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Thread: Queen + Adam Lambert

  1. #1

    Queen + Adam Lambert

    Just got home from seeing this show here in Cleveland. In a word; AWESOME!!!!

    With all due respect Paul Rodgers (who did do a good job when I saw him play with Dr. May and Roger Taylor about 11 years ago), Adam Lambert is a much better fit. By his own admission, he's "not Freddie Mercury", but if you have to have someone else fill in for Freddie, I can think of nobody better suited for the job.

    If you're planning on seeing this show, make sure you get there early enough to see the start of the show. They do a really cool visual thing, I don't want to give it away, but you have to see it. And then don't rush out just yet when the house lights come on, because they do a quick video thing at the the end of the show that's also fun to see.

  2. #2
    Saw the show in Brooklyn on Friday. Man.Where to begin? I don't even. Just brilliant.

    May and Taylor are still at the top of their game, and I think the energy they draw from Lambert has a lot to do with that. Lambert is spectacular.

  3. #3
    Saw the show in Newark, NJ. F-ing amazing. SO much fun and damn, so many great tunes. A bit bummed they moved "It's Late" and "Spread Your Wings" out of the set list but they threw in "I Want to Break Free". No biggie. Loved it! Brought my 13 year old son. He loved it too and he wasn't really listening to the mix I put on his iPhone ....but he still loved it!

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by 3RDegree_Robert View Post
    Saw the show in Newark, NJ. F-ing amazing. SO much fun and damn, so many great tunes. A bit bummed they moved "It's Late" and "Spread Your Wings" out of the set list but they threw in "I Want to Break Free". No biggie. Loved it! Brought my 13 year old son. He loved it too and he wasn't really listening to the mix I put on his iPhone ....but he still loved it!
    Ahhh, they were doing It's Late and Spread your Wings?! We didn't get those here in Cleveland, either!



    Did you get to your seats early enough to the see the intro? I thought that was amazing.

    My only real complaints are:

    1. They only did the first verse of Radio Ga-Ga (I was waiting for the second verse, to hear Adam sing, "Stick around/Because we might miss you", but they cut straight to the breakdown after the first chorus)

    2. The way they did Killer Queen. They never played the back part of the song, after the guitar solo, but back in the day, it always segued into something else, as it was always played as part of a medley. But at least in CLeveland, they get to the end of the guitar solo, and they just stop dead, which I didn't like. Interestingly, most of the other songs that were part of the medley that appears on Live Killers (Bicycle Race/I'm In Love With My Car/Get Down Make Love) were played later in the set, so it seemed weird they separated Killer Queen from the rest of the medley like that. Actually, come to think of it, might have been cool if Killer Queen had segued into Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy (as they did on the A Day At The Races tour).

    And yeah, it was a lot of fun, and totally amazing!

  5. #5
    Refresh my memory on the intro. I was there early enough but I forget what happened. Check out setlist.fm for set lists. It's varied a tiny bit but those 2 were in the set list and the robot from News Of The World figured into the show and t-shirts quite a bit.

  6. #6
    I think the inclusion of this song in the set is a good argument for these guys to head into the studio. I know they were disappointed by the lack of reaction to Cosmos Rocks with Paul Rodgers, but I think an album in collaboration with Lambert would be a different ballgame altogether.




  7. #7
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    I'd love to see them record with Lambert. I think he's a natural fit for the band.
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

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    It's funny, recently looking at footage of them with Paul Rodgers on that first tour, I'd forgotten it was pretty effective as a live show. They ruined my view of that collaboration with that bloody awful The Cosmos Rocks.

    I don't say this about every band, but I would prefer Queen/Lambert to stick to nostalgia touring (not really much danger of the audiences diminishing with Queen) rather than do another album like that. I think Lambert is a better fit than Rodgers, but still. I will however check out the clip above.

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    i don't have a problem with Adam Lambert. i have a problem with Queen calling itself Queen.
    most of their hits were written by 2 people that are no longer in the band.
    i also think it's in bad taste to use Freddie's image and voice during their live shows.
    i'm sure that these shows are entertaining, but i just can't even consider going.
    Roger & Brian have a right to make a living and keep the music alive, but i can't accept this.

