mechaman89
The Works>A Kind of Magic
Thread
Posts in chronological order
Amazon
IAHL is one of my least favourite songs on The Works, but several people seem to love it. How come? What makes IAHL such a great song, or more to the point, such a Queenian song in people's eyes?
Sebastian
Things that make [i]IAHL[/i] as classic Queen as it gets:
- Backing track of piano, bass and drums in a similar way to [i]Bo Rhap, Jealousy[/i], etc.
- Deliberately [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i]-esque guitar solo
- Guitar harmonies in a very 70's way
- Powerful backing vocals... loads of them
- No synths
- Sad, yet hopeful, love-lyrics (think about[i] Love of My Life[/i], for instance)
- Flat-side keys: B-Flat Major, E-Flat Major... both very reminiscent of the golden era
- First verse is preceded by a piano motif played twice over the Bb chord, exactly like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- Intro doesn't re-appear anywhere in the song, like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- The lift progression is basically the same as [i]Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy[/i] (chorus), and in the same key
- Andalusian cadence (before the solo), which Fred hadn't used since [i]Great King Rat [/i]and [i]Liar[/i] (modified)
- Relatively long melody content (as opposed to their contemporary singles like [i]Break Free[/i] or [i]Body Language[/i])
- While not complicated, it's still well-thought in terms of harmony and arrangements, like most Fred's piano ballads.
- Three choruses, but they're all different, just like [i]Killer Queen[/i]
- Backing track of piano, bass and drums in a similar way to [i]Bo Rhap, Jealousy[/i], etc.
- Deliberately [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i]-esque guitar solo
- Guitar harmonies in a very 70's way
- Powerful backing vocals... loads of them
- No synths
- Sad, yet hopeful, love-lyrics (think about[i] Love of My Life[/i], for instance)
- Flat-side keys: B-Flat Major, E-Flat Major... both very reminiscent of the golden era
- First verse is preceded by a piano motif played twice over the Bb chord, exactly like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- Intro doesn't re-appear anywhere in the song, like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- The lift progression is basically the same as [i]Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy[/i] (chorus), and in the same key
- Andalusian cadence (before the solo), which Fred hadn't used since [i]Great King Rat [/i]and [i]Liar[/i] (modified)
- Relatively long melody content (as opposed to their contemporary singles like [i]Break Free[/i] or [i]Body Language[/i])
- While not complicated, it's still well-thought in terms of harmony and arrangements, like most Fred's piano ballads.
- Three choruses, but they're all different, just like [i]Killer Queen[/i]
Vali
bravo, Sebastian !! [img=/images/smiley/msn/thumbs_up.gif][/img]
mike hunt
the works for me is a second tier queen album, not great, nor horrible. These are my rating for each song.
1 out of 10 score. It's a hard life is genious in my opinion.
Radio ga ga- 10/10
tear it up- 6/10
hard life- 10/10, masterpiece, my favorite song on the album.
MOTP- 6/10
machines- 7/10
break free- 8/10, Not my favorite song, but people like it
passing windows- 9/10, always liked this song, except the lryic "love is all you need"
hammer to fall- 10/10, a classic
world we created- 8/10, nice song, and wembly versions even better
I go crazy- 8/10, should have been on the original album.
1 out of 10 score. It's a hard life is genious in my opinion.
Radio ga ga- 10/10
tear it up- 6/10
hard life- 10/10, masterpiece, my favorite song on the album.
MOTP- 6/10
machines- 7/10
break free- 8/10, Not my favorite song, but people like it
passing windows- 9/10, always liked this song, except the lryic "love is all you need"
hammer to fall- 10/10, a classic
world we created- 8/10, nice song, and wembly versions even better
I go crazy- 8/10, should have been on the original album.
Micrówave
Ok, I gotta say there's something fishy about mike hunt.
