Brian couldn't play Free Form Guitar... that's for sure...
...in one take using an overdriven Fender Showman amplifier and a Fender Stratocaster guitar
Brian never recorded anything in one take.
Brian and Queen have never released any live recording without overdubs.
Kath could also play banjo, accordian, bass, and drums. Brian can't
Kath could sing quite well, as evidenced in Colour My World. Brian can't (as evidenced in Back To The Light, Another World, Long Away, Lost Opportunity, Headlong, etc)
[/QUOTE]
yeah... each of them have one stile, so.... we can say about agility and skills that kath is better than Brian..... Brian can play guitar and piano too(you forghot this point, but will not make diference)
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Rick wrote: [/b]
They were in great in the studio. On stage, however, rather cowardice and not at all adventurous, which on its return resulted into monotonous setlists (of course, there are some exceptions).
[/QUOTE]
But the majority of people see the band once on the tour, so why should it matter what the band played the night before? Most bands do the same setlist for a tour with only a few changes here and there. It's what keeps the band in good shape. Very few bands play the game like Pearl Jam.
They weren't the greatest musicians ever, so they never played their most challenging material. But a Queen show as a whole was spectacular, as is evidenced by the tens of thousands of people who still rave about them 20-30 years after the fact. There is far more to a show than the songs the band chooses to play.
[QUOTE][b]Micrówave wrote:[/b]
Brian couldn't play Free Form Guitar... that's for sure...
...in one take using an overdriven Fender Showman amplifier and a Fender Stratocaster guitar
Brian never recorded anything in one take.
Brian and Queen have never released any live recording without overdubs.
Kath could also play banjo, accordian, bass, and drums. Brian can't[/QUOTE]
Yes, Brian was never really a one-take player (although Sleeping On The Sidewalk apparently was, as a band), nor could he pull off those pieces on the early Chicago records. But Kath nor any other guitarist could create something like Good Company with the guitar they built themselves. The arrangement, textures, and audacity of the whole venture make it a slice of pure genius that nobody has ever attempted to remotely replicate. These two players just come from two opposite sides of the axe universe.
As for live albums, very few of them are released without work being done on them. That said, Queen's live albums have very few overdubs and edits compared to Kiss Alive and The Song Remains The Same.
[QUOTE]Kath could sing quite well, as evidenced in Colour My World. Brian can't (as evidenced in Back To The Light, Another World, Long Away, Lost Opportunity, Headlong, etc)[/QUOTE]
That all comes down to opinion. I think Brian's voice sounds great on his solo albums. Songs like Resurrection and Wilderness are delivered amazingly well in my eyes.
lalaalalaa · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Micrówave wrote: [/b]
Brian couldn't play Free Form Guitar... that's for sure...
...in one take using an overdriven Fender Showman amplifier and a Fender Stratocaster guitar
Brian never recorded anything in one take.
Brian and Queen have never released any live recording without overdubs.
Kath could also play banjo, accordian, bass, and drums. Brian can't
Kath could sing quite well, as evidenced in Colour My World. Brian can't (as evidenced in Back To The Light, Another World, Long Away, Lost Opportunity, Headlong, etc)
[/QUOTE]
Brian May is a great singer.
QUEENexpert · Member since
I agree. I think Brian has a great voice. Long Away is a wonderful song and Back to the Light and Another World are great albums. But thats just my OPINION. I think we have to remember on here that all of these are just our opinions. We all like different things but we all agree on one thing: we all like QUEEN. Thats why we're on here.
Micrówave · Member since
Yes, but if QUEEN IS THE GREATEST BAND EVER, I wouldn't be able to validly argue for Terry Kath.
I could probably do the same for Yes.
Steve Howe could do things with an acoustic guitar that Brian couldn't. This is per Brian May regarding Innuendo.
Steve's other band is pretty successful, too. (Asia)
Steve's and Brian's vocal ability is about the same. You love to hear it, just not by itself.