  10. #10
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Deacon's not involved?

  11. #11
    Moderator Poisoned Youth's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    i don't have a problem with Adam Lambert. i have a problem with Queen calling itself Queen.
    most of their hits were written by 2 people that are no longer in the band.
    i also think it's in bad taste to use Freddie's image and voice during their live shows.
    i'm sure that these shows are entertaining, but i just can't even consider going.
    Roger & Brian have a right to make a living and keep the music alive, but i can't accept this.
    Yawn...
    WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by moecurlythanu View Post
    Deacon's not involved?
    John hasn't been involved since they finished making Made In Heaven back in 1995 or whenever it was. He hasn't performed Brian and Roger, nor has he, to my knowledge, done any interviews relating to the band or anything. He doesn't appear in any of the documentaries in the last 20 years or so, and he is conspicuously absent from the commentaries that appear on the various DVD releases. But then I get the impression he was always a "quiet, and private" kind of guy. Even during the original band's existence, he didn't seem to do much press or promo work the way the other three did.

  13. #13
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    i don't have a problem with Adam Lambert. i have a problem with Queen calling itself Queen.
    most of their hits were written by 2 people that are no longer in the band.
    i also think it's in bad taste to use Freddie's image and voice during their live shows.
    i'm sure that these shows are entertaining, but i just can't even consider going.
    Roger & Brian have a right to make a living and keep the music alive, but i can't accept this.
    Your loss.
    Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    It's funny, recently looking at footage of them with Paul Rodgers on that first tour, I'd forgotten it was pretty effective as a live show. They ruined my view of that collaboration with that bloody awful The Cosmos Rocks.
    I still haven't heard The Cosmos Rocks, but I think the effectiveness of the live performances hinged on the choice of material. They chose songs that worked with the kind of singer that Rodgers was. If he had tried singing Killer Queen, Bicycle Race, or You Take My Breath Away, it have sounded ridiculous.

    The great thing about Adam is that he has that sort of musical theater/cabaret type of singing style that you almost have to have when singing most of Freddie's songs. So in the current iteration, they can at least acknowledge that side of the band's music they really couldn't with Rodgers.

    i have a problem with Queen calling itself Queen.
    Well, I do too, but my love for the music, and my love for Dr. Brian May, CBE as one of the all time great rock guitarists kind of trumps any reservations I have about whether or not they should be calling it Queen. Given the choice of not ever having the chance to see the Red Special in action or having them using the Queen name, I'll take the latter. I never had the opportunity to see them with Freddie during the 70's or 80's, so I'll take whatever compromises I have to.



    most of their hits were written by 2 people that are no longer in the band.
    I think that's debatable. In the first place, all of them wrote songs, and all of them wrote ones that ended up being massive hits. Also, it's worth noting although a given band member's name might be the only one that appears in a given byline, as I understand, the four of them all made contributions to the various songs. I saw one interview where Brian May used Seven Seas Of Rye as an example, saying he wrote the instrumental section in the middle of the tune, but Freddie claimed sole writing credit. The insinuation was that there was a degree of tension on a regular basis over such things.

    I think that was one reason why they went to crediting all the songs to all four of them on The Miracle and Innuendo (that plus the point that there'd be no more arguments over whose songs got to be on the singles, since they'd all be getting the same publishing royalties).

    But if we use the bylines as a guide (and admittedly, I'm getting some help from Wiki, though a lot of this is off the top of my head), the "hits" are divided up something like this:

    Freddie (mostly) wrote Seven Seas Of Rye, Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody To Love, We Are The Champions, Bicycle Race, Play The Game, Body Language, It's A Hard Life, The Miracle, and co-wrote Under Pressure and One Vision.

    Dr. May wrote Keep Yourself Alive, We Will Rock You, Fat Bottom Girls, Save Me, Flash, Las Palabras De Amour, Hammer To Fall, Who Wants To Live Forever, and co-wrote Under Pressure and One Vision.