You've rated three songs as 10 out of 10. I would think that there's not too many albums EVER that would garner such a rating. Three 10/10??? Plus several 8s and a 9??? But you don't consider it one of the greatest records ever?
So what, Night At The Opera has all 10/10s???
You've rated three songs as 10 out of 10. I would think that there's not too many albums EVER that would garner such a rating. Three 10/10??? Plus several 8s and a 9??? But you don't consider it one of the greatest records ever?
So what, Night At The Opera has all 10/10s???
Amazon
[QUOTE]
[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]
Things that make [i]IAHL[/i] as classic Queen as it gets:
- Backing track of piano, bass and drums in a similar way to [i]Bo Rhap, Jealousy[/i], etc.
- Deliberately [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i]-esque guitar solo
- Guitar harmonies in a very 70's way
- Powerful backing vocals... loads of them
- No synths
- Sad, yet hopeful, love-lyrics (think about[i] Love of My Life[/i], for instance)
- Flat-side keys: B-Flat Major, E-Flat Major... both very reminiscent of the golden era
- First verse is preceded by a piano motif played twice over the Bb chord, exactly like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- Intro doesn't re-appear anywhere in the song, like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- The lift progression is basically the same as [i]Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy[/i] (chorus), and in the same key
- Andalusian cadence (before the solo), which Fred hadn't used since [i]Great King Rat [/i]and [i]Liar[/i] (modified)
- Relatively long melody content (as opposed to their contemporary singles like [i]Break Free[/i] or [i]Body Language[/i])
- While not complicated, it's still well-thought in terms of harmony and arrangements, like most Fred's piano ballads.
- Three choruses, but they're all different, just like [i]Killer Queen[/i]
[/QUOTE]
Fascinating. I need to examine it in more detail.
[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]
Things that make [i]IAHL[/i] as classic Queen as it gets:
- Backing track of piano, bass and drums in a similar way to [i]Bo Rhap, Jealousy[/i], etc.
- Deliberately [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i]-esque guitar solo
- Guitar harmonies in a very 70's way
- Powerful backing vocals... loads of them
- No synths
- Sad, yet hopeful, love-lyrics (think about[i] Love of My Life[/i], for instance)
- Flat-side keys: B-Flat Major, E-Flat Major... both very reminiscent of the golden era
- First verse is preceded by a piano motif played twice over the Bb chord, exactly like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- Intro doesn't re-appear anywhere in the song, like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- The lift progression is basically the same as [i]Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy[/i] (chorus), and in the same key
- Andalusian cadence (before the solo), which Fred hadn't used since [i]Great King Rat [/i]and [i]Liar[/i] (modified)
- Relatively long melody content (as opposed to their contemporary singles like [i]Break Free[/i] or [i]Body Language[/i])
- While not complicated, it's still well-thought in terms of harmony and arrangements, like most Fred's piano ballads.
- Three choruses, but they're all different, just like [i]Killer Queen[/i]
[/QUOTE]
Fascinating. I need to examine it in more detail.
The Real Wizard
[QUOTE]
[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]
Things that make [i]IAHL[/i] as classic Queen as it gets:
- Backing track of piano, bass and drums in a similar way to [i]Bo Rhap, Jealousy[/i], etc.
- Deliberately [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i]-esque guitar solo
- Guitar harmonies in a very 70's way
- Powerful backing vocals... loads of them
- No synths
- Sad, yet hopeful, love-lyrics (think about[i] Love of My Life[/i], for instance)
- Flat-side keys: B-Flat Major, E-Flat Major... both very reminiscent of the golden era
- First verse is preceded by a piano motif played twice over the Bb chord, exactly like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- Intro doesn't re-appear anywhere in the song, like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- The lift progression is basically the same as [i]Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy[/i] (chorus), and in the same key
- Andalusian cadence (before the solo), which Fred hadn't used since [i]Great King Rat [/i]and [i]Liar[/i] (modified)
- Relatively long melody content (as opposed to their contemporary singles like [i]Break Free[/i] or [i]Body Language[/i])
- While not complicated, it's still well-thought in terms of harmony and arrangements, like most Fred's piano ballads.
