Queen

[T.N.A.]

This was kinda explained in documentary Days Of Our Lives I think. They kinda lost USA cuz of I Want To Break Free video. They became worldwide but lost USA.
TNA come here and clear up lol

That was the moment they indeed kinda lost the US and never really got it back, as Brian said. But it's not like they were really popular and all of the sudden, with one video they lost the US.

I dunno, their success in the US started declining by the early 80s and then eventually the US lost interest in them, while they were still really big and whatnot in other countries. Also the fact that they pretty much stopped touring the US by then. That was also a big part of 'losing the US'. Also, the follow up to The Game (their most successful album in America and worlwide I think) was Hot Space (lol)... so yeah.

They were really popular in the US during the late 70s and very early 80s. For example Crazy Little Thing Called Love ('79) hit number one in America before they even finished The Game album. Also, Another One Bites The Dust was on the charts for quite a long time, on the number one spot too. Black stations picked it up thinking they were a black band and played the hell out of it.

Basically, playing in America in the 70s they eventually build up some success in there, hit the peak of it by 1979-1980 with Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Another One Bites The Dust from The Game album, followed it up with Hot Space, didn't really tour America, and by the time The Works album and the I Want To Break Free video came out, America kinda lost interest. Then after that, they didn't tour America and that was pretty much it with their success there. All though they're still really big all over the world, not really in America though.

But yeah, like MJJLatvia said, watch Days Of Our Lives. You'll have a way better understanding of all of this.

From 39:08 to 1:22:52 .... watching the whole documentary would also help with the understanding of other topics and whatnot, but if your interested in the whole America thing, watch that part and you'll understand everything much better. Much better than I could explain, especially since I didn't really mention a couple of other key things and various details.

[respect77]

I'm sorry I only answer now, I just forgot about my question here. LOL.

Thanks, TNA. I will watch the documentary.
I actually think American people getting all upset about a video like I Want To Break Free makes the US pretty funny.

[respect77]

I watched the Days of Our Lives docu. Great one. Indeed their American popularity was short lived that lasted from Another One Bites The Dust until the release of the I Want To Break Free video. Which tells more about America than about Queen, IMO. Oh well, America's loss.

As a sidenote, I think the fact America started to lose interest in Michael after Thriller also has to do with American... let's put it this way: "conservativeness". IMO many people were disturbed in America by Michael's appearance on the cover of the Bad album, by his androygny, by his lightening skin, by his crotch grabbing in his videos etc. You can be a "rebellious" rocker in America as long your challenge is not against barriers of race and gender... So this makes you wonder about who the real rebels are.

Another thing is how much critics disliked Queen - Rolling Stone especially hated them. And that too kind of reminds me of Michael. (Though they were even more dismissive against Queen.) It seems to me those critics (most of whom grew up in the 60s on the Beatles) just cannot handle theatrics in music and cannot handle it when someone crosses over many styles. They seemed to be dismissive of that in the case of Queen, just like in Michael's case. That's not "pure" enough R'n'R for them, I guess.
But theatrics, diversity is exactly one of the things I love in both Queen's and Michael's music.

I also have to state it once again that two of the most charismatic performers ever were Michael and Freddie. There's no one like them on stage in terms of charisma!

[Rudolf]

So, I watched the Hungarian Rhapsody yesterday.

Few things to notice -

Running time: 2 hours and 10 minutes
Mini documentary before the concert movie: 30 minutes approximately