    Roger Taylor wrote Calling All Girls, Radio Ga-Ga and A Kind Of Magic, and cowrote Under Pressure and One Vision.

    John Deacon wrote You're My Best Friend, Spread Your Wings, Another One Bites The Dust, I Want To Break Free, and co wrote Under Pressure (reputedly coming up with, then forgetting, the iconic bassline) and One VIsion (though according to his own words, the other three had mostly finished that one while John was on holiday, and his contribution was relatively minimal.

    So, it would seem, Dr May wrote more hits than John Deacon, though it only makes sense since he and Freddie tended to have more songs than either John or Roger.

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    My issue with The Cosmos Rocks is that I heard basically nothing of the Queen sound on there. It was a big-budget pub/blues rock album IMHO, none of Queen's trademark style and wit. It was here that the problems with that collaboration became blindingly apparent...in concerts, they could cherrypick the material which suited Rodgers (basically the more 'rock' ones). I really did feel it was a shockingly bad album.

    I can see how Lambert could inject that quality again...but is it worth them bothering? I couldn't see it selling any better than The Cosmos Rocks even if it was a better album (and that would not be hard). It's possible it could do even worse, nearly 10 years on and the industry in even more of a crisis.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    My issue with The Cosmos Rocks is that I heard basically nothing of the Queen sound on there.
    I tried to give it a spin the other day. It opens bizarrely with a Chuck Berry style 12 bar rocker about... rocking. And then the second song, Time to Shine, has some Queen DNA and would've been a much better opener. And then as usual a few songs later I lost interest and listened to something else.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by JJ88 View Post
    I can see how Lambert could inject that quality again...but is it worth them bothering? I couldn't see it selling any better than The Cosmos Rocks even if it was a better album (and that would not be hard). It's possible it could do even worse, nearly 10 years on and the industry in even more of a crisis.
    Call me crazy for suggesting this, but I think Adam Lambert in 2017 has a stronger active fan base than Paul Rodgers did in 2008.

    That said, of course the album would sell worse, because no one buys albums in 2017. It would stream like wildfire though.

  18. #18
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    I seem to remember 'Small' being nice enough (was that the one with the reprise at the end) and 'Say It's Not True' isn't bad, but the latter was already nearly 5 years old by that point.

    I do also recall being worried by 'C-Lebrity' when they trailed it on a TV show here, months before the album came out. It was very 'ordinary' musically and lyrically- moaning about Z-listers is like shooting fish in a barrel, what's the point.

    I did see on TV the New Year concert Q/AL did here in the UK a few years ago and thought it was very good, but blighted by bad sound. Would have been good to see live though as it was in a fairly small venue. I have a vague memory of 'Killer Queen' being played in full in that show but I may be very wrong.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    i don't have a problem with Adam Lambert. i have a problem with Queen calling itself Queen.
    most of their hits were written by 2 people that are no longer in the band.
    i also think it's in bad taste to use Freddie's image and voice during their live shows.
    i'm sure that these shows are entertaining, but i just can't even consider going.
    Roger & Brian have a right to make a living and keep the music alive, but i can't accept this.
    Yeah, you know better than Taylor and May how Freddie's legacy should be honored. Because you bought a bunch of Queen albums and really like their music. Those fuckers, all they did was be his closest friends and collaborators for decades who still feel his absence in their lives every day.

    Tedious.

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    i also think it's in bad taste to use Freddie's image and voice during their live shows.
    Just to address this one directly: no, it's in bad taste for a complete stranger to these people to pass judgment on how they honor their deceased friend's memory.

    Something that discussions like this always drive home for me: so many "fans" seem completely oblivious to the fact that these are real, actual people they're discussing. Freddie Mercury is an actual, tangible person who died. Brian May and Roger Taylor are living, breathing people, just like you an me, who watched their actual friend die, and were left feeling actual loss. Not the loss you feel - the absence of more Queen albums with Mercury. Actual loss, of an actual friend who actually died.