I would also question Brian's vocals on the above referenced songs. I've seen him perform Ressurection three times live. Not even close to the power of the vocals on the studio track. There are some pretty amazing things one can do in the studio.
Brian's piano ability is nowhere near Freddie's (or Terry Kath's for that matter!!)
So bottom line, there are plenty of groups that can match QUEEN'S musical ability. I have referenced two. Now, I could go into Genesis, who had a much better keyboardist, probably a better drummer, and (until '74) a frontman who could be considered in the same league as Freddie... except his (PG's) stage presence and performance were more than just singing and dancing around. What about The Neville Brothers? These four guys formatted the sound of New Orleans. They were the basis for several bands and occaisionally performed with them... for example: Art was also a founding member of The Meters, The Wild Tchoupitoulas, as well as a successful solo career. Aaron has the most notable falsetto in the history of music. Brothers Charles and Cyril both have successful bands outside the Nevilles and are still highly in demand in the studio. What about Journey? Neal was Carlos' protege and turned out to be a pretty decent player, eh? Steve Perry is the voice of Pop Rock. Look at how many bands have nothing, but once they got themselves a "Steve Perry", success followed. Bands like Survivor would have never "survived" had they not made the Perry move.
And I haven't even touched upon The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Santana, Led Zeppelin, or Pink Floyd.
There is no GREATEST BAND EVER.
Micrówave · Member since
Oops, I almost forgot.
A couple of people mentioned Brian's genius on Good Company, that no one could make the guitar do things like that.
Two words: Robert Fripp
mike hunt · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Saif wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]mike hunt wrote: [/b]
this is when the thread should end. The queen stefords who think no one could match freddie as a vocalist, and no one could play the guitar like brian gets the other clowns pissed off. then these other clowns go out of their way too say bands like chicago, rush, genesis, and many other great bands are better than queen. Are we gonna get anywhere in this thread?......Can we all agree on one thing?....queen were one of the best bands ever, but not the greatest.
[/QUOTE]
What's a steford? Do you rather mean 'stepford' as in "stepford wife"? Anyway, I had my head up Queen's ass at one time too(it was my "Queen phase"). Used to think Brian was one of the top 5 guitarists of all time(at least I never honestly believed him to be the best, like a few here do). Shit like that. But, technically, Freddie Mercury was the best rock vocalist based on skill alone.
There's website called Nutsie and on their forums I saw people comparing the best rock vocalists and based on different criteria, they named Freddie #1. The stuff they evaluated included power, range, tone, control - basically everything except popularity and influence. I didn't bother getting the whole details because reading their nerdy over-enthusiastic discussions nauseated me. I mean FUCK! Do these guys have no life? They search out YouTube videos 24/7 trying to analyze what were the highest and lowest career notes hit by Freddie, Jeff Buckley, Bruce Dickinson, etc. They even argue childish where 'that note' "really was a Bb2" adding in parentheses often "(you know it was)".
Enough about that. There were only two people with vocal ranges higher than Freddie's. They are Mike Patton and Ian Gillan. Though, they ranked pretty low in comparison to their awesome ranges. Mike Patton has a really crazy range, I can attest to that. He hit a lot of crazy high notes in Faith No More concerts and many low ones in Mr. Bungle concerts(even extremely low, guttural death growls). His range is more than 1.5 times that of Freddie...
[/QUOTE]
god forbid someone mispells a word around here, A few things, Bruce Dickinson doesn't sing in key on the studio records, so he's not in freddie's league. Mike patton has a very powerful voice and great range, but as a overall singer I'll still say freddie was better. I went through that "queen phase" too. I thought they were better than every other band by miles, but over time you realize they were one of many great bands. One thing about brian may, he's a great guitarist, no question about that. Probably my favorite, but I could never put him in the top 5 of the greatest. A top 5 great doesn't get overshadowed by a member of the same band like brian did. Freddie overshadowed brian for the most part. Did hendrix get overshadowed?....keith richards?....Mick Jagger was every bit the great front man that freddie was. How about page?....a true top 5 guitarist doesn't get overshadowed by anyone. That's not a put down of brian, but when you say top 3 or 5 of the best rock guitarist ever you have to look at those things. I still think he makes the top 10 or 15. Without question.
mike hunt · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]lalaalalaa wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Micrówave wrote: [/b]
Brian couldn't play Free Form Guitar... that's for sure...
