Hi, Amazon!
How are you? I hope you had a good day!
First of all, thank you for the thoughtful, well-argued and very well-written reply. It's endearing, and a great honor, to see a smart person devoting part of the time, this all too scarce resource for all of us!, to give the points I raised a thought and reply to them with care and respect.
For that, I'm deeply grateful. The fact you passionately disagree with me has turned out to be wonderful because it prompted you to write such a beautiful, well-argued and detailed post. I'm thrilled, your post was a delight to read.
By writing it you made me happy and also contributed a lot to the community. So thanks. :-)))
For sure we have very different outlooks on music in general. I feel we've come to a divide I just can't, and don't pretend to, bridge - it's that kind of point we may argue about forever without getting to a common denominator. :op
Plus, your post was very interesting and the best way I can do justice to it is thinking about it, reading it again, giving it the attention it deserves. You make so many interesting arguments and raise so many interesting points and tackle such different aspects of the issue that I just can't answer to it.
I just wanted you to know that, yes, I read your post carefully, twice as of now, and was really delighted by it. I love to let my mind go astray, in a positive sense, and keep thinking about these issues.
You gave me food for thought and brought me joy by addressing in such a thorough way the points I raised. It's a gift to me.
You're not alone in disagreeing with me: I'm often criticized by all sides and end up arguing with all those who are taking part in the thread! lol It's fun, I learn a whole lot. If time allows, and you feel like doing it, I guess you'd have some fun reading the huge discussion over the "Sun City" issue: it was "Yara vs Queenzone". Hehehe.
The result? Queenzone 10 vs 0 Yara [knocked out on the floor!] But I learn so much here and the interaction helps me see how limited my understanding of things are and how much I need to improve. It's great.
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Now, what we agree on! :op
Ah, I also love We Will Rock You! It's so amazingly recorded, as you pointed out, and the idea is so clever. The song sounds all too powerful and "in your face". I love this song so much that I can't avoid writing about it, I hope I don't come across as too boring or stupid. :op
It features amazing, gorgeous vocals by Freddie in a pristine, clear and round baritone tone and a quite interesting play with unisons, monophonic textures and clever chord resolutions.
Freddie starts singing the song in D3 and soon goes up to E3. He stays in this key for most of the song, eventually dropping the tune again to D3. The way his singing cleverly gravitates around both keys is wonderful. It's powerful minimalism too! What's amazing is that, by the time of the intro to the refrain, he goes down to D3 and then begins to drop the tune wildly in a jaw-dropping way: "all" (B2) "over the" (A2-G2-E2) "place" (E2)! The refrain has him singing then in...G3 and the quality of his tone remains absolutely the same. It's brutal.
All this is done in an unison-based monophonic texture which suddenly and quickly runs through patterned leaps to higher (in this case, 5ths: from the home key he starts in to the fifth) notes - he's keeping himself between D3 and E3 and then sudden leaps to A3 (MAN-some day/WORLD-some day). It's a beautiful, rounded and brutal, though subtle in the way it sounds, quick move to a tune 5 notes up, and the same interval is resumed over and over again and he lands beautifully, always, on one of the prevailing keys.
Even though the chordal structure is based on very simple inversions - (A-D-A-D-A-Asus-D...), there's a clever C power chord harmonizing the A major and making the song sound tighter. and much more strong.
The result is great. Thunderous guitar effects, a haunting chorus going down the scale in thirds from G3 to E3, eventually dropping to D3 again (WILL...) to resolve the bar on the right key on the last moment!, setting the stage for a quasi-liturgical celebration of Rock: Freddie's powerful baritone singing in unisons reminds me of a Gregorian chant of sorts and the refrain comes in as a celebration of what that strong, lonely voice had been "praying".
To my humble taste, it's amazing. But then anyway, News of The World is my favorite Queen album by a far margin.
Have you heard Freddie performing this beauty at Hammersmith Odeon in 1979 while he's on top of the superman? lol It's SERIOUSLY GOOD. His tone is so pristine and muscular, and he manages to go to such low notes and manages to nail the higher ones so beautifully, that it sends chills down my spine!
What I love about this song, as many others from Queen, is the way it's delivered on stage: while Freddie was at his peak, he kept hammering the same note during the verses without missing a single one or straying away even a tiny bit - he's so in tune that he's able to elicit the very same note and make it sound exactly like he wants over and over again, and managing to resolve the verses squarely using either of the two notes which fight for the status of prevailing key. :-) That adds such a groove and wonderful sense of balance to the vocals, it's beautiful.
But the most important to me, as a girl, is seeing and listening to him sing this song during his prime - it is so absolutely SEXY!!! :-)))) Gosh...really, it resonates with my hormones.
It's such a powerful, confident, round, clear and muscular singing coming from such a sexy figure...oh my!!!!
[fainting]
I hope you have a great day and all goes well with you!
Thanks and I wish you the best of the best! :-))
Yara