    But please tell us more about what you "can accept" from these people who are actually living this life that you feel entitled to judge, having listened to their records and thus being pretty much the fifth member of the band.
    Last edited by jamesmanzi; 08-02-2017 at 10:33 AM.

  21. #21
    Oh and for the record, on the current tour, Freddie appears on screen for the last few lines of Love of My Life as a duet with May, and in the video portion of Bohemian Rhapsody.

    Yeah, Totally exploited.

  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by jamesmanzi View Post
    Just to address this one directly: no, it's in bad taste for a complete stranger to these people to pass judgment on how they honor their deceased friend's memory.

    Something that discussions like this always drive home for me: so many "fans" seem completely oblivious to the fact that these are real, actual people they're discussing. Freddie Mercury is an actual, tangible person who died. Brian May and Roger Taylor are living, breathing people, just like you an me, who watched their actual friend die, and were left feeling actual loss. Not the loss you feel - the absence of more Queen albums with Mercury. Actual loss, of an actual friend who actually died.

    But please tell us more about what you "can accept" from these people who are actually living this life that you feel entitled to judge, having listened to their records and thus being pretty much the fifth member of the band.
    Well-said.
    "The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"

  23. #23
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jamesmanzi View Post
    Just to address this one directly: no, it's in bad taste for a complete stranger to these people to pass judgment on how they honor their deceased friend's memory.
    Horse shit. So, the only ones allowed to voice an opinion on something are those who were close or involved? What a sanctimonious pile of nonsense. If that was applied across the board, there would be no such thing as accountability for public figures. I have no real opinion about Queen and the use of Freddie's name or image, and don't know anything about it, but your larger point is rubbish.

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by moecurlythanu View Post
    Horse shit. So, the only ones allowed to voice an opinion on something are those who were close or involved? What a sanctimonious pile of nonsense. If that was applied across the board, there would be no such thing as accountability for public figures.
    Hey, you know that thing people like to do to try to win arguments on the internet, where you say one thing and they pretend you said something else so they can rebuke the thing you didn't actually say rather than addressing the thing you did say? I don't really have a lot of time for that, but I'll give you a minute here:

    I said it was in poor taste to declare what you can or can't accept from how people you don't know honor the memory of deceased friend. If you'd like to respond to that, I'm all ears.

    But this nonsense: "If that was applied across the board..."

    This is such a ridiculous debate tactic. If I said I supported background checks for gun purchases, would you tell me it's a bad idea because if you applied across the board we'd have to have background checks to buy gum and socks and dog food?

    I said it's in poor taste to declare what you can and can't accept from how complete strangers honor a deceased friend. I didn't say no one can have opinions about anything they're not directly connected to.

  25. #25
    Member moecurlythanu's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jamesmanzi View Post
    Hey, you know that thing people like to do to try to win arguments on the internet, where you say one thing and they pretend you said something else so they can rebuke the thing you didn't actually say rather than addressing the thing you did say? I don't really have a lot of time for that, but I'll give you a minute here:

    I said it was in poor taste to declare what you can or can't accept from how people you don't know honor the memory of deceased friend. If you'd like to respond to that, I'm all ears.

    But this nonsense: "If that was applied across the board..."

    This is such a ridiculous debate tactic. If I said I supported background checks for gun purchases, would you tell me it's a bad idea because if you applied across the board we'd have to have background checks to buy gum and socks and dog food?

    I said it's in poor taste to declare what you can and can't accept from how complete strangers honor a deceased friend. I didn't say no one can have opinions about anything they're not directly connected to.
    You're trying to shut down commentary by people who don't agree with you. The words you choose to use to achieve it ("in poor taste") are irrelevant. And yes, when you are citing the reason it's in poor taste is because the poster is not a part of the inner circle, you are inferring that the inner circle has the right to voice an opinion and others should not.

    As for the other, you know that in context I'm referring to your argument being applied in an apples-to-apples manner, such as other entertainers, athletes, etc. Not public policy involving a host of other variables. So the next time you think you're taking down a straw man argument, check yourself.

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