longfadinginstant: queen

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Queen

i don't know if you're like me, but if you are, you love queen. yes you do. and the greatest hits wasn't enough cause they left out all kinds of great songs, so you bought copies of all the albums (well,"sheer heart attack" thru "jazz") used whenever you found them. And the lesson you learned was: queen albums aren't that good. much like mid-period belle and sebastian, queen albums feature a lot of contributions from the less talented songwriters and singers in the group. those members being all non-freddy mercury members of the band. the others penned a few of the classics, but even those had mercury on lead vocals. but still, the albums are worth it for the one, two, or three tracks that never made the hits collections but are still must-haves. here are a few:

"the millionaire waltz" (from "a day at the races") the "bohemian rhapsody" of "a day at the races".

"all dead, all dead" (from "news of the world")

"misfire" (from "sheer heart attack")

"mustapha" (from "jazz") freddy reminds us all that his real name is farrokh bulsara and that he was born on the island of zanzibar. great way to start an album named "jazz"

and then here's a playlist again with the above tracks plus a few more:

oh yeah, and it's finally bicycle riding weather again.

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

More Covers

some more covers:

the breeders "freed pig" (from the "head to toe" ep). written by lou barlow/sebadoh. the best thing about this cover is that it was produced by j mascis, the target of the songs attack. apparently he heard the breeders playing it in the studio and being unaware of it's subject or authorship, insisted they record it. also, the original appeared on sebadoh's album "III". drummer (when not performing his own songs) eric gaffney refused to play on the recording as he felt the energy of the songs was too negative. this story was confirmed by lou in the liner notes for the album's reissue.

the blood brothers "under pressure" (from the queen tribute album "dynamite with a laser beam") an EXPRESSIVE take on a classic.

and we might as well let bowie repay the compliment with his take on a blood brothers favorite:

david bowie "a little bit me, a little bit you" (i got it off the bootleg "chameleon chronicles vol. 2"). actually it's a cover of the monkees, though written by neil diamond. i'm guessing this is pretty early bowie, before he'd made a name for himself. funny enough that he had to change his name from david jones to bowie because of the already established davey jones in the monkees.

the crust bothers "tuesday's gone" (from the album "marquee mark") stephen malkmus (pavement) and his buddies in silkworm gathered for a one off show as the crust brothers. the highlight was this lynyrd skynyrd cover. i wanted to post a track with malkmus on the lead but his vocals that night weren't his strongest. he chimes in pretty loud on the chorus here however.

i'm not even gonna tell you what legend this next medley of covers comes from. if you don't know, then you can go home and go to bed.

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longfadinginstant

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Queen

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

More Covers

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