Question for you all

Is there any Queen song where you like the music more than the actual lyrics?

For example with Get down make love i like the music more than the lyrics although there is nothing wrong with the actual lyrics themselves also the same for Now Im Here

Most of the Innuendo album.

The Miracle (song)

With only occasional exceptions, I've always thought the four Queen members were good lyricists, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better composers/arrangers.

love all the stuff they did EXCEPT GOD SAVE THE QUEEN what a cow and the rest of the royal wankers

Ya most songs I like the music better than the lyrics. They were composers, not poets. The only song where I like the lyrics more than the music is probably body language and get down make love

Tons of songs....March of the black Queen comes to mind.  Too many to mention actually.  I like their lryics, but most songs are great because of the arrangments.  Vocally and musically.

Many of Mercury's songs. Wonderful music but the lyrics often weird or confusing. (Sorry Freddie!) May was much better at this aspect.

dragon-fly wrote: Many of Mercury's songs. Wonderful music but the lyrics often weird or confusing. (Sorry Freddie!) May was much better at this aspect.
Not sure i agree with that.....

mike hunt wrote: dragon-fly wrote: Many of Mercury's songs. Wonderful music but the lyrics often weird or confusing. (Sorry Freddie!) May was much better at this aspect.
Not sure i agree with that.....
I do: who needs 'Lily of the Valley' or 'Jealousy' when you've got 'Sweet Lady' and 'Son and Daughter'?

Sebastian wrote:"mike hunt wrote: dragon-fly wrote: Many of Mercury's
songs. Wonderful music but the lyrics often weird or confusing. (Sorry Freddie!) May was much better at this aspect.
Not sure i agree with that....."
"I do: who needs 'Lily of the Valley' or 'Jealousy' when you've got 'Sweet Lady' and 'Son and Daughter'?"


I don't agree. I think that Jealousy and Lily of the Valley have much better lyrics than Sweet Lady, and also have better lyrics than Son and Daughter. Also, while May was great, I consider Freddie to have been Queen's most talented lyricist, as well as its best song-writer and composer.

I truly love Freddie's lyrics, March of the Black Queen being a prime example, and I struggle to identify any Queen songs which I love in which the lyrics ar ordinary. Partly, it's because IMO the four Queen members (especially Freddie) were extraordinary lyricists, but also since lyrics play such an important role, it's hard for me to fall in love with a song with less than great lyrics. When the lyrics are particularly bad (such as Don't Try Suicide or If You Can't Beat Them or to a lesser extent Sweet Lady), the songs in question are often among my least favourite Queen songs.

For me, the lyrics play second fiddle to the music. For example, on the Peaches thread, I realised for the first time the lyrics to Now I'm Here aren't "Baby I waltzed when you took my hand" :) I have the SHA album, but as it's second hand, I never had the lyrics sheet, nor could I be bothered to ever find them. But some Queen lyrics are misunderstood. People get riled by the "Call me sweet like I'm some kind of cheese" line in Sweet Lady, but there are sweet cheeses! Also, the "people with guns" line in Put Out the Fire is misunderstood: you need to know a little of the gun debate in the USA to fully appreciate that line. On the surface it looks a little silly, and it's sung with an emphasis that is missing in the rest of the song. But it does make sense if you know the debate:

"Guns don't kill, people kill"

"Yes, people WITH GUNS"

mike hunt wrote: dragon-fly wrote: Many of Mercury's songs. Wonderful music but the lyrics often weird or confusing. (Sorry Freddie!) May was much better at this aspect.
Not sure i agree with that.....

Nobody ask you to! :P

Nice, you guys picked few the most weird songs from Bri, but nothing to underline from Fred? How so? 
I did NOT say May was perfect at writing lyrics. I said that he was better than Mercury IMHO. Of course he've got lousy lyrics as well. Don't try to read between the lines- there's nothing! 
And I'm not going to analyze the songs. 
Sebastian- if you want- go ahead.

Amazon wrote:  I don't agree. I think that Jealousy and Lily of the Valley have much better lyrics than Sweet Lady, and also have better lyrics than Son and Daughter. Also, while May was great, I consider Freddie to have been Queen's most talented lyricist, as well as its best song-writer and composer. I truly love Freddie's lyrics, March of the Black Queen being a prime example, and I struggle to identify any Queen songs which I love in which the lyrics ar ordinary. Partly, it's because IMO the four Queen members (especially Freddie) were extraordinary lyricists, but also since lyrics play such an important role, it's hard for me to fall in love with a song with less than great lyrics. When the lyrics are particularly bad (such as Don't Try Suicide or If You Can't Beat Them or to a lesser extent Sweet Lady), the songs in question are often among my least favourite Queen songs. ======================================== I've been meaning to get back to the discussion where I was threatening to keep you away from the stereo, meaning in fact to start a thread about why people like one song and not another in general.  It's interesting that this question has come up because one of the thoughts I had with regard to you (just again because we seem to be so very opposite in most songs so it's interesting to me)  is that maybe the lyrics were really important to you and the music was really important to me.  Like experiencing the song mostly with one's head or mind, rather than mostly with one's rhythmic gut, for lack of a better term. I do like lyrics, but I tend to experience them in very incomplete pieces.  I can sing a song out loud for years without really attending to the whole of it.  I had this experience just the other day with a song called 'Ahead by a Century' that I've listened to dozens of times.  I always really dig a short line 'tonight we smoke them out' .  I love the way it sounds and I love the way it feels.  For the first time in 10 or more years I asked myself 'smoke what out?'  The answer?  Hornets, on the surface at least.  The lines that precede it are "that's when the hornet stung me, and I had a feverish dream.  Revenge and doubt, tonight we smoke them out.'  How did I not notice that before?  And the irony is that this guy is one of my favourite lyricists.  He's brilliant.  If I zone out on him, I can zone out on anybody. Some songs are so defined by their lyrics that you can't really experience one without the other.  Bo Rhap is one like that, Save Me another. I'm sure there's more, but this post is long enough.

Amazon wrote: Sebastian wrote:"mike hunt wrote: dragon-fly wrote: Many of Mercury's
songs. Wonderful music but the lyrics often weird or confusing. (Sorry Freddie!) May was much better at this aspect.
Not sure i agree with that....."
"I do: who needs 'Lily of the Valley' or 'Jealousy' when you've got 'Sweet Lady' and 'Son and Daughter'?"

I don't agree. I think that Jealousy and Lily of the Valley have much better lyrics than Sweet Lady, and also have better lyrics than Son and Daughter. Also, while May was great, I consider Freddie to have been Queen's most talented lyricist, as well as its best song-writer and composer.

I truly love Freddie's lyrics, March of the Black Queen being a prime example, and I struggle to identify any Queen songs which I love in which the lyrics ar ordinary. Partly, it's because IMO the four Queen members (especially Freddie) were extraordinary lyricists, but also since lyrics play such an important role, it's hard for me to fall in love with a song with less than great lyrics. When the lyrics are particularly bad (such as Don't Try Suicide or If You Can't Beat Them or to a lesser extent Sweet Lady), the songs in question are often among my least favourite Queen songs.
No Question in my mind that freddie was the best writer of the four....The arrangments were way more original and creative than the other members, not even close IMO.  Freddie was actually a groundbreaking writer....Name one other write who could write a killer Queen?....He was totally original as a writer.  Lryics though was much more closer...you could make the case maybe brian may was equal or even better than mercury.  lryics was freds weakest part of his game for sure. His arrangments though blow brian out of the water.  That's not even debatable.