...in one take using an overdriven Fender Showman amplifier and a Fender Stratocaster guitar
Brian never recorded anything in one take.
Brian and Queen have never released any live recording without overdubs.
Kath could also play banjo, accordian, bass, and drums. Brian can't
Kath could sing quite well, as evidenced in Colour My World. Brian can't (as evidenced in Back To The Light, Another World, Long Away, Lost Opportunity, Headlong, etc)
[/QUOTE]
Brian May is a great singer.
[/QUOTE]
Brian may is not a great singer, lol. He's ok, and could sing a nice ballad. When he trys too sing something upbeat like "on my way up" he misses the mark.
Saif · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]mike hunt wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Saif wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]mike hunt wrote: [/b]
this is when the thread should end. The queen stefords who think no one could match freddie as a vocalist, and no one could play the guitar like brian gets the other clowns pissed off. then these other clowns go out of their way too say bands like chicago, rush, genesis, and many other great bands are better than queen. Are we gonna get anywhere in this thread?......Can we all agree on one thing?....queen were one of the best bands ever, but not the greatest.
[/QUOTE]
What's a steford? Do you rather mean 'stepford' as in "stepford wife"? Anyway, I had my head up Queen's ass at one time too(it was my "Queen phase"). Used to think Brian was one of the top 5 guitarists of all time(at least I never honestly believed him to be the best, like a few here do). Shit like that. But, technically, Freddie Mercury was the best rock vocalist based on skill alone.
There's website called Nutsie and on their forums I saw people comparing the best rock vocalists and based on different criteria, they named Freddie #1. The stuff they evaluated included power, range, tone, control - basically everything except popularity and influence. I didn't bother getting the whole details because reading their nerdy over-enthusiastic discussions nauseated me. I mean FUCK! Do these guys have no life? They search out YouTube videos 24/7 trying to analyze what were the highest and lowest career notes hit by Freddie, Jeff Buckley, Bruce Dickinson, etc. They even argue childish where 'that note' "really was a Bb2" adding in parentheses often "(you know it was)".
Enough about that. There were only two people with vocal ranges higher than Freddie's. They are Mike Patton and Ian Gillan. Though, they ranked pretty low in comparison to their awesome ranges. Mike Patton has a really crazy range, I can attest to that. He hit a lot of crazy high notes in Faith No More concerts and many low ones in Mr. Bungle concerts(even extremely low, guttural death growls). His range is more than 1.5 times that of Freddie...
[/QUOTE]
god forbid someone mispells a word around here, A few things, Bruce Dickinson doesn't sing in key on the studio records, so he's not in freddie's league. [b]Mike patton has a very powerful voice and great range, but as a overall singer I'll still say freddie was better[/b]. I went through that "queen phase" too. I thought they were better than every other band by miles, but over time you realize they were one of many great bands. One thing about brian may, he's a great guitarist, no question about that. Probably my favorite, but I could never put him in the top 5 of the greatest. A top 5 great doesn't get overshadowed by a member of the same band like brian did. Freddie overshadowed brian for the most part. Did hendrix get overshadowed?....keith richards?....Mick Jagger was every bit the great front man that freddie was. How about page?....a true top 5 guitarist doesn't get overshadowed by anyone.
[/QUOTE]
That was the point of my post anyway. Despite Mike Patton having a greater range than Freddie, they still named the Freddie #1 technical singer. And before I forget, they also named him the #1 overall singer, while factoring in stuff like influence, appeal, importance, popularity, etc. I never said Bruce Dickinson is in Freddie's league. Not even close and he knows that himself. I mentioned Bruce because he was one of many singers they were evaluating. I would say the only person in Freddie's league is Jeff Buckley but Freddie is better by quite a bit. IMO it's because Jeff Buckley died so young and we didn't get to see his full potential.