The mini documentary was something I was obviously looking forward to see. And although I knew all of the story anyway, it was pretty entertaining. It starts off from the Live Aid concert in 1985 and goes to the making of the album and Magic music videos partly as a soundtrack for movie called "Highlander". After that it gradually builds up to the tour and how it started. Included snippets from the huge crowd and We Are The Champions of Mannheim, Germany concert, few Wembley snippets, live in Budapest the Hungarian song snippet but from the front angle (jumbotron?), Hungarian people and city before concert, warmup band on stage before Queen (looked pretty hilarious), Knebworth footage - I think it was One Vision snippet in pro video, then few snippets from the (TV?) cam in the crowd which was HQ shooting stage from far distance and a snippet from the amateur video shooting jumbo screen (makes me think they have no jumbotron footage from this concert). Also there was a stage rehearsal footage (not the same as in the Wembley DVD bonus), I think Freddie had red shirt (possibly I'm wrong, it was such a mashup, I do my best to remember the details). It was pro video with changing angles and they seemed to set up the stage, Brian tuning guitar (?) and something like that. It was very very pixely and compressed though.
There was also footage of Freddie rehearsing the Hungarian song with Brian playing on acoustic guitar (home video?), that's not the rehearsal seen in the movie. + some nice footage of Roger Taylor's 37th birtday party with his cake and knife in hand.
It was all joined through and covered up with various interviews and Freddie telling some significant Mercury-style quotes which I loved.

The concert movie -

Video quality - 9,5/10 (as great as it can get, some shots are slightly more blurry but that is totally fine hence shot on film, overall it was stunning)

Audio seemed to be bassy, some might love that, some not. I liked the 5.1 effect in, for example, Now I'm Here. He sings "Now I'm here" it plays in cinemas right side, "Now I'm there" in left side. So that was nice. Can't comment more on the audio side, excuse my lack of knowledge in this field :/

The concert itself was great. Way better than the famous 2nd night Wembley concert. His voice was in good shape.

Downers -

The cuts -.- Cut verse in Crazy Little Thing Called Love, cut out Another One Bites The Dust and Impromptu. But you can blame this to hungarians who edited this back in 1986 and decided to destroy the rest of the unused footage..

Overdubs. I don't know this concert by heart, but I noticed 2 places which I am 100% sure of because those are what I use to analyse from various Queen concerts.

I was pleased to see a warning before the documentary that quality may vary and it indeed did vary from pretty good to very crappy.

1. The 2nd "The bell that rings" is replaced with same line from another concert, not sure which one as I am not that much of a Queen expert. But I can understand this since originally it sounded a bit sloppy similiar to the Wembley 2nd night's "the bell that rings". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxN0wpFoP8&t=2m35s at 2:36

2. Under Pressure. The part "higher higher HIIIIIGHH" which was originally high and so powerful in Budapest! I was always looking forward to this part as he sings it the best in this concert compared it other Magic tour concerts where he does it with kinda lower voice. He does it originally higher than usual and more powerful. I can't possibly understand why it was replaced because IMO it was way better originally. I can understand sloppy bits are replaced, but this.. :/ I was very disappointed about this as I am picky on significant small bits. But this was really the only thing that disappointed me. Here is how it was originally - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guyC7UtTPW4&t=1m47s at 1:48 . It was replaced with something sounding Wembley-like, like he usually did in the Works and Magic tour.

Overall - I was very pleased with this.

I am really happy for this release as I simply LOVE old footage in HD. I hope soon will be Michael Jackson's turn to get a cinematic and Blu-Ray release of pre-History tours.

The experience on big screen was best I could ever get to see Queen live since I didn't have such possibility.

I give this 9/10 because of the quality. Wasn't there a disappointing overdub and cut songs (which unfortunatly isn't possible and you can't blame Queen for that), I would give 10/10 although this is seen concert. But this release made me enjoy it even more.

P.S. Brian and Roger, please release some of 70s stuff next time. Something like Hammersmith 1975, Hammersmith 1979, Blu-Ray release of Live at Rainbow theater 1974 if possible (possibly it was on film since it was filmed specially for release. It was released on VHS) or some of Crazy tour. Thank you


It looks blurry because taken on phone. In reality it's not of course.

[respect77]

^^ Thanks for the review. I'm planning to buy it along with The Great Pretender docu. I'm Hungarian and it's such an iconic concert for us, because it was the first big Western rock concert here. My father was there too.