Tag: Queen

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“A Night at the Opera” by Queen (No. 5)

"A Night at the Opera" album cover

"A Night at the Opera" album coverA Night at the Opera has some of Queen‘s best-known songs, including “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But what if I told you that “Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t even the best song on A Night at the Opera, or at least not the most epic?

A Night at the Opera has Queen trying on a number of musical styles, sometimes several in the same song. The 1975 release has a proto-power ballad, ragtime, quasi-operatic epics, Dixieland, and (of course) straight-up rock ‘n roll.

It’s worth noting that everybody gets some time in the spotlight here, with songs by Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon.

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“The Game” by Queen (No. 24)

Queen "The Game" album cover

Queen "The Game" album coverQueen‘s The Game will probably be best remembered for two things, “Another One Bites the Dust,” and the first album from the band that featured the use of a synthesizer. I remember it best because my family had the album on 8-Track and I played it incessantly.

I’m not sure when we got a copy of The Game or whether it was my mother or father who brought it into the house. But I loved “Another One Bites the Dust” from the radio, and absorbed the entire album once I could play it at will. The “nice” thing about 8-Tracks compared to records was that they would play forever until you hit “stop.” My parents might not have viewed this as a feature.

It was also a musical clue that I didn’t quite understand at the time. On the cover of the tape it had a one-liner about this being Queen’s first use of a synthesizer. I spent a lot of time trying to puzzle out the importance of this, but given that the band had used some of the very limited real estate on the cover to proclaim (or disclaim) this, it must have been important.

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