never forget that day, perhaps a few days after I moved out to Los Angeles when I was 20 years old, when I walked into the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd and there was Brian standing at the bar. It was surreal.
I went up and just started talking to him and he was so so kind. He was interested and interesting, and I could not even believe I was talking to my guitar hero. He even invited me to a Queen rehearsal the next day. Of course I went and got to meet and see the whole band. It was kind of unbelievable to me. And there it was, The Red Special plugged into his Vox Rig. It was so odd to see this guitar in real time. And then Brian said, 'You’re welcome to try it.' It was just a few years prior that I was still ogling this guitar from my Long Island teenage bedroom, and now it was in my hands. Of course I played it, but to my chagrin it didn’t sound anything like Brian. All that magnificent tone is in his fingers.”
“… When I heard Queen, and all that great music of the ’70s… it held a special place that never goes away. “And lucky for me, they were all absolutely brilliant musicians. There’s nothing like that, nothing even remotely like it. It was like a paradigm shift, and what Brian was doing, and the way the stars came together with him and the band. And Brian’s whole overview of sound and guitar parts, there was just nothing like it."
MadchesterCity
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 12 Sep 2009
- Messages
- 18,266
No really like both, they have lasted the test of timeIt might be an unpopular opinion but does anyone else think Beatles and Queen are both overrated? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying they aren’t good bands but I don’t think they are at the very top. I much prefer Rolling Stones and the Who.
Lavinda Past
Well-Known Member
Also, objectively, not the case but also rather irrelevant. Lots of session musicians will, by necessity, have technical ability but that is very different to having personality, style or the ability compose highly successful or original music.
Roger Taylor is a very fine rock drummer, one of the the best of the many 100's I've seen live in concert.
Brian May is a great rock guitarist (Total Guitar named him as the greatest in 2020). And whether you like his guitar sound or not, it is unique. Steve Vai, who is probably as technically gifted as a rock guitarist gets and can parrot most other guitarists, has made these comments about May:
“He has real quality, integrity, rock sensibilities – he has a phenomenal ear for the actual music, you know? His inner ear constructed that amazing tone that he has, and it always sounded great. And just the fact that he was able to build that guitar when he was young… that Red Special was hand-built by him, so it has a myriad of tones to it. “But all these tones and everything in his guitar, in his amp, are just one dimension. It all comes from his fingers and his mind.”
“And I’ll never forget that day, perhaps a few days after I moved out to Los Angeles when I was 20 years old, when I walked into the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd and there was Brian standing at the bar. It was surreal.
I went up and just started talking to him and he was so so kind. He was interested and interesting, and I could not even believe I was talking to my guitar hero. He even invited me to a Queen rehearsal the next day. Of course I went and got to meet and see the whole band. It was kind of unbelievable to me. And there it was, The Red Special plugged into his Vox Rig. It was so odd to see this guitar in real time. And then Brian said, 'You’re welcome to try it.' It was just a few years prior that I was still ogling this guitar from my Long Island teenage bedroom, and now it was in my hands. Of course I played it, but to my chagrin it didn’t sound anything like Brian. All that magnificent tone is in his fingers.”
“… When I heard Queen, and all that great music of the ’70s… it held a special place that never goes away. “And lucky for me, they were all absolutely brilliant musicians. There’s nothing like that, nothing even remotely like it. It was like a paradigm shift, and what Brian was doing, and the way the stars came together with him and the band. And Brian’s whole overview of sound and guitar parts, there was just nothing like it."
Meh
Music journalism is well known for arse licking.
Steve Vai obviously loves Brian May, but he has probably met session men who are better guitarists. Stories about "Joe Soap" don't interest readers as much as famous people.
Taylor, May and Deacon were decent gigging musicians, each of whom fell on their feet when they met Freddie Mercury. They've been living off old Queen material with second rate frontmen since his death.
Much the same could be said about any band with a truly original / distinctive frontman.
Where would Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Woody Woodmansey have been without Bowie?
Who remembers the members of the Darkness other than Justin Hawkins?
Best / Worst... it's all a matter of opinion.
OB1
Well-Known Member
Meh.Meh
Music journalism is well known for arse licking.
Steve Vai obviously loves Brian May, but he has probably met session men who are better guitarists. Stories about "Joe Soap" don't interest readers as much as famous people.
