Saturday, August 15, 2009

Queen - Seaside Rendezvous

Now, obviously, nobody on the fucking planet has every rocked like Queen rocked. This is indisputable. But here's what I really dig about them: their performances were so rooted in English stage tradition. Freddie Mercury really always sort of saw himself as a pre-vaudevillian, a music hall performer. Their album titles A Night at The Opera and A Day at the Races are obvious throwbacks to the Marx Brothers films of the same title, but they actually are intended to throw back to the way these movies were made, the comedy bits honed through repeated stage performance, and tempered with musical numbers like an old music hall show.
That is all to lead into Seaside Rendezvous, which, along with In Good Company and a few other songs I can't remember off the top of my head, falls into the genre of "songs Freddie Mercury wanted to perform onstage sixty years before his band was formed." They're all really terrific, and have more to do with what Queen was trying to do musically than even Bohemian Rhapsody. Totally fun stuff you guys.

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