- Three choruses, but they're all different, just like [i]Killer Queen[/i]
[/QUOTE]
Brilliant. No music scholar could add more.
[b]Sebastian wrote: [/b]
Things that make [i]IAHL[/i] as classic Queen as it gets:
- Backing track of piano, bass and drums in a similar way to [i]Bo Rhap, Jealousy[/i], etc.
- Deliberately [i]Bohemian Rhapsody[/i]-esque guitar solo
- Guitar harmonies in a very 70's way
- Powerful backing vocals... loads of them
- No synths
- Sad, yet hopeful, love-lyrics (think about[i] Love of My Life[/i], for instance)
- Flat-side keys: B-Flat Major, E-Flat Major... both very reminiscent of the golden era
- First verse is preceded by a piano motif played twice over the Bb chord, exactly like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- Intro doesn't re-appear anywhere in the song, like [i]Bo Rhap[/i]
- The lift progression is basically the same as [i]Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy[/i] (chorus), and in the same key
- Andalusian cadence (before the solo), which Fred hadn't used since [i]Great King Rat [/i]and [i]Liar[/i] (modified)
- Relatively long melody content (as opposed to their contemporary singles like [i]Break Free[/i] or [i]Body Language[/i])
- While not complicated, it's still well-thought in terms of harmony and arrangements, like most Fred's piano ballads.
- Three choruses, but they're all different, just like [i]Killer Queen[/i]
[/QUOTE]
Brilliant. No music scholar could add more.
Amazon
[QUOTE]
[b]mike hunt wrote: [/b]
the works for me is a second tier queen album, not great, nor horrible. These are my rating for each song.
1 out of 10 score. It's a hard life is genious in my opinion.
Radio ga ga- 10/10
tear it up- 6/10
hard life- 10/10, masterpiece, my favorite song on the album.
MOTP- 6/10
machines- 7/10
break free- 8/10, Not my favorite song, but people like it
passing windows- 9/10, always liked this song, except the lryic "love is all you need"
hammer to fall- 10/10, a classic
world we created- 8/10, nice song, and wembly versions even better
I go crazy- 8/10, should have been on the original album.
[/QUOTE]
I'm also going to rate the songs. As I mentioned in my first post on this thread, I don't think that there are any bad tracks on the album, however The Works is not one of my favourite albums. It's also not one of my least favourite albums; it's no masterpiece but nor is it a bad album.
Radio Gaga- 9.5/10; A great song IMO, but just short of a masterpiece
Tear It Up- 5.5/10; my second least favourite song on the album, it's still enjoyable
IAHL- 7/10; I had no idea just how Queenian it was, but it's still not one of my favourite songs and is a song I rarely listen to
MOTP- 5/10; a rip-off of one of Queen's greatest ever songs, it doesn't have the brilliance of CLTCL but isn't such a bad song
Machines- 9/10; one of my favourite songs on the album, it features one of Freddie's greatest ever vocal performances
IWTBF- 9/10; a major reason why I regard John as a truly brilliant song-writer, I would give the song 10/10 for the video, with Roger getting the extra point for looking like a beautiful girl [img=/images/smiley/msn/teeth_smile.gif][/img]
KPTOW- 9.5/10; one of Queen's most beautiful songs, I would take half a point away for 'love is all you need'; for a songwriter as brilliant as Freddie, it wasn't all that original
Hammer To Fall- 9/10; a great, great song and one of Queen's best hard rock songs of the 80's
ITTWWC- 8/10; nice song but in many ways that's all it is. It is very well written and exceptionally performed, but I don't love it when Queen perform 'Heal The World'-type songs like this (this of course came before HTW, but I don't think this genre really suits Queen.)