Taylor, May and Deacon were decent gigging musicians, each of whom fell on their feet when they met Freddie Mercury. They've been living off old Queen material with second rate frontmen since his death.
Much the same could be said about any band with a truly original / distinctive frontman.
Where would Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Woody Woodmansey have been without Bowie?
Who remembers the members of the Darkness other than Justin Hawkins?
Best / Worst... it's all a matter of opinion.
And there's just no explaining to some people.
Vai's main inspirations are Jimmy Page & Brian May. His first job in music was playing with Frank Zappa, who is a brilliant guitarist.
May, particulalrly, and Taylor wrote or co-wrote some of Queen's best material. They were a proper band and not simply Freddie's backing band. Likening them to the Spiders is not a good comparison. Ronson was another fine rock guitarist / musician.
Roger Taylor's son Rufus is The Darkness' drummer, and he is rather good too. Justin H is of course another Brian May admirer and I've seen Brian May join The Darkness on stage.
Lavinda Past
Well-Known Member
Meh.
And there's just no explaining to some people.
Vai's main inspirations are Jimmy Page & Brian May. His first job in music was playing with Frank Zappa, who is a brilliant guitarist.
May, particulalrly, and Taylor wrote or co-wrote some of Queen's best material. They were a proper band and not simply Freddie's backing band. Likening them to the Spiders is not a good comparison. Ronson was another fine rock guitarist / musician.
Roger Taylor's son Rufus is The Darkness' drummer, and he is rather good too. Justin H is of course another Brian May admirer and I've seen Brian May join The Darkness on stage.
Fair enough... but I still think that both Queen and the Beatles are overrated.
:-)
jimharri
Moderator
And Jeff Beck, who knew a thing or two about playing the guitar, oftenreferred to Brian May as" The Guv'nor". High praise from a true genius.Also, objectively, not the case but also rather irrelevant. Lots of session musicians will, by necessity, have technical ability but that is very different to having personality, style or the ability compose highly successful or original music.
Roger Taylor is a very fine rock drummer, one of the the best of the many 100's I've seen live in concert.
Brian May is a great rock guitarist (Total Guitar named him as the greatest in 2020). And whether you like his guitar sound or not, it is unique. Steve Vai, who is probably as technically gifted as a rock guitarist gets and can parrot most other guitarists, has made these comments about May:
“He has real quality, integrity, rock sensibilities – he has a phenomenal ear for the actual music, you know? His inner ear constructed that amazing tone that he has, and it always sounded great. And just the fact that he was able to build that guitar when he was young… that Red Special was hand-built by him, so it has a myriad of tones to it. “But all these tones and everything in his guitar, in his amp, are just one dimension. It all comes from his fingers and his mind.”
“And I’ll never forget that day, perhaps a few days after I moved out to Los Angeles when I was 20 years old, when I walked into the Rainbow Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd and there was Brian standing at the bar. It was surreal.
I went up and just started talking to him and he was so so kind. He was interested and interesting, and I could not even believe I was talking to my guitar hero. He even invited me to a Queen rehearsal the next day. Of course I went and got to meet and see the whole band. It was kind of unbelievable to me. And there it was, The Red Special plugged into his Vox Rig. It was so odd to see this guitar in real time. And then Brian said, 'You’re welcome to try it.' It was just a few years prior that I was still ogling this guitar from my Long Island teenage bedroom, and now it was in my hands. Of course I played it, but to my chagrin it didn’t sound anything like Brian. All that magnificent tone is in his fingers.”
“… When I heard Queen, and all that great music of the ’70s… it held a special place that never goes away. “And lucky for me, they were all absolutely brilliant musicians. There’s nothing like that, nothing even remotely like it. It was like a paradigm shift, and what Brian was doing, and the way the stars came together with him and the band. And Brian’s whole overview of sound and guitar parts, there was just nothing like it."
chesterbells
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 15 Apr 2010
- Messages
- 23,564
Lol, you’ve got me down to a tee.I always got the impression that those who don’t like queen tend to be a bit on the grumpy side in general so I’m not overly surprised to see them not getting much love on BM! Haha!
It might be an unpopular opinion but does anyone else think Beatles and Queen are both overrated?
No