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Printableyankem said: jdcxc said: What a cool cast. Queen were some greedy bastards! On a separate note, Brian May is a huge Prince fan. During the London concerts, May wrote a poignant essay on Prince's genius that was published somewhere. Anyone have that article? Yeah ! I'd like to read it too... http://www.brianmay.com/b...sep07.html **Wed 19 Sep 07** AN ARTIST ROCKS Well, I had a treat this weekend [Sunday 16 Sept]... I don't get out much recently, as you might know! But this was not to be missed. Prince, the Artist. At the O2 arena. Well, a great thing to see. I know about 400,000 other people who probably had the same feeling that I had ... it was a feeling of peeking in to watch a genius at work. To my mind, Prince really is that rarity, a work of art in itself. He actually just has to be there, doing what comes naturally to him, and he is endlessly fascinating. In fact, he is so much a part of his own act that I feel he is the embodiment of a paradox - it is as if, when a performer goes to the extreme of awareness of himself as an artist, he becomes, in a way, a thing of which he cannot be aware. We are then in a kind of voyeuristic position - we see him as something elemental - like watching a thunderstorm. It's impossible to find reasons for a lot of what Prince does, but it's all individual, and it's all HIM. Within his incredibly unusual stage persona, he produces, as if out of a hat, choreography, vocal gymnastics, sensuality, dazzling keyboard playing, and world-class guitar-playing - all splashed out with an apparently careless bravura, and much of it treading the dangerous line between the planned and the spontaneous. You could not really ask for better value for money ... the guy is every inch the real thing - a thing of quicksilver and gossamer, and pure rhythm - a free spirit of Rock. I have never met him, though our paths have come close. I have no idea how hard it could be to work with someone like this ... though he has a lot in common with Freddie, as far as I can tell. But I felt very lucky to see this piece of living art, a thing of beauty. Incidentally, one of his daring masterstrokes on the night I saw him was a version of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. The Artist, stap me, did Jimmy Page and Robert Plant all at once, with an easy confidence and effortless heaviness, and obviously huge affection, and we all got chills up the spine. Soon it will be possible for a lucky few to see the Mighty Zeppelin in the same arena, but the place is already echoing with the pre-echo of that moment, thanks to this diminutive Hendrix-James Brown-Stevie Wonder person ... a whole spectrum contained in one body. Incidentally, the O2 arena, for my money, is everything London has needed for along time ... as a concert venue, it succeeds in every way that the sterile new Wembley Stadium fails so miserably ... sound, view, atmosphere, infrastructure, comfort, intimacy, sense of occasion ... all great. Finally a place with the energy potential of a Madison Square Garden. Prince had the whole place dancing; I'm sure Zeppelin will unleash a different physical reaction - I can almost hear the roar .... Let's hope they get so fired up that they take the Great Ship around the world one more time. Cheers Bri If prince.org were to be made idiot proof, someone would just invent a better idiot. | |
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squirrelgrease said: yankem said: Yeah ! I'd like to read it too... http://www.brianmay.com/b...sep07.html **Wed 19 Sep 07** AN ARTIST ROCKS Well, I had a treat this weekend [Sunday 16 Sept]... I don't get out much recently, as you might know! But this was not to be missed. Prince, the Artist. At the O2 arena. Well, a great thing to see. I know about 400,000 other people who probably had the same feeling that I had ... it was a feeling of peeking in to watch a genius at work. To my mind, Prince really is that rarity, a work of art in itself. He actually just has to be there, doing what comes naturally to him, and he is endlessly fascinating. In fact, he is so much a part of his own act that I feel he is the embodiment of a paradox - it is as if, when a performer goes to the extreme of awareness of himself as an artist, he becomes, in a way, a thing of which he cannot be aware. We are then in a kind of voyeuristic position - we see him as something elemental - like watching a thunderstorm. It's impossible to find reasons for a lot of what Prince does, but it's all individual, and it's all HIM. Within his incredibly unusual stage persona, he produces, as if out of a hat, choreography, vocal gymnastics, sensuality, dazzling keyboard playing, and world-class guitar-playing - all splashed out with an apparently careless bravura, and much of it treading the dangerous line between the planned and the spontaneous. You could not really ask for better value for money ... the guy is every inch the real thing - a thing of quicksilver and gossamer, and pure rhythm - a free spirit of Rock. I have never met him, though our paths have come close. I have no idea how hard it could be to work with someone like this ... though he has a lot in common with Freddie, as far as I can tell. But I felt very lucky to see this piece of living art, a thing of beauty. Incidentally, one of his daring masterstrokes on the night I saw him was a version of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. The Artist, stap me, did Jimmy Page and Robert Plant all at once, with an easy confidence and effortless heaviness, and obviously huge affection, and we all got chills up the spine. Soon it will be possible for a lucky few to see the Mighty Zeppelin in the same arena, but the place is already echoing with the pre-echo of that moment, thanks to this diminutive Hendrix-James Brown-Stevie Wonder person ... a whole spectrum contained in one body. Incidentally, the O2 arena, for my money, is everything London has needed for along time ... as a concert venue, it succeeds in every way that the sterile new Wembley Stadium fails so miserably ... sound, view, atmosphere, infrastructure, comfort, intimacy, sense of occasion ... all great. Finally a place with the energy potential of a Madison Square Garden. Prince had the whole place dancing; I'm sure Zeppelin will unleash a different physical reaction - I can almost hear the roar .... Let's hope they get so fired up that they take the Great Ship around the world one more time. Cheers Bri Thanx and wowwww !!!! He surely liked it !!!! "open your heart, open your mind
A train is leaving all day..." | |
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Poplife88 said: leecaldon said: Right, so you were wrong. They had several multi-platinum albums in the US and No. 1 singles. Actually this is pretty accurate. Queen was popular in the US throughout the 70's...and then The Game I think was their most successful album in the US. However, after that their popularity here definitely slid. I was 14 in 1984 and no one I knew was aware The Works even existed. My friends ripped me more about liking Queen than Prince at the time. The band didn't truly recover in populrity here until Bohemian Rhapsody was used in Waynes World, and then followed by Freddie's death. I do think the fact Axl was such a fan helped them look "cool" again. Right around this time Classic Queen came out in the US which was a hit cause it included BH...but included mostly post The Game tracks. I remember the same friends who ripped me about Queen now dug them again and didnt realize they had so many great tracks in the 80s. All I could reply was with the ol "I told you so". thebanishedone was incorrect in his original statement - his correction that they were big until 1984 in the US was accurate. |
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