I Go Crazy- 7/10; alright song which probably should have been on the album and which also, to my delight, references Queen. One way to this girl's heart is mention the band members' names or the group in a song. One of my all-time favourite Queen moments is the 'Ready Freddie' line in CLTCL. So, I'm really happy that Queen was referenced in this song. It's a pretty good song as well.
[b]mike hunt wrote: [/b]
the works for me is a second tier queen album, not great, nor horrible. These are my rating for each song.
1 out of 10 score. It's a hard life is genious in my opinion.
Radio ga ga- 10/10
tear it up- 6/10
hard life- 10/10, masterpiece, my favorite song on the album.
MOTP- 6/10
machines- 7/10
break free- 8/10, Not my favorite song, but people like it
passing windows- 9/10, always liked this song, except the lryic "love is all you need"
hammer to fall- 10/10, a classic
world we created- 8/10, nice song, and wembly versions even better
I go crazy- 8/10, should have been on the original album.
[/QUOTE]
I'm also going to rate the songs. As I mentioned in my first post on this thread, I don't think that there are any bad tracks on the album, however The Works is not one of my favourite albums. It's also not one of my least favourite albums; it's no masterpiece but nor is it a bad album.
Radio Gaga- 9.5/10; A great song IMO, but just short of a masterpiece
Tear It Up- 5.5/10; my second least favourite song on the album, it's still enjoyable
IAHL- 7/10; I had no idea just how Queenian it was, but it's still not one of my favourite songs and is a song I rarely listen to
MOTP- 5/10; a rip-off of one of Queen's greatest ever songs, it doesn't have the brilliance of CLTCL but isn't such a bad song
Machines- 9/10; one of my favourite songs on the album, it features one of Freddie's greatest ever vocal performances
IWTBF- 9/10; a major reason why I regard John as a truly brilliant song-writer, I would give the song 10/10 for the video, with Roger getting the extra point for looking like a beautiful girl [img=/images/smiley/msn/teeth_smile.gif][/img]
KPTOW- 9.5/10; one of Queen's most beautiful songs, I would take half a point away for 'love is all you need'; for a songwriter as brilliant as Freddie, it wasn't all that original
Hammer To Fall- 9/10; a great, great song and one of Queen's best hard rock songs of the 80's
ITTWWC- 8/10; nice song but in many ways that's all it is. It is very well written and exceptionally performed, but I don't love it when Queen perform 'Heal The World'-type songs like this (this of course came before HTW, but I don't think this genre really suits Queen.)
I Go Crazy- 7/10; alright song which probably should have been on the album and which also, to my delight, references Queen. One way to this girl's heart is mention the band members' names or the group in a song. One of my all-time favourite Queen moments is the 'Ready Freddie' line in CLTCL. So, I'm really happy that Queen was referenced in this song. It's a pretty good song as well.
Yara
Hi, Amazon and Sebastian!
Thanks for the great and helpful posts.
Does anyone can help me with this?
I enjoy this album a lot, but I always wondered why is it so short or at least it feels so short? Don't get me wrong, I love each and every song of this album; and there are, to my taste, beautiful, great moments in the tour - the first few gigs are awesome, the gigs in Japan in 1985 are very nice and I absolutely adore their performance in Live Aid.
1) Didn't they have more good material to enrich the album? If they had, why they released the album just like that? Does any of you guys have some reliable info on this?
And, excuse me, guys, again :op, just one more question, I'd love to know more about it:
2) Do you guys have some good info about how Radio Ga-Ga was composed (who did what and so on) and recorded? I just love this song!
Anyway, thanks for the thread and for the great posts. It was a joy to read.
I hope you're all doing fine and have a good weekend!
Take care!
Yara
Thanks for the great and helpful posts.
Does anyone can help me with this?
I enjoy this album a lot, but I always wondered why is it so short or at least it feels so short? Don't get me wrong, I love each and every song of this album; and there are, to my taste, beautiful, great moments in the tour - the first few gigs are awesome, the gigs in Japan in 1985 are very nice and I absolutely adore their performance in Live Aid.
