Old School Thursday

When I wrote my review for Weezer's The Red Album on Tuesday I mentioned a song called "Bohemiam Rhapsody" by a band named Queen. Melissa The Librarian (who will be bringing us some music reviews next week) brought it my attention that some people reading this blog may not know who Queen is let alone have ever heard the song "Bohemian Rhapsody".


So here's the deal with Old School Thursday. We'll talk about some really cool older things that somehow relate to today and who knows....maybe you'll dig it. If not, it's like some kind of history lesson.

Queen

(summary borrowed from Wikipedia)

Queen are an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist Brian May, lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, and drummer Roger Taylor, with bass guitarist John Deacon joining the following year. Queen rose to prominence during the 1970s and are arguably Britain's most successful band of the past thirty years.

The band is noted for their musical diversity, multi-layered arrangements, vocal harmonies, and incorporation of audience participation into their live performances. Their 1985 Live Aid performance was voted the best live rock performance of all time in an industry poll.
Queen had moderate success in the early 1970s, with the albums Queen and Queen II, but it was with the release of Sheer Heart Attack in 1974 and A Night at the Opera the following year that the band gained international success. Since 1975, eighteen of the band's albums have reached number one on numerous charts around the world. Since 1973, they have released fifteen studio albums, five live albums, and numerous compilation albums.

Following Mercury's death in 1991 and Deacon's retirement later in the decade, May and Taylor have performed infrequently under the Queen name. Since 2005, they have been collaborating with Paul Rodgers, under the moniker Queen + Paul Rodgers, which has led to Queen recording their first studio album in 13 years.

(end Wikipedia, begin Justin The Librarian)

Trust me...Queen are an awesome. Their music is very thematic, arena rock type stuff. It's a weird combination of opera/musical type music crossed with good solid rock music. It's tough to describe, but trust me...it's good.

Luckily, we've got some stuff on Queen at the library that you should check out...

Queen: An Illustrated Biography by Judith Davis
Queen: Greatest Hits
Tie Your Mother Down: A Tribute To Queen (newer bands covering Queen songs)

-Justin The Librarian