I wasn't nitpicking with the "Steford" comment. I didn't even know what Stepford was until I did a search on Urban Dictionary. It's not used outside of the US so I never encountered it before.
dragon-fly · Member since
Can anybody explain why all criticism is concentrated on May? Why nobody discusses Taylor? He was not the greatest drummer either. How about Deacon?
mike hunt · Member since
no offense to brian may, he's one of the best. The reason why no one's mentioning roger or john is because everyone knows they're not all time greats, so it's not so debatable. Roger isn't on par with pert or keith moon. Most people know that,... John is no geddy lee, or entwistle. we all agree brian's a great guitarist, but how great is where we disagree sometimes.
mike hunt · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Holly2003 wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]mike hunt wrote: [/b]
this is when the thread should end. The queen stefords who think no one could match freddie as a vocalist, and no one could play the guitar like brian gets the other clowns pissed off. then these other clowns go out of their way too say bands like chicago, rush, genesis, and many other great bands are better than queen. Are we gonna get anywhere in this thread?......Can we all agree on one thing?....queen were one of the best bands ever, but not the greatest.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe the conversations could just continue without you, sInce you can't express yourself without insults, and since you can't follow what's said anyway.
Just a thought...
[/QUOTE]
I'm not insulting anyone. you get 2 groups on queenzone, the people who think Queen could do no wrong (I'm almost in this group) and the people who want to bring the band down. the ones who constantly throw insults to the band members. That's not insulting people, it's Just facts. I don't have a single problem with anyone here on queenzone, in fact it's almost like one big happy family here.
Yara · Member since
Appointments for a future post:
1) Billie Holliday having a weak delivery and singing only in her natural register and still being one of the most accomplished and influential singers of the 20th Century;
2) The presentation of a theme in four notes (two, in fact, the G being reiterated three times) - Beethoven's 5th Symphony and its place as one of the greatest pieces of music ever. The power of the unison texture.
3) The problem of applying general notions of "simplicity" and "complexity" to music.
4) Why faster doesn't mean better and more doesn't necessarily mean more complex or better either.
5) Me being able to play almost all songs by the Beatles in at least three instruments, which attests to the "simplicity" of the music, and yet the band is still better than any of the pop/rock numbers mentioned in the thread.
6) The desperate necessity of bringing up at least three different guitar players to argue against Brian May: the full-range of Brian May's skills as a guitarist and musician. Brian May being repeatedly quoted by Steve Vai as one of the masters. The significance of the quotes.
----
A project. One day, who knows?, I create my website and make a post about it! ; -)))
The Real Wizard · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Micrówave wrote: [/b]
A couple of people mentioned Brian's genius on Good Company, that no one could make the guitar do things like that.
Two words: Robert Fripp
[/QUOTE]
I'll happily be proven wrong. What song(s) are you referring to?
[QUOTE][b]Yara wrote:[/b]
A project. One day, who knows?, I create my website and make a post about it! ; -)))[/QUOTE]
Go for it! If I had the time, I'd spend all day reading your views on all things music.
Saif · Member since
[QUOTE]
[b]Sir GH wrote: [/b]
[QUOTE]
[b]Micrówave wrote: [/b]
A couple of people mentioned Brian's genius on Good Company, that no one could make the guitar do things like that.
Two words: Robert Fripp
[/QUOTE]
I'll happily be proven wrong. What song(s) are you referring to?
[/QUOTE]
I don't know what [b]he's[/b] talking about but may I be the first one to suggest [b]21st Century Schizoid Man[/b]? On an unrelated note, [b]Epitaph[/b] is also a kickass song and is the best song I've ever heard with that title and I've head many good ones(like Judas Priest's Epitaph).
