alternate Hot Space

rhyeking wrote: All it proved was that some "fans" have no sense of humour. I can just picture these people, upon listening to Hot Space, raving, "But...but...what IS this? I don't get it! I JUST...DON'T...GET IT!"

"Bicycle Race" and the various forays into pop-funk which preceeded Hot Space were more than sufficient clues that the band not only was heading in this direction, but was not taking itself entirely seriously all the time.

I use "Bicycle Race" as a prime example, because it is easily the silliest Queen song ever to be a hit. "Body Language" is at least about the time-honoured subject of sex.

Queen was never a band that was worried about taking itself too seriously. These were not four guys who proclaimed: "We make serious music! Respect our work and be awed by our noble pursuit!"

No. They were four guys having fun. They embraced the campiness Freddie brought to the band. They cringed at times, but that didn't stop them. Roger hated dressing up in medieval ruffles for "It's A Hard Life," but was the first to say "let's dress up as women!" for "I Want To Break Free."

It's convienent now to rewrite history, to focus on Queen's achievements and their Rock trademarks, but a big part of who they were and their public image was much less sophisticated than that. Look at Freddie in the "Killer Queen" BBC performance. He's just a leather jacket and mirrored shades away from the "Body Language" video.

You're entitled to not like the song, but there is no such thing as This Isn't Queen if it's something they recorded and released. "Body Language" is as Queen as "Tie Your Mother Down" or "Liar".

Laugh with "Body Language," and you might find you can like it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think you're conflating 'being taken seriously' with only playing rock music i.e. because they experimented (a bit) musically, they didn't take themselves seriously and didn't want others to take them seriously either. I disagree. I think they were very serious about their music and they wanted respect from fellow musicians. Brian has said that often -- that only fellow musicians can really appreciate some of the things they did, and they get more respect from other musicians than they ever did from the press. He has also said he wants Fred to be remembered as a musician and songwriter and niot just a 'showman' (I couldn't agree more: Fred's showman/frontman image really obstructs his memroy as a great musician, first and foremost). Brian has also said he wants the albums to be taken more seriously, and doesn't want Queen to be remembered as  a singles band (although his own actions are helping to create this image --  he needs to practice what he preachs!)

I know what you're saying, Holly, but you sort of miss my point.

The crafting of their music and image was professionally done, so much so that they knew they were displaying campiness, irreverance and downright goofiness at times all throughout their career.

Queen embraced an image of campy glam rock and my point was that these days, people prefer to ignore that in favour of concentrating on their classic rock status, which makes it easier for them to dismiss those points in Queen's career (namely Hot Space) which don't fit that view. 

And as seriously as they took their craft, they weren't "married to the music" as one interviewer asked Freddie (when asking what Freddie thought of a Springsteen comment that The Boss gave, saying he [Bruce] was married to his music). Freddie's reply was (paraphrasing), "No, that's ridiculous. I'm not married to my music. I have relationships with *people.* Music is my job."

Some artists have an inflated sense of self and their role as singers, songwriters and musicians, and can't ever be seen to be having fun with that image, lest their fans lose respect for them. They have to put that persona (and sometimes it's not a persona, but who they really are) on 100% ALL the time.

Queen could and did have fun, which I view as a great strength. I think it does everyone a disservice to ignore that part of their image and music.

@ wiley, thanks!  you know one thing I wrestled with was 'Las Palabras' -- love the track, and it reflects the triumph of the South American tour.  Seems like Queen would record material (Somebody to Love, Teo Torriatte)  influenced by successful tours -- I just can't figure where it would fit...

i have an argentinian cassette of "Hot Space" what swaped "side a" by "side b", "side a" begin with "put out the fire" and "side b" begin with "staying power", it s cassette is rare?

Not really. You could put some tape on the holes and re-record it from CD so it was in correct order.

[QUOTE] [b]rhyeking wrote:[/b]Queen had recorded "Cool Cat" already when Bowie walked into the studio (as we all have his demo version)[/QUOTE]
Not exactly, they had only a demo at that time — the song was completely re-recorded for the album (and the alternate version we have is the album take with backing vocals from original demo mixed in).

Good thread.

Very good thread.

Why do you guys like commenting on threads in retrospect?

Sorry, disregard top post - check bottom 2 instead for 'proposed' new HS artwork :)

My take on this -

Side A
Put Out The Fire
Dancer
Life Is Real
Calling All Girls
Staying Power

Side B
Under Pressure
Body Language
Action This Day
Back Chat
Las Palabras De Amor
Cool Cat

Ok, so someone tell me...what do the lines after Bidy Language mean?

Sorry if that's dumb, I'm innocent. :)