1) Didn't they have more good material to enrich the album? If they had, why they released the album just like that? Does any of you guys have some reliable info on this?
And, excuse me, guys, again :op, just one more question, I'd love to know more about it:
2) Do you guys have some good info about how Radio Ga-Ga was composed (who did what and so on) and recorded? I just love this song!
Anyway, thanks for the thread and for the great posts. It was a joy to read.
I hope you're all doing fine and have a good weekend!
Take care!
Yara
L-R-TIGER1994
[i]About Radio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Ga_Ga[/i]
Saint Jiub
The Works is a solid Queen album, but no one song is exceptional.
When a poll was conducted (some time before the 46664 concert in Capetown in Nov 2003) of 30 QZ'ers to rank the Queen songs from 1 to 188, Five songs from The Works were ranked fairly well between 32 and 51, but no songs were rated especially well.
This link explains the polling method:
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/index.html]http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/index.html[/url]
The following 2 graphs can be viewed as Word documents and show the rankings of "The Works" songs compared to othe Queen songs:
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/Song_Rank_by_Album_Layout.doc]http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/Song_Rank_by_Album_Layout.doc[/url]
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/dotplot_average_by_album.doc]http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/dotplot_average_by_album.doc[/url]
Use "Zoom" from the View menu to enlarge these graphs and make them more readable.
When a poll was conducted (some time before the 46664 concert in Capetown in Nov 2003) of 30 QZ'ers to rank the Queen songs from 1 to 188, Five songs from The Works were ranked fairly well between 32 and 51, but no songs were rated especially well.
This link explains the polling method:
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/index.html]http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/index.html[/url]
The following 2 graphs can be viewed as Word documents and show the rankings of "The Works" songs compared to othe Queen songs:
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/Song_Rank_by_Album_Layout.doc]http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/Song_Rank_by_Album_Layout.doc[/url]
[url=http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/dotplot_average_by_album.doc]http://home.comcast.net/~vantricers/dotplot_average_by_album.doc[/url]
Use "Zoom" from the View menu to enlarge these graphs and make them more readable.
Amazon
[QUOTE]
[b]Yara wrote: [/b]
Hi, Amazon and Sebastian!
Thanks for the great and helpful posts.
Does anyone can help me with this?
I enjoy this album a lot, but I always wondered why is it so short or at least it feels so short? Don't get me wrong, I love each and every song of this album; and there are, to my taste, beautiful, great moments in the tour - the first few gigs are awesome, the gigs in Japan in 1985 are very nice and I absolutely adore their performance in Live Aid.
1) Didn't they have more good material to enrich the album? If they had, why they released the album just like that? Does any of you guys have some reliable info on this?
[/QUOTE]
Hi Yarra. Thanks for yor kind words! I also would love to know that. The Game had 10 songs and HS had 11, so it't not as if they didn't have room for another track on The Works. It does feel like a very short album. AKOM also had 9 tracks, but I don't think that felt nearly as short. Yeh, I also would be interested in knowing the answer.
[b]Yara wrote: [/b]
Hi, Amazon and Sebastian!
Thanks for the great and helpful posts.
Does anyone can help me with this?
I enjoy this album a lot, but I always wondered why is it so short or at least it feels so short? Don't get me wrong, I love each and every song of this album; and there are, to my taste, beautiful, great moments in the tour - the first few gigs are awesome, the gigs in Japan in 1985 are very nice and I absolutely adore their performance in Live Aid.
1) Didn't they have more good material to enrich the album? If they had, why they released the album just like that? Does any of you guys have some reliable info on this?
[/QUOTE]
Hi Yarra. Thanks for yor kind words! I also would love to know that. The Game had 10 songs and HS had 11, so it't not as if they didn't have room for another track on The Works. It does feel like a very short album. AKOM also had 9 tracks, but I don't think that felt nearly as short. Yeh, I also would be interested in knowing the answer.
Sebastian
The album was short because they were in a very tense period, and they had several disagreements about which songs were good enough. Also, both Freddie and Roger were saving some material for solo albums. The final cut stemmed from the nine songs they all (sort of) agreed on.
In terms of length 'The Works' is also an average of a 1983-1984 album, almost the same as Culture Club's 'Colour', Spandau Ballet's 'True' or Wham's first two records. Those were also releases with 8 to 10 songs and a quite similar crappy dated sound.
[i]Radio Ga Ga[/i] began by Roger's toddler son saying something that inspired him into a song. Taylor then, reportedly, locked himself with a drum-machine and a synthesiser and came up with the first version, which was then altered when Deacy wrote a new bass-line for it, that Freddie loved. Mercury, then, sent Rog on a ski trip and re-designed the song. May didn't have anything to do with the arrangements, but probably Fred Mandel did, since he programmed the famous synth-bass, very 80's. The Jupiter 8 synthesiser used for most of the song was still at Mountain Studios a couple of years ago (though the song was done in LA and/or Munich).
In terms of length 'The Works' is also an average of a 1983-1984 album, almost the same as Culture Club's 'Colour', Spandau Ballet's 'True' or Wham's first two records. Those were also releases with 8 to 10 songs and a quite similar crappy dated sound.
[i]Radio Ga Ga[/i] began by Roger's toddler son saying something that inspired him into a song. Taylor then, reportedly, locked himself with a drum-machine and a synthesiser and came up with the first version, which was then altered when Deacy wrote a new bass-line for it, that Freddie loved. Mercury, then, sent Rog on a ski trip and re-designed the song. May didn't have anything to do with the arrangements, but probably Fred Mandel did, since he programmed the famous synth-bass, very 80's. The Jupiter 8 synthesiser used for most of the song was still at Mountain Studios a couple of years ago (though the song was done in LA and/or Munich).
mike hunt
[QUOTE]
[b]Micrówave wrote: [/b]
Ok, I gotta say there's something fishy about mike hunt.
You've rated three songs as 10 out of 10. I would think that there's not too many albums EVER that would garner such a rating. Three 10/10??? Plus several 8s and a 9??? But you don't consider it one of the greatest records ever?
So what, Night At The Opera has all 10/10s??? [/QUOTE]
What's so fishy about mike hunt?...yea, I scored a few songs a little high "keep passing the open windows" isn't a 9, I would give it a 7 or 8. Radio ga ga isn't an all time favorite of mine, but you have to give the song credit for longevity. While tear it up and man on the prowl are both horrible IMO, but to give those songs less than a 6 rating would be too critical.... I do think hard life and hammer to fall are both a ten. A night at the opera is almost all 9's and 10's for me, aside from sweet lady (6) and I'm in love with my car which is a 8. What's wrong with that?...One of my favorite albums of all time should be mostly 10's.
[b]Micrówave wrote: [/b]
Ok, I gotta say there's something fishy about mike hunt.
You've rated three songs as 10 out of 10. I would think that there's not too many albums EVER that would garner such a rating. Three 10/10??? Plus several 8s and a 9??? But you don't consider it one of the greatest records ever?
So what, Night At The Opera has all 10/10s??? [/QUOTE]
What's so fishy about mike hunt?...yea, I scored a few songs a little high "keep passing the open windows" isn't a 9, I would give it a 7 or 8. Radio ga ga isn't an all time favorite of mine, but you have to give the song credit for longevity. While tear it up and man on the prowl are both horrible IMO, but to give those songs less than a 6 rating would be too critical.... I do think hard life and hammer to fall are both a ten. A night at the opera is almost all 9's and 10's for me, aside from sweet lady (6) and I'm in love with my car which is a 8. What's wrong with that?...One of my favorite albums of all time should be mostly 10's.