Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Queen - News Of The World


This album starts with We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions. I would think anybody over six years old is familiar with these songs. Then it heads into the rippin' smoker Sheer Heart Attack stops abruptly and starts into a slow piano ballad, All Dead, All Dead. Followed by a bigger ballad rocker Spread You Wings.
He knew it was time
He made up his mind
To leave his dead life behind
His boss said to him
Boy you'd better begin
To get those crazy notions
Right out of your head
Sammy who do you think that you are
You should have been sweeping
Up the emerald bar
Spread Your Wings is the first Queen song with no vocal harmonies. This is their sixth album.
Side one ends with Fight From The Inside a nice rocker (and apparently Slash's all time favorite riff...or something like that).
Side two opens with the full on Led Zeppelin dazed and Confused styled Get Down Make Love. Sleeping On The Sidewalk recorded in one take. Inspired by ZZ Top and it sounds like ZZ Top.
Who Needs You has Spanish guitar and maracas and reminds me of something that Paul McCartney and Wings would do. It's Late sounds like a song you might expect from Queen. It was released as a single in the US and reached #74. My Melancholy Blues sounds like Ella Fitzgerald or some Jazz diva from a different era.

Stylistically this album is all over the place, but all the songs are good/great. All the band members wrote songs and played various instruments that you don't associate them with that particular player. Brian May and Roger Taylor sing a couple songs each with Freddie Mercury doing most of the vocals of course. This album has a timeless quality to it.

1 comment:

  1. Sleeping on the Sidewalk. Always like the Brian May sung